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Information Technology (IT) and Software is a fairly recent phenomenon in the field of business. IT is a term commonly associated with computers and computer networks, and also encompasses other information distribution technologies. Entrepreneurship in IT and software has contributed to business growth and development tremendously over the past few years. This field is also closely related to ecommerce, the internet business concept that revolutionized the way business is conducted all over the world. Several other industries like telecom, computer services, electronics and computer hardware are also related areas. Business people dealing in IT and software entrepreneurship have to adopt strategies that are different from other businesses that deal with products and services. This field is a very wide one which encompasses everything from online shopping, ecommerce, and software development to website development and web content creation. Several ambitious businessmen have built profitable ventures in this field as it allows for enormous economies of scale. Of course, there are inherent risks in this business as advancements in technologies take place at such a fast rate, but astute and alert businessmen have the ability to convert these threats into lucrative opportunities. This section gives you a collection of biographies and timelines that provide you with information about the various business people in the field of IT & Software.
Ratan Tata is a well-known Indian industrialist and the former charman of Indian multinational conglomerate Tata Sons. His reign as chairman was marked by acquisitions of iconic global brands, such as Tetley, Jaguar Land Rover and Corus by the Tata Group. Ratan Tata was instrumental in turning Tata Group from a largely India-centrist group into a global business.
Widely recognized as one of the two important pioneers of the personal computer revolution, Steve Wozniak is credited with co-founding Apple Inc. along with Steve Jobs. Not surprisingly, he has been described as one of the men that changed the course of history through technology. Apart from being a programmer and technology entrepreneur, Steve Wozniak is also a well-known philanthropist.
Paul Allen was an American investor, business magnate, and philanthropist. He is credited with co-founding one of the most popular multinational technology companies in the world, Microsoft Corporation. Along with his philanthropic activities and ownership of several other companies and sporting clubs, Paul Allen had a major impact on sports, wildlife, education, arts, healthcare, community services, environmental conservation, and more.
Born into an affluent Jewish Brazilian family, Eduardo Saverin co-founded Facebook with his Harvard roommate Mark Zuckerberg and others in 2004. He was later involved in a lawsuit against Zuckerberg. He also renounced his U.S. citizenship and moved to Singapore, which some believe was his excuse to avoid paying taxes.
Computer programmer and entrepreneur Kevin Systrom is one of the co-founders of the photo-sharing app Instagram. He resigned as the Instagram CEO in 2018. He was named to Forbes’s 30 under 30 list in 2014 and was one of the U.S’s richest entrepreneurs below 40 in 2016.
Businessman Gabe Newell is the co-founder and president of the video game developer and digital distribution company, Valve. As a young man, he worked for Microsoft for several years before he quit to found his own venture. He was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 2013.
Irish IT expert and entrepreneur Walter O'Brien produced the CBS action-drama TV series Scorpion, which was inspired by his life. It is believed he established Scorpion Computer Services at age 13 and had an IQ of 197 as a child, though many such claims by him remain unproved.
Swedish entrepreneur Peter Sunde, also known as brokep, co-founded The Pirate Bay, a BitTorrent search engine. While he supports online trolling as a form of activism, he was arrested and jailed for copyright offenses. He is also a member of the Pirate Party of Finland.
Gottfrid Svartholm is a Swedish computer specialist best known as the ex-co-owner of the web hosting company and Internet service provider PRQ. He is also credited with co-founding The Pirate Bay along with Peter Sunde and Fredrik Neij. In 2014, Gottfrid Svartholm was imprisoned for his connection with WikiLeaks and released the following year.
David Baszucki is a Canadian-born American entrepreneur and inventor. He is credited with co-founding the Roblox Corporation, for which he also serves as the CEO. He is also credited with co-founding Knowledge Revolution, a company which was obtained by MSC Software in 1998. In 2017 and 2018, Baszucki was named one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs by Goldman Sachs.
Chinese business magnate Ma Huateng, or Pony Ma, is best known as the founder, chairman, and CEO of the technology giant Tencent. His company owns the messaging app WeChat. One of CEOWORLD’s Most Powerful People in the World, he was a delegate of the 12th National People's Congress.
