Mr. Vinod Gupta
Founder of Vinod Gupta Charitable Foundation
Vinod Gupta is the former chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman of infoGROUP (previously known as infoUSA).Gupta served as CEO of the company from the time of its incorporation in 1972 until September 1997 and from August 1998 to August 2008.
He was appointed by President Clinton to serve as a trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Gupta was also nominated and confirmed to be the United States consul general to Bermuda as well as nominated by the President to be the United States ambassador to Fiji.
Gupta was born in the small town of Rampur Maniharan, located 100 miles (160 km) north of New Delhi, a small town (village) near Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh). After graduating high school, Gupta applied to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and was admitted into the IIT Kharagpur campus, majoring in agricultural engineering.
In 1964, he was commissioned in Indian Air Force as Flying Officer in Engineering Unit and resigned in 1967 with a rank of Squadron Leader in 14 Squadron.
In 1967, Gupta moved to the United States to get his masters degree. He graduated from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln with an MS in agricultural engineering in 1969 and an MBA in 1971. He was awarded honorary doctorate by Monterey Institute, University of Nebraska, and IIT Kharagpur. He also delivered the commencement address at IIT Kharagpur in 2006. Vinod Gupta also attended an event organised by Entrepreneurship Cell at IIT Kharagpur in 2014.
