Manav garg, the founder of Eka Software Solutions, belongs to a middle class family from Moga, Punjab. This electrical engineer has completed his Masters in Business from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT). He is a cool entrepreneur who believes in taking calculated risks. 

He started his career with a wonderful job in G Premjee (GP) group in Singapore as a commodity trader. He was handling a portfolio of around $80 million and earning $6000 per month.

But there was one thing he doesn’t like and that was the dependency of trading firms on outdated technology solutions. He knew that Information Technology (IT) can be used as an enabler and can be helpful in reducing costs, managing risks and increasing efficiency.   

This prompted him to set up Eka Software Solutions, in 2001. The funds for Manav’s entrepreneurial venture came from his old company (GP group). The initial investment was $6 million and till today GP group has a stake in Eka. Surprisingly, Manav didn’t tell anything to his parents about his entrepreneurial venture, until he got a couple of clients.

 As Manav himself was an electrical engineer and not very good with software, the development of Eka’s Commodity Trade and Risk Management was outsourced to a Bangalore based firm, known as Trigyn Solutions.

The biggest challenge that Eka faced was to convince the overseas clients that an Indian firm can give them world class solutions. It was not easy and obviously it took time but at last hard work paid. 

Today, Eka has 15 overseas clients. Eka’s team comprises of 80 people which include technical, product and domain specialists. Manav’s aim is to achieve $100 million by 2012.

*Director of AirTouch from July 1995

*President and Chief Operating Officer of AirTouch (February 1997- June1999)

*CEO for the Vodafone United States and Asia Pacific region until 15 April 2000 and then he became non-executive director.Being in this position he also served as  chief executive of Info Space(2000-01), and of Accel-KKR Telecom based in San Francisco(2001-03).

* Director of The Gap, Inc., The Charles Schwab Corporation and Cisco Systems, Inc.

*Non-executive director to the Court of the Bank of England (effective from june 1, 2005) is for a fixed 3 year term.  

                 He focused on emerging markets such as India, Turkey,and Romania instead of developed markets such as Japan and others. Under his leadership, Vodafone successfully bid U$11.1 billion for 67% stake in the Indian mobile operator,Hutchison Essar. Currently, Sarin is keeping himself busy focussing the company on total communications services including broadband, Internet and wireless data. Sarin will be retiring from Vodafone immediately after the company’s AGM on july 29, 2008 when he will be succeeded by current Deputy-CEO Vittorio Colao. He leaves the Vodafone post with a full-year profit of a whopping 6.6 billion pounds and Vodafone is reaping the rewards of its move into emerging markets like India, which has supported the company’s growth rate in an upright position.