Neerja Sethi, co-founded IT consulting and outsourcing firm Syntel. NRI Neerja Sethi is an entrepreneur who has an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion:

• In  1980, Neerja became co-founded IT consulting and outsourcing firm Syntel, along with her husband, Bharat Desai in their apartment in Troy, Michigan
• The couple started the business with an initial investment of just $2,000.
• She served as treasurer of the company for 16 years, and currently the vice president for corporate affairs
• She was a member of Syntel's board of directors.
• French IT firm Atos SE bought Syntel for $3.4 billion in October 2018. Sethi got an estimated $510 million for her stake.
• Sethi, who had served as an executive at Syntel since 1980, did not join Atos after the acquisition.

Neerja Sethi, 63, was born in India and did her bachelor from Delhi University in mathematics and Maters of Computer Science from Oakland University. She did Masters in Business Administration in operations research from Delhi University.

Neerja Sethi met her husband in the U.S. while working for pioneering IT firm Tata Consulting Services which they attempted to emulate. She has two children with her husband, Bharat.

Bharat Desai  was born in Kenya and got his IT degree from IIT-Bombay. He moved to the US in 1976 as a programmer for Tata Consulting Services. He received MBA degree from the University of Michigan. In 2014, he was ranked the richest NRI in the World Billionaires list in Forbes Richie Rich.Sethi ranked 21st on the magazine's list of America's 60 self-made richest women, down from rank 14 in 2015.