Borrowed from SAMPADA old editions – for the 10th Anniversary Special Issue – Interviews section. This one is of Anand Athreya, 1985 EEE.

Team Sampada: Could you share a brief intro about yourself for our readers

Anand Sir: Graduated from UVCE in Electrical Engg (Early 85) and went to do MTech in CSE at Osmania University in Hyderabad. Joined ERNET in 1987 at IISc, Bangalore as a Scientific Office under Late Prof. T.Viswanathan. Joined Excelan in 1988 in San Jose, CA which was later acquired by Novell. Built a lot of great products and left Novell to start a company in 1998 after 9+ years at Novell. Our company was acquired by Tiara Networks (now Tasman Networks) which was later acquired by Nortel. Tiara specialized in building access and aggregation routers. Joined as Director of SW Engineering and later was promoted to AVP, Product management and Strategy. Finished MBA at National University with honors in 1999. Joined Procket Networks in 2002 and became Director of SW Engineering. Procket specialized in building Terabit routers. Procket was later acquired by Cisco in 2004. Attended the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 2012. Joined Juniper Networks as Director of SW Engineering in 2004. Worked on several product lines creating multi-billion dollar businesses and was promoted as Chief Development Officer in 2016 and later promoted as EVP in 2017. Played a pivotal role in helping build Juniper’s India Excellence Centre in Bangalore from its initial days to a world class centre.

Team Sampada: When you visited college after a long time, what are the things that crossed your mind?

Anand Sir: Growing up in Bangalore, I had a lot of reverence for UVCE as my father also graduated from UVCE in 1945. He used to talk a lot of UVCE and had kept track of all of his classmates. When I was being admitted at UVCE, I made my father come to the UVCE with me (even though he was unwell!). It was the sign of passing on from generation to another. It was nostalgic. I had the same exact feeling when I visited the college recently after almost 34 years! This college laid the foundation for me to become a good Engineer and a good career in Engineering. Fond memories of my classmates and the bonding that started then and still continues … crossed my mind. A lot of them have gone on to accomplish greater things.

Team Sampada: It would be great if you can share your memories of the faculty present during your college time and how their teaching impacted you in your career.

Anand Sir: Teachers have always have had a profound impact on my life. We reminisce those days. We were always respectful and afraid of  G Parameshwarappa (GP) who was the HOD and pushed us hard. His temp rose and subsided quickly and would eventually show empathy. A Veerabhadrappa (AV) taught us Electronic Devices and Circuits. He was always friend and dressed spic-n-span in a sparkling white shirt and a tie. N Somashekar taught us Electrical Engineering and was very dedicated and soft-spoken. G.A.Nayak taught Pulse and Digital Circuits and his notes was famous while his teaching was solid. Many teachers and their teaching helped us to understand the basics and in problem-solving. Unanimously, they were all modest.

Team Sampada: From your unique experience can you please share words of wisdom for the current engineers.

Anand Sir: Work hard and smart as well as stay focused. Journey is as important as the destination. Have empathy. Help folks in need and don’t expect anything in return. Be modest. Remember all great people have been modest. Learn to differentiate between “want” and “need”. NEVER STOP LEARNING. ALWAYS IMPROVISE. As Bill Walsh said ” Play the game, the score will take care of itself”. Find a purpose, have clarity of that purpose and pursue that purpose with a passion Keep simple things simple and simplify complex things.

– Anand Athreya, Sampada-118

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