GlowTouch's Vidya Ravichandran quietly pursues dual roles

Vidya Ravichandran, president of Louisville-based GlowTouch Technologies, prefers to downplay her achievements.

In near perfect English, she brushes off the fact that she speaks five languages, referring to her linguistic skills as "nothing unusual" in her native India.

And when meeting someone new, she might casually mention that she runs an IT company, but Ravichandran tends to skip over the fact that it is an 800-person, international firm that generated $6.5 million in revenue last year.

GlowTouch Technologies offers application development, business-process outsourcing and IT infrastructure services.

The company was started in 2004 by Ravichandran's father, Ravi Ravichandran.

Vidya Ravichandran had started a separate IT business, Diya Systems, in 2002, and she sold that company to ADS Netcurve the next year.

GlowTouch bought Diya Systems in 2006 from ADS Netcurve, which since has become part of Louisville-based Beacon Enterprise Solutions Group.

At that point, Vidya Ravichandran joined GlowTouch as president.

Vidya Ravichandran has oversight of GlowTouch's Louisville headquarters, which has about 15 employees, and the company's offices in Tennessee and California.

Ravi Ravichandran, who lives in India, manages GlowTouch's 780 workers in that country.

The company is owned by Vidya and Ravi Ravichandran and Tregaron Capital Co., of Palo Alto, Calif.

Striving for the next goal

GlowTouch topped Business First's list of the 50 fastest-growing, privately held companies in 2009, based on revenue growth, and it gained national recognition last year when it came in at No. 130 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies.

But for Vidya Ravichandran, that is just the beginning.

"The company is not even close to attaining its full potential," she said. "We really have such a long way to go."

Her drive to help the company continue growing means Ravichandran puts in about 70 hours per week.

She makes it a point to leave the office by 5 p.m. to have time with her daughters, ages 7 years and 10 months, before tucking them into bed.

Then, she's back on her laptop, often plugging away until midnight.

"She works harder than anyone I know," said husband Vik Chadha. "She's a very strong believer in the correlation between hard work and achieving success."

Family emphasized importance of education

Her dedication and work ethic is no surprise, considering her upbringing in Bangalore, India.

Her father, a Fulbright scholar who holds a doctorate degree, taught at the graduate level and launched multiple IT companies. Her mother, Indira Ravichandran, holds a master's degree, and she worked with her husband in the tech businesses.