Mukund Padmanabhan

Channeling his success into philanthropy

Wednesday, 15 Jan, 2025
Man with a Midas touch and a heart of gold (Photo courtesy: GKF)

With degrees from IIT Kharagpur and UCLA, Mukund Padmanabhan earned professional eminence. Then, his researcher’s brain earned him success at a hedge fund, which he channels into the Guru Krupa Foundation. 

Education brought Mukund Padmanabhan from a middle-class family in Chennai to America and to a position where he could afford to donate large sums of money to worthy causes. He believes education can open the doors of opportunity for the poor and underprivileged, and that is where most of his giving is directed. 

Sharing his life story with The South Asian Times, Mukund says, “Education has been important in my family; my father, uncles, and paternal grandfather were all engineers. Consequently, I inherited a value system prioritizing education, hard work, and ethics. I studied hard and got into IIT Kharagpur, earning a Bachelor’s in Electronics and Electrical  Communication.” Then, he came to the US for higher studies.

Mukund’s is a well-traversed path by many enterprising youths in India. However, not everyone obtains a PhD in Electrical Engineering from UCLA (University of California Los Angeles) as he did.

After UCLA, he worked at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Lab in Yorktown, New York, managing the Advanced Telephony Speech Algorithms group. He points out IBM Research is a pseudo-academic institution doing blue-sky research that increases scientific understanding and its application to the real world. Reminisces Mukund, “I fit in perfectly and made career progress at IBM. However, after a decade there, work started to become routine. It was then that I got an opportunity to try something new.”


Mukund Padmanabhan was presented the Distinguished Alumnus Award by the Director of IIT Kharagpur at a felicitation at the Indian Consulate in New York in July 2022. (Photo courtesy: GKF)

And a whoa opportunity it turned out to be! In Mukund’s telling, “I’ve always been a bit of a risk-taker, and the professional environment, people, and work at Renaissance Technologies, a New York hedge fund, seemed very interesting, so I made the transition. I’m still working there after over two decades as a partner and researcher.”

That pivot to Wall Street started making him enough money to float and fund the Guru Krupa Foundation, which may not have been possible if he had remained in engineering. 

However, not many people who amass wealth start charitable foundations. So, what was Mukund’s motivation? He replies, “I have done reasonably well in life and am grateful for my circumstances. So, I feel I can afford to give something back to the society where I’ve thrived.”

He also credits his heritage: “My value system is derived from Hinduism, which my family handed me down. It emphasizes the importance of education, hard work, ethics, charity, empathy, and spirituality. One interpretation of these values is that an individual is merely an insignificant member of a society, and his/her moral values should guide them towards making that society better, once their basic needs are met.”

Professional achievements
Running GKF since 2008 may outshine his professional achievements, which, too, are formidable. Mukund has published over 80 technical papers in international journals, presented at conferences, and been granted over 20 US patents.

He received the Professional Achievement Award from the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from IIT Kharagpur, his alma mater in the US and India, respectively. He is also a recipient of the IEEE’s (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Signal Processing Society Senior Award.

Mukund has been a trustee of the Hindu Temple Society of North America (Ganesh Temple in Flushing) and the Long Island Children’s Museum. He currently serves on the Dean’s Executive Board at UCLA Engineering.


Mukund Padmanabhan visits the GKF-funded projects in India and the US to review progress and give advice and helpful suggestions to beneficiary organizations. This picture is from his visit in 2023 to Sevalaya, near Chennai, which provides free education to underprivileged children. (Photo courtesy: GKF)

Praise by grantees and associates
Giving money to a charity is fine, but ensuring the donation is properly utilized is also important. Mukund has evolved systems to do due diligence on the grants that GKF makes. His grantees say that Mukund personally visits the far-flung projects in India and the US. GKF trustee Deepak Nayak said, “The most important thing about Mukund is not the amount of money he gives but the time he devotes to GKF.”

S. Madhavan, the former CEO of India-based Cognizant Foundation, tells The SA Times, “Mukund is very methodical and meticulous, whether he evaluates proposals at the application stage or reviews the progress of projects in the field. I have accompanied him on some project review visits in India. He offers beneficiary organizations thoughtful advice and helpful suggestions, identifying him and GKF as partners (not just donors) in their mission to serve society.”

Robert Lemle, co-founder of Long Island Children’s Museum, agrees. “Mukund has been a true partner to us. He met our staff and trustees, asking thoughtful questions and learning about our decision process that brings our values to life. When he joined our Board, he brought insight and wisdom that strengthened our work.”

Sesshadri Srinivasan, Managing Trustee of Sri Poorna Mahameru Trust in Chennai, admires GKF’s transparent functioning. “They do their due diligence while respecting our autonomy, which speaks to their trust in us and their strong values.”

Mohan Wanchoo, an entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist whose New York fundraisers for Ekal Vidyalaya and Sankara Eye Foundation have been supported by Mukund, calls him an exemplary role model. “His altruism, channeled through the GKF, is helping to make our world a better place, one good deed at a time,” he says, complimenting his personality: “Despite doing and accomplishing so much, he is humble and soft-spoken with a mild demeanor.”

Dr. Jayshree Vencatesan, Managing Trustee of Care Earth Trust in Chennai, shares similar sentiments: “Sri Padmanabhan is a quintessential Chennaite – top academic credentials and a highly successful career dotted with achievements of global impact, yet he remains a simple, unassuming, and grounded individual who is determined to do good to others.”

Mukund Padmanabhan is a man with a Midas touch and a heart of gold.