CHETU TAKES HOME SFBJ 2019 BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD

The 2019 Business of the Year honorees were celebrated at a dinner program on April 18 at Jungle Island in Miami.

By Jeff Zbar – Correspondent, South Florida Business Journal
Apr 19, 2019
Successful businesses are driven by more than strong performance and bottom-line results. If this year’s Business of the Year honorees are any indication, “family” plays a significant role in organizational success.

It’s not surprising. Researchers note people spend as much – or more – time at work than at any other single activity, other than sleeping.
Many of the 2019 honorees spoke to the importance of having a collegial, family-like bond across the C-Suite. They work, strategize paths and celebrate wins together. Many break bread, travel or just spend time together, whether as a regular occurrence or as a bonding event across the organization.

This bond builds trust, which permeates the organization. In the end, companies become stronger performers, a true sign of a Business of the Year. The 2019 Business of the Year honorees were celebrated at a dinner program on April 18 at Jungle Island in Miami. The event was presented by Coastal Wealth, with corporate sponsors BankUnited, the Florida International University College of Business, and the Miami Marlins.

Manuel D. “Manny” Medina says a single, simple thread runs through each of the businesses he’s created. From building the NAP of the Americas, to launching the eMerge Americas tech conference, to his latest venture – cybersecurity provider Cyxtera Technologies – Medina loves what he does. “I love to think about what’s next and to put things together,” he says. “What I do is very difficult, but at the same time, it’s something that I love. Other people play golf; I love creating businesses. “Don’t get me wrong,” he adds, “I also love the success.”

With Miami’s popularity growing and its real estate market heating up, Medina formed real estate development firm Terremark Worldwide. In time, another trend caught Medina’s attention: technology. Tech was evolving, and Miami’s prominence on the global stage was becoming clear, says Medina, who begins each day with a “voracious” reading of together private and government technology executives and pioneers – there were some 15,000 at last year’s event – to explore tech trends, digital innovation and entrepreneurship across the Americas and around the world.

Though he’d sold Terremark and the NAP years prior, data centers and cybersecurity were never far from Medina’s mind. In 2017, he founded Cyxtera. The cybersecurity provider’s data center platform secures and supports systems and apps on a global scale. The company serves hundreds of clients worldwide.

With each organization he creates, Medina sees a chance to leave his mark on people, an industry or the community. He long ago realized his success has been a shared outcome. The executives, employees or partners he surrounds himself with have each nurtured his success, Medina says.
At 66, Medina has no plans of slowing down. Yet, he can’t help but consider his legacy. Beyond his children – daughter Melissa and son Manny Jr., a bassist in a touring country band – Medina’s mark will be his role in placing Miami and South Florida’s entrepreneurial technology corridor on the world map.

Thinking back to that 13-year-old Cuban émigré who arrived with little to his name, Medina is proud of what he’s accomplished for himself, his family and his city.

“I want my legacy to be that I helped this community to become the tech capital that it wasn’t before,” he says. “Sometimes it’s been a bumpy ride. But if people say, ‘He had a little bit to do with that,’ then that would be a nice legacy.”

$25 MILLION TO $49 MILLION IN REVENUE
Winner: Chetu
www.chetu.com
10167 W. Sunrise Blvd., Suite 200, Plantation 33322
(954) 342-5676

• CEO: Atal Bansal
• VP: Prem Khatri
• Director of Sales Development: Michael Dunbar
• Associate VP: Pravin Vazirani
• Associate VP: Nikhil Koranne

Since its founding in 2000, Chetu has inspired a global technological revolution by building a diverse portfolio of Fortune 500 clients. The company attributes over half its business to referral and repeat clients. Not only has Chetu grown financially, but also internally, recruiting worldwide to put itself on the software development fast track. In just one year, it on-boarded over 800 people. Chetu plans to move into its newly built corporate headquarters in June.

What makes your C-Suite team a strong team? We focus on a common goal: providing excellent services to our clients.
What challenge is your C-Suite team most proud of overcoming? Establishing an accountability process that effectively guides and teaches the Salesforce with regards to those policies and procedures that built this company. We have a unique opportunity to be transparent and work together for the benefits of the company.

Who’s the one person you’d all like to meet, and what would you ask?
We’d ask the Dalai Lama: What’s the meaning of life?

Fun Facts

• Bansal holds Patent No. 7113925 for the electronic check.
• Khatri’s first trip to the U.S. was in 2005 for an on-site assignment. He is still here 13 years later.
• Dunbar graduated high school, enlisted in the U.S. Navy, completed boot camp, and was in Venice, Italy, before 18 years of age.
• As a child, Vazirani organized carnival events with friends to earn extra money.
• For his first trip to the U.S. from India, Koranne arrived in Cleveland with no carry-on luggage.

Get the full story at: https://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2019/04/19/2019-business-of-the-year-awards.html

Founded in 2000, Chetu Inc. is a global provider of customized software development solutions combining technological expertise, specific domain experience and passion for excellence to deliver enterprise-grade solutions to start-ups, SMBs, Fortune 5000 companies, and major brands. Chetu developers provide seamless backend technology solutions to our partner and thrives in helping businesses advance through various retail and e-commerce solutions for mobile and web-based applications, desktop and more. Chetu is headquartered in Plantation, Florida, but also has fourteen locations throughout the U.S. and abroad.