Pankaj Arora

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Pankaj Arora
Pankaj Arora

Pankaj S. Arora (born March 7, 1983) is a successful entrepreneur and writer from Minnesota known for his technological and business savvy. In 2001, Arora was ranked number 9 out of the top 100 young entrepreneurs in the United States. He has been featured in numerous publications including Young Entrepreneur (cover story) and Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazines. He has appeared as a guest columnist for TeenStartUps, a division of Entrepreneur magazine, authoring columns on entrepreneurship and technology. Additionally, he has written for the Minnesota Daily newspaper, Y&E and 2600 magazines. Arora has also ventured into biotech research, having led a study on the capabilities of medical image analysis software at the Mayo Clinic. The research was published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Science in 2005.

Arora is a graduate of the prestigious Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, in addition to starting college two years early earning an associate's degree at University Center Rochester.

[edit] Young Entrepreneurship

At the age of 12, Arora started Pankaj Arora Software - a provider of DOS utilities. By age 16, the company became a subsidiary of Arora's new venture paWare, a "complete technology solution provider," providing custom IT solutions nationwide. During this time, Arora received much recognition for turning a home operation into a reputable company at an early age. Most recognized are two Pankaj Arora Software products: Associations, one of the first third-party Windows file association manager; and Tumi Cursor Powerpack, a widely popular set of replacement cursors for the Microsoft Windows Operating System. Associations received a 5-star editor's choice rating in PC Computing magazine, with its functionality later integrated into Windows independently by Microsoft.

In 2001, the same year Arora was ranked one of the top young entrepreneurs in America, Arora launched the Release Lillywhite Recordings Campaign urging RCA Records to release a previously shelved set of recordings by the Dave Matthews Band. The campaign, named after the producer of the shelved tracks Steve Lillywhite, was featured on many popular media outlets including MTV, VH1, E!, Rolling Stone, and Entertainment Weekly. In an apparent response to overwhelming fan support, RCA released an album entitled Busted Stuff in 2002 which featured newly recorded versions of songs from the shelved sessions commonly referred to as The Lillywhite Sessions.

In 2005, Arora started a more tongue-in-cheek campaign involving The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, a popular satirical news program that airs on Comedy Central. On the week of July 11, 2005 The Daily Show unveiled a new set housed in a new studio. Among the changes in the new set was the replacement of the longstanding guest couch with a chair. Immediately after the new set was unveiled, Arora started The Official Bring Back the Couch Campaign to gather support for the missing couch. Within days of starting the campaign it was mentioned in the mainstream press. By the next week, Stewart mentioned the campaign on the show. Shortly after, Arora met up with Daily Show contributor Bob Wiltfong who pledged his support for the tongue-in-cheek campaign.

[edit] References

  • Faiad, Andrea. "Teen Tech Wizard", Young Entrepreneur Magazine (Y&E), December 1999.
  • Bodnar, Janet. "No Kidding", Kiplinger's Personal Finance, September 2001.
  • Arora, Pankaj S., et al. (2005). "Comparative evaluation of two two-dimensional gel electrophoresis image analysis software applications using synovial fluids from patients with joint disease". Journal of Orthopaedic Science 10 (2): 160-166.  [1]
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