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Umang Gupta (1949 – 19 April 2022) was an Indian-American entrepreneur and Silicon Valley, California executive credited with writing the first business plan for Oracle Corporation.

Early life

Gupta was born August 3, 1949, in Patiala in the Indian state of Punjab, to Ramnika Gupta and Ved Prakash Gupta. His mother was a politician and activist, while his father worked with the Indian labor ministry. He grew up with his grandparents after his parents divorce. He obtained his Bachelor of Technology degree in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India in 1971. During his time at IIT Kanpur, Gupta was exposed to the first IBM computers in the country helping him develop his computer programming skills. During the Vietnam War, Gupta immigrated to the United States to earn his M.B.A. and to join the technology industry. After immigrating to the United States, Gupta also earned M.B.A. degree (1972) from Kent State University in Ohio, US. In 1996, Umang received the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur.

Career

IBM and Oracle

After graduating, he joined IBM as a computer sales representative. After working seven years at IBM, in 1981 Umang Gupta joined Oracle Corporation as their 17th employee. He is credited with writing the company’s first business plan in 1981 and was eventually promoted to vice president of the company’s microcomputer products division. He served in this role until his departure from the company in 1984. Umang has also been an active investor and advisor to a number of Silicon Valley start-up companies including serving on the Board of Trustees of Mosaix, a publicly held call-center systems company from 1997 to 1999 until its sale to Lucent Technologies.

Gupta Technologies

He was the founder and chief executive of Gupta Technologies, a client/server database and tools company, from 1984 to 1996, where he helped to usher in the era of client server computing with the first SQL database server and application development tools for PC networks. In the ‘80s, Gupta Technologies produced products such as interfaces for programming custom applications and tools for programmers with a background in Cobol, dBase, or Visual Basic. Gupta was the first executive who had worked under Larry Ellison to start his own company. Gupta Technologies was the first-ever Indian-run enterprise software company to go public on Nasdaq. Gupta sold the company in 1997.

Keynote Systems

Gupta was chairman and chief executive officer of Keynote Systems from December 1997. Gupta oversaw the company as it went public in 1999. Gupta was able to negotiate the merger between Keynote and Vividence in 2004 after meeting Vividence CEO Peter Watkins at a poker game. It was sold to private equity company Thoma Bravo in August 2013.

Other

Gupta served as an advisor and investor in William Draper’s project to create a venture capital fund for India in 1994.

After selling Keynote Systems, Gupta dedicated his efforts to education for young children, founding SeaShells Education. One of his main initiatives was Reading Racer. Gupta also began investing in educational technology companies such as Front Row Education.

In 2000 Gupta was honored with the Shreyas Mavanoor Foundation Award for Civic Leadership and Philanthropy. Gupta served on the board of the Peninsula Community Foundation, California, which later merged with another foundation to form the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the largest community foundation in the United States. He along with his wife Ruth were donors to, and served as board members of PARCA, a non-profit organization in the Bay Area of California devoted to the needs of the developmentally disabled and their families, and helped to found Raji House, a respite home for the developmentally disabled, located in Burlingame, California. Gupta also had an avid interest in history and served as Chairman of the Board of the San Mateo Historical Association where he and his wife helped sponsor the "Immigrants Gallery", also known as the “Land of Opportunity” Exhibit, a permanent exhibition to honor the contributions of immigrants to San Mateo County. Gupta and his wife Ruth also contributed $500,000 for the renovation of the San Mateo County History Museum, which was acknowledged as the biggest private contribution received by the museum.

Gupta was also a co-founder of the IIT Kanpur Foundation and served as Global Board Chairman of PanIIT, the alumni organization of over 200,000 alumni of the Indian Institutes of Technology. He has also participated as an angel investor and adviser to various Silicon Valley technology companies.

He has written as a guest contributor to The New York Times.

Personal life

Gupta was married to Ruth Gupta, an immigrant from Great Britain. The couple had three children; two sons and a daughter. One of his sons died at an early age. The couple founded Raji House, a support center for developmentally disabled children. The center was associated with Partners & Advocates for Remarkable Children & Adults.

Gupta died on April 19, 2022 at his house in San Mateo, California from a medically assisted death. He was diagnosed with terminal cancer earlier.

References

1. Indian American Software Pioneer Passes Away
2. "Umang Gupta". Forbes. Archived from the original on 23 March 2015. Retrieved 17 September 2017.
3. "Umang Gupta Chair". Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. Archived from the original on 5 December 2010.
4. ^ "Umang Gupta". Asian Pacific Fund.
5. "Official website". India Institute of Technology.
6. ^ Clark, Don (22 April 2022). "Umang Gupta, Who Paved Way for Indian Tech Executives, Dies at 73". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
7. ^ "ON THE RECORD / Umang Gupta / Chairman, PanIIT USA". SFGATE. 1 July 2007. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
8. ^ Heredia, Christopher (20 February 2004). "Gifts give History Museum a boost". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
9. Tahmincioglu, Eve (30 September 2006). From the Sandbox to the Corner Office: Lessons Learned on the Journey to the Top. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-05416-1.
10. "Umang Gupta: No Victory is Final and No defeat is Fatal-Tuesday, June 4, 2013". www.cioreview.com. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
11. Gupta, Umang; Gietz, William (June 1989). SQL Programmer's Guide. Que Corporation. ISBN 9780880223904.
12. ^ Martin, Neil A. (2 December 2004). "Deal Done, With Perseverance and a Poker Game". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
13. "Deal done, with perseverance and a poker game". The New York Times. 2 December 2004.
14. Abelson, Reed (16 May 2001). "MANAGEMENT; Cyclical School of Hard Knocks". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
15. "Thoma Bravo Completes Take-Private Acquisition of Keynote". Press release. Reuters. 22 August 2013. Archived from the original on 28 September 2013. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
16. "Keynote Completes Sale to Thoma Bravo: Becoming a Privately-Held Company". Press release. Keynote. 22 August 2013. Archived from the original on 3 September 2013. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
17. "Keynote sale shows what Umang Gupta learned". The Wall Street Journal. 23 August 2013.
18. Writer, Peter Sinton, Chronicle Senior (14 March 1995). "Venture Capital Fund Will Focus On Fueling India". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 19 April 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
19. "New reading app released: Reading Racer | Entertainment Technology Center". www.etc.cmu.edu. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
20. "Readers' Biggest Retirement Surprises". Wall Street Journal. 10 February 2017. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
21. Singer, Natasha (11 March 2015). "Privacy Pitfalls as Education Apps Spread Haphazardly". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
22. "PARCA » You're Remarkable Dinner 2020". Retrieved 19 April 2022.
23. "Board of Directors". SMCHA Official Website.
24. "Land of Opportunity - San Mateo County History Museum". San Mateo County Historical Association. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
25. "Global Mission". PANIIT Global.
26. ^ "The Boss: Love That Lemonade Stand". archive.nytimes.com. Retrieved 19 April 2022.

External links

• Biography of Umang Gupta prepared and presented at the 2000 Asian Pacific Fund gala by Board Member and KRON TV News Anchor Emerald Yeh

• 1949 births
• 2022 deaths
• Oracle employees
• Indian emigrants to the United States
• Businesspeople in computing
• Kent State University alumni
• IIT Kanpur alumni
• American businesspeople of Indian descent
• 20th-century American businesspeople
• 21st-century American businesspeople