| Sridhar Vembu | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | Indian Institute of Technology Madras Princeton University |
| Occupation | Founder and CEO of ZOHO Corporation |
Sridhar Vembu is the founder and CEO of ZOHO Corporation (formally AdventNet Inc.[1]). ZOHO Corporation are the makers of the online Zoho Office Suite as well as several business applications.
Vembu holds a PhD. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University.[2] He has been in the news not only for creating one of the first online (Cloud Computing) office suites as a company,[3][4] but also for the unique staffing practices of ZOHO which hires economically disadvantaged high school graduates and puts them through two years of education with a strong focus on engineering / software.[5] Such "Zoho University"[6] graduates now make up 10% of their workforce. Despite increasing growth and market presence, Vembu has stated that he wants ZOHO to stay independent.[7]
A commentary featured by Forbes in 2008 on Vembu focuses on the boot-strapped model which he stuck to while building Adventnet. Reportedly, the adherence to this model had no ill effects on its performance and profitability. Also high-lighted is his decision to remain independent in spite of aggressive bidding by Marc Benioff, CEO of enterprise cloud computing company, Salesforce.com.[8]