Date and place of birth: 11 February, 1965 – Araria, India – grew up in Gaborone, Botswana
Residence: Portola Valley, California, USA
Marital status: Married
Education: Master’s degrees in Management and Engineering from MIT, and a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Brown University
Career path: Former vice president and general manager of the Data Management Business Unit at Network Appliance. Prior to that, I was vice president and general manager of Network Appliance’s Content Delivery Business Unit. Previously, I served as a senior manager for McKinsey & Company, focusing on technology strategy and operations effectiveness with Fortune 500 companies
Current posts: CEO of Terracotta,Inc.

Q: What was your first job?
A: Management consultant – McKinsey & Co.

Q: Who is or was your mentor?
A: Jeff Allen (ex-COO Network Appliance) and Dan Warmenhoven (CEO Network Appliance)

Q: Which business leaders do you most admire?
A: The above

Q: If you weren't in your current job, which company would you most like to lead?
A: Another highly promising startup

Q: Do you read books on management theory? If so, which has influenced you the most?
A: Not many good ones apart from Crossing the Chasm and The Innovator’s Dilemma, but Lance Armstrong’s War by Daniel Coyle, while not a business book, is an interesting take on what it takes to win.

Q: Which competitors do you benchmark your company's performance against?
A: Since we’re in a new space, we don’t really have definable competitors yet; however I am inspired by VMware since we are trying to do a similar thing in an adjacent area.

Q: What has been your best experience in business?
A: Growing one of Network Appliance’s businesses from scratch to over 100 million. The best part of it was building the team – we are still great friends.

Q: What was your biggest mistake in business?
A: Not crushing a competitor when we had the chance several years ago when I was at Network Appliance.

Q: What keeps you awake at night?
A: Fear of losing our star players

Q: How do you relax?
A: Mountain biking in the local hills (especially with my six-year old) or cooking

Q: What was the last gadget you bought?
A: Garmin Edge (Bike GPS/HRM/Altimeter etc.)

Q: Favourite Web site
A: Changes often – was addicted to Youtube for a week!

Q: Desert island disc/book
A: Tomasz Stanko – soul of things