Ashok Rao

About

The TiE Global Board of Trustees reelected Ashok Rao as its Chairman for a second two-year term starting January 1, 2013. Two years ago, Ashok replaced Arjun Malhotra who completed his two-year term as the Chairman during 2009-10. Ashok is the former President of TiE Houston and has served on the Global Board of Trustees since January 2009. A successful serial entrepreneur, Ashok is currently on his fifth technology start up, as Chairman and CEO of Whodini Inc.- an enterprise software firm, developing cutting edge solutions for large enterprises, using state of the art artificial Intelligence, contextual search and sense-making. He was Chairman and co-founder of Opelin Inc, an on line data backup company, from 2004 till 2007, when it was sold to HP. He founded and served as CEO of Prime Wave Communications, a broadband wireless access technology company, from 2000-03. Ashok founded Trex Communications Corp. in December 1997 and grew it to $70 million in two years before selling it to L3 Communication in early 2000. Prior to that, Ashok was the President of the North American operations of Enron Corp. from 1996-97, growing revenues from $300 million to $2 billion during that time. Ashok has worked for several years in the telecommunications world and founded Midcom Communications in 1990. He grew the company into the ninth-largest long-distance telephone carrier with $250 million in annual revenues, and then took it public in 1995. He was one of the first Indian-Americans to take a company public on NASDAQ. After several years in the telecommunications world, Ashok gave fruition to his creative flair. Ashok is also the CEO of Excalibur Pictures and has produced four full-length Hollywood feature films. His first film, “My Bollywood Bride”, was released worldwide in theaters in July 2007, which later had success as a DVD. His second, “The Whisperers” won awards for best picture in the thriller category and best edit in the overall category at the Worldfest International Film Festival in 2008. “Before the Rains”, released in 2009 received a worldwide theatrical release, and won considerable critical acclaim. His fourth film – a Sci-Fi/Horror thriller – “The Lost Tribe”, was very successful commercially and had major runs on the Sci-Fi channel, HBO and Starz. His latest film is a documentary, “A Pocket Full of Soul” (www.pocketfullofsoulmovie.com) on the history and impact of the harmonica on soul and blues music and will be released in 2013. Ashok is on the board of the Jones Business School of Rice University, and was a Trustee at Franklin Pierce University from 2004-08. He has earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Delhi, and an MS from Marquette University. He also has a Diploma in Financial Management from the London School of Economics. Ashok is a powerful public speaker, a witty comedian, a great moderator and an inspirational speaker on a wide gamut of topics. Ashok says, “I try to

Career History

• Chairman of the Board of Directors at Forest Devices (2017 – Present)
• Chairman at Whodini (2010 – )
• Founder / CEO (Trex Communications Corp.) at L-3 Communications (1997 – 2000)
• President - North America operations at Enron (1996 – 1997)

Activity Summary

• 8 total jobs held
• 1 organization(s) founded

Social Links

• LinkedIn