K. R. Naik (Chairman & Founder, Digisol Systems)
Mr. K. R. Naik is an Indian IT networking industry veteran with close to 5 decades of experience. He is widely regarded as the father of India’s IT Networking industry as he accredited for giving India its first IT Networking company Smartlink Network Systems Ltd., which has a local manufacturing success story for over three decades. He has been instrumental in introducing global IT brands like CISCO, D-Link, Foundry, Lanner, Mercury Link, Gigabyte in India having manufacturing as well as R&D operation.
In 1994 he entered into a joint venture with a multinational – D-Link Corporation under the name “D-Link India” with the manufacturing facility in Goa and corporate office in Mumbai. Further, he introduced the DIGILINK Brand of passive networking (Structured Cabling Systems). Riding on the back of a strong domestic growth curve, in the year 2008 a formal demerger with the JV partner, resulted in Smartlink sharpening its focus further on brand DIGILINK and other businesses. In the year 2009, he introduced the DIGISOL brand.
Mr. K. R. Naik is a Mechanical Engineer with P.G in Industrial Engineering and a Diploma in Business Management. He started his career with IBM, working in various departments, including product design and development. Mr. Naik is also a former President of MAIT (Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology).