Jaithirth Rao Founder of MphasiS

He built a corporate career.

Then he built a company.

Now he's sold it and moved on. This is his story in short.

Jaitirth Rao, or Jerry as he is better known, does not mix emotions with entrepreneurship and it is his philosophy in life.

Early Days

Jaithirth was born in Bangalore, Karnataka, has done his BSc Chemistry. His dad was working with the Government and so he was keen that Jerry should go into the IAS. As Jerry was just 19 years old, he was not allowed to sit for the IAS.

Two years later, Jerry joined First National Citibank (later known as Citibank) through campus placement. He went to Beirut for training and even sent the forms for the IAS but eventually decided to stay on in a corporate career as Citibank was a good company. It was a heady place in those days, it had great ambitions.

Citibank was then the second largest bank in the world and it was internationalizing its management staff. From a purely 'American' bank it was becoming more multi-cultural. So it was a good time to be there.

He came back from Beirut, worked for 2-3 years in India, and then went to the Middle East. Then he wanted to quit corporate life altogether and decided to go into academics.

In 1979 Jerry enrolled in the University of Chicago to do a PhD. Two years later he realized he wasn't cut out for that kind of life and abandoned the PhD halfway.

He rejoined Citibank, but this time in New York, and then South America. In 1984, a good friend Rana Talwar persuaded Jerry to come back to India and set up Citibank's retail and consumer business. Jerry says "It was within the umbrella of a large corporation but it was very entrepreneurial. Very unusual. We were writing on a blank canvas so it was quite an interesting time. There was no consumerism, no retail at the time. We introduced ATMs in India, for example. Even though the technology was 20 years old, it was revolutionary for India back then."

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