America
Two Indian-Americans among Forbes America 50 successful women
New York, May 29
Two Indian-origin women have made it to the Forbes list of America's 50 most successful and self-made women.
India-born
Neerja Sethi, 60, is ranked 14th with a net worth of $1.1 billion,
while London-born Jayshree Ullal, 54, is ranked 30th with a net worth of
$470 million in te inaugural “Most Successful, Self-Made Women in the
US†list.
Elizabeth Anne Holmes, CEO of blood diagnostics company Theranos, tops the list with a net worth of $4.5 billion
According
to Forbes magazine, “to be eligible for this list, women had to have
substantially made their own fortunes. In cases where they started
businesses with, and still share with, their husbands, we’ve assigned
them half of that combined wealthâ€.
Neerja Sethi, an
entrepreneur, is an alumnus of Delhi University and co-founded an IT
consulting and outsourcing company, Syntel, with her husband,
billionaire Bharat Desai in 1980.
"In its first year, the
company only brought in $30,000 in revenue. Today, its market cap is
well over $3 billion, and it has 24,000 employees worldwide," Forbes
stated in her profile.
"Sethi served as Syntel's treasurer
during its first 16 years of operations and is currently the vice
president of corporate affairs, a role she has had since the company's
inception."
Sethi, a mother of two, also sits on the board of directors of the company alongside her husband, who remains chairman.
"Born
in India, Sethi holds an undergraduate degree in mathematics, a masters
degree in computer science, and an MBA in operations research . Through
their family foundation, the couple pledged $1 million in 2014 to the
University of Michigan to develop a start-up accelerator," the profile
reads.
London-born Jayshree Ullal was raised in New Delhi, and
took over computer networking company Arsita Networks in California as
president and chief executive officer in 2008, when it had less than 50
employees, transforming it to one of Silicon Valley’s most valuable
networking firms by 2014.
"Ullal, who owns more than 10 percent
of Arista's shares, is one of America's wealthiest female executives.
She took slightly more than an engineering team doing some good
technology and turned it into the thriving network switch company it is
today," Forbes quoted Arista co-founder David Cheriton as saying.
Cheriton
and fellow co-founder Andreas von Bechtolsheim had previously worked
with Ullal at Cisco, where she spent 15 years. She had earlier served as
vice president of marketing at Crescendo Communications, which Cisco
acquired in 1993.
Ullal, also a mother of two, got an electrical
engineering degree at San Francisco State University and a master's
degree in engineering management at Santa Clara University.
"Ullal
has donated some shares to a family foundation created in honor of her
sister, who died of lung cancer. She has also earmarked some of her
holdings for her two children as well as her niece and nephew," her
profile reads.
The first edition of “The Most Successful,
Self-Made Women in the US†released by renowned financial and business
magazine Forbes, includes Oprah Winfrey, Madonna and Nora Roberts. At
least 15 women on the list were born outside the US.