American business executive
Satjiv Singh Chahil
is an India-born American global inter-cultural and inter-disciplinary innovator and business executive. He has been described as a "mission-critical" leader whose "life's work has been to make technology essential to the creative, moral, and fun-loving continuum of human existence."
[1]
Early life and education
[
edit
]
Chahil was born in
Amritsar
,
India
on October 19, 1950 to Pritam Singh Chahil (father) and Champa Chahil (nee Dugal) (mother). Pritam Singh was a member of the Indian hockey contingent to the
1936 Summer Olympics
in Berlin. He was a publisher, public service worker, and an educationist. He also initiated and funded the development of the first automatic
Punjabi language
typesetting
machine. Pritam Singh is recognized for his Roman alphabet English language transliteration of the entire
Sri Guru Granth Sahib
.
[2]
Chahil studied at
The Lawrence School, Sanawar
, India, earning the
Indian School Certificate
(administered by the
University of Cambridge
) in 1967. He graduated from
Punjab University, Chandigarh
, India in 1971 with a
Bachelor of Commerce
degree. Chahil went on to earn a master's degree from the
Thunderbird School of Global Management
in 1976.
[3]
Career
[
edit
]
From September 1988 to April 1997, Chahil served in various capacities at
Apple Inc
, including Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and Founding General Manager of the New Media, Internet and Entertainment division. Later, he was responsible for Worldwide Marketing and Corporate Communications.
[3]
[4]
Chahil initiated the incorporation of multimedia (Quicktime video and audio technologies and CD ROMs) into personal computers. He also collaborated with
Toshiba
and
Warner Bros.
to create the DVD standard and authoring tools.
Chahil developed the Apple partnership with the
American Film Institute
, which led to alliances with
Paramount Pictures
and
Tom Cruise
for
Mission: Impossible (film)
.
[5]
He entered into alliances with recording artists, including
Peter Gabriel
and
Herbie Hancock
, and auto brands
BMW
and
Audi
. He partnered with existing customers from the creative communities for Webcasting, audio/video downloads/streaming and enhanced CDs. In 1995, Chahil played a key role in forging an alliance between Apple and
Abbey Road Studios
, where the Beatles did most of their recordings. This was the first major tie-up struck between the computer industry and the world of entertainment.
[6]
In 1996, he organized the world's first Webcast at the
Grammy Awards
.
[7]
In 1992, he organized the
Hakone
forum in Japan, which brought together experts from business and academia, representing computing, publishing, film and television, to set the multimedia agenda for the first time.
[8]
In 1993, Chahil entered into an alliance with the
LPGA of Japan Tour
, one of the earliest initiatives by a technology company to acknowledge women as consumers.
[9]
In 1996, he also initiated actions to make the computer more friendly to children.
[10]
Chahil began his career at
IBM
in 1976. He played a role in the introduction of the first
Automated Teller Machines
, and in the adoption and spread of
barcode
technologies. From 1979 to 1988, Chahil worked at
Xerox
. At Xerox Palo Alto, as General Manager of the Strategic Business Unit for multilingual workstations, he played a key role in the acceptance of the
Unicode
standard, the software developed by
Joe Becker
, which became the basis of foreign language computing.
[3]
From 1997 to 1999, Chahil was Advisor on digital convergence to the top management at
Sony
. He helped establish the
Vaio
line of laptop computers.
[11]
In 1999, Chahil took up the role of Chief Marketing Officer of
Newbridge Networks
to reposition and create adoption of a new innovative broadband infrastructure technology. After the technology was accepted, Newbridge Networks was acquired by
Alcatel
in 2000. Soon after, Chahil joined
Palm Inc.
as Chief Marketing Officer,
[12]
[13]
and played a role in organizing the company's IPO. He also drove the creation of a new paradigm for mobile computing, and during his tenure, Palm grew to become the highest-ranking mobile brand, after
Nokia
. To spread the benefits of the new technology, Chahil created a marketing partnership with
Claudia Schiffer
to launch a handheld computer, designed especially for the multi-tasking woman.
[14]
He also helped to create a new Mobile Memory Standard (SD ? Secure Digital), in partnership with
Panasonic
. In 2002, Chahil was appointed to the Board of
PalmSource
, the Palm OS company, which was later acquired by
Access Systems Americas
. Also in 2002, Chahil became chairman and co-founder of Mobile Digital Media (MDM), later renamed
Quickoffice
, a business that was subsequently acquired by Google.
