Pankaj Patel: 2025 Distinguished Achievement Award recipient

MSEE ‘77 (BSEngr ‘75, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India)
CEO, Nile

An electrical engineer who is a leader in advancing network connectivity solutions and enterprise technology, fostering innovation and growth across the industry.

When Pankaj Patel came to Wisconsin from India in 1975, the information age had barely begun; in fact, he didn’t even have the resources to research Madison, and had no idea it got cold (very cold) in the winter. But over the last 50 years as an entrepreneur and executive in networking, Patel helped make the digital age a reality.

After earning his master’s degree from UW-Madison, Patel worked at several computer companies including Prime Computer, Digital Equipment and Apollo Computer in Boston for a decade plus before decamping for California, where he founded a company developing design tools for chip development. After selling that company, he joined StrataCom, a pioneer in networking and the early internet. Soon, Patel was running most of the engineering for the company—and when it was purchased by Cisco in 1996, Patel spent the next 20 years leading various divisions within the company. Ultimately, he became chief development officer, responsible for all engineering, marketing and product management, with a $38 billion portfolio of projects and 29,000 employees.

After retirement, Patel joined with John Chambers, former Cisco CEO, to help with due diligence for the JC2 Ventures, a venture capital fund, investing in and advising 10 startup companies, many of which he still works with. At the same time, he created his own startup, Nile, which is developing a platform that provides autonomous and secure networks to clients, reducing the complexity, maintenance and bottlenecks of legacy systems. “You know how Amazon Web Services disrupted traditional computer and storage companies? That’s what we plan to do with networking,” says Patel.

After six and a half years, the company has more than 220 employees, and has raised $300 million in funding.

Which engineering professor made the greatest impact on you?

My advisor, Donald Dietmeyer. There’s a very important lesson I learned from him, especially having grown up in India. Every so often I would go to his office and a janitor named Norm would be there. They would talk about the Packers and Badgers and Norm would have his feet up on the chair. It used to blow my mind, because that would never, ever happen in India—a janitor talking to a professor.

That’s when I realized the USA is a very different country. Whether they are a doctor or behind the counter at McDonald’s, you respect the job a person does; you respect the dignity of people making a living from honest work. That’s been a very important lesson and has guided my career.

How did your engineering education enable your success?

An engineering degree is the most versatile degree anybody can ever have. You can be anything—a lawyer, a doctor, a CPA, a scientist. It encourages you to think logically, to open your mind and to be curious and explore, but then come back to logical thinking.

Which do you prefer?

Camp Randall, the Kohl Center, or the UW Field House?
There were some students who would take me to football games when they had a spare ticket. At that time the team was not very good, but I learned how the kids would sneak alcohol in their winter coats and parkas and pass it along.

Favorite Babcock ice cream flavor?
The student union always had the best ice cream, and I miss that. It was just absolutely a treat and I loved anything with caramel.