Anil Kumar (born 1958) is an Indian-American former senior partner and director at management consulting firm

McKinsey & Company McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and ...

, where he co-founded McKinsey's offices in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

and India and created its Internet practice (representing a quarter of McKinsey's business at the time) among others. Kumar is additionally the co-founder of the

Indian School of Business The Indian School of Business (ISB) is a private business school established in India in 2001. It has two parallel campuses in India, in Hyderabad (Telangana) and Mohali (Punjab). It offers certificates in various post-graduate management prog ...

with

Rajat Gupta Rajat Kumar Gupta (; born ) is an Indian-American businessman and convicted felon who, as CEO, was the first foreign-born managing director of management consultancy firm McKinsey & Company from 1994 to 2003. In 2012, he was convicted for insider ...

and the creator of two different kinds of

outsourcing Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and ...

. He graduated from

IIT Bombay The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay or IITB) is a public research university and technical institute in Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is considered as one of the best engineering universities in India and is top ranked ...

in India,

Imperial College Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

in the UK, and

The Wharton School The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in P ...

in the US. In 2010 he

pleaded guilty In legal terms, a plea is simply an answer to a claim made by someone in a criminal case under common law using the adversarial system. Colloquially, a plea has come to mean the assertion by a defendant at arraignment, or otherwise in response ...

insider trading Insider trading is the trading of a public company's stock or other securities (such as bonds or stock options) based on material, nonpublic information about the company. In various countries, some kinds of trading based on insider information ...

in a dramatic "descent from the pinnacle of the business world."Pulliam, Susan and Michael Rothfeld
"Motive for Stock Leak Can Be Respect, Love"
''The Wall Street Journal.'' 14 March 2011. He was the government's first cooperator and most important witness "in two of the most important securities fraud

trials In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal, w ...

in history"Brodsky, Reed and Richard Tarlowe
"Government's Sentencing Memorandum (section 5K1.1(a) (1)-(5))"
United States Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York. ''United States Department of Justice.'' Access via United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (access required). 20 July 2012. against close friends and business partners

Raj Rajaratnam Rajakumaran Rajaratnam (born June 15, 1957) is a Sri Lankan-American former hedge fund manager and founder of the Galleon Group, a New York-based hedge fund management firm. On October 16, 2009, he was arrested by the FBI for insider trading ...

, the billionaire founder of the

Galleon Group The Galleon Group was one of the largest hedge fund management firms in the world, managing over $7 billion, before closing in October 2009. The firm was the center of a 2009 insider trading scandal which subsequently led to its fall. The firm w ...

family of hedge funds, and

, the former head of

McKinsey and Company McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and ...

and a board member of

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, H ...

and

Procter and Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational Final good, consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter (industrialist), William Procter and James Gamble (industr ...

. Rajaratnam and Gupta were both convicted in separate high-profile criminal trials. He was sentenced in 2012 by

Judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

Denny Chin Denny Chin (陳卓光; born April 13, 1954) is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, based in New York City. He was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court f ...

to two years of probation in exchange for testimony against former friends Rajaratnam and Gupta. Chin stated that "greed wasn't the motive in umar'scase" and that "this was aberrational conduct ... Mr. Kumar has led a law-abiding and productive life."Bray, Chad
"Kumar Avoids Jail for His Help in Insider Crackdown"
''The Wall Street Journal.'' 19 July 2012. Federal prosecutors called Kumar "one of the best and most important cooperating witnesses" they had ever worked with.Hurtado, Patricia

''Bloomberg.'' 16 July 2012. In 2015, an investigation noted that Mr. Kumar had illegally collected funds from insider trading in

offshore accounts An offshore bank is a bank regulated under international banking license (often called offshore license), which usually prohibits the bank from establishing any business activities in the jurisdiction of establishment. Due to less regulation and ...

in the name of his

domestic worker A domestic worker or domestic servant is a person who works within the scope of a residence. The term "domestic service" applies to the equivalent occupational category. In traditional English contexts, such a person was said to be "in service ...

, Manju Das. The investigation alleged that Ms. Das had no knowledge of these accounts, which were created with identity documents falsified by Mr. Kumar; and that Mr. Kumar had paid Ms. Das far below

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Bec ...

for several years in violation of US law.

Early life and education

Kumar graduated first in his class from

The Doon School The Doon School (informally Doon School or Doon) is a selective all-boys boarding school in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India, which was established in 1935. It was envisioned by Satish Ranjan Das, a lawyer from Calcutta, who prevised a school mode ...

, an elite high school in India, and ranked among the top 100 students across India for admission to the competitive

Indian Institute of Technology The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are central government owned public technical institutes located across India. They are under the ownership of the Ministry of Education of the Government of India. They are governed by the Institu ...

colleges. He graduated third in his class from

with a degree in

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, and ...

