Mr. Vinod Khosla
Award Year: 1993 | Degree Year: 1976
Mr. Vinod Khosla was born on January 28, 1955, at Poona. He received his Bachelor of Technology degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi in 1976. He obtained a Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
He exhibited innovative abilities, deep insight into Computer Technology, and rare entrepreneurial talent and vision during his stay at Stanford and won the outstanding student recommendation of the Dean of the Graduate School of Business. He started his professional career with Daisy, a pioneer in the field of Computer-Aided Engineering.
Three years later, Mr. Khosla developed the concept of ‘creation of general-purpose desktop computers based on “open ‘ technologies’ which proved to be a major breakthrough, and thus seeds of Sun Microsystems were sown. He developed the business plans of Sun Microsystems and assembled its founding team. As the Chief Executive Officer, he guided the growth of Sun Microsystems into one of the world’s most successful computer companies of the 1980’s, with 12,000 employees and 4 billion dollar sales. Its work- station systems, and other computer products, are used worldwide in universities, R&D laboratories, and industry today.
In 1987, Mr. Khosla decided to turn into a venture capitalist. He has helped to start over 20 technology companies since then. Mr. Khosla is one of nine General Partners of Kleiner Perkins who make investments in high technology companies.
He is on the Board of Trustees at Carnegie Mellon University and has served, for several years, on the Board at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. In recognition of his outstanding achievement, he has been invited to be the member on the Boards of several companies including GO Corp., The 3DO Company, Spectrum Holobyte, Nexgen Microsystems, and Picture Tel.
In honoring Mr. Vinod Khosla, we recognize the conspicuous contributions made by him as an outstanding technologist, an entrepreneur, and a corporate leader, who has earned recognition in the international community, and through achievement brought glory to the name of the Institute.