Marc Andreessen is an American entrepreneur, software engineer, and investor. He is credited with co-founding the independent computer services company Netscape as well as the private venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Marc Andreessen is also credited with co-authoring one of the first web browsers, NCSA Mosaic. In 1994, he was inducted into the World Wide Web Hall of Fame.
Tech magnate Garrett Camp made headlines in 2020 when he quit his position of board director of Uber, a company co-founded by him, to focus on its product strategy. Camp has also formed companies such as StumbleUpon and the start-up incubator Expa Labs, and is part of The Giving Pledge.
Business magnate Azim Premji revolutionized the Indian software industry with Wipro Limited. Twice listed to Time 100, he transformed his vegetable oil and soap manufacturing company to a leading IT solutions brand, through marked diversification. He owns a non-profit foundation and is the first Indian to join The Giving Pledge.
British-American computer scientist and Stanford professor Andrew Ng is also the co-founder of DeepLearning.AI and Coursera. He is best known for his pioneering initiatives in the areas of online education and machine learning. He was also part of the Google Brain team and has co-authored more than 100 research papers.
Jerry Yang is a Taiwanese-American billionaire internet entrepreneur, computer programmer, and venture capitalist. Yang is credited with co-founding Yahoo! Inc. where he also served as the CEO from 2007 to 2009. Jerry Yang is also credited with founding a venture capital firm named AME Cloud Ventures.
Yusaku Maezawa is a Japanese art collector and entrepreneur. He is credited with founding Japan's largest online fashion store, Zozotown. He is also credited with founding Contemporary Art Foundation, which aims at supporting young artists. Yusaku Maezawa is one of the richest men in Japan.
Kumar Mangalam Birla is an Indian industrialist best known as the chairman of the Indian multinational conglomerate company, Aditya Birla Group. He also serves as the chairman of IIM Ahmedabad and IIT Delhi. Over the course of his career, Birla has received several honors like the Business Leader of the Year award and Outstanding Business Man of the Year award.
Padma Bhushan-winning Indian billionaire businessman Shiv Nadar is known as the founder and chairman of the IT company HCL and the Shiv Nadar Foundation. While he transformed HCL from an IT hardware company into an IT enterprise, by 2021, he also turned himself into the third-richest Indian.
Hiroyuki Nishimura is a Japanese internet entrepreneur. He is best known as the founder of 2channel, the most accessed Japanese internet forum. In 2015, Nishimura bought 4chan from Christopher Poole and currently serves as the administrator of 4chan.
Apoorva Mehta is a serial entrepreneur and a former Amazon.com employee. He founded the grocery delivery and pick-up service Instacart in 2012. An engineer by qualification, he tried to start at least 20 other services, including an ad network for social gaming companies, before launching Instacart. He was included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2013.
Kai-Fu Lee is a computer scientist, writer, and businessman. One of the Chinese internet sector's most important figures, Lee is credited with creating a website called Wǒxuéwǎng, which aims at helping young people achieve in their respective careers. Also popular on social media, Lee is one of China's most-followed micro-bloggers; he has more than 50 million followers on Sina Weibo.
Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani is also the man behind the Indian biometric ID Aadhaar. Named to the Forbes list of India’s Richest in 2021, he also once teamed up with Ratan Tata to form Avanti Finance to help the poor get loans. He unsuccessfully contested as a Congress candidate, too.
The son of former Wipro chairman Azim Premji, Rishad Premji has now taken over as the new chairperson of the company. Equipped with an MBA from Harvard, he now also serves on the board of the non-profit Azim Premji Foundation. He was also named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
Welsh-Canadian business tycoon Terry Matthews has been associated with countless companies, such as Mitel and Newbridge Networks, as their co-founder. A telecom and data networking magnate, he made it to the Forbes list of Billionaires 2021. His knighthood created diplomatic issues in Canada, which doesn’t allow acceptance of foreign titles.
Born in Shanghai, An Wang studied electrical engineering before moving to Harvard to get his PhD. The Wang Laboratories co-founder is remembered for inventing the magnetic core memory, which was the main component of computers till the invention of the microchip. He also developed many word-processing systems.
