Vivek Paul has quit Texas Pacific Group or TPG, one of the world's largest private equity firms with $50 billion under management. Paul reportedly quit the firm, where he was a partner, in late December.
Now Paul's name is doing the rounds as next CEO of the embattled software services company Satyam Computer Services. The market rumour is also that Paul would be interested in buying a stake in Satyam from institutions. None of this could be independently verified nor Paul could be contacted for his comments.
Paul, 50, has an impeccable record as a business manager. He joined Wipro in 1999, and is credited to have led the company from $150 million in revenues to a billion dollar giant in about six years. He left Wipro as vice chairman in 2005 to join private equity firm TPG.
Paul, a BITS Pilani graduate and an MBA from University of Massachusetts, has also run GE's Global Computerized Tomography business, reporting directly to the current Chairman of GE, according to a Wikipedia entry of his bio. Paul also served as the CEO of GE's medical equipment joint venture in India. He has also spent time at consulting firm Bain & Co. and at PepsiCo
However, it remains to be seen if Paul would be interested in taking up the CEO's job in what was supposedly called India's fourth largest software exporter. Paul has been there and done that as a head of a company. His shift to a private equity firm signified that.
In a 2005 exit interview to The Financial Express, Paul has said that his innings as an employee is over. "My innings as an employee is over. It’s a completely different area. It’s like going from an actor to a producer. It’s an area where certain skills you acquired as an actor will be useful. But it’s a new twist in the road of life for me."