Parag Saxena

Parag is the founding partner of Vedanta Capital. Previously, Parag Saxena was the Founder and CEO of INVESCO Private Capital; one of the oldest and largest venture capital firms in the US. During his 23-year tenure there were over 300 investments made, including, Alkermes, Amgen, ARM Holdings, Shopzilla.com, Costco, CompUSA, Intuit, MetroPCS, PictureTel, Polycom, Starbucks, Staples, and VeriSign. These investments have led to the creation or building of companies which have created over 500,000 jobs and enjoy a market value exceeding $500 billion. Parag also built the CDO group at INVESCO from scratch which currently manages over $5 billion. In 1983, Parag joined Citicorp Investment Management, a predecessor firm of INVESCO. He built a $1.5 billion small-cap group with a top-decile record prior to co-founding the private capital group. His career began in 1978 at Becton Dickinson as a product manager. He was later recruited by Booz, Allen and Hamilton to join their Technology Management Services Group focusing on business strategy development. Parag serves on committees advising the Prime Minister of India on venture capital and foreign direct investments. He also serves on a Task Force for Petroleum and Chemicals in the Prime Ministers Office (PMO). Parag is on the board of the pan-Indian Institute of Technology and provides the recommendations on small business and venture capital to representatives of the US Congress. He is also a Director of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay Heritage Fund as well as a Trustee of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Parag serves as Treasurer and board member of the TB Alliance for Global Development and has been the President of TiE Tri-State (NY, CT, NJ) from 2003 to the present. Parag received an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1982. He earned a B.Tech from The Indian Institute of Technology in 1977, and a M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the West Virginia College of Graduate Studies in 1978.