Rakesh Gangwal

Last updated

Rakesh Gangwal
Born (1953-07-25) 25 July 1953 (age 71)
Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Citizenship American [1]
Education
OccupationBusinessman
Known forCo-founder and owner of IndiGo, Chair of Southwest Airlines
SpouseMarried
Children1

Rakesh Gangwal (born July 1953) is an Indian-American billionaire businessman. He is the co-founder IndiGo Airlines alongside Rahul Bhatia. [2] He is the former chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman of US Airways Group. From June 2003 to August 2007, Gangwal was the chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Worldspan Technologies, a provider of travel technology and information services to the travel and transportation industry. From 2002 to 2003, Gangwal was involved in various personal business endeavors, including private equity projects and consulting projects. He was the president and CEO of US Airways Group from 1998 until his resignation in 2001. [3] [4] In November 2024, Gangwal was appointed chair of the Southwest Airlines corporate board. [5] [6]

Contents

Early life

Gangwal was born in July 1953 in a Marwari Jain family based in Kolkata, India. [7] [8] [9] [10] He attended Don Bosco (Park Circus) before earning a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in 1975, and an MBA degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. [1]

Career

After completing his bachelors degree from IIT Kanpur at the age of 23, Gangwal moved to the United States in 1977. [11] His association with the airline industry began in September 1980, when, as an associate of Booz Allen & Hamilton, Inc, he worked closely with United Airlines. [12] In 1984, Gangwal joined United Airlines as the manager for strategic planning. He held a series of positions at United Airlines. [13]

Prior to joining US Airways, Gangwal served as executive vice president for Air France beginning in November 1994. Previously, Gangwal had been a financial analyst in the product development group of Ford Motor Co and a production and planning engineer with Philips India Ltd. [14] [15]

Gangwal has served on the board of advisers of the University of Colorado (Denver), the board of trustees of Providence St. Mel School (Chicago), the Board of Directors of the Airline Tariff Publishing Co. and Board of Trustees of the Alexian Brothers Medical Center (Elk Grove, Illinois, USA). Gangwal was conferred with the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. [16]

In April 2022, Gangwal donated a sum of ₹100 crore to set up a school of medical sciences and technology at IIT-Kanpur, which also received another ₹200 crore in donations from other alumni for the medical institution. The facility was planned to have a 450-bed super speciality hospital and several centers of excellence. [17]

In 2020, Gangwal was ranked 359th on the Forbes 400 list of the richest people in America. [18]

In July 2024, Gangwal joined the board of Southwest Airlines, [19] later buying approximately US$108 million worth of shares of the airline. [20]

As of 30th September 2024, Gangwal and his family Trust (The Chinkerpoo Family Trust), with trustees Shobha Gangwal and JP Morgan Trust Company of Delaware held around 5.31 percent and 8.23 percent stake in Indigo Airlines respectively. [21] [22] [23]

In November 2024, as part of its settlement with Elliott Investment Management, an activist investment fund, Southwest Airlines appointed Gangwal as chair of its corporate board. [5] [6]

Personal life

Gangwal is married with one daughter and lives in Miami, Florida. [1] His daughter, Parul, worked for the enterprise software company Salesforce in California. [1] She later launched her own start-up, Minnesota-based Wheelhouse Capital, in June 2021.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IIT Kanpur</span> Research Institute in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur is a public institute of technology located in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. As an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), it was declared an Institute of National Importance by the Government of India under the Institutes of Technology Act.

Southwest Airlines Co. is a major airline in the United States that operates on a low-cost carrier model. It is headquartered in Love Field, Dallas, in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and has scheduled service to 121 destinations in the United States and ten other countries. As of 2018, Southwest carried more domestic passengers than any other United States airline. It is currently the third largest airline in the world based on passengers flown.

Jet Airways (India) Limited, trading as Jet Airways, was an Indian airline based in Delhi, with a training and developmental centre in Mumbai. Incorporated in April 1992 as a limited liability company, the airline began operations as an air taxi operator in 1993. It began full-fledged operations in 1995 with international flights added in 2004. The airline went public in 2005 and in 2007, when it acquired Air Sahara. The airline was expected to re-commence its flight operations by the end of 2024, which would have made it the first Indian airline to be revived after ceasing operations. On 7th November, 2024, the liquidation if the airline was ordered.

