“Desh” session for EA

Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande is the Chairman of Sparta Group LLC, A123 Systems (AONE), Sycamore Networks (SCMR), Tejas Networks, Sandstone Capital and HiveFire. He was also a founding investor in Airvana, Cimaron, Webdialogs and Relicore.

Prior to co-founding Sycamore Networks, Dr. Deshpande was founder and chairman of Cascade Communications Corp.

Dr. Deshpande serves as a member of the MIT Corporation, and his generous donations have made possible MIT's Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation.

Dr. Deshpande holds a B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology - Madras, an M.E. in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Brunswick in Canada, and Ph.D. in Data Communications from Queens University in Canada.

Dr. Deshpande is a trustee of the Deshpande foundation. He and his wife are involved in several non-profit initiatives that include support for MIT, IIT, TiE, Akshaya Patra Foundation, Public Health Foundation of India and the Social Entrepreneurship Sandbox in India.

Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande meets with faculty, directors & E-Cell members.

On 12th April, Desh met with EA’s E-Cell members and faculty at DCSE. During the event, Desh gave awards to students from GBS (Hubli) for their involvement in the 2K Challenge. Following the awards’ ceremony, one student from each school gave a brief presentation about their E-Cell activities and interest in engaging in entrepreneurial activities through the E-Cell. Desh then addressed the group with an inspirational talk on pursuing an entrepreneurial life. Below are some students’ feedback on what they learned from the session.

• You are the CEO of your own life
• Learn not just to be an entrepreneur, but also learn to lead an entrepreneurial life.
• Life is full of opportunities.
• Enjoy playing in every stage of life.
• Don’t give up or comprise one’s passion to be something.
• Entrepreneurs must have the guts to face Uncertainties..