Raj B. Vattikuti has won the 2017 TiE Detroit Lifetime Achievement Award. He founded Altimetrik and also chairs Vattikuti Ventures. TiE Detroit President Tel Ganesan made the announcement on November 8, 2017, in Farmington Hills, Michigan.
The award was set to be handed over at the TiECon Detroit 2017 gala dinner. That dinner took place on November 10, 2017, at the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center.
Ganesan described Vattikuti as a revolutionary force in Michigan. The award, he explained, goes to the most distinguished person with extraordinary contributions to the Michigan community. He also said he was honored to announce it for TiE Detroit.
A string of companies
Vattikuti is a philanthropist and a serial entrepreneur. Over the years he has seeded Altimetrik, Covansys, Synova, Vattikuti Ventures, Vattikuti Technologies and Davinta Technologies.
Altimetrik is his current venture. The fast-growing technology company is based in Southfield, Michigan, and has more than 2,500 associates. Its development centers sit in San Francisco, New York City, Bangalore, Chennai and Montevideo, Uruguay. Because it relies on a world-class workforce, the company says, it can bring visible change to client businesses.
First, he earned his electrical engineering degree at the College of Engineering, Guindy, in India. After that, he completed graduate studies in electrical and computer engineering at Wayne State University in Detroit. Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island, later gave him an honorary doctorate in business administration.
This is not his first lifetime honor, either. In 2001 Dykema Gossett gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in the IT industry, at the third annual Michigan IT Summit.
Vattikuti said he felt humbled by the recognition. In his view, TiECon Detroit gathers some of the most innovative entrepreneurs, visionaries and business leaders. So he was thrilled to be part of the TiE community.
About the conference
TiECon Detroit is billed as the largest entrepreneurial conference in Michigan. The 2017 edition ran November 9 and 10 at the same hotel. Its theme was Ignite2Disrupt, The World of Digital Connectivity.
Over two days, members, founders and investors traded ideas, while executives shared growth strategies. The program also included TiE20, a showcase of 20 promising startups. Those startups came from five focus areas. These were health and fitness, mobility, fintech and blockchain, AI with augmented and virtual reality, and sensors.
In addition, TiE itself is a global nonprofit for entrepreneurs. It has 61 chapters in 18 countries, about 2,500 charter members and 13,000 members.
