Vivek Kulkarni

Personal life

Vivek Kulkarni is married to Sangeeta and they have two children, Reecha, born in 1994; and Shruti, born in 2000. Sangeeta is the co-Founder and CEO of Brickwork India.

Early life

Born in Hubli, India on July 21, 1957, Vivek graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the B.V.B. College of Engineering & Technology, Hubli, Karnataka University after attending government school, and received his master's degree from Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania in 1991. After his engineering, he worked with Indian Oil for a short period before joining IAS.

Corporate Profile

Vivek has over 25 years of experience in managing different verticals of Business and Government departments. He was the Information Technology & Biotechnology Secretary, Government of Karnataka, Bangalore. During his tenure in Government, he was instrumental in building world-class information technology and Biotech institutes and corporate events in Karnataka. He promoted public-private partnership in Governance. Between 2000 and 2003 he worked actively in marketing Bangalore as the undisputed IT Capital of India. Prior to IT Secretary, he worked as Finance Secretary in Govt. of Karnataka, Head of CRISIL Advisory Services as well as the Division Chief SEBI. He was a faculty at the Boston University as well as the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. At present, he is a visiting professor in finance at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

Vivek had pioneered the ‘remote executive assistant’ concept through Brickwork India, which received worldwide acclaim through various publications such as the New York Times bestseller authors, Thomas Friedman (The World is Flat) and Timothy Ferris (The 4-hour work week). Other publications like Fortune; Business Week - China-India survey; The Sunday Times; Esquire as well as several TV channels in the US and Europe have given coverage of Vivek's work

Quotes

"Outsourcing is no longer just for Fortune 500 companies. Small and mid-sized firms, as well as busy professionals, can outsource their work to increase their productivity and free time for more important commitments. It's time for the world to take advantage of this revolution.”