, writing a thesis on

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

. Kumar attended

at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

on "the equivalent of the Rhodes scholarship" sponsored by Cecil Rhodes's De Beers Company.Morvillo, Gregory and Paul Grand
"Sentencing Memorandum"
''Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason, Anello, and Bohrer, P.C.'' Access via United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (access required). 20 July 2012. He became the first student to complete Imperial's two-year course in applied mechanics in 10 months, and also graduated first in his class. Kumar attended business school at the

Wharton School The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in P ...

at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

with a self-designed major on the management of technology and international business.

Career

Kumar was a "star senior partner,"Sharma, Amol and Joann Lublin
"A Star Partner's Galleon Arrest Shakes Up Ranks at McKinsey"
''The Wall Street Journal.'' 21 October 2009. and "one of McKinsey’s most senior employees ndbrightest stars."Rushe, Dominic
"McKinsey Jettisons Troubled Star Kumar"
''The Sunday Times.'' 6 December 2009. He co-founded McKinsey's offices in Silicon Valley and India and created and led the firm's business in three different areas of Internet companies (representing 25-30% of McKinsey's worldwide revenues at its peak), outsourcing, and intrapreneurship. He was the protégé of former chief executive Rajat Gupta, though he was blamed for the collapse of McKinsey's e-commerce initiatives after the

dot-com collapse The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compos ...

and never ran in the elections for managing partner (chief executive). Gupta and Kumar also co-founded the

Hyderabad, India Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the '' de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern In ...

McKinsey and Company

Kumar began his career at

Hewlett Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

as a product manager before joining

in 1986 as one of the earliest Indian-Americans at the consultancy. In 1988 he co-founded McKinsey's offices in

with a partner, growing the office "from two people to approximately 35" by 1992. In 1993 as a partner he founded McKinsey's office in New Delhi, which along with the Mumbai office co-founded the consultancy in India. In India he pioneered the concepts of Knowledge Process Outsourcing and

Business Process Outsourcing Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and ...

McDonald, Duff
"Galleon Scandal Creates Investing Conundrum for Executives"
. ''CNN.'' 23 October 2009. and became the protégé of then-

managing director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

(chief executive)

.Newmark, Evan
"Mean Street: The Disgrace of Rajat Gupta"
''The Wall Street Journal'' WSJ Blogs. 18 March 2011.Rushe, Dominic
"McKinsey Implicated in Galleon Trial"
''The Guardian.'' 14 March 2011. Kumar returned to the United States to found and lead McKinsey's Internet practice during the

dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...

. "Under umar'sleadership, McKinsey's e-commerce practice grew to represent a full 25-30% of the firm's revenues," court documents revealed, though Kumar was blamed for the evaporation of this business in the subsequent dot-com collapse. He and Gupta briefly created a program to allow the firm to accept stock in lieu of consulting fees.Leonhardt, David
"Big Consultants Woo Employees by Offering a Piece of the Action"
''The New York Times.'' 22 October 1999. Kumar was also Chairman of the Knowledge Center and Chairman of the Asia Center.Bhambal, Juhi
"Knowledge@McKinsey: A Case Study"
. ''Global Services Media.'' 30 November 2005.Talgeri, Kunal
"The McKinsey Way"
. ''Outlook Business.'' 16 May 2009. He was a director and corporate officer of the firm. He lived and worked from multiple offices in New Delhi, New York, and Silicon Valley, traveling over thirty thousand miles a month.Lattman, Peter
"Jury Hears Dozen Taped Calls at Galleon Trial"
''The New York Times.'' 14 March 2011.Packer, George
"A Dirty Business"
''The New Yorker.'' 27 June 2011. He was a member of the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...

and the

Young Presidents' Organization YPO (formerly Young Presidents' Organization) is an American-based worldwide leadership community of chief executives with approximately 29,000 members in more than 130 countries, according to the organization's 2019 YPO international fact sheet. ...

, a founding charter member of TiE, and was the United States chairman of India's largest business lobby, the Confederation of Indian Industry.Masters, Brooke, James Fontanella-Khan and Justin Baer
"McKinsey Partner’s Arrest Casts Shadow"
''The Financial Times.'' 22 October 2009. Criticism of Kumar centered around his close relationship with Gupta and a perception of arrogance. According to ''

The Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikk ...

,'' "the two operated as a forceful double-act to secure business for McKinsey, win access in Washington and build a brotherhood of donors around the Hyderabad-based ISB and a handful of social initiatives." Also according to the ''Times'', "as much as Mr Kumar was admired for his business ability and sharpness, he also drew fire for what was seen as his arrogance."

