Sachin Dev Duggal becomes CEO at 28

Sachin is currently the CEO & Co-Founder of Nivio; a World Economic Technology Pioneer that has a simple mission to rent software and content to people with and without a Windows PC. 

He is also an Advisor to Queen Rania’s Jordan Education Initiative, on the board of India’s largest Music Retail store (PlanetM) and actively involved in the Associate Chamber of Commerce in India in his capacity as a Youth President for Computing and Electronics Chapter.

Sachin started his public foray very early in life, at the age of 12 he went on stage in front of 1200 people and the world media to demand something be done about the state of the environment. He further went on to work as a Youth Minister and wrote the Declaration of Youth Rights and handed this to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Sachin’s career began at the age of 15, when he formed SMX Corporation along with a friend. They began operations (fixing computers) from his house. From there the company went through various iterations; from building PCs to virtual hosting onto software development. By 18, Sachin had taken the company solo and started work on SMX’s first portal for an agriculture client. By 19 Sachin and SMX had got their first big customer and since then the software business has evolved and transformed into a global provider of management systems.

In the midst of setting up this multi-million dollar business he obtained an Information Systems Engineering degree from the prestigious Imperial College, joined Deutsche Bank as their youngest employee at the age of 17 & built systems that generate tens of millions of dollars for the bank. Sachin is continuously striving to change the world. At Deutsche bank he was branded a serial innovator and shared the table with the top most management on the board of innovation. To that, Sachin is still approached time and again for ideas and suggestions from his previous bosses.

In August 2004, Sachin co-founded SMX iNet Global Services SA (now Nivio) with his best friend Saurabh Dhoot, with a view to explore Internet technologies. He got seed funding from two of his bosses! Originally named myremoteworkstation, he believed that the world of computing would change, become simple & hassle free. He dreamed of a desktop that was anywhere and nowhere; that was stress-free and fault-proof. Hence Nivio!

Fast forward to 4 years later, Nivio SA was selected as a technology pioneer at the World Economic Forum in January, 2009. Sachin made history in being the youngest attendees at the WEF in Davos. Furthering his accomplishments, he is of the youngest in WEF Davos history to win the Technology Pioneers of 2009 award. He now joins the elite likes of Google and Infosys.

Sachin’s other accolades include the PriceWaterhouseCoopers Leader of Tomorrow, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist, the BBC Young Asian achiever of the Year and UNEP Global 500 Youth Award.

Sachin is also driven by the desire to educate the 3 rd world and particularly the children below the poverty line. He hopes to do this with his NGO-in-the-making (MakeEducationPriority). He is equally determined to share his experiences with students the world over and has been invited to speak at premier educational institutes like Carnegie Mellon, Indian Institute of Management Lucknow, Imperial College and the London School of Economics.