Shri. Sridhar Vembu

Sridhar Vembu, graduated with a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in 1989, and earned his MS and PhD degrees from Princeton University in New Jersey.

He was launched his professional career working for Qualcomm as a wireless engineer in San Diego, California, before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area. He has lived in San Jose and Pleasanton.

Social entrepreneurship

Sridhar Vembu is noted for taking software and product development functions from urban centers into rural villages in India. Specifically, his company, Zoho, established its offices in rural Mathalamparai, Tenkasi district, Tamil Nadu and in suburban Renigunta, Andhra Pradesh. He moved from the Bay Area to Mathalamparai at this time.

In 2004, he set up Zoho Schools to provide vocational software development education to rural students as an alternative to formal university education. In 2020, he announced a "rural school startup" focused on free primary education.

Honours

Vembu was awarded the 2019 Ernst & Young "Entrepreneur of the Year Award" in India. He was also the recipient of the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honor, in 2021. He has also been selected as CNN-News18 Indian of the Year 2022. He was also appointed to the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) of India in 2021.