Hard work is the refining fire by which talent becomes ability. And Vivek Paul, partner, Texas Pacific Group is one such persons whose hard work, talent and abilities have elevated him to the position, few could dream of. But the heights, which Paul has achieved, didn't come to him without toil, hard work and burning his mid-night oil. A man who works 24X7 with all his grey matter active, it was his perseverance which has seen him through some of the most difficult negotiations. Although Paul recently joined TPG and its Asian affiliate, Newbridge Capital, who together manage a global portfolio of approximately $70 billion, he is more known for his contribution to Wipro.

In fact, when Paul joined Wipro, it was an obscure $150 million Indian software services and Hardware Company, which today is almost a $1 billion IT services major in the world. That's simply a business miracle which Paul has ensured while working in Wipro. An MBA from the University of Massachusetts and a Bachelor of Engineering from BITS, Pilani, Paul joined Wipro in 1999 as Vice Chairman of Wipro and CEO of Wipro's global information technology and business process services, and since then, he hasn't looked back.

After Paul joined Wipro, the operating profits of the company's global services grew at over 35% a year. This was largely possible because Paul's strategy of acquisition helped Wipro steal business from the Infotech giants likes IBM Global and Accenture. No wonder the company, under Paul won several awards for pioneering process quality, and was rated among the top 10 providers in the world and also as one of the top companies for leaders.

It not only did an IPO on the NYSE in 2000 under Paul but also expanded its operation in various other countries. In fact, Paul has been instrumental in offering a full breadth of services including application development, reengineering, package implementation, IT infrastructure and support, product design and development and BPO which gave Paul and Wipro an edge over his nearest competitors. Wipro under the stewardship of Paul achieved the rare distinction of becoming 4th largest company in the world in terms of market capitalization with more than 42,000 employees working in 35 countries from 10 nearshore development centers for 421 customers across USA, Europe and Japan.

Like all talented people, Paul left his marks wherever he worked. He is credited with achieving some of the astounding professional success while working with GE's Global CT (Computerized Tomography) and its medical equipment segment. Prior to working at GE, Paul also worked at Bain & Co, Boston, and at PepsiCo Inc, New York. A truly global man, Paul, who is a member of Board of the California Chamber of Commerce and advisory board of Stanford's Radiology Department, has won several national and international awards and recognition. Barron's named him one of the world's 30 most respected chief executive officers. He was also selected as one of 25 Global Business Influential for 2004 by CNN and rated by BusinessWeek as one of the Best Managers globally for 2003.