- Anurag Dikshit
Anurag Dikshit (born 1973, in
Sindri, Jharkhand , pronounced as IPA2|ˈdɪksɪt), [ [http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/10/7XUE.html Forbes: Billionaire list] ] is a billionaireIndia n businessman, the richest man inGibraltar and the 207th richest man in the world. As a co-founder ofPartyGaming , parent company of the world's leadingonline poker site PartyPoker.com, he is one of the youngest billionaires in the world. The largest individual shareholder, he owns approximately 30% of PartyGaming after selling 23% of his stake in the company'sInitial Public Offering .Born in
Sindri, Jharkhand , Dikshit graduated with aBachelor of Technology degree incomputer science andengineering from India'sIndian Institute of Technology , Delhi in 1994. He completed schooling atDe Nobili School, FRI, Jharkhand . Following graduation, Dikshit worked as a software developer in the United States at CMC, as a systems analyst for Websci and later as a consultant forAT&T . With a current fortune estimated to be $1.75 billion, he is 35th on the list of the richest Indians in the world.PartyGaming
When Dikshit was twenty-five years old, he met
Ruth Parasol who asked him to write some proprietary code for PartyGaming's Starluckonline casino to replace the software they were licensing. PartyGaming was founded by Parasol, an American lawyer who now lives inGibraltar . She considered Dikshit's skills so crucial to the future of the business, she allocated him a considerable number of shares in the company.In 2000, Dikshit hired a colleague from his
alma mater ,Vikrant Bhargava , to head the company's Caribbean operations. Party Poker was launched in August 2001, just prior to thepoker industry on a whole enjoying a huge resurgence in popularity in America. Astelevision programs, new books and celebrities got involved with poker, online poker sky-rocketed in popularity. Dikshit's platform, which allowed 20,000 simultaneous users, proved inadequate and new technology was adopted allowing 70,000 simultaneous users.Prior to the company's IPO, Dikshit was virtually unknown to the general public. He remains a chess aficionado and student of antiquities.
In May 2006 Dikshit stepped down from PartyGaming's board of directors to develop new products as head of the company's research and special projects. [ [http://www.forbes.com/facesscan/2006/05/24/partygaming-billionaires-dikshit-cx_po_0524autofacescan06.html Forbes: PartyGaming's Dikshit quits board] ]
Dikshit currently resides in Gibraltar.
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External links
* [http://news.ft.com/cms/s/4bf609e2-df58-11d9-84f8-00000e2511c8.html Financial Times article]
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