Arjun Gupta (Venture Capitalist)

Arjun Gupta is the founder and Managing Partner of TeleSoft Partners. At TeleSoft, Arjun manages capital commitments of $625+ million and has established relationships with AON, Bechtel, Deutsche Telekom, Intel Capital, Nexant and Salesforce.com.

Education

Arjun received an MBA from Stanford University, MS and BS (Phi Beta Kappa) in the field of Computer Science from Washington State University, and a BA (Honors) in Economics from St. Stephen's College (India). He is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute and an Advanced Leadership Fellow at Harvard University.

Telesoft Partners and Career

Arjun was in the Forbes Top-100 Technology Venture Investors in the 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Midas Lists. Over the last fifteen years, Telesoft and Arjun have funded and helped build 61 companies, achieving 33 mergers and acquisitions and IPOs for a value of AbOUT $16 billion. Within Telesoft, Gupta manages capital commitments of $625 million.

Gupta was previously an advisor on technology for McKinsey clients, where he led projects for management in Apple, AT&T, Advanced Micro Devices - AMD, Siemens and Vodafone.

Arjun has served on the boards of numerous companies, which currently include Calient Networks, Education.com, Jumpstart, and Nexant. He served on the board of Omnipoint as a private company, through its IPO, finally until its acquisition by VoiceStream for $4+ billion in 1998. VoiceStream was ultimately acquired by Deutsche Telekom for $50+ billion to form T-Mobile USA. Earlier in his career, Arjun was a Technology Strategy Consultant for high-tech clients with McKinsey & Company, where he led projects for Apple, AT&T/PacBell, AMD, Siemens/ROLM and Vodafone/PacTel. Prior to business school, he was an operating systems Software Engineer, Field Applications Engineer and Product Specialist with Tektronix, Inc, covering the US, Europe and Japan.

Philanthropy

In 2001, Arjun started a foundation to support community projects in education, medical research and the arts. The foundation has helped provide partial funding for about 90 projects to date. He is a Trustee of The Aspen Institute, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Previously, he served on the Management Board of Stanford Business School and the Board of Governors of the National Association of Small Business Investors Alliance (SBIA). Arjun is also a co-founder of the Aspen Chapter of the Young President's Organization (YPO), and currently Chairman of WPO-Aspen.

Expeditions

In addition to building companies, Arjun is a passionate outdoorsman. Over the last 30 years, his key expeditions include – (a) the North Pole and the South Pole to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Peary and Amundsen reaching each of the poles respectively, (b) a scuba expedition with National Geographic to chart the Millennium Atoll in the South Pacific, (c) six Himalayan expeditions to peaks over 20,000 feet, (d) the Arctic Expedition for Climate Change, (e) Conservation and Human Well-being in Africa, (f) Polar Bear and Grizzly tracking safaris in Alaska, (g) Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, and Mt Cotopaxi and Mt Chimborazo in Ecuador, etc. He also served as a Liaison Officer with four international expeditions for the Indian Mountaineering Federation (IMF), and was recently elected a Fellow of The Explorers Club.

Controversies and Personal Life

In the process of Arjun's acrimonious divorce, his wife brought charges that led to his arrest in San Francisco, California. The case was ultimately dismissed.