Galleon investigation

Kumar maintained an intentionally low profile outside McKinsey until an October 2009 arrest in conjunction with an ongoing and wide-ranging US governmental investigation into

.de la Merced, Michael
"Hedge Fund Chief Is Charged With Fraud"
''The New York Times.'' 16 October 2009. Former mentor Rajat Gupta was later arrested by the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

in a related case, prompting inquiries into McKinsey's senior leadership and business model.Gapper, John
"McKinsey Model Springs a Leak"
''The Financial Times.'' 9 March 2011.Salmon, Felix
"McKinsey's Corrupted Culture"
''Reuters.'' 9 March 2011. As of December 2009, Kumar was no longer at the consultancy.Bray, Chad
"Galleon Figure Kumar No Longer with McKinsey"
''The Wall Street Journal.'' 4 December 2009. In January 2010 he pleaded guilty to insider trading chargesKouwe, Zachery
"Guilty Plea in Galleon Insider Trading Case"
''The New York Times.'' 7 January 2010. and was "the government’s star witness" in March 2011 against billionaire friend and

founder

(''United States v. Rajaratnam'').Rothfeld, Michael and Susan Pulliam
"Calling Miss Manners: Tapes in Galleon Case Show Some Snark"
''The Wall Street Journal.'' 17 March 2011.Rothfeld, Michael, Susan Pulliam and Chad Bray
"Fund Titan Found Guilty"
''The Wall Street Journal.'' 12 May 2011. In the sprawling case his involvement was unusual; according to a ''Reuters'' blog, "He’s the only informant who could be considered even more successful than Raj was, at least professionally if not in terms of raw cash. Raj had money, more money than he really knew what to do with, but Kumar had much more societal acceptance and prestige."Salmon, Felix
"How to Set Up An Insider-Trading Network"
''Reuters.'' 12 May 2011. He settled with the SEC in May 2010 for $2.8 million, the amount after gains he received from Rajaratnam through a Swiss bank account in a domestic worker's name.Bray, Chad
"Kumar Settles SEC Charges in Galleon Case"
''The Wall Street Journal.'' 17 May 2010. Gupta, Rajaratnam, and Kumar were all close friends and had founded the $1.3-billion private equity firm

New Silk Route New Silk Route Partners LLC, abb as NSR, is a $1.4-billion private equity firm that invests in private companies in India, Asia, and the Middle East. History New Silk Route was initially named Taj Capital. Its founding team included, at var ...

together, though Rajaratnam and Kumar withdrew before the firm began operation.Scannell, Kara
"Insider Trading Star Witness Challenged"
''The Financial Times.'' 17 March 2011. Kumar was represented by the late Robert Morvillo,SEC v. Galleon
"Notice of Appearance"
Doc 50. 24 November 2009 who had previously led billionaire

Martha Stewart Martha Helen Stewart (, ; born August 3, 1941) is an American retail businesswoman, writer, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing pub ...

’s defense in her own insider trading case.Smith, Chris
"Can This Man Save Martha?"
''The New Yorker.''Lattman, Peter and Benjamin Weiser

''The New York Times.'' 25 December 2011. He testified again as "the Government's key witness" in the May 2012 criminal trial of former mentor Rajat Gupta (''United States v. Gupta''), where he described the relationships between Gupta, Rajaratnam and himself."Gupta Trial: A Who’s Who of Those Who Will Come Up"
''The Wall Street Journal'' (blogs). 22 May 2012. To do so was difficult, according to federal prosecutors, "because

umar ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb ( ar, عمر بن الخطاب, also spelled Omar, ) was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr () as the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate o ...

knew that he could be partially responsible for helping to convict someone with whom he and his family had deep and long-lasting ties."Hurtado, Patricia
"Kumar Seeks Probation, Citing Help To Gupta Prosecutors"
''Bloomberg.'' 19 July 2012. ''Bloomberg'' commented, "When business guru Rajat Gupta and his protégé, Anil Kumar, worked together to expand management consultancy McKinsey & Co in the 1990s, a date in court years later surely was not part of the plan."McCool, Grant
"Protégé testifies against McKinsey mentor Gupta"
''Bloomberg.'' 1 June 2012. Both Rajaratnam and Gupta were ultimately convicted in separate high-profile criminal trials. International media, business, and finance industry observers have analyzed extensively Kumar's actions in aiding Rajaratnam.Jenkins, Holman W
"A Hedge Fund's Neurotic Tipsters"
''The Wall Street Journal'' (editorial). 23 April 2011.Gapper, John
"Anil Kumar’s Cheap Betrayal of McKinsey’s Soul"
''The Financial Times'' (blog). 8 January 2010. Kim, Jim
"Life Of A Hedge Fund Informant: Easy Or Nerve-wracking?"
. ''Fierce Finance'' (blog). 16 March 2011. Consensus remains divided on the precise motivators of money, respect, and relationship, with ''The New York Times'' asking, "Why would people who seem to have it all — wealth, prestige, powerful jobs and infinite access to others with the same — risk that, and more, to provide inside information to the Sri Lankan-born billionaire?".Cohan, William D
"Why Is Enough Never Enough?"
''The New York Times'' (blog). 27 April 2011. Rajaratnam's annual payments were estimated at less than 5% of Kumar's annual income (and just 1-2% excluding a one-time bonus), further raising the question of motivation. Prosecutors wondered "why an incredibly bright, highly accomplished, professional consultant, and senior partner at arguably the world’s leading consulting firm, who contributed considerable time to start the Indian School of Business and to other charities, would betray his profession’s core values.""Anil Kumar, Star Prosecution Witness"
''The Wall Street Journal'' (blog). 19 July 2012. One media source questioned Kumar's sentencing report. Judge Chin would ultimately rule that "greed wasn't the motive in umar'scase." Federal prosecutors said "Kumar's testimony was nothing short of devastating. Kumar was credible, precise, and fully corroborated." In July 2012 he was sentenced by Judge

