Rajat Gupta

Infobox Person


image_size = 150px
name = Rajat Gupta
caption =
birth_date = birth date and age|1948|12|2
birth_place = Maniktala, Calcutta
death_date =
death_place =
occupation = Consultant, Management expert
main interests =
spouse = Anita Mattoo Gupta
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Rajat Kumar Gupta (Hindi: रजत कुमार गुप्त; born Calcutta, India on December 2, 1948) is the current special advisor on management reforms to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. He is also an independent director at Goldman Sachs and is a member of the board of trustees of the University of Chicago.

Early life

His parents were Ashwini Kumar Gupta and Pran Kumari Gupta, who had three other children. His father was a journalist with the Ananda Bazar Patrika Group and also a prominent freedom fighter who had been to jail many times during India's freedom struggle. His mother taught at a Montessori school.

When Rajat was five the family moved to Delhi, where his father went to start the Hindustan Standard. His father died when Rajat was sixteen and his mother died when he was eighteen. Rajat was an outstanding student at Modern School. He stood 15th at the national level in the highly competitive Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination of 1966 and was admitted to the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi on a scholarship. He was a resident of the Shivalik Hostel. He obtained his bachelor of technology degree in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in 1971.

Very soon after he came to the US and studied at Harvard Business School on a scholarship. He obtained his MBA in 1973. He joined McKinsey & Company in 1973 and went on to become the firm's first managing director born outside of the US, completing three full terms at the coveted position. Gupta became the head of the Scandinavian offices in 1981 and the head of the Chicago office in 1990. In 1994, he was elected managing director. Gupta is widely regarded as one of the first Indians to successfully break through the glass ceiling in corporate America.

He is married to his sweetheart from his IIT days, Anita. His wife is an electrical engineer, who is described by Rajat as "a much smarter student" than himself, two years junior at IIT. The couple met at college debates and plays. He lives in Westport, Connecticut with his wife and four daughters.

Career

Rajat Gupta is a former managing director of McKinsey & Company worldwide. He joined the firm's New York office in 1973, assumed leadership of its Scandinavian offices in 1981, and joined the Chicago office in 1987. He assumed the role of office manager there in 1989, was elected managing director of the firm in 1994 and re-elected twice, once in 1997 and again in 2000.

Since joining the firm, Gupta has directed a number of projects aimed at helping companies develop new product/market strategies and reorganize for improved effectiveness and operations capabilities. He has a broad range of consulting experience with a variety of industries, including telecommunications, energy, and consumer goods.

Gupta is on the Advisory boards of Harvard Business School and the Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. He is Chairman of the Board of the Indian School of Business at Hyderabad, India, and is associated with many other professional and business affiliations, including: on the Board of Governors of the Lauder Institute of Management & International Studies, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; Private Sector Representative to the Board of the Global Fund for Aids, Malaria, and Tuberculosis; Chairman of the Board of Associates of the Harvard Business School; and Dean's Advisory Council, MIT Sloan School of Management.

In addition, Gupta serves on the board for following corporations: American Airlines Inc. (Director and Member of Audit Committee), Genpact LTD. (Chairman and Member of Nominating and Governance Committee), Proctor & Gamble Co. (Director), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (Independent Director). [http://investing.businessweek.com/businessweek/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=162849&privcapId=7690731&previousCapId=168569&previousTitle=AMR%20Corporation] Gupta is also the Co-Chair of the American India Foundation (AIF), whose mission is to accelerate social and economic change in India. He is particularly interested in AIF's public health focus area, with an emphasis on combatting HIV/AIDS in India.

Gupta was also recently appointed as UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special advisor on management reform. He was appointed as an independent director at Goldman Sachs on 10th November, 2006.

He is also on the board of trustees of the University of Chicago, advised McKinsey's work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on AIDS, as well as their Global Health Initiative, and is currently a trustee on the board of the Rockefeller Foundation.

External links

* [http://www.sree.net/stories/bt-gupta.html Business Today cover story from 1994 about Rajat Gupta's rise at McKinsey]
* [http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/speeches/2003/01-17iit.aspx Remarks by Bill Gates at the India Institute of Technology 50th Anniversary Celebration Cupertino, California, January 17, 2003 - Moderated by Rajat Gupta.]
* [http://www.livemint.com/2007/02/15234755/Strength-of-a-nation--Rajat-G.html Strength of a Nation] Article in Mint
* [http://www.rockfound.org/about_us/press_releases/press_releases.shtml Rockefeller Foundation: Gupta appointed as a Trustee]
* [http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/950928/summer.shtml University of Chicago Chronicle: Gupta appointed to the Board of Trustees]
* [http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/in_action/events/paris/bios/ The Global Fund: To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria: A brief biography]
* [http://www.mckinsey.com/ideas/wef2004/biographies/rajat.asp McKinsey: Brief biography]
* [http://www.sajaforum.org/2007/04/desi-spotting-r.html Coverage of his activities] (SAJAforum.org)
* [http://www.sajaforum.org/2008/04/health-world-ma.html Coverage of World Malaria Day and a video] (SAJAforum.org)