Jay Vijayan

Jay Vijayan (born, Jayaprakash Vijayan) is an Indian-American entrepreneur, engineer, investor and business executive. He is the Founder and CEO of Tekion Corp, a California-based SaaS unicorn company that caters to the automotive retail industry.[3][4] He is the former Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Tesla Inc., and reported directly to Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla. Prior to joining Tesla, Vijayan has also worked with VMware and Oracle.

Jay Vijayan
Born
Chennai, India
Other namesJayaprakash Vijayan
CitizenshipUnited States
EducationUniversity of Madras (B.Sc., M.Sc.)
Alma materUniversity of Madras
Years active2007 – present
TitleFounder & CEO of Tekion Corp
Former CIO of Tesla
Board member ofHyreCar[1], NIC Inc.[2]

Early life and education

Jay was born in a Tamil family in Chennai, India to K. Vijayan and V. Umadevi. His father is a local politician and leader of the Indian National Congress party in Tamil Nadu.[5]

He later earned his Bachelor of Science and Master in Science in Geology subject from the University of Madras in Chennai, India.[6]

Career

Oracle

Prior to joining VMware, Jay lead product development teams responsible for developing and managing ERP products at Oracle.[7]

VMware

From 2007 to 2012, Vijayan worked at VMware, an American software company, as the director of Applications Development and later senior director of Business Applications, Information Technology. During his time at VMware, Vijayan lead the technical implementation of VMware’s ERP and CRM systems among others.[7]

Tesla

Jay joined Tesla, Inc. (then name Tesla Motors) in 2012 as a Chief Information Officer. During his time as CIO, he was responsible for Tesla's Information Systems including applications, infrastructure, network and operations security, delivering systems solutions and supporting engineering. During his time in Tesla, Jay and his team built several best-in-class systems including Tesla's eCommerce, ERP, Service and Logistics systems.[8][9]

Tekion Corp

During his term at Tesla, Vijayan observed that the automotive ecosystem was practically fragmented. He later decided to found a company that could help solve this problem. In early 2016, Vijayan left Tesla to found Tekion Corp, a SaaS company currently operating in stealth mode. Tekion is a cloud technology company focused specifically to automobile industry.[10] In 2020, Tekion Corp became an unicorn after raising $150 million as part of its series C funding round led by private equity firm Advent International.[11][12]

Awards and Recognitions

Vijayan received the Tamil American Pioneer – Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Engineering/Science by the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North American in July 2014.[13] He was part of the Executive Advisory Council for AT&T and the CIO Advisory Council for Microsoft. Jay also serves on the board of the HyreCar, a peer-to-peer car sharing marketplace[14] and NIC Inc., a digital government service provider for federal, state and local governments in the US[15].

Personal life

Vijayan lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and two children. He has frequently cited Elon Musk as his work inspiration.

See also

References
  1. "Jay Vijayan. Board Members - HyreCar".
  2. "Who We Are. Board Members - NIC Inc".
  3. "Tesla Motors CIO Leaves to Launch Stealth Startup".
  4. Mathur, Nandita (21 October 2020). "Tekion joins the unicorn club". mint. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  5. "Meet Jayaprakash Vijayan - The man who keeps Tesla charged up".
  6. Ahmad, Samreen (21 October 2020). "Former Tesla CIO Jay Vijayan's start-up Tekion joins unicorn club". Business Standard India. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  7. "How Jay Vijayan—a Politician's Son, Geology Grad And Former Tesla Techie—built The World's Newest Unicorn". Forbes India. Retrieved 21 January 2021.
  8. "Tech Guru Jay Vijayan". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 21 January 2021.
  9. "Executive Speaker Series with CIO of Tesla Motors". Saint Mary's College. Retrieved 21 January 2021.
  10. "Longtime Tesla Motors CIO Jay Vijayan has formed a stealth startup".
  11. Mathur, Nandita (21 October 2020). "Tekion joins the unicorn club". mint. Retrieved 21 January 2021.
  12. "Tekion turns unicorn with $150 million funding led by Advent International". The Economic Times. Retrieved 21 January 2021.
  13. "Jay Vijayan : TiECon Midwest 2016". archive.tiecondetroit.org. Retrieved 21 January 2021.
  14. "Jay Vijayan | Board Member | HyreCar". ir.hyrecar.com. Retrieved 21 January 2021.
  15. "About NIC (EGOV) and eGovernment Solutions | NIC". www.egov.com. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
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