VIRGINIA BUSINESS

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Nicolee Stevens smiles for the camera

BEAVERS AND
INDIANS
   Who said working at a business magazine can be dull? Well, actually, it was probably me. While the finished product is always interesting, getting it to press often involves lots of grunt work.

I relish the more creative days. Like a couple of weeks ago when we had a brainstorming session about beavers and Indians. Curious images for a business magazine, but both were the subject of art for this issue and the next.
Kudos to our publisher and editor-in-chief, Jim Bacon, who suggested illustrating productivity advances with a beaver and a chainsaw. You won't find that illustration in this month's issue, but check out the cover of the productivity special section in May. In the meantime, take a peek at the cartoon of Reggie Aggarwal and Sanju Bansal in our story about the Indian CEO High Tech Council. Mike Goodman used their images from the council's web site and incorporated them into his illustration.

But enough fun for one issue. Time to get back to what our readers really like: facts and figures. Our annual Fantastic 50 report ranks the fastest-growing small companies in the Old Dominion. It also corroborates a trend we've been tracking for several years: Northern Virginia's high-tech companies are leading the state economy. Of the 50 fantastic companies, 28 are in Northern Virginia, and 25 of these are in the technology sector.

At least five of the companies listed in this year's Fantastic 50 are owned or run by entrepreneurs from India -- Indus, Signal, MicroStrategy, Solutions by Design and NCI Information Systems. This comes as no surprise to Aggarwal, who co-founded the Indian CEO High Tech Council with MicroStrategy's Bansal in 1997 to provide social and business opportunities for the Indian community. To date, 145 CEOs and senior executives of Indian descent have joined the council. Many represent major high-tech companies in Virginia: Rahul Prakash is president of Telecom Ventures; Roger Mody is CEO of Signal; Paul Singh is CEO of Primus Telecommunications; and Sudhakar Shenoy is CEO and chairman of Information Management Consultants.

Aggarwal estimates that members' companies employ more than 15,000 people in the greater Washington region and generate close to $5 billion in annual revenues. The council is creating such a buzz that non-Indians are clamoring to become involved. At a recent event, guests included John Steffens, who's No. 3 worldwide at Merrill Lynch; Russell Ramsey, president of Arlington-based Friedman, Billings, Ramsey; plus the managing and general partners of the region's largest venture capital firms.

"I'm super excited about how large the group has become," says Aggarwal. "Now people are actually coming to us. We're increasing the bar for the type of people who are coming, and sponsors are soliciting us. All the hard work has paid off for us on a personal level and on a community level."

Aggarwal estimates he volunteered 700 to 800 hours last year developing the council. "That's what it takes to build an association like this," he says. "People who are running for office are going to realize that this is a powerful group."

Between the council and his law practice, Aggarwal is one busy beaver.

Nicolee Stevens
Associate Editor


© April 1999, Media General Business Publications Inc.,
publisher of Virginia Business Magazine