Technology Pioneer and Philanthropist Kanwal Rekhi Receives 2010 Chaudhuri Award

This year's recipient of the Haridas and Bina Chaudhuri Award for Distinguished Service is Kanwal Rekhi, a leader in technology and philanthropy, who has also served as a role model and mentor to create opportunity in the United States and abroad.

Renowned for his work developing the technology that allowed computers in a building or campus to network, Kanwal Rekhi was born in Rawalpindi in what is now Pakistan. His family fled to India during the partition of the subcontinent. Raised in India the third of eight children, he came to the United States to earn a master's degree in electrical engineering in Michigan with only $10 in his pocket. At first he did odd jobs as a student, working as a dishwasher, busboy, doorman, and factory welder.

After graduating and moving to San Jose, at the age of thirty-six he cofounded and served as CEO of Excelan, a high tech company. Excelan pioneered Ethernet networking technology, one of the basic building blocks of the Internet.

When Excelan got ready to go public, there were no Asian Americans serving as CEOs in Silicon Valley in publicly traded companies. The investors, worried about having an Indian American as the chief executive officer, asked Kanwal Rekhi to step down. A retired Hewlett-Packard executive was appointed in Rekhi's stead. The new CEO didn't work out, and within a year, Kanwal Rekhi was reinstated as chief executive officer. One year after that, the company merged with and was sold to Novell.

Following his stint at Novell, Kanwal Rekhi helped energize The Indus Entrepreneurs, or TiE, a nonprofit support network to provide advice, contacts, and funding to Indian Americans hoping to start businesses. Through TiE, Kanwal Rekhi has counseled and aided an entire generation of innovators as they have changed the face of Silicon Valley and high tech industry. As a philanthropist, he has made major contributions to education, supporting universities on two continents. He is a prime benefactor of a foundation in India that identifies talented students without funds, and provides them with college tuition and living expenses.

Kanwal Rekhi's work has improved thousands of lives, from leaders of high tech industry in Silicon Valley, to deserving students in the United States and India. He receives the Haridas and Bina Chaudhuri Award for Distinguished Service at a ceremony at the Crowne Plaza Cabana Hotel in Palo Alto on April 24, 2010.