Early Life
Jay Chaudhry was born in 1958 in the village of Panoh, Himachal Pradesh, India. Growing up in a small farming family, he experienced a childhood without running water or electricity until his teenage years. He walked nearly 4 kilometers daily to attend high school. This early life instilled in him the values of hard work and perseverance.
Rise to Success
Chaudhry moved to the United States at the age of 22 and earned multiple master's degrees from the University of Cincinnati. He then worked in various engineering, sales, marketing, and management roles at companies like IBM, Unisys, and NCR. In 1996, he and his wife, Jyoti, founded SecureIT, their first company. This was followed by CipherTrust, AirDefense, and CoreHarbor. Chaudhry became a billionaire after Zscaler's IPO in 2018.
Key Business Strategies
Chaudhry's key business strategy has been to identify and capitalize on emerging technology trends in the security sector. His vision led to the creation of the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange, a comprehensive cloud platform. This platform provides secure connections to apps across devices and geographical boundaries.
Philanthropy
Jay Chaudhry is involved in various philanthropic endeavors. In 2022, he gifted $1 million to IIT-BHU to fund the school's Entrepreneurship Center. He also donated $3 million to the Bay Area Chapter of the American India Foundation (AIF) for COVID relief efforts. In 2023, he donated $1 million to the Sankara Eye Foundation.
