India Round-up (Smart Labels Asia 2004)

 

Bimal Sareen (42) is the Founding President of the RFID ASSOCIATION of INDIA (RFIDAI) (www.rfidai.org), a not-for-profit organization formed with some leading figures of the software and venture capital industry of India. The RFIDAI believes in the responsible adoption of RFID across India, and globally.

 

Bimal is also the Founder and CEO of AVAANA™ (www.avaana.com). He leads this technology Innovation and Integration Services Company with a presence in Asia (India and S. Korea), and the United States. AVAANA is focused on the high growth RFID technology market. He is also an accomplished international business & technology consultant and has advised leading companies on their Business Process Outsourcing and Asia and India business strategies.

 

He completed a term as Managing Director & CEO and as a member of the Board of Media Lab Asia, a former Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) venture in India. He was privileged to work with international leaders who were members of the Board including Nicholas Negroponte (Chairman, MIT Media Labs, USA), Jose Maria Figueres (former President of Costa Rica & MD World Economic Forum, Geneva), the Honorable Minister of IT & Telecommunications, GOI, Narayana Murthy (Chairman, Infosys) and others. He was also an active member of the United Nations Information & Communications Technologies Task Force setup by Kofi Annan.

 

Bimal has spoken at many international business and policy forums. He has spoken on RFID at the IDTechEx business conference in Boston. He spoke at the annual World Bank Forum in Germany on Technologies for the Developing World (where he presented a paper as co-author), and at the United Nations in New York on (WiFi) Wireless Technologies. He was invited to, and has recently contributed a chapter to an upcoming book on RFID coming out of MIT. He has written on RFID Privacy, RFID in India and Asia.

 

Previously with Compaq Computer Corporation, USA, he was Director of Business Development, Corporate Venture Capital and Mergers & Acquisitions for Asia-Pacific & Greater China. He has conducted multiple minority venture investments in technology companies. He has also led a multi-hundred million-dollar acquisition of a large services company. He was responsible for a large P&L for the Media Business, and Worldwide Business Development at Digital Equipment Corporation USA.

 

Bimal has been the President of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (NIC) in New Delhi (2001-2002). He is presently a member of the Core IT Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce (India) and a member of the Managing Committee of the PHD Chamber of Commerce (India). Prior to moving to Asia in 1997, he was an active member of the Massachusetts Telecommunications Council, USA (MTC) and a Member of the Board of the Massachusetts Interactive Media Council, USA (MIMC). He is a Charter member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs).

 

With interests that include international business and policy, his skills include International Business, General Management, Marketing & Sales, Venture Capital & Mergers & Acquisitions, Technology Research, Development and Services. In addition to India, he has worked in the US where he spent approximately 19 years, with many additional years across China, S. Korea, Japan, other parts of Asia-Pacific and Israel.

 

He earned three degrees in the United States, an MBA (International Finance & Business), a Masters of Computer Engineering, and a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering. He is an invited member of the academic honor societies of Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu and Beta Gamma Sigma.

 

He was granted a US Patent (# 5,265,229) in the field of High Speed Computer design, and is listed as a co-inventor in 3 patents filed in March 2003 in the field of Passive Wireless Power.