Mr. K. V. Ramani, founder and chancellor of Sai University, is one of the pioneers who led the efforts to bring India’s information technology sector to global prominence. He co-founded the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) to assist the growth and development of the IT sector in India. He served as its chairman from 1997 to 1998 and was a member of its executive council for the first 10 years, being re-elected by the members five times over. He received the Founder’s Award at NASSCOM’s silver jubilee celebrations in 2015 for ‘putting India on the Global IT Map.’

Mr. Ramani is currently the chairman and managing director of Digital Holdings Pvt. Ltd. and the founder and managing trustee of Shirdi Sai Trust. A successful technology entrepreneur, he joined IBM as a graduate engineer in 1970 at a time when very few Indians were a part of the IT sector’s talent pipeline. Anticipating the advent of the age of technology, he founded a premier communications technology firm called Future Software in 1985. He co-founded Hughes Software Systems, a telecommunications software company in India, as a joint venture with the US firm Hughes Software in 1990.

He has been the charter president of the TiE (The indUS Entrepreneurs), Chennai Chapter, and a member of the governing council of Asia/Pacific I.T. Industry Association (ASOCIO). Additionally, he has worked for the department of electronics as a member of the working group on information technology and as the chairman of the study team on software development and exports for the ninth Five-Year plan during 1996. Between 1988 and 1992, he was the chairman of the software panel, southern region, for the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) under the Ministry of Commerce.

He has been honored by Hon. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for creating the brand of a new India as co-founder of NASSCOM and for the Shri Saibaba Sansthan, Shirdi, the inspiration behind his numerous philanthropic initiatives which include educational and medical services for the underprivileged.

Mr. Ramani is driven by the urgent need to create world-class institutions for higher education in India and now steers his philanthropic efforts towards building a global interdisciplinary university in India.