NJIT's Suresh Kumar, Lecturer & Entrepreneurial Director, Elected President of TiE NJ

Suresh U. Kumar, senior university lecturer and director of entrepreneurial programs in NJIT’s Ying Wu College of Computing (YWCC), has been elected by the Board of Directors of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) as the next president of the New Jersey chapter, effective July 1, 2023.

TiE is one of the world’s largest entrepreneurship support organizations with over 30,000 members in 14 countries helping 25,000 startups with an economic impact of over $1 trillion, according to KPMG.

A serial entrepreneur, professor, mentor, angel investor, nonprofit leader, county elected official and author, Kumar was the top choice to serve as TiE NJ’s president as it celebrates its 15th anniversary. This broad array of skills prompted outgoing president Raman Kapur to call him a “renaissance man” at the organization’s June gala held at Piscataway, NJ, featuring 300 leaders of over 45 community organizations based in New Jersey. TiE NJ is the fastest-growing of the 62 chapters in the organization's global network, and commenting on its expected growth under Kumar’s leadership, Kapur added, “You ain’t seen nothing yet!”

Kumar views being a renaissance man as synonymous with entrepreneurial leadership, becoming an expert in multiple skills in a “deliberate fashion,” in a short period of time.

“Life is most interesting when you have the fortitude to follow many, if not all, of your passions. The first step is envisioning how you will do it,” he said.

Kumar’s professional journey went from the corporate world to serial entrepreneur, to researcher/professor and to leader of a major nonprofit. He will soon add published author to his list of accomplishments. Kumar is currently working on a self-development book, guiding readers to achieve personal and professional growth as a renaissance man/woman by quickly developing expertise in multiple skills and topics of interest.

Becoming president of TiE NJ is the latest step in Kumar’s journey, one which is informed by his extensive experience in mentoring the next generation of young entrepreneurs through his NJIT special topics class on building tech startups.

Three former students from this class have won TiE NJ’s Pitch competition over those from other prestigious universities such as Princeton and UPenn. Pradnya Desai won the Audience Choice Award for her Ad-Connect idea, which uses a virtual reality application to build social skills for children with ADHD. Daniel Salib, a former U.S. Marine, went on to win the New Jersey competition for developing and founding Volant, a platform for military reconnaissance using a swarm of mini drones that aid in reducing human casualties during combat. Parth Mehta’s StartUp Tribes, a platform for building innovation ecosystems for young and underserved entrepreneurs, also went on to win TiE’s global competition and resulted in a multimillion dollar deal with OneValley in 2021.

Kumar’s plans as TiE NJ’s new president include a mix of creative programs that revolve around mentoring young entrepreneurs, particularly in the area of expanding opportunities for women and other minority communities.

As for NJIT, Kumar said: “I want to connect young innovators at NJIT with TiE members who are experts in the field and be an incubator for new ideas that can change the world through technology. Parth founded StartUp Tribes and turned it into a recognized and profitable company in only three years. Now my journey continues by guiding others to reach their full potential in achieving their American dream,” he said. “My dream is to nurture an entire army of renaissance men and women.”