Vinod Gupta
Vinod Gupta is the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairman of infoGROUP (previously known as infoUSA[1]). Mr. Gupta served as CEO of the company from the time of its incorporation in 1972 until September 1997 and from August 1998 to August 2008[2]. Borrowing $100 from a bank to get started, it has grown from a one-man operation to a global employer of over 5,000 with revenues of $750 million.
He was recognized in Bill Clinton’s book Giving, describing the company as one that “has made a concerted effort to hire people who were on welfare, as well as people who are disabled or who have to support themselves after getting out of unsafe domestic situations.”
He was appointed by President Clinton to serve as a Trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. He is the director of a mutual fund in the Everest mutual fund family. Mr. Gupta was also nominated and confirmed to be the United States Consul General to Bermuda as well as nominated by the President to be the United States Ambassador to Fiji[3]
Education
Vinod Gupta was born in the small town of Rampur Manyharan, located 100 miles north of New Delhi, a small town (village) near Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh). After graduating high school, Mr. Gupta applied to the Indian Institutes of Technology(IIT) and was admitted into the Kharagpur campus, majoring in agricultural engineering. Upon completion of that degree in 1967, Mr. Gupta moved to the United States to get his masters degree. He graduated from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln with an MS Agricultural Engineering in 1969 and an MBA in 1971.
Early career
In his first job after college Mr. Gupta was hired as a marketing research analyst with Commodore Corporation, a manufacturer of mobile homes. While at Commodore, Vin was assigned the task of gathering a list of every single mobile home dealer in the United States. He found all the sources available to be outdated and incomplete. He then ordered all available 4,800 Yellow Page phone directories and set out to compile the list himself.
With the help of another employee, Vin sorted the books state by state. Commodore said they could work on the project on their own time and once completed, the company would consider buying the list. After the list was completed, Vin gave them two options: pay $9,000 for exclusive rights to it or receive it free of charge and allow Vin and his partner to sell it to Commodore’s competitors. Balking at the $9,000 cost, Commodore chose the latter option.
Borrowing $100 from a local Nebraska bank, Vin invested the money in mailers he sent out to other mobile home manufacturers. Within three weeks he had received checks for $22,000 and orders for another $13,000. Vin had found his niche, now he just had to come up with a more efficient way to collect the data.
Charitable Foundation
Mr. Gupta recognizes the value of education and how it has changed his life. As a result, he has made education a primary beneficiary for his charitable contributions. “Through his charitable foundation, Vinod has helped advance education across fields including: business, science, information technology, communications, intellectual property law and wildlife preservation.”[4] Most recently he donated $1 million for a women’s polytechnic in his village of Rampur Manhyaran, a small town near Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh state. The Polytechnic was inaugurated by the former US President Bill Clinton.
In addition he gave his alma mater, Indian Institute of Technology, $2 million to create the Vinod Gupta School of Management. [5] The institute now offers an MBA program to engineering graduates with 5 years of work experience. After Mr. Gupta’s contributions, the IIT received $2 million from other IIT alumni. He has also donated money for a new science block at his former village school and provided buses for the girls’ school. Moreover, the most recent of his contributions includes the setting up of a law school under the IIT umbrella with excellent infrastructure named under Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual property Law which is creating waves across India with its unique program. [6]
In America, Mr. Gupta has donated $2 million to establish a curriculum for small business management at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. He’s also donated an additional $500,000 to the university to set up a scholarship fund for minority students who want to enter its science or engineering schools.
Controversies
Relationship with the Clintons
After Bill Clinton left the White House in January 2001, Gupta hired him as a consultant, a relationship that has continued. Clinton has been paid $3.3 million through 2007, in addition to receiving options on 100,000 shares of stock. "Corporate spending on behalf of the Clintons helped fuel a shareholder lawsuit against Gupta and 10 corporate directors," saying that such payments benefited primarily Gupta, not his corporation, and that the corporation has improperly paid for homes, cars, and a yacht for Gupta. "Gupta has a long history of giving and raising campaign money for the Clintons, and gave $1 million for the 2000 Millennium Celebration, a New Year's Party thrown by the Clintons. When he was president, Bill Clinton named Gupta to the Kennedy Center board of directors. Gupta also got to sleep in the Lincoln bedroom. He gave another million to the Clinton Presidential Library."[7]
In June 2007, Gupta praised Clinton's work for the company. "He helps us meet some of the right people," he told the Omaha World-Herald. "In many speeches, he has mentioned InfoUSA by name." Gupta said that his payments to Clinton weren't wasted. "We get back many times over what is spent on Bill. I would say over the last seven years, easily over $40 million."[8]
Super Bowl Ad
SalesGenie.com, a service of infoUSA, ran a television advertisement during Super Bowl XLII. Critics complained that the advertisement, which was written by Gupta, was racially insensitive.[9] Gupta responds to the critics: "I know who the customers are and what resonates with them," says Salesgenie.com founder Vin Gupta, who wrote his company's commercials. "These are not great ads, but they are good enough. Someone who watches the ad(s) will know the service we are promoting."[10]
Sale of data lists for fraudulent telemarketing
InfoUSA was involved in a controversy in 2004 centered around the sale of data lists to a third party which were used by fraudulent telemarketers. Authorities closed the case against infoUSA and commended them for its cooperation. [11]
Removed as InfoGROUP chairman
In late July 2008, in response to a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation and shareholder lawsuit Gupta was ordered to resign as chairman, will pay $9 million personally to settle shareholders lawsuit, will halt use of company funds for travel and entertainment and will sell the company yacht, amongst other changes. [12] [13]
References
- ^ infoUSA To Become infoGROUP Effective June 1, 2008
- ^ [1]
- ^ Forbes
- ^ Vinod Gupta Charitable Foundation
- ^ Alumnus donates $1 mn to IIT
- ^ Intellectual property law school at Kharagpur
- ^ Peter Overby, "Clintons' InfoUSA Ties Scrutinized", National Public Radio, February 13, 2008
- ^ Business Ties Face Scrutiny
- ^ An Ad With Talking Pandas, Maybe, but Not With Chinese Accents - New York Times
- ^ USAToday Ad Track, Super Bowl Edition
- ^ infoUSA Responds to New York Times Article About 3-Year Old, Closed Investigation into Telemarketing Scams
- ^ InfoGroup plans to limit expenses and CEO spending
- ^ Gupta removed as InfoGROUP chairman