InterGlobe Aviation Limited, is an Indian low-cost airline headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. It is the largest airline in India by passengers carried and fleet size, with a 62% domestic market share as of August 2024. It is the largest individual Asian airline, and one of the largest in the world in terms of passengers carried, with more than 100 million passengers carried in 2023. As of October 2024, IndiGo operates over 2,000 daily flights to 122 destinations – 88 domestic and 34 international, with a fleet of over 382 aircraft. It has its primary hub at Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary C. Kelly</span> American business executive (born 1955)

Gary Clayton Kelly is an American business executive. He is the former chairman and former chief executive officer of Southwest Airlines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rakesh Jhunjhunwala</span> Indian businessman (1960–2022)

Rakesh Radheyshyam Jhunjhunwala was an Indian billionaire investor, stock trader, and Chartered Accountant. He began investing in 1985 with a capital of ₹5,000, with his first major profit in 1986. At the time of his death, he had an estimated net worth of US$5.8 billion, making him the 438th richest person in the world. He was a partner in his own asset management firm, Rare Enterprises.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vinod K. Singh</span> Indian chemist and professor (born 1959)

Vinod K. Singh is a Rahula and Namita Gautam Chair Professor of Chemistry at IIT Kanpur. He is also the Director's Chair Professor at IISER Bhopal & adjunct professor at NIPER Hyderabad. He is currently the President, Chemical Research Society of India and the Chairman, Governing Council of IACS Kolkata.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flight Laboratory, IIT Kanpur</span> Airport in Kanpur, India

Flight Laboratory, IIT Kanpur is an airstrip/aerodrome located inside IIT Kanpur's campus at Kalyanpur 18 kilometres west of city of Kanpur, India. It is used by the Aerospace Engineering department of IIT Kanpur. Pawan Hans began a helicopter ferry service to Lucknow from June 2013, which later shut down silently.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Umang Gupta</span> Indian-American entrepreneur (1949–2022)

Umang Gupta was an Indian-American entrepreneur and Silicon Valley, California, executive credited with writing the first business plan for Oracle Corporation. He was also the founder of enterprise software company Gupta Technologies and was later the CEO of Keynote Systems.

Dr. Chetput Venkatasubban Seshadri was a distinguished Indian chemical engineer who was chair of chemical engineering at IIT Kanpur. IIT Kanpur today has an endowed chair named for him, the C. V. Seshadri Professorship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trilochan Sastry</span> Indian academic

Trilochan Sastry is the Chairman, Founder Member and Trustee of the Association for Democratic Reforms. He was formerly the Dean at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore,, and now, he is a faculty in faculty member in the Decision Sciences Area there. He is also the Founder & Secretary of the Centre for Collective Development (CCD) and the Founder of Farmveda.

The Satyendra K. Dubey Memorial Award is an award named after Satyendra Dubey and presented by the IIT-Kanpur. It is awarded annually to an IIT alumnus who displays the highest levels of professional integrity in upholding human values. The Memorial Award was instituted by IIT Kanpur in 2005 in memory of Satyendra K. Dubey (BT/CE/1994/IITK) and his exemplary life and supreme sacrifice.

Ramasubbu Sankararamakrishnan is an Indian computational biologist, bioinformatician and a professor at the Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He is known for his computational studies on membrane protein function. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences in 2008.

Subramaniam Ganesh is an Indian geneticist, molecular biologist and a professor at the department of biological sciences and bio-engineering of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. Known for his pioneering studies on Lafora progressive myoclonic epilepsy and other neurodegenerative disorders, Ganesh is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, India. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences in 2008.

Arun Kumar Shukla is an Indian structural biologist and the Joy-Gill Chair professor at the department of biological sciences and bioengineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. Known for his studies on G protein-coupled receptor, Shukla is a Wellcome Trust-DBT Intermediate Fellow and a recipient of the SwarnaJayanti Fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences, in 2017/18. He received the 2021 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology in Biological Science. He was awarded the Infosys Prize 2023 in Life Sciences his outstanding contributions to the biology of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sudhir K. Jain</span> Vice-chancellor of BHU

Sudhir Kumar Jain is the incumbent and 28th Vice-Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University. He is a civil engineer by education and has formerly served three terms as the founding director of the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar. He has carried out intensive research and development in the fields of seismic design codes, dynamic of buildings, and post-earthquake studies. Beside these, Jain has actively participated in teaching, research activities and development in earthquake engineering focused on developing countries. He is an elected fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering. He was also elected a member of U.S. National Academy of Engineering (2021) for leadership in earthquake engineering in developing countries.

