48 year old Gururaj Deshpande, an IIT Chennai graduate.Mr Deshpande is the chairman of Sycamore Networks, headquartered at Boston. Sycamore,They are into manufacturing Fibre Optic Cables, which will tackle the growing demand for bandwidth, which is actually the future of the Internet.

Deshpande cofounded the company Sycamore in February 1998 with two other MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technolgy) scientists. He feels one has to be slightly crazy to be an entrepreneur and points out, "I started with a simple concept, just as oil was the most important commodity in the past 25 years, bandwidth will be the most important commodity for the next 25 years." Deshpande also strongly believes that "Hire people you trust, fire those you don't and don't be wimpy about that," and adds "throw out ideas and encourage people to take their own decisions." Sycamore has already set a record for the largest dollar gain in the history of the United States financial market, They are also quite excited about the possibility of bringing 'Internet Bandwidth Technology' to India.

Mr Deshpande is a soft-spoken Kannadiga, who holds a doctorate in Data-Communications from Queen's University, Canada. He is a down-to-earth family man from Hubli and is married to Jaishree - a fellow IIT graduate. Incidentally, she also happens to be the sister of Sudha Murthy, wife of Narayana Murthy, Chairman Infosys Technologies Ltd. The Deshpandes are a family of four, with two children, both boys. Gururaj Deshpande also has immense regard for his father-in-law, who has raised four children, and they have topped any exam they ever took.

Presently he is the chairman of the A123Systems, Sycamore Networks, Tejas Networks, and Sparta Group, and on the board of directors of Airvana, Inc. He is also a Life Member of the MIT Corporation, the board of trustees at the MIT.
In July 2010, he was appointed as the Co-Chairman of 'National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship', a group set up to support US President's innovation strategy.

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