“The ‘in’ place”

“I was young and working in Silicon Valley when my boss telephoned and said, ‘Debu, you’re going to Germany.’ At the time, Germany for me was a country where it was always cold and the people smiled very little – and to be honest, I really didn’t want to exchange California for that. I pulled myself together, however, and told myself it would only be for a year or two. I was supposed to expand the German branch of one of India’s largest IT companies, Infosys, in the city of Frankfurt. That was in 1999 – and I’m still here. For ten years I supervised operations at Infosys, and now I’m engaged in projects of my own. I advise German and Indian companies that want to become active in the respective other country, and I invest in German start-ups. Germany is exciting and absolutely the ‘in’ place to do business. Privately, too, I have certainly arrived, so to speak. I live with my family in Kriftel, a small community on the outskirts of Frankfurt. Kriftel is known for its orchards, and our house is actually in the middle of a strawberry field. On weekends my son and I often go to the home games of Eintracht Frankfurt, the local soccer team. I’m a member of the Rotary Club and I organize a number of social projects. I also teach mathematics at Goethe University – as a hobby.”