Ashok Soota, Chairman & Chief Mentor, Happiest Minds
Ashok Soota can justifiably be called the grand old man of Indian IT. Not simply because of his longevity, but because of his extraordinary ability to repeatedly spot an opportunity, take a risk and build value — often when conventional wisdom suggested he should do otherwise.The seeds of that temperament were sown early. Soota’s family came from Dera Ismail Khan and Dera Ghazi Khan, in the region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier, while his father was a doctor in the pre-Partition British Army. Frequent transfers meant that Soota studied in 12 schools before he turned 12. The experience shaped his character, teaching him adaptability — an ability to enter unfamiliar environments, make new connections and quickly find his feet.Those qualities would define his professional life.Early CareerFor the first two decades of his working career, Soota was associated with the DCM Shriram Group. At Shriram Refrigeration, he demonstrated his ability as a turnaround specialist, taking a loss-making refrigeration and air-conditioning business and putting it back on its feet.But his biggest gamble came in 1984, when he joined Wipro to head its fledgling IT business. At the time, Wipro was an insignificant player in what was itself a nascent industry. The IT business had revenues of barely ₹7 crore.Over the next 15 years, Soota helped transform it into a technology powerhouse. By the time he left Wipro in 1999, its IT business had grown to roughly half a billion dollars in revenue. It was a remarkable value-creation journey — and one that might have been a natural culmination of a successful corporate career.VisionarySoota, however, was not done.At 57, instead of easing into retirement, he co-founded Mindtree. And when differences subsequently emerged among the founders over the company’s strategic direction, Soota exited. Once again, convention would have suggested that a 68-year-old executive should call it a day.Instead, he became an entrepreneur all over again.In 2011, at the age of 68, Soota founded Happiest Minds. At an age when most people might be looking forward to golf and retirement, he set about building another technology company from scratch. He eventually took Happiest Minds public in 2020, giving him the rare distinction of having taken two technology companies from start-up to IPO.Now, at 83, Soota appears ready to hand over his latest creation to another set of custodians. Happiest Minds is being merged with ITC Infotech, bringing the company into the much larger ITC fold.Other VenturesThere is an intriguing symmetry to the timing. Happiest Minds remains a mid-sized technology company at a time when artificial intelligence is reshaping the IT services industry and scale is becoming increasingly important. Perhaps Soota, the consummate risk-taker, reckoned that this was the right moment to exit — and leave his latest child in the safe hands of a large conglomerate.But even here, Soota has not entirely put away his entrepreneurial hat. He retains a side bet in Happiest Health, the healthcare venture he founded with the ambition of building a broader health and wellness platform. So, while one child is being handed over to a corporate parent, another remains very much a work in progress.From DCM Shriram to Wipro, Mindtree to Happiest Minds, Soota’s career has been a series of unlikely bets that paid off. Four companies, four big bets — and, remarkably, a fifth one still running.Published on August 31, 2026
