Harish S Mehta
Board Member, IAN & Founder & Executive Chairman Onward Technologies
Mr. Harish Mehta is Founder & Executive Chairman of Onward Technologies Ltd (OTL),
He has been recently appointed as an Expert Advisor to the Executive Committee of the Board of Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) for its Fund of funds Operations.
He was also the Deputy Chairman and Managing Director of Onward Novell Software (I) Ltd. (1993-2005) and a 50:50 JV between Onward Group and Novell, Inc. (second largest personal software company globally then). He was one of the Chief Architects for the Hinditron – Digital Joint Venture in India in 1987.
NASSCOM, a leading IT organisation of Industry started from his office in 1986. He is the founder member and the first elected Chairman of NASSCOM, and now He is Convenor of Chairman’s Council. He was honoured by the Prime Minister of India – Mr.Narendra Modi, for 25 years of exemplary contribution to NASSCOM.
He is also A director of Indian Angel Network (IAN), the world’s largest and most active angel investors group, Mr. Mehta is also a former Director of Gujarat Venture Funds Limited and a founding member of Infinity Venture Fund – 2002, India’s first corporate VC fund. Mr. Mehta Introduced the Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), a Silicon Valley based Organisation, to Mumbai, and he was the First President of TiE – Mumbai (1999). He also served on the TiE Global Board from 2001-2002. He is convenor of .TIE Mumbai , President Council. He was director at The College of Engineering, Pune. (2010-2015)
He was honoured with a Life Time Achievement Award for HR Excellence by Deccan Herald in 2004. He was awarded ‘CEO of the Year’ in 1994, during an international seminar organized by NMIMS, Tata HRD Network and World HRD Congress. He was also honoured with a Life Time Achievement Award by IMC Chamber of Commerce and Industry on 1st June 2018.
He is also an active volunteer of Onward Foundation, Dewang Mehta Foundation Trust. He is a passionate promoter of Indian language computing.
Mr Mehta started in the industry as an Electrical Engineer from College of Engineering, Pune (COEP) and holds a Masters in Computer Science (EE) from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, NY (USA).