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Tech company CEO, a Lehigh University grad, dies in shocking stage fall in India at company’s anniversary celebration

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Sanjay Shah, a Lehigh University graduate and CEO of a Chicago area tech firm died in a shocking fall in front of hundreds of attendees during the company’s 25th anniversary celebration Thursday at a movie studio stage in India.

A video of the accident shows Shah, 55, CEO of Vistex, and Raju Datla, the company’s president, being lowered in a faux hot air balloon spewing decorative sparks when a cable holding the basket gave way and the two men plunged about 20 feet to the stage below.

Shah died from his injuries while Datla remains in critical condition, according to multiple Indian news sources. A Vistex spokesperson did not return a request for comment Monday.

Shah is an Indian immigrant who came to the United States. in 1988 to get his MBA at Lehigh University, where he graduated in 1989.

One of the reasons he came to the U.S. was to attend the school and get a business education there, according to a post on the university’s website.

In an October 2022 appearance on the ilLUminate podcast for the university’s College of Business, Shah said he was drawn to the school because Lee Iacocca, of Ford and Chrysler fame, had gone there.

That, alongside with his desire to get out of his “comfort zone,” ultimately led him to go to Lehigh University, according to a transcript from the podcast.

He has since donated $5 million to the university to create the Vistex Institute for Executive Learning and Research, which provides short programs for working professionals, with a focus on content that “enhances interpersonal and corporate effectiveness,” according to the university.

The gift was given to the school in 2017.

Shah moved to Chicago in 1993 to work for software firm SAP. In 1999, Shah founded Vistex, which provides business software for companies such as Whirlpool, GM, Barilla and Bayer. Vistex has more than 2,000 employees and 20 offices worldwide, including one in Hyderabad, India, where the accident occurred.

The Vistex 25th anniversary celebration was held at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad, a sprawling film studio and “thematic tourist destination” that also hosts corporate events. The venue did not return a request for comment Monday.

A philanthropist, Shah in 2012 started the Vistex Foundation, which supports a number of causes including the development of a hospital in rural India.

Shah, who bootstrapped Vistex into an international company that went from zero to $250 million in annual revenue by its 20th anniversary, eschewed outside investment until 2019, when Silicon Valley private equity firm Accel-KKR provided $65 million to further his expansion plans.

Reflecting on his success, Shah said at the time he hoped to inspire other Chicago tech entrepreneurs and immigrants who followed in his footsteps.

“I was born in India, and I’m living the American dream,” Shah told the Tribune.

Read more of the Chicago Tribune’s report about Sanjay Shah

Morning Call reporter Christopher Dornblaser contributed to this story.


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