Sanju Bansal

Sanju K. Bansal is an Indian Born - American businessman and the co-founder of MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), a worldwide provider of enterprise software platforms for business intelligence (BI), mobile software, big data and cloud-based services.^[1] He served as the company's vice chairman of the board of directors and executive vice president till November 14, 2013.^[2] From 1993-2012, he served as chief operating officer of MicroStrategy. Bansal serves as a member of the board of directors of Cvent (NYSE: CVT), a cloud-based event management software provider,^[3] and The Advisory Board Company (NASDAQ: ABCO), a research services company.^[4]

Early life and education

Bansal was born in Patiala, India and emigrated with his parents to the United States when he was two years old. The family settled in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. He attended Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Virginia where he was a valedictorian.

His father, Ved Bansal, came to the United States in 1959 with $1. His father's work ethic and emphasis on math and science in childhood has been cited as the foundation for his later education and career.^[5]

Bansal received a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from MIT and a Master of Science in computer science from The Johns Hopkins University.

Career

Directly out of college, Sanju Bansal worked for the technology and management consulting firm, Booz Allen Hamilton.

In 1989, with MIT classmates Michael Saylor and Thomas Spahr, Bansal co-founded MicroStrategy.^[6] Bansal helped build MicroStrategy with no venture capital, often working 80 to 100 hours per week to get the company off the ground.^[7] During this time, the company experienced rapid growth, increasing revenues by 100% every year between 1990 and 1996.^[8] In June 1998, MicroStrategy had its initial public offering^[9] and, on its first day of trading, the stock price doubled.^[10] By March 2000, the company had a market cap of approximately $24 billion, making Bansal and other company leaders billionaires on paper.^[11]

Later that month, MicroStrategy announced that it would restate its financial results for the preceding two years, which resulted in an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.^[12] In December 2000, Saylor, Bansal, and the company's former CFO settled with the SEC without admitting wrongdoing by each paying $350,000 in fines. The officers also paid a combined total of $10 million in disgorgement.^[13]

Subsequently, the company's stock price plummeted, from a high of $333.00 in March to a low of $9.25 by December 2000.^[14] As chief operating officer, Bansal played a significant role in getting MicroStrategy back on its feet.^[15] He was instrumental in raising more than $175 million in the following 17 months to keep the company going and expanding business into China in 2002.^[16] Currently, the company employs more than 3,200 people worldwide^[17] and reported revenue of $594.61 million^[18] in 2012. As of 2013, the company has operations in 26 countries.^[19]

Board memberships

Bansal serves as a board member for the following companies:

• MicroStrategy, as vice-chairman of the board of directors. He has served on the MicroStrategy board since September 1997.^[20]
• Cvent (NYSE: CVT), as co-founder and member of the Cvent Board of Directors since 1999. Providing the seed capital for the event-management software company, Bansal is credited with helping Cvent navigate the burst of the dot-com bubble and, more recently, pushing the firm to expand into mobile and social applications.^[21] In July 2011, Cvent secured $136 million in venture capital financing from New Enterprise Associates and Insight Venture Partners, with Greenspring Associates also participating.^[22] On August 9, 2013, Cvent had its initial public offering with a price of $21, and Bansal owned approximately 3.3 million shares, or 10% of the company.^[23][24]
• The Advisory Board Company (NASDAQ: ABCO), as member of the board of directors since November 2009.^[25] From 2011-2013, The Advisory Board Company’s revenue grew 20% each year and, in 2012 and 2013, ModernHealthcare named The Advisory Board Company to its second annual “Healthcare's Hottest” recognition program, which honors the fastest growing companies and organizations in the industry, as measured by revenue growth.^[26]
• Clarabridge, as member of the board of directors since March 2010. Clarabridge utilizes sentiment and text analytics to automatically collect, categorize and report on structured and unstructured data.^[27]
• dwinQ, as member of the board of directors. In 2012, Bansal provided seed funding for the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company, which uses mobile technology (RFID, near-field communication (NFC), mobile phones, and WiFi) to connect social media users to Facebook, Twitter and other platforms.^[28]
• EverQuote, as member of the board of directors since May 2014. EverQuote is a quantitative internet marketing firm focused on applying sophisticated mathematics and enterprise class technology to its partner's online customer acquisition programs.

Philanthropy

In 1999, Bansal established the Sanju K. Bansal Foundation. The foundation tagline is "helping people help themselves through improved access to information."^[29] The foundation is known for its financial sponsorship of WAMU 88.5, American University Radio.^[30] WAMU 88.5 is the leading public radio station for NPR news and information in the greater Washington, D.C. area.

The Bansal Foundation contributes to organizations including the Washington Humane Society,^[31] the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE),^[32] Upakar Indian-American Scholarship Foundation,^[33] the Kailash Goyal Foundation,^[34] The Global India Fund,^[35] and Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts.^[36]

In May 2010, the Kailash Goyal Foundation, with aid from the Bansal Foundation, opened the JK Shanti Charitable Clinic, a free clinic to support the medical needs of the villagers and laborers near the Indian town of Panchkula. The clinic is open once a week, staffs three doctors, and treats approximately 180 people a week.

Bansal served on the Board of Directors for Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts from 2000 to 2006. Located near Vienna, Virginia, Wolf Trap is the only National Park dedicated to the performing arts.^[37]

Recognition and awards

In 2013, Bansal received the Washington Business Journal's Outstanding Directors award for his work with Cvent.^[38]

In 2009, 2011, and 2013, Bansal was named one of The Washingtonian's 100 Top Tech Titans, a list honoring the top 100 leaders of Washington DC's tech world.^[39]

In 2009, he was named one of The Washingtonian's "Style Setters".^[40]

References