Gurbaksh Singh Chahal | |
---|---|
File:Gurbaksh Singh.jpg | |
Born | [1] | July 17, 1982
Occupation(s) | Entrepreneur, writer, philanthropist |
Years active | 1998–present |
Known for | Founder of ClickAgents, BlueLithium, RadiumOne, Gravity4, Taara Labs, RedLotus |
Website | GurbakshChahal.com |
Gurbaksh Singh Chahal (born July 17, 1982) is an Indian-American internet entrepreneur, writer, and philanthropist. Chahal has founded two internet advertising companies, ClickAgents and BlueLithium[2] and he is also the founder of RadiumOne and Gravity4, also online advertising technology companies; Taara Labs[3] and RedLotus.[4] Through Chahal Foundation, he has launched initiatives to help people affected by disaster.[5]
Chahal has been convicted twice for domestic violence and battery crimes, once in 2013 and again in 2018.[6][7][8][9]
Personal life
Chahal was born to Avtar Singh and Arjinder Chahal[10] in Tarn Taran Sahib, a city in India’s Punjab state. In 1985 at age four he moved with his family to San Jose, California. Chahal dropped out of high school at age sixteen to pursue a career in Internet advertising.[11] He has a sister Kamal Kaur, who is now the chairwoman and CEO of DaVinci Marketing Cloud.[12] and an elder brother Taj Chahal.[13]
Career
Chahal started his career buying and reselling printers on eBay.[14] In 1998 Chahal founded ClickAgents, an advertising network focused on performance-based advertising. In 2000, ValueClick (now part of Alliance Data) paid $5.3 million of its shares to purchase ClickAgents.[15] In 2002 Chahal's Planet Bollywood restaurant burned down.[14] In 2004, Chahal founded BlueLithium, a company that specialized in behavioral targeting, a technique whereby web users' habits online are tracked in order to show ads they are most likely to click.[16] In 2007, Yahoo! bought Blue Lithium for $300 million in cash.[17]
In 2009, Chahal founded RadiumOne, another online ad company.[18][19] Chahal was fired as CEO of RadiumOne after he was convicted of domestic violence.[20][21][7] RadiumOne was later acquired by RhythmOne.[22]
In July 2014, Chahal launched Gravity4, his fourth technology company in online advertising (the company has since been renamed DaVinci Marketing Cloud).[23][24] In 2019, Chahal started Taara Labs, an incubator to build startup companies and help solve problems in the field of Artificial Intelligence, IoT, and Data Science.[25] Also in 2019, Chahal founded RedLotus in Hong Kong,[26] a company that uses marketing intelligence to help brands reach out to new audiences.[27][28]
Awards and honors
In 2014 Chahal was a recipient of Light of India Jury and People's Choice Awards for Excellence in Business Leadership[29] In 2013 Chahal was awarded Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2013 in the Platform Technology category.[30] In 2009 Chahal was one of the recipient of Leaders in Management Award by Pace University.[31] He was felicitated by DSGMC in recognition of his achievements as Global Entrepreneur at an event organized to mark 550th birth anniversary of first Sikh Guru – Sri Guru Nanak Dev.[32]
Philanthropy
After the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting, Chahal founded the Chahal Foundation (formerly BeProud Foundation).[33] The foundation creates awareness campaigns to stop future hate crimes, provide scholarships, support disaster relief efforts, and improve schools in third-world countries.[34]
Domestic violence and battery conviction
In August 2013, Chahal was charged by the San Francisco District Attorney's Office with domestic violence.[35] On April 16, 2014, Chahal pleaded guilty to one charge of domestic violence battery and one charge of battery, for which he was sentenced to three years' probation, a 52-week domestic violence training course, and 25 hours of community service.[36] After this domestic violence incident, Chahal was fired as CEO of RadiumOne by the company's board of directors on April 27, 2014.[20][37][7]
In 2016, after evidence emerged of a second domestic violence incident, a court found he had violated his probation. Chahal was sentenced to one year in jail, but the sentence was stayed pending appeal.[38][39] In April 2018, a California state appeals court upheld the 2016 ruling. The court found Chahal guilty of violating his probation when he attacked a woman a year after his domestic violence conviction for beating a different woman in his San Francisco penthouse.[9] Chahal spent six months in San Francisco County Jail for the probation violation.[40][41]
Publications
- The Dream: How I Learned the Risks and Rewards of Entrepreneurship and Made Millions, Palgrave Macmillan (October 23, 2008) ISBN 0-230-61095-1
References
- ^ "Find People, Lookup Phone Numbers, Run Background Checks, Access Public Records". USSearch.com. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
- ^ Ferenstein, Gregory (2011-03-29). "RadiumOne CEO on His McDonald's Rejection, Social Ads, and Do-Not-Track Legislation | Fast Company | Business + Innovation". Fast Company. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
- ^ "Gurbaksh Chahal's Taara Labs is giving a boost to AI start-ups across the world".
- ^ "Gurbaksh Chahal –founded RedLotus is transforming customer service & experience".
- ^ "Gurbaksh Chahal's 'The Chahal Foundation' brings light to lives of disaster victims".
