Naren Bakshi

Early life and education

Bakshi was born to Tara Chand Jain Bakshi and Munna Devi Bakshi in Jaipur, India. His father is a MSc, LLB, and doctor of naturopathy. Bakshi’s paternal grandfather, Kesar Lal Bakshi, was a community leader and self-made real estate developer in Jaipur. Bakshi was raised as a Jain and was highly influenced by the philosophies of Jainism and Gandhi while growing up.

He obtained his BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology in Ranchi, India. He holds an M.S. in Industrial Engineering (1968) and an M.B.A. in Finance and Marketing (1969) from the University of California, Berkeley. Bakshi and a small group of Indian students founded UC Berkeley’s first Indian Association, and he served as its first President.

Career

After graduating from UC Berkeley in 1969, Bakshi moved to Cleveland, Ohio to work for Standard Oil and British Petroleum. He later served in various management positions at TRW from 1980 to 1991. He also served as Vice President of Information Services at Ameritrust Bank. While in Cleveland, he was Founding Chairman of the first Indian Community Center in North America in 1976.

After moving back to the Bay Area in 1989, he founded Versata in 1992 and served as President, CEO and Chairman of Versata, a company that went public in 2000 with over $1 Billion valuation. On the day of its IPO, Versata created more than 150 millionaires on paper. Naren Bakshi is also a Founding Partner of CEOJumpStart. He co-founded Xpede in 1998, a provider of e-commerce lending services to major financial institutions. Bakshi now serves as the Chairman of the Board of Xpede. He has served as an advisor to TekEdge, 123SignUp, and Magnifi.

He is currently serving on the board of Liqvid, an e-learning services, content and solutions company. He is Chairman of Harbinger Real Estate Pvt. Ltd., a company that is promoting digital lifestyle homes in India, and International Venture Group.

Personal life

Bakshi came to the US in 1966 to start graduate school. Since 2000, Bakshi and his family have been living in Silicon Valley and Rajasthan, India.

Accomplishments and affiliations

Bakshi serves as the Trustee and is President Emeritus of India Community Center (www.indiacc.org) in Silicon Valley and is Chairman Emeritus of Hume Center, a mental Health agency in Silicon Valley. He has been an active member of TiE since 1994, having served as a champion of TiE Rajasthan and Trustee and Global Chair (2004 – 2009) for the chapter support and development group that helped to foster entrepreneurship in 57 chapters in 14 countries. His company Versata was one of four companies that were featured in TiE’s inaugural conference in 1994 in Silicon Valley. He was also a member of the Alliance of CEOs, a group of 150 CEOs/Founders in the Bay Area. He was also part of the TRW team that acquired Teknekron Financial Systems and earned the nomination for the 1990 TRW Chairman's Award of Innovation.

In 2000 Bakshi and a delegation of Indian-American entrepreneurs travelled to India to meet with then PM Vajpayee and promote the high tech economy. The Indian government at that time was interested in expanding their IT sector. As a result of this trip, India adopted more progressive policies for the venture capital industry, thus reducing the barriers to invest in India’s IT and telecom sectors.

In summer of 2010, Bakshi was invited by the White House and State Department to be part of a delegation of six led by then US Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra to help organize President Obama’s first trip to India to foster much deeper relationships between India and the US.