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Dream to innovate

Michel Susai, Chairman and CEO, NeoAccel, has achieved his dream of being an inventor. He shares his enriching career journey with Priya Jain

During his formative years, growing up in Ghatkopar (Mumbai), Michel Susai nurtured a singular dream—working for NASA in the US and being a part of its glamour. He always wanted to invent. While the NASA dream did not materialise, Susai has achieved much more as the Chairman and CEO of NeoAccel, a US-based company. He has also achieved fame as an innovator.

Innovation is not everybody’s cup of tea, it requires brilliance accompanied with technique. Like everybody else, his share of knowledge and strong scientific base began from his school days. He studied in a school named Vani Vidyalaya because his parents wanted him to learn Tamil. Looking back Susai reminiscences, “When I was studying in the eighth standard my eyes fell on the rack of encyclopedias in our school library and out of curiosity I picked up one to read. This became a habit. Every afternoon after school I sat in the school library to read the encyclopedia. Looking at my interest the librarian allowed me to take the volumes to read at home. Thanks to her I started and finished reading the set of 21 volumes in a year.”

Susai was always interested in innovation and he used to keenly participate in science projects. He admires his parents who despite being from middle class never restricted his dreams. His mother gave him the freedom to do anything he wanted. She was a teacher in a municipal school and later became the principal. Susai’s father, who was always business inclined and updated with the latest technology, also encouraged him.

In 1988 he completed his BE in Computer Science and Engineering from PICT (Pune Institute of Computer Technology and Research), Pune, India. Susai focusses his passion for pure science and innovation on highly scalable large-scale network systems using clustering and massively parallel processing technologies, fields in which he is an acknowledged expert.

Susai is an inventor and the OS Guru who has developed patent-pending technologies that provide fundamental means of optimising and accelerating the performance of the Internet’s underlying TCP/IP networking protocols.

In 2005, Michel Susai launched NeoAccel to address the fundamental problems associated with the existing SSL VPN technology. In 1997, he founded NetScaler, a leading innovator of intelligent network systems that almost 75 percent of Internet users go through each day to visit the world’s highest traffic websites such as Google, MLB.com, MSN and Ticketmaster. NetScaler was recently acquired by Citrix Systems for $300 million.

Susai has over 15 years of leadership, management, engineering and business development experience. Prior to NetScaler, Susai was responsible for developing several Internet infrastructure scalability products at Sun Microsystems, Inc. Before joining Sun, Susai led the development of the Internet strategy initiative at Unisys Corporation. As a team builder he believes in having a ‘no boss’ relationship with his employees, this helps him to work on the personal growth of the staff and assists him to keep them happy.

Susai mentions that his professional life has been blessed by his family. He is married to his school friend Sudha Michel. Susai says, “My wife has given me my independence. She is a chartered accountant and assists me in NeoAccel’s operations. Our children form the basis of our lives.” They have a naughty and fun-loving 11-year-old son and a curious 6-year-old daughter, who he describes to be independent and busy already.

Moreover, history is one thing that excites his neurons. He loves travelling to historical places and likes studying about them.

One such favourite of his is the experience of visiting the majestic temple complex of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. The beauty and mystery of the UNESCO world heritage site never fails to uplift his mind and spirit whenever he recollects the place.