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News and Politics
Here is an inspiring story of the World’s youngest CEO
Suhas Gopinath
When 14-year-old Suhas Gopinath started Globals Inc ten years ago from a cyber cafe in Bengaluru, he didnt know that he had become the youngest CEO in the world.
Today, Globals is a multi-million dollar company with offices in the United States, India, Canada, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, Australia, Singapore and the Middle East and has 100 employees in India and 56 abroad.
Among the several honors that have been bestowed upon this young man, the most prestigious is the invitation to be a member of the Board of the ICT Advisory Council of the World Bank..
In 2007, the European Parliament and International Association for Human Values conferred Young Achiever Award on him. He was also invited to address the European Parliament and other business dignitaries assembled in the EU Parliament. He is also recognised as one of the Young Global Leaders for 2008-2009 by the prestigious World Economic Forum.
Suhas is the youngest member ever in the World Economic Forums history. The other members include the Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, Hollywood star Leonardo Di Caprio, musician A R Rahman, Prince of Brunei, etc.
In this interview from his office in Bengaluru, Suhas Gopinath talks about his decade long journey and his dreams for the future.
Suhas Gopinath with former President APJ Abdul Kalam
·On his childhood:
I come from a middle class family. My father worked as a scientist for the Indian Army. I used to study in the Air Force school in Bengaluru.
As a child, I was more interested in animals and veterinary science. But when I saw my friends who had home computers talk about it, I had this urge to learn and talk in their wave length.
But we didnt have a computer at home. In those days, computers were very expensive and we couldnt afford one.
So, what I did was, I located an Internet cafe near my house. With my modest monthly pocket money of Rs 15, I couldnt afford to surf the net every day.
I noticed that the shop was closed in the afternoon from 1 PM to 4 PM. So, I offered to open the shop for him after my school hours and take care of the customers.
In the bargain, he let me browse the net for free. That was the first business deal of my life and it turned out to be a successful one.
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