Hemant Kanakia

Kanakia has over 20 years of experience in the communications industry as an entrepreneur, executive, and most recently as an investor in early stage startups in India. Previously, Kanakia was a General Partner with Columbia Capital, a well-known U.S.-based venture capital firm. Kanakia has been on the Board of Directors of Enpirion, Teranetics, WiNetworks, and Tilera. He was previously founder and CEO of Torrent Networking Technology (acquired by Ericsson) and co-founder of Photuris (acquired by Meriton) and Gemplex, Inc. (acquired by Tata Telesystems). Prior to joining Columbia Capital, Hemant served on the Board of Directors of Photuris, Viagate, Price Hawk, Gemplex, and Torrent Networking Technology. Prior to founding Torrent, Hemant worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories and Tata Consultancy Services, India. Hemant received his B.Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, his M.S. degree from Case Western Reserve University, and his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Kanakia is a member of the board of Trustees at Case Western Reserve University. He also has been a trustee at Virginia Polytechnic, and on several other non-profit boards in past.