FC Kohli, Bill Gates awarded with TiS Lifetime Achievement Award

Tech giant Microsoft’s founder and philanthropist, Bill Gates and late FC Kohli who was considered the Father of the Indian IT industry, have been rewarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE).

At the valedictory of the TiE’s Global Summit 2020 that was held on Thursday, late Mr Kohli was conferred with Lifetime Achievement Service Award whereas Marriott International’s Bill Marriott received the Lifetime Achievement Family Business Transformation Award.

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“But as Paul Allen and I experienced with Microsoft, innovators can’t make it on their own. They need supporters and partners to make sure that their best ideas make it from the lab to the marketplace,” Bill Gates said in a recorded message to the audience at the virtual conference.

“Your (TiE) work is essential in fostering innovation and creating the better world we all want,” he added.

TiE Global Chair, Mahavir Sharma said that every being’s life on earth has been touched and influenced by Bill Gates’ work as an entrepreneur as well as a philanthropist.

“It is every entrepreneur’s dream to be like him. To create and achieve what he had achieved. He was chosen for his outstanding contribution to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the world,” he said.

“He democratised the entire IT and computer technology ecosystem. He is a living legend and a role model for every entrepreneur,” Sridhar Pinnapureddy, TGS2020 Chair, said.

Mrs FC Kohli received the Lifetime Achievement Service award on behalf of her late husband. Late Mr FC Kohli was the founder and first CEO of Tata Consultancy Services.

Apart from the above-mentioned awards, TiE gave away ten more awards under various categories. Singapore Government was awarded the Best Government Agency Supporting Startup Ecosystem. The other awards that were awarded to various other people and institutions on Thursday evening were the Best Corporate Supporting Entrepreneurship (Google/Alphabet for Startups); the Best University Promoting Entrepreneurship (Stanford University); the Best Accelerator Award (Y Combinator); the Best Performing Global VC Fund (Sequoia Capital); the Most Active Angel Network in the world (Tech Coast Angels); Bootstrapped to Billions Award (Ben Chestnut); Rapid Listing Award (VIR Biotechnology), Lightening Unicorn Award (Indigo Agriculture); and Most Innovative Startup (Data Robot).