Vinod Gupta is the ex-CEO of leading American companies like Infofree.com, infoGROUP and DatabaseUSA.com. He has also been a trustee of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC after being appointed by ex-US President Bill Clinton.
Vinod Gupta is also an alumnus of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) of the 1967 batch of the Department of Agriculture. To commemorate his 50th year of graduation from IIT Kharagpur and kick started the alumni meet at the college campus beginning January 3rd week, 2017, Gupta visited his college campus and gifted a whopping 90,000$ to his college for the betterment of his alma mater!
Also Read: Google CEO Sundar Pichai Interacts with IIT Kharagpur Students
Vinod Gupta is a regular contributor to IIT Kharagpur. In fact, he had contributed $2 million to the college in 1993, to start the first ever B-School in any of the IIT’s. The institute was named the Vinod Gupta School of Management (VGSOM) thereafter. Similarly, he felt the need of establishing a world class law school to focus on intellectual property rights just like in the US, which resulted in the setting up of the Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law in the IIT Kharagpur campus with a donation of $1 million by him.
Speaking on the occasion, Vinod said that he felt fortunate for graduating from such an esteemed organization that had given him so much in life. So, he decided to give back to his alma mater that made him who he was. He added that he feels that internationalization is the key to quality & successful education today. And hence stressed on the importance of exchange programmes in the campus, inflow of international students and faculty to bring IIT Kharagpur on the fore in the global map.
Also Read: Student Protests to Result in Slashing of Fees in IIT Kharagpur
Gupta’s feats knows no bounds. Besides the above, he has also been the US Consul General to Bermuda. And he has been an honoured nominee to be the US Ambassador to Fiji by the then President.