Parasuram Balasubramanian
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Theme Work Analytics
PhD IE 1977
"Dig the well before you feel thirsty. Build the skill sets before market demand picks up."Parasuram Balasubramanian
For his influence in the information technology services industry with noteworthy contributions including growth of analytical services during the mainframe era, development of products for international markets, penetration of global markets in financial services and the establishment of development centers.
A true citizen of the world, Parasuram Balasubramanian has spent more than 25 years in global philanthropic endeavors that demonstrate that his commitment to others rivals his uncommon excellence in his profession.
After achieving great success in leadership positions in IT firms in India and Jamaica, Balasubramanian founded and became CEO of Theme Work Analytics in India and the United States in 2004. Throughout his career, he has played a seminal role in nurturing the entire information technology industry, with special focus on analytical services.
Assuming top leadership positions from a young age, Balasubramanian's work is known for having met the highest standards for financial services products in international markets.
From 1995-99 he spearheaded the financial services unit at Infosys Technologies, growing it tenfold. He remembers when China's takeover of Hong Kong was set to take effect in 1997 and worldwide transportation services giant, DHL, was eager to move out of Hong Kong in 1996. This was a time for Balasubramanian to shine as a leader and appear bold to the team while exploring unchartered territories.
"We were one of the 21 respondents to their RFP,” Balasubramanian recalls. “Based on our meeting with the CIO in Hong Kong, he dropped all other bidders from consideration and asked us to help them move to Malaysia quickly. We did so successfully within months. Dozens of mission-critical applications were moved with no perceivable impact on their clients."
A previous proud moment came in the pre-Internet year of 1992, when Balasubramanian, as CEO of Hiteck Software Engineers in Kingston, Jamaica, led the development of a successful integrated general insurance management system for a West Indies financial conglomerate. The system, which covered policy administration, claim processing, reinsurance and accounting functions, took 30 person-years of development by a team of young staff from India and Jamaica. The product was shortlisted by a New Zealand based insurance firm for functionality demonstration.
"We connected our system to the client's through one telephone line and used a simple UNIX command to mirror our screen on their side. We used a second line to talk simultaneously. Over the next four hours, we gave them a technical demo running from screen to screen at our end, showcasing the system features."" Impressed with the ingenuity, the client invited us to Auckland, New Zealand for the final round of selection.
These professional victories, however, do not take precedence over Balasubramanian's efforts to give back.
In 2007, he established the Parvathi and Parasuram Scholarship Endowment for Industrial Engineering (IE), which has provided scholarships to deserving Purdue IE students every year since its inception.
For his home country of India, Balasubramanian has funded solar lamps for an entire village as part of "Lighting a Billion Lives,"” a TERI (Nobel Prize-winning institution) initiative. He also provided six months of rations to an entire Indian village after a drought destroyed their crops.
He also supports an award for young faculty at his alma mater, IIT Madras, and funds 40 students in engineering, medicine, science and arts courses, as well as musical programs, in India. In January 2022, an MOU was signed with IIT Madras to fund a nationwide Water Preservation and Protection initiative called Aqua MAP.
Purdue University’s School of Industrial Engineering bestowed upon Balasubramanian the Outstanding Industrial Engineer Award in 2001.
Career Highlights
| 2004-present | Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Theme Work Analytics |
|---|---|
| 1995-2004 | Senior Vice President, Infosys Technologies Limited |
| 1989-1994 | Chief Executive Officer and Technical Director, Hitek Software Engineers Limited |
| 1986-1989 | Chief Executive Officer, Cholamandalam Software Limited |
| 1982-1986 | Manager, Management Services, MRF Limited |
| 1979-1982 | Group Leader, Quantitative Methods Group, Tata Consultancy Services |
| 1977-1979 | Faculty, Operations Management, Administrative Staff College of India |
Education
| 1971 | B.Tech Aeronautical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras |
|---|---|
| 1973 | M.Tech Industrial Management, Indian Institute of Technology Madras |
| 1977 | PhD Industrial Engineering, Purdue University |