[15]
In 2005, while serving as Advisor to BMW, along with
Christoph Loch
and Markus Seidel, he co-authored an INSEAD paper outlining transformations in the automotive industry, and the emerging convergence between the autobahn and the infobahn.
[16]
Later that year, Chahil joined
Hewlett-Packard
as Senior Vice President Global Marketing and head of marketing of the Personal Systems Group, and as Head of Small/Medium Business segment for the whole company. During his tenure, HP moved to the top spot in the global PC market. He initiated a resurgence campaign under the banner "The Computer is Personal Again", in partnership with
Jay-Z
,
Jerry Seinfeld
,
Vivienne Tam
,
Paulo Coelho
and
Serena Williams
. In October 2009, Chahil established an alliance between HP and
Jimmy Iovine
and
Dr. Dre
to release Beats by Dr. Dre with HP Envy limited edition laptops.
[17]
In December 2012, Chahil played a role in a technology partnership between
Sony
and the
San Francisco 49ers
, to create a new standard of stadium and fan experience. As part of this initiative, Sony's high-definition 4K cameras will be placed around the new football stadium at
Santa Clara, California
and will offer fans with smartphones or tablets access to multiple vantage points and close-ups.
Chahil served on the Millennium Council of the
American Film Institute
. He has ties to the creative communities in the publishing, advertising, film and music industries. He has been a featured speaker at global technology conferences, as well as at
Harvard University
,
Stanford University
,
INSEAD
and the
Sorbonne
.
[3]
Chahil has been a member of the
Clinton Global Initiative
from its inception.
He serves as a Trustee of the
American India Foundation
.
[18]
He has played a hands-on role in the Digital Equalizer Program and other social and women's empowerment initiatives in
Punjab, India
.
[19]
Chahil is a member of the board of Cinequest, the organizers of the
Cinequest Film Festival
in Silicon Valley.
[20]
In January 2014, Chahil delivered a keynote address at the Innovex 2014 at Tel Aviv, Israel and spoke about his personal experiences with failures and successes in innovation.
[21]
In March 2014, Chahil addressed the Techonomy leadership at their San Francisco conclave and spoke about the impact of technology on society and culture.
[22]
In July 2014, at the opening session of the Silicon Valley Innovation Summit, Chahil remarked that the world is not flat after all. Sharing his learnings from his experience with the American India Foundation, he cautioned entrepreneurs that large social, gender, infrastructure and culture divides needed to be addressed in tandem to help bridge the digital divide, and advised them to innovate in all these areas to effectively meet the needs of humanity.
[23]
In December 2014, Chahil called on every non-resident Indian in the world to adopt and develop one village each and transform it into a model village, helping thus to strengthen nation-building in India.
[24]
In September 2015, Chahil delivered the keynote address at the Service Plan for Innocation in Munich, Germany. In his talk entitled "Market-Making - a Silicon Valley Perspective", he called upon all marketing companies to open innovation centers in Silicon Valley.
[25]
In 2015, Chahil joined
Starkey Hearing Technologies
as Global Marketing and Innovations Advisor. Along with former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, he was a keynote speaker at the 2016 Hearing Innovation Expo.
[26]
Speaking on industry trends, Chahil said the next trend of wearables will be "ear-worn", and predicted that the rise of "hearables" was imminent.
[27]
In 2016, Chahil also facilitated a partnership between Starkey and Bragi that enables the development of new products that help overcome the stigma of hearing aids and convert them into attributes of better health.
[28]
At the Hermes Future Forum in 2016, he encouraged European business leaders to open not just technology centers in Silicon Valley, but to develop their marketing and business strategies from there as well, in order to inculcate a Silicon Valley mindset.
[29]
At the 2017 European Forum in Alpbach, Austria, Chahil encouraged European business owners to realize the strategic opportunities that lay in uniting across national borders, and to adopt a new business outlook that was based not only on reviewing revenues and profits but also on regularly studying how technologies and digital applications developed halfway across the world could unexpectedly affect or even disrupt their companies.
[30]
In April 2018, speaking at the inaugural edition of If So, What?, Chahil referred to Silicon Valley as the modern equivalent of Florence during the Renaissance.
[31]
In July 2018, while speaking at the European thought leader forum Les Napoleons at Arles, France, Chahil called on the French President
Emmanuel Macron
to build a "digital" Golden Gate Bridge between Silicon Valley and France.
