Shri Vinod Dham, father of the Pentium chip, graduated from Delhi College of Engineering in 1971 in Electrical Engineering. Dham became interested in knowing as to what went on inside the devices. And so, after convincing his parents he went to Cincinnati in 1975 to do an MS EE in Solid State Sciences. Cincinnati, at that time, was a very good school in microelectronics, with even a fab on campus and was widely supported by the semiconductor industry. After MS Dham went to Dayton and joined MCR. At IEEE conference in Monterrey, California, where Shri Dham was presenting, the Intel people were also there presenting their work. It was there, that Intel invited Dham to join Intel. After successfully completing the Pentium project Shri Dham was facing a midlife crisis. “The best thing that happened to me was joining Intel and the best thing that happened to me was leaving Intel”, says Dham in one of his crisp should bytes that make him so popular with journalists. He joined Nexgen, which was a startup that was acquired by AMD later. After helping AMD seriously challenge Intel with its vastly popular K6, Dham left AMD and joined Silicon Spice, a startup, as Chairman, President and CEO though others had founded it. “It has been the best part of my life, building teams, products, raising money, talking to customers and finally selling it to Broadcom, a company which might become tomorrow’s Cisco”, he says. Silicon Spice has been acquired by Broadcom for $1.2 billion and everybody, including some office staff, have become millionaires. Photographs and certificates from Andy Grove and Craig Barret about 386, 486 and Pentium adorn Dham’s office walls Intel and one from Bill Clinton surround Dham’s office as well as one from Bill Clinton for being the presidential advisor on minorities. Noticeably his latest chip, Calisto – its very first copy that passed all tests – lies at the feet of a small Ganapati statue on his table. Dham’s favourite hobby is carpentry and his favourite “TV show is Home Improvement. “Tool Man Tim Taylor’s Do it yourself does not quite work. This hi-tech craftsman’s chips sure do.

Shri Ashok Kumar Puri has taken over the mantle of BHEL in September 2004, as Chairman & Managing Director, a Navratna Public Sector Enterprises. BHEL. a nearly US $ 2 billion Corporation, listed on the major Stock Exchanges in India, is one of the largest power plant engineering and equipment manufacturing company in the world. Prior to this appointment. Shri Puri was Director (Power) in BHEL.

An Electrical Engineer a nd M BA in Marketing & Finance from University of Delhi. Shri Puri joined BHEL in 1976 after a brief stint in the Private Sector. In his over 35 years of professional experience, Shri Puri has had diversified and versatile experience and has made significant contribution in key functions like Corporate Management, International and Domestic Marketing. Strategic Planning. Manufacturing. etc.

During his stint as Head of domestic Power Business. Shri Puri was instrumental in securing an all time high order booking in 2003-04. During his two year tenure, order booking exceeded aggregate of the preceding 5 years. His strategic initiatives resulted in BHEL retaining its market leadership staving off stiff global competition particularly from China. Russia, Korea. Czech Republic, etc.

As Head of BHEL's manufacturing division at Bangalore. Shri Puri spearheaded the introduction and assimilation of state-of-the¬art technology for Controls & Instrumentation in record time. The unit also achieved highest ever Turnover and Cash Inflow during the same period.

As Head of Strategic Planning, Shri Puri guided the development of Corporate Vision and also the Corporate Plan of BHEL.

He is also credited with market research and techno-economic studies for company's diversification and expansion efforts, resulting in the introduction of Gas Turbines in BHEL.

As a result of a number of new initiatives under his stewardship in International Operations Division, there was a phenomenal sev!,!nfold increase in export business in a short span of two years. This included the largest ever export order for 2x 159 MW Gas Turbine Generating Units from Iraq, entry into large utility segment with turnkey orders for Fr 9 Gas Turbine based projects from Oman. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, hitherto the forte of the western global majors, maiden entry in Azerbaijan. with an order for a Hydro Generator package, etc.

Stiri Puri was recently conferred the prestigious Eminent Engineer Award for the year 2004 by the Institution of Engineers (India).

Raj Soin born in New Delhi in 1947, graduated from Delhi College of Engg. in 1969 in Mechanical Engg. After graduation, he went to Bradley University, United States where he earned a Master of Science degree in Industrial Engineering in 1971. Over the years, Raj continued his post-graduate studies in business and finance at Bradley University, Illinois State University and the advanced management programs at Harvard University and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. with Firestone Tire and Rubber Company as an Industrial Engineer and worked at various production facilities until 1978. In that year, Raj joined Williams International as Manager of Corporate Systems. While at Williams, his responsibilities were expanded to include the departments of industrial engineering, operations planning, scheduling and management systems.

In 1984, Raj started his business viz. Modern Technologies Corporation (MTC). From its inception, MTC has grown at an exceptional rate and was hailed as one of the fastest growing companies in the United States by Inc. magazine for four consecutive years. In June 2002, MTC Technologies had an initial public offering and is listed on the Nasdaq. Headquartered in Dayton, OH, MTC Technologies has sales in excess of $180 million and employs over 1500 people in 25 cities in 18 states. MTC Technologies is a provider of engineering, management and technical services to a variety of Department of Defense, federal agencies and commercial customers. Service offerings cover such diverse areas as Acquisition Support, Aeropropulsion Sciences, Computer and Software Technologies, Management and Administration, Operations and Maintenance, Quality Technologies, Telecommunications and Engineering Technologies. Over the years, Soin has invested in numerous entrepreneurs from the Miami Valley to Silicon Valley and around the globe. In just 16 years, many of these investments have developed into a variety of strong businesses involving many diverse technologies and serving many different markets. The multi-national complex of companies that comprise the Soin family include; Corbus L.L.c., Composite Technologies Company L.L.c., Custom Manufacturing Solutions Inc., Corbus (India), JMD Development, Integrated Information Technologies Corporation (Denver, Colorado), Integration Corporation (Fort Walton Beach, Florida) Mr. Soin feels a responsibility to give something back to his community. A good example is Soin's role as the first president and founding trustee of the Ohio-India Project. Two of the local projects of the Ohio-India Project are (I) Gandhi House, a transitional house for women in need and, (2) the Annual Day of Caring, which started as a local event and is now conducted in several states with expectations of becoming a national program. In August 2000, the business college at Wright State University was renamed to Raj Soin College of Business in honor of his accomplishments and support of the University. Mr. Soin is also the main contributor for "Sukh Dev Raj Soin Hospital" which is being built in India in memory of his father. MTC Technologies supports many community projects through the MTC Foundation.

Raj is a member of the board of Ohio Venture Capital Authority and President of the Asian Indian Alliance. He has also served as a past member of the Board of Trustees of Wright State University; past member of the Advisory Board of KeyBank, Dayton District; Founding Trustee and Past President of Asian Indian American Business Group; past member of the Dayton Foundation Board of Trustees; first President and Founding Trustee of Ohio India Project; past member of the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Trustees; past member of the Ohio Business Roundtable.

Spme of the honors and awards which have been received are:
• Listed as Inc. 500 fastest growing company for four consecutive years;
• 1993 National Conference of Christians & Jews Humanitarian Award;
• 1995 Enterprise Spirit Award;
• Ernst & Young's 1999 Master Entrepreneur;
• 1999 Beavercreek Chamber of Commerce Business Person of the Year;
• 2003 Recipient of the Ellis Island Medals of Honor Award
• 2004 Distinguished Alumni Bradely University, USA