Parag Saxena (BTech ChE 77)

Parag graduated in 1977 with a BTech in Chemical Engineering, following which he did an MS at the Univ. of West Virginia, a stint in Becton-Dickinson, an MBA from The Wharton School, and a brief stint at Booz, Allen. He began his career in fund management at Citicorp Investment Management in 1982. Following a leveraged buyout of the firm which was renamed Chancellor Capital, Parag ran the $1.5 billion small-cap fund for 13 years building one of the best small-cap track records. He then headed Chancellor's venture capital effort where his fund's size is $2.3 billion. Chancellor has been a venture capital investor in companies such as Ascend Communications, CompUSA, HealthSouth, Parexel, Starbucks, etc.  Chancellor Capital Management was acquired by INVESCO in 1998 and Parag now heads a subsidiary called INVESCO Private Capital.

Q: What are the most vivid memories you have of your days at IIT Bombay ?

Q: What do you value most from your IIT experience ?

Q : Both of us are like many other IITians who are working in non-technical fields such as Investment Banking or Consulting ... what value is our engineering education now ?

A: I think the engineering education we had had two benefits. The first is that we never grew frightened of mathematical concepts. The second is the ability to be comfortable with any problem -- and always be able to break it down into its component parts. I believe that I learned a great deal from my education that conceptually I still use. In fact, as a venture capitalist, everything I have ever learned comes in useful.

A: By working in various organizational positions, elected or appointed, I learned how to deal with people ... that too is an invaluable experience.

Q: Where did you earn your first paycheck and how did you celebrate ?

A: My first paycheck was at a summer job -- Dr. Beck and Company, Pune -- at the princely salary of Rs. 150 per month. I celebrated by buying a book for an upcoming family vacation.

A: Initially the major stock market corrections looked like serious setbacks, but eventually they have all been overcome. My biggest mistakes have been to be conservative and not grow as fast as we could have.

A: Professionally, it enables me to contemplate projects on a scale larger than ever before. Personally, it enables me to contemplate just about any activity.

A: I am in very close touch with a couple of dozen classmates and hostelmates. There are a number of IITians that I see more than four times a month. However, we do not network and use our combined strength as well as we could.

A: Anything that they do to remind IIT alumni of the value of their IIT experience would be worthwhile. Anything that that the administration can do to strengthen the alumni network would be a benefit ... from the point of view of curriculum, an increased emphasis on humanities courses.

A: There is no question that every IITian owes a lot to their alma mater. We can never thank our schools and colleges or our parents enough. As I said before, IIT should reach out to the alumni and make it easy for them to stay in touch.

A: My parents, have both had a major influence on my life. My father inculcated in me curiosity, which I think is a great quality. My mother taught me to be skeptical which I believe, is another valuable quality. The writings of P.G. Wodehouse developed a love of language and a sense of humor (of course, I have never met P.G.W.).

A: I love to spend time with my family -- going home is a delight - specially since I travel so much. I love reading, anything outdoors, travel and food.