- ^ Hoge, Patrick (April 17, 2014). "Ad mogul Gurbaksh "G" Chahal pleads guilty to two misdemeanors, all others dismissed in domestic violence case". San Francisco Business Times.
- ^ a b c Weissmann, Jordan (2014-04-24). "RadiumOne founder: Pleads guilty to domestic abuse". Slate.com. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
- ^ Carson, Biz (August 14, 2016) “The rise and fall of Gurbaksh Chahal: How one tech CEO went from fame, fortune, and Oprah's couch to possible jail time.” Business Insider. (Retrieved April 9, 2017).
- ^ a b Ma, Annie (April 27, 2018) "Court upholds ruling against SF tech mogul Chahal in domestic violence case." San Francisco Chronicle. (Retrieved June 11, 2018.)
- ^ "Gurbaksh chahal".
- ^ Zinko, Carolyne (October 26, 2008). "Advice from young millionaire Gurbaksh Chahal". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 6, 2010.
- ^ "Gurbaksh Chahal out as Gravity4 CEO after probation ruling".
- ^ "The rise and fall of Gurbaksh Chahal: How one tech CEO went from fame, fortune, and Oprah's couch to possible jail time".
- ^ a b "The rise and fall of Gurbaksh Chahal: How one tech CEO went from fame, fortune, and Oprah's couch to possible jail time".
- ^ Editors (November 3, 2000) “ValueClick acquires Click Agents.” Advertising Age. (Retrieved April 9, 2017).
- ^ "The Times". Business.timesonline.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-03-01. (subscription required)
- ^ Hendrickson, Mark (September 4, 2007) “Yahoo! Acquires Ad Network BlueLithium.” TechCrunch. (Retrieved April 9, 2017.)
- ^ "gWallet raises $12.5M for more ethical virtual currency/offers system | VentureBeat | Business | by Dean Takahashi". VentureBeat. 2009-12-01. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
- ^ McMahan, Ty (October 18, 2010). "New Ad Network RadiumOne Aims To Tap Social 'Mega Trend'". The Wall Street Journal.
- ^ a b Swisher, Kara. "Exclusive: CEO Gurbaksh Chahal Fired by RadiumOne Board". Recode. recode.net/. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
- ^ "It's time for RadiumOne's abusive CEO to go - Fortune". Finance.fortune.cnn.com. 2014-04-25. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
- ^ https://mobilemarketingmagazine.com/radiumone-acquired-by-rhythmone
- ^ "Gurbaksh Chahal". HuffingtonPost. 2018-06-09. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
- ^ Editors (January 31, 2018) "Name Change Marks Renaissance for Gravity4." MrWeb.com (Retrieved June 11, 2016.)
- ^ "Gurbaksh Chahal's Taara Labs is giving a boost to AI start-ups across the world".
- ^ "Post RadiumOne, Gurbaksh Chahal seeks success again with RedLotus; in talks to raise $50 mn". Techcircle. 2019-11-12. Retrieved 2019-11-13.
- ^ "Gurbaksh Chahal –founded RedLotus is transforming customer service & experience".
- ^ "Gurbaksh Chahal reveals ways for boosting growth through marketing intelligence".
- ^ "19 NRIs honoured with Light of India awards".
- ^ "RadiumOne CEO and Founder Gurbaksh Chahal Awarded as the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year(R) 2013 Winner".
- ^ "Pace University Names Magazine Publishing Magnate David J. Pecker ('72) and Technology Entrepreneur Gurbaksh Chahal as 2010 Leaders in Management Recipients".
- ^ "Gurbaksh Chahal honored by DSGMC".
- ^ "Serial Entrepreneur Gurbaksh Chahal Commits $1 Million to Stop Hate Crimes".
- ^ Teri Evans (2012-08-21). "Serial Entrepreneur Gurbaksh Chahal Commits $1 Million to Stop Hate Crimes". Entrepreneur.com. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
- ^ Sabatini, Joshua. "DA: Internet mogul hit girlfriend 117 times over a half-hour period | Crime & Courts | San Francisco | San Francisco Examiner". Sfexaminer.com. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
- ^ Nagle, Rob (September 9, 2015). "RadiumOne Worked to Save IPO Amid Scandal". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
- ^ "It's time for RadiumOne's abusive CEO to go - Fortune". Finance.fortune.cnn.com. 2014-04-25. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
- ^ Rainey, Libby (12 Aug 2016). "Tech mogul Gurbaksh Chahal gets 1 year in domestic violence case". San Francisco Chroncile. Retrieved 1 November 2016.
- ^ Conger, Kate (1 September 2016). "Despite looming jail time, Gurbaksh Chahal is back as Gravity4 CEO". TechCrunch. Retrieved 1 November 2016.
- ^ Sernoffsky, Evan (August 31, 2018) "Tearful tech mogul Gurbaksh Chahal jailed for probation violation." San Francisco Chronicle. (Retrieved September 1, 2018.)
- ^ "Silicon Valley Internet Mogul Gurbaksh Chahal Sentenced to 6 Months in Domestic Violence Case".
External links
- Gurbaksh Chahal at IMDb
- A panel discussion with Chahal, Conference on Entrepreneurship, Stanford University Graduate School of Business, March 2010