Indian-origin Billionaire at No 9 in India studied under a tree in Himalayan village, no electricity at home
Whoever told you that wealth begets wealth and that only education in A-lister Public Schools abroad will help you taste success in the business and corporate world was mistaken. Meet 62-year-old (B. 26 Aug 1958) Jay Chaudhry and his family who own 45% of the Nasdaq listed cybersecurity firm ZScaler, which is today worth $28 billion.
This Indian-origin billionaire of Bay Area, California was brought up in a small village named Panoh in Una district of Himachal Pradesh where it was easier for him to study under a tree than indoors as there was no running water in taps or electricity till he was in class 8 and 10 respectively. “I used to walk nearly 4 km everyday to attend my high school at Dhusara, the neighbouring village,” he said in an interview to the Tribune many years ago.
Now beat the fact that the boy went on to complete his B.Tech in Electronics Engineering from IIT at the Benaras Hindu University in Varanasi and his first time onboard a plane was when he flew from India to the US when he was admitted to an engineering and management masters program at the University of Cincinnati.
According to the Hurun Global Rich List 2021, Chaudhry saw his estimated net worth grow by 271% last year to $13 billion. According to Forbes, as on 2 March 2021, his real-time net worth stood at $11.5B (reflecting the change since 5 PM ET of the prior trading day). According to The Forbes 400 (The Definitive Ranking Of The Wealthiest Americans In 2020) he ranked #85.
For the second quarter of 2021, Zscaler saw its revenues at $157 million, up 10% sequentially and 55% year-on-year. “There is an accelerated market shift towards work from anywhere, which is the world Zscaler was built for,” he said after the company declared its latest quarterly earnings.
Chaudhry held sales and marketing positions at companies like IBM, Unisysy and IQ Software - almost 25 years of job record - until he decided to start a venture.
In 1996, Chaudhry and his wife, Jyoti, both quit their jobs and put their life savings to start cybersecurity firm SecureIT, his first startup.
Before Zscaler, "serial-entrepreneur" Chaudhry founded four other tech companies that were all acquired: SecureIT, CoreHarbor, CipherTrust and AirDefense.
He founded Zscaler in 2008. It went public in March 2018 and closed its initial public offering in 2018. On its first day of trading the company closed at $33, which was 106% of the listing price of $16.
Jay is proud and protective of his family. He and his wife Jyoti routinely take after-dinner “bonding walks” around his neighbourhood where they live in Saratoga, California with daughter, Simi, 22, and two sons, Yash, 19, and Samir, 15.
“My success so far has mainly been because I have very little attachment for money. My obsession is really to make sure that the internet and cloud are a safe place for everyone to do business," he told Business Standard in 2019. This compassion that helped him scale the heights of success in business, prevails in real life too. He said he returns to Panoh, India, nearly every year to help the community. Last summer, he arranged for a mobile medical lab to give older residents blood tests and other checkups.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Chaudhry said, “My success so far has mainly been because I have very little attachment for money. My obsession is really to make sure that the internet and cloud are a safe place for everyone to do business."According to MercuryNewsdotcom, Jay Chaudhry i a vegetarian and “a health freak” who is “crazy about exercise.” The mountain boy soul that he harbours leads him to go on hikes, he loves walking in the local parks to the famous Yosemite national park — and also likes white-water rafting. Jay loves reading books on history, global politics and psychology.