Rajat Moona is the Director of Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar from October 2022 onwards. He has also served as Director of Indian Institute of Information Technology, Vadodara on additional Charge Basis from 2023 till 2024. He has served as director at Indian Institute of Technology, Bhilai from March 2017 to September 2022. He is also a professor of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Kanpur from April 1991 and was Director General of Centre for Development of Advanced Computing from May 2011 to March 2017.

Rajiv Shekhar is a professor at IIT Kanpur and he was the former director at IIT(ISM) Dhanbad. Prior to joining IIT(ISM) Dhanbad, he worked as a professor at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, IIT Kanpur. In recent times, he has been actively working towards research related to Solar thermal energy and applications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aditya Ghosh</span> Indian businessman

Aditya Ghosh is an Indian businessman working primarily in the civil aviation and hospitality industries. He was the former president and whole time director of IndiGo from 2008 to 2018. He is the co-founder of Akasa Air with Vinay Dube. Ghosh was also the CEO of OYO Hotel & Homes, South Asia and currently serves as a member of its board. He is a member of the board of management at Ashoka University and a visiting faculty at the university's Department of Entrepreneurship.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Forbes profile: Rakesh Gangwal". Forbes. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  2. ↑ "IndiGo Success Story: How Friendship Gave Birth To Indias Most Successful Airline - An Inspiring Tale Of Two Friends". Zee News. Retrieved 3 November 2024.
  3. ↑ "Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned". Archived from the original on 16 June 2009.
  4. ↑ "Gangwal exits US Airways". www.post-gazette.com.
  5. 1 2 "Southwest names aviation veteran Gangwal as board chairperson". Reuters. 4 November 2024. Retrieved 8 November 2024.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. 1 2 "Southwest Airlines Names Rakesh Gangwal Chair Of The Board And Announces New Committee Chairs". AVIATOR. 4 November 2024. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  7. ↑ "Business Standard: Who is Rakesh Gangwal".
  8. ↑ "Rakesh GANGWAL personal appointments - Find and update company information - GOV.UK". find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk. Retrieved 3 November 2024.
  9. ↑ "Livemint.com: Rakesh Gangwal: the airline industry disciplinarian behind IndiGo's runaway success".
  10. ↑ "Bloomberg Billionaires Index". Bloomberg.com. 3 November 2024. Retrieved 3 November 2024.
  11. ↑ "Rakesh Gangwal". www.iitk.ac.in. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  12. ↑ "Rakesh Gangwal & Rahul Bhatia: How two friends built India's most successful airline and then split ways". The Economic Times. 16 August 2023. ISSN   0013-0389 . Retrieved 3 November 2024.
  13. ↑ "Mr Rakesh Gangwal". www.iitk.ac.in. Retrieved 3 November 2024.
  14. ↑ "Mr Rakesh Gangwal". www.iitk.ac.in. Retrieved 3 November 2024.
  15. ↑ "Good returns.in: Rakesh Gangwal: Net Worth & Biography".
  16. ↑ Kiran. "Distinguished Alumni". www.iitk.ac.in. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  17. ↑ Verma, Prachi. "IndiGo cofounder Rakesh Gangwal donates ₹100 crore to IIT-Kanpur". Economic Times.
  18. ↑ "Rakesh Gangwal". Forbes. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  19. ↑ "Southwest Air Rises After Billionaire Gangwal Buys $108 Million of Shares". Yahoo Finance. 3 October 2024. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  20. ↑ "Rakesh Gangwal buys $108 million of shares in Southwest Airlines". Money control. 4 October 2024. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  21. ↑ "Goindigo.in: Shareholding Pattern".
  22. ↑ "Interglobe Aviation Ltd share price | About Interglobe Aviat | Key Insights - Screener". www.screener.in. Retrieved 3 November 2024.
  23. ↑ "InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. Latest Shareholding Pattern – Promoter, FII, DII, Mutual Fund. Who owns, bought or sold InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. Shares?". Trendlyne.com. Retrieved 3 November 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.