In his pursuit of excellence, the path he chose was the one involving technology. However, not many know that Anand Chandrasekaran, YGL honouree 2010 and one of the most celebrated names in the international mobile ecosystem, started his amazing journey from Coimbatore.
“I studied at the Carmel Gardens and subsequently did Electronics and Communication Engineering at PSG. The city has undoubtedly contributed to my entrepreneurial attitude,” he remarks.
Anand who obtained MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University avers, “The move to the US was the turning point in my life. Silicon Valley is similar to Coimbatore when it comes to accepting young ideas. This encouraged me and two of my friends to start Aeroprise.”
Aeroprise Inc’s mobile workflow management solution is one of the most-deployed mobility tools worldwide for service management. In Anand’s words, “What Blackberry does to emails, Aeroprise does to service management.”
Anand is now the director of product management at Openwave, where his role is to build the firm’s ‘ecosystem infrastructure’ products which help telecom operators know their target better.
Young Global Leader
The Young Global Leader honour by the World Economic Forum came in search of Anand this year. “I’m glad I was chosen among 190 others. I am looking forward to becoming a committed member of the forum,” he divulges.
Anand will be attending the forum in Tanzania. YGL is an honour bestowed by the WEF every year to recognise the most distinguished leaders under 40. Nandita Das and Agatha Sangma feature among the Indians honoured this year. Others who have received this honour include Sachin Tendulkar and Barkha Dutt. Anand discloses, “YGL summit deals with issues pertinent to the society. It could be a focussed problem like ‘Removing Worm Infestation’ or an abstract idea like ‘Involving youth in civic matters’. One cannot achieve these goals in a year. It requires constant work over a period of time by an enthusiastic group of individuals. YGL gives them a platform to develop new ideas.”