Gujarat-born heads billion dollar fibre technology firm

His company’s stock prices soar on Wall Street even as he gives an interview, but for this Gujarat-born CEO of a billion-dollar computer solutions firm, it has been an uphill climb in more ways than one.

Harshad Khandubhai Desai is president and CEO of QLogic Corporation, Costa Mesa, California, a firm which designs and supplies a wide range of silicon and board-level solutions for peripheral and computer system applications. Desai is being noticed most for the "fibre channel" technology he is selling to a wider range of high end users.

Born in Abrama, a small town 32 km from Surat, Desai came to USA on borrowed money in 1969 and today his personal worth is dose to $50 million. Largely credited with the company’s increased growth and earnings, its innovative technology development, diversification into new markets and acquisitions, Desai’s leadership has driven the company’s market capitalisation from $25 million in August 1995 to approximately $3 billion in August 1999. After graduating in Baroda, he came to the US, joined the University of California, paying his way through a masters in engineering with borrowed and earned money.

He spent the next 10 years dabbling in the motel business. During this period he also worked in several companies including Unisys Corporation (1980-90) in California. When his extended family was settled and his two children were older, he decided to do something for himself, something he really liked.

He joined Emulex, a small company of which QLogic was a part. Harshad ended up becoming vice president of engineering when QLogic spun off into a separate entity in 1994. He left QLogic for a few months in 1995 troubled by internal functioning, but rejoined when the board asked him to come back.

In 1996, the company created the award-winning ISP2100 design, a Fibre Channel controller that incorporates 1Giga bit transceivers into a high-performance single-chip solution.

QLogic Corporation is the leading innovator of Fibre Channel, small computer systems interface (SCSI) and enclosure management products for computer systems. The company provides these to eight of the top ten server manufacturers in the world, including industry-leading companies such as IBM, Sun Microsystems, Inc., Fujitsu Limited and Hitachi Limited. As data transfer size and processor speeds increase, Fibre Channel is expected to become the migration path for many users.

So Desai poured resources into research and development and within four years the success is more than evident. QLogic continues to invest about 18-20 per cent of revenues into R&D, a little higher than most other companies. Desai earned two patents while at Unisys, both relating to subsystems. Today, at QLogic, Desai develops the vision and medium-term strategy for the company, medium-term being the next two years.

The American Electronics Association (AEA) in 1999 gave him the Executive of the Year Award. He is also a member of UCI’s Chief Executive Roundtable.

— IANS