Naveen Jain’s success story is a work in progress halfway around the world, starting from his childhood in India and culminating with him creating Intelius and InfoSpace in the United States. Uttar Pradesh Naveen Jain grew up in this huge Indian state amidst rampant poverty. With a civil engineer for a father, Naveen Jain managed to get a degree in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in 1979. In 1982, Naveen Jain finished his MBA at the XLRI Jamshedpur School of Management. That same year, he flew to the United States on the strength of a business exchange grant. At first, Naveen Jain tried to strike his fortune in New Jersey. However, his calling proved to be in Silicon Valley as in 1989, Bill Gates’ Microsoft hired Naveen Jain. He steadily climbed up the corporate ladder to reach the position of senior executive, until his resignation in 1996. In his own words, he “got tired of making billions for Bill.” He owns the patent rights for Windows 95 and Windows NT. Eventually, Naveen Jain decided to employ himself by supplying AOL and Lycos, among others, with horoscopes, stock quotes, and other content. That business, called InfoSpace, went public in 1998 and grew more exponentially than it should have. For this, Forbes recognized Naveen Jain among America’s richest in 2000. Finally, Naveen Jain was ready to move on. In 2002, he relinquished InfoSpace and put up the award-winning info-commerce company called Intelius. Located just across the street from InfoSpace’s headquarters, Intellius sold background information about people. Today, Naveen Jain lives with wife Anu and their three children in Bellevue, Washington. It is a long way from India here, but Naveen remembers his roots well, donating to CRY India and the Indian American Education Foundation whenever he can. In the same way, he has contributed prodigiously to American institutions such as the University of Washington, Rotary Club, and United Way. Sources: http://www.chatbus.com/naveen_jain_news.html http://ecommerce.hostip.info/pages/641/Jain-Naveen.html http://www.naveenjain.us/naveen_jain_news.html