to two years of probation, ending in July 2014.

Education and non-profits

Kumar co-founded the

with Gupta in 1997, today ranked among the top 15 business schools in the world by ''The Financial Times.''"Anil Kumar Seeks Leave of Absence From ISB Board"
''The Economic Times.'' 20 October 2009."The Global MBA Rankings"
''The Financial Times.'' Retrieved 1 March 2011. Court documents revealed he personally raised approximately 35% of all money donated to the school and kept a low profile as co-founder: "a large part of the intellectual vision of ISB is in fact Anil's, a point not many outside ISB's leadership will ever be aware of." In New Delhi, Kumar helped

IIT Delhi The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi is a public institute of technology located in New Delhi, India. It is one of the 23 IITs created to be Centres of Excellence for training, research and development in science, engineering and technolo ...

double its student body with no increase in costs and was a founding board member of the

Bharti Foundation Bharti Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Bharti Enterprises, an Indian business conglomerate based in New Delhi. It conducts free programs in both primary and higher education for the underprivileged children, with a particular focus on girls. ...

. In San Jose, he served on the boards of the Children's Discovery Museum and San Jose Civic Light Opera. As of 2012, he was working with the

Baylor College of Medicine Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) is a medical school and research center in Houston, Texas, within the Texas Medical Center, the world's largest medical center. BCM is composed of four academic components: the School of Medicine, the Graduate Sc ...

and

Max Healthcare Max Healthcare Institute Limited is an Indian hospital chain based in New Delhi and a part of Max Group. Max Healthcare owns and operates healthcare facilities across Delhi National Capital Region, as well as one hospital each in Mohali, Bath ...

to start a medical university, teaching hospital, and nursing school in India, and also with the

Hero Group The Hero Group is a private, Swiss international consumer food manufacturer and marketing company, which primarily sells infant formula, baby food, jam and nutritional snack foods. In 2015, the Group generated revenues surpassing CHF 1.26 bil ...

to start an 8000-person engineering college in India.

Personal life

Kumar maintained an intentionally low public profile, and according to prosecutors was "earning significant amounts of money at McKinsey

hough Hough may refer to: * Hamstringing, or severing the Achilles tendon of an animal * the leg or Tibia, shin of an animal (in the Scots language), from which the dish potted hough is made * Hough (surname) Communities United Kingdom * Hough, Alderle ...

lived relatively modestly, his assets far exceeded his liabilities." He lived and worked for decades in New Delhi, New York, and Silicon Valley, traveling over thirty thousand miles a month for McKinsey. He had a

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

apartment in the

Time Warner Center Deutsche Bank Center (also One Columbus Circle and formerly Time Warner Center) is a mixed-use building on Columbus Circle in Manhattan, New York City. The building occupies the western side of Columbus Circle and straddles the border between ...

and a house in

Saratoga, California Saratoga is a city in Santa Clara County, California. Located in Silicon Valley, in the southern Bay Area, its population was 31,051 at the 2020 census. Saratoga is an affluent residential community, known for its wineries, restaurants, and attra ...

. He is married and has one son.

References

External links

McKinsey & Company, Inc.

The Indian School of Business
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kumar, Anil 1958 births Living people Alumni of Imperial College London Engineers from California American chief executives American management consultants American financial businesspeople American financiers American investors American people of Indian descent Businesspeople from California Businesspeople from New York (state) Businesspeople from Delhi Indian emigrants to the United States IIT Bombay alumni McKinsey & Company people Private equity and venture capital investors Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni The Doon School alumni American white-collar criminals American businesspeople convicted of crimes People from Saratoga, California Activists from California