Mr. Kanwal Rekhi is a prominent international personality in the field of venture capital and entrepreneurship development. Mr. Rekhi was a student at IIT Bombay and did his B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering in 1967 and obtained his MS in Electrical Engineering from Michigan Tech in 1969.

After working for some years in emerging areas of technology, he founded Excelan in 1982, a network technology company that introduced some pioneering products. Excelan went public in 1987 and merged with Novell in 1989. Kanwal joined the Board of Directors of Novell and was named an executive vice-president and CTO of the company.

Kanwal recognized that the most important wealth generating mechanisms follow the entrepreneurship route. He, along with some successful entrepreneurs in the Silicon Valley, set up an organisation called The Indus Enterprise (TiE). As president of TiE, Kanwal has been spending most of his time in advising and promoting young entrepreneurs. Under his leadership, TiE has spread to many cities in the USA. Recently, he has catalysed the Indian scene by setting up TiE branches in Bangalore, Mumbai, and Delhi. He has also been involved at board level in several well-known companies such as Cyber Media, Ambit Design, Exodus Communication, PlaceWare, MediaWay, NirWANa, etc.

Mr. Rekhi was named Entrepreneur of the year in 1987 by the Arthur Young Venture Magazine. In 1994, he was also named to the Board of advisors to the President of Michigan Tech. University. He was also recently honoured with a Doctorate in Business and Engineering from Michigan Tech.

Apart from being a very major donor himself, Mr. Rekhi has been an active participant & advisor to IIT Bombay Heritage Fund in the USA.