Rakesh Gangwal (born 1952 or 1953) is an

Indian-American Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are citizens of the United States with ancestry from India. The United States Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Native Americans, who have also historically been referred to ...

billionaire businessman. He is the co-founder and 37% owner of

IndiGo Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...

airline. He is the former chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman of

US Airways Group US Airways Group Inc. was an airline holding company based in Tempe, Arizona. US Airways Group operated US Airways, along with its subsidiaries PSA Airlines, Inc. and Piedmont Airlines, Inc., which are wholly owned but marketed under the brandi ...

. From June 2003 to August 2007, Gangwal was the chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Worldspan Technologies, a provider of travel technology and information services to the travel and transportation industry. From 2002 to 2003, Gangwal was involved in various personal business endeavors, including private equity projects and consulting projects. He was the president and CEO of US Airways Group from 1998 until his resignation in 2001.

Early life

Gangwal was born in 1953. He attended Don Bosco (Park Circus) before earning a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in 1975, and an MBA degree from the

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania 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 university, private Ivy League rese ...

Career

Prior to joining US Airways, he served as executive vice president for

Air France Air France (; formally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global air ...

, beginning in November 1994. His association with the airline industry began in September 1980, when as an associate of Booz Allen & Hamilton, Inc., he worked closely with United Airlines. In 1984, he joined United Airlines as manager, strategic planning. He held a series of positions at United Airlines. Previously, Gangwal had been a financial analyst in the product development group of Ford Motor Co and a production and planning engineer with Philips India Ltd. Gangwal has served on the board of advisers of the University of Colorado (Denver), the board of trustees of

Providence St. Mel School Providence St. Mel School (PSM) is a private, coeducational Preschool-12th Grade school in East Garfield Park, Chicago, Illinois. History The school was created in 1969 with the merger of two schools, Providence High School and St. Mel High S ...

(Chicago), the Board of Directors of the Airline Tariff Publishing Co. and Board of Trustees of the Alexian Brothers Medical Center (Elk Grove, Illinois, USA). Gangwal was conferred with the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. In April 2022 Gangwal donated a sum of ₹100 crore to set up a school of medical sciences and technology at IIT-Kanpur which also received another ₹200 crore in donations from other alumni for the medical institution, which will have a 450-bed super speciality hospital and several centres of excellence. In 2020, he was ranked No. 359 in the ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'' 400 list of the richest people in America.

Personal life

Gangwal is married, with one daughter, and lives in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. Their daughter Parul worked for the enterprise software company Salesforce in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. She launched her own start-up Wheelhouse Capital in June 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gangwal, Rakesh 1953 births American people of Indian descent Rajasthani people Living people IIT Kanpur alumni American Jains Businesspeople from Kolkata Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni American company founders American chief executives American billionaires