Vinita Gupta (born 1950) is an Indian-born American businesswoman. She is the founder and chairman of Digital Link Corporation (now Quick Eagle Networks). She is credited with being the first woman of Indian origin to take her company public in the United States.

Early life and education

Gupta was born in 1950 in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and spent her early years in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

. In 1973 she earned a bachelor's degree in electronics and communications from the University of Roorkee (now

Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (abbreviated IIT Roorkee) is a technical university located in Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India. It is the oldest engineering institution in India, and was founded as the College of Civil Engineering in Bri ...

). In 1974 she came to the United States and earned an M.S. in electrical engineering from

University of California Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

Career

In her early career, Gupta worked as an engineer for

GTE GTE Corporation, formerly General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (1955–1982), was the largest independent telephone company in the United States during the days of the Bell System. The company operated from 1926, with roots tracing furth ...

Lenkurt and later held engineering management positions at

Bell Northern Research Bell-Northern Research (BNR) was a telecommunications research and development company established In 1971 when Bell Canada and Northern Electric combined their R&D organizations. It was jointly owned by Bell Canada and Northern Telecom. BNR ...

(now part of

Nortel Networks Nortel Networks Corporation (Nortel), formerly Northern Telecom Limited, was a Canadian multinational telecommunications and data networking equipment manufacturer headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in Montreal, Quebec, ...

). In May 1985 Gupta founded Digital Link Corporation, a company which engaged in the design, manufacture, marketing, and support of digital

wide area network A wide area network (WAN) is a telecommunications network that extends over a large geographic area. Wide area networks are often established with leased telecommunication circuits. Businesses, as well as schools and government entities, us ...

access products for global networks. The company went public in 1994 and was later renamed as Quick Eagle Networks. Gupta still serves as chairman, chief executive officer and president. Gupta also serves as chairman of

Palo Alto Medical Foundation The Palo Alto Medical Foundation for Health Care, Research, and Education (PAMF) is a not-for-profit health care organization with medical offices in more than 15 cities in the Bay Area. It has more than 900 physicians and had over 2 million patie ...

Research Institute. She also serves on the board of

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 ...

(ISB), Hyderabad and

Cancer Prevention Institute of California The Cancer Prevention Institute of California, located in Fremont, California, was a center for cancer research, examining the incidence of cancer among general and specific groups of people at the local, state, and national level. CPIC studies h ...

. Gupta holds two US Patents, one for a

solid state relay Solid state contactor PCB mount solid-state DIL relay A solid state relay (SSR) is an electronic switching device that switches on or off when an external voltage (AC or DC) is applied across its control terminals. They serve the same function ...

issued in 1984 and another for a square root circuit issued in 1986.

Honors

For two consecutive years, ''Working Woman Magazine'' has named Digital Link one of the top 500 women-owned businesses in the United States. She was 1999 honoree at Asian Pacific Fund.

Personal life

Gupta was married to Narendra K. Gupta, vice chairman and interim president and

CEO 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 ...

Wind River Systems Wind River Systems, also known as Wind River (trademarked as Wndrvr), is an Alameda, California–based company, subsidiary of Aptiv PLC. The company develops embedded system and cloud software consisting of real-time operating systems software, ...

, and co-founder of

Integrated Systems Inc. Integrated Systems Inc. (ISI) was an embedded software company founded by Naren Gupta in 1980/1981. Summit Partners invested in 1987, the company listed in 1990, and it was acquired by Wind River Systems in 2000. Naren Gupta served as Preside ...

until his death on 25 December 2021. Gupta has two daughters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gupta, Vinita American business executives 1969 births Living people IIT Roorkee alumni UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni Nortel employees