[32]
The French publication
Paris Match
, in a cover story on Multimedia, described Chahil as "the premier man of multimedia…someone in between the game-hero
Super Mario
and
Leonardo da Vinci
…like a character out of a
Jules Verne
novel…his preoccupation is not like the regular Silicon Valley millionaires, but is of a humanist concerned about the education of people and the world."
[33]
Personal life
[
edit
]
He lives in
Los Altos, California
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Why Silicon Valley ? and the rest of us ? need to listen to Satjiv Chahil"
. Yahoo!Finance 17 December 2022. 17 December 2022.
- ^
"Honorees 2006"
. Sikh Council of USA 2006.
- ^
a
b
c
d
"Satjiv S. Chahil"
. Businessweek. Archived from
the original
on April 1, 2013
. Retrieved
January 7,
2014
.
- ^
Kahney, Leander.
"Courting Consumer, Dell Takes Pages From Apple's Playbook"
.
Wired
. Wired 29 May 2007.
- ^
"High Tech Leader Satjiv Chahil Dedicated To Film And AFI"
. American Film Institute. Archived from the original on 2014-02-02.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (
link
)
- ^
Covington, Richard (12 December 1995).
"New Studio Aims to Popularize Enhanced Music Disks"
.
New York Times
.
- ^
"Marketing Strategy: How Apple, Nike Mountain Dew Connect with Customers"
. Advertising Age 5 June 2006.
- ^
Digital Heritage: Applying Digital Imaging to Cultural Heritage
. Lindsay W. MacDonald. Routledge, 2006, Section 20.7. 2006.
ISBN
9780750661836
.
- ^
"Apple? Japan Can't Say No"
. Bloomberg Business Week 28 June 1992. Archived from
the original
on January 27, 2014.
- ^
"La Apple e il computer per i bambini. (Apple and the Computer for Children)"
. Rai Educational, Italy. 11 February 1997.
- ^
"PC marketing chief Chahil to retire from HP"
. Fortune 30 January 2010.
- ^
"Palm Pilots Become Robots"
. ABC News. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
- ^
"Palm OS unit filling with Apple alumni"
. Macworld 28 August 2001.
- ^
"Claudia Schiffer: What a Woman Wants"
. Fortune 4 September 2000.
- ^
"Interview with Barry Cottle of MDM"
. Mobile Tech Review. Retrieved Jul 20 2014.
- ^
"Quo Vadis, Automotive Industry? A Vision of Possible Industry Transformations"
. INSEAD Papers, European Management Journal, Summer 2005.
- ^
"HP Mini Limited Editions: an America's Hottest Brands Case Study"
. Advertising Age 16 November 2009.
- ^
"Satjiv Chahil - Profile"
. Bloomberg Business Week. Retrieved on 17 January 2014. Archived from
the original
on May 13, 2012.
- ^
"Distribution of Scholarship"
. American India Foundation. 3 January 2013.
- ^
"Leadership"
. Cinequest. Retrieved on 9 March 2014.
- ^
"Interesting Failures and Unexpected Success"
. Innovex 29 January 2014.
- ^
"Techonomists Weigh in on Tech's Future"
. Techonomy 25 March 2014. 25 March 2014.
- ^
"Bridging the digital divide"
. AlwaysOn Network. Retrieved 20 August 2014. Archived from
the original
on 20 August 2014.
- ^
"NRI Satjiv Chahil helping transform school education in Punjab"
. India Education Diary. Retrieved on 11 December 2014. Archived from
the original
on 2014-12-12.
- ^
"Visionaries from the Silicon Valley"
. Internet World, Germany 24 September 2015.
- ^
"2016 Expo Keynote Speakers"
. Hearing Innovation Expo.
- ^
"Body by Silicon Valley: Entering the age of augmented humanity"
. Silicon Valley Business Journal.
- ^
"How The Super Bowl Became A Platform For "Hearables"
"
.
Forbes
.
- ^
"12 Questions with Silicon Valley marketing visionary Satjiv Chahil"
. Brainmag.com.
- ^
"The Humanist From Silicon Valley"
. Die Presse am Sonntag.
- ^
"If So, What? Is an Innovative New Fair Bringing Art and Design to Silicon Valley"
. Art Fix Daily.
- ^
"Tech for Good:"Emmanuel Macron must build a digital bridge between Silicon Valley and France"
. Frenchweb.fr.
- ^
"La Revolution Multimedia"
. Paris Match February 1994.