Dr. Gururaj (Desh) Deshpande, educated at UNB and Queen's University, has combined his engineering expertise and financial skills to start and take over public multibillion-dollar companies (Cascade Communications, Sycamore Networks), and has co-founded and/or influenced the direction of at least seven more in the U.S. communications and technology sector. Through the Deshpande Foundation, he and his wife, Jaishree, have established university-based centres in Canada, the United States and India to encourage the use of entrepreneurship and innovation as catalysts for sustainable change. His expertise and advice has been sought by Presidents and Prime Ministers, and he continues to serve a global community through influencing a powerful combination of commercial and social entrepreneurship initiatives.