Dave Katragadda about his Profession

Dave Katragadda holds a Masters in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, a Masters in Industrial and Systems Engineering from University of Alabama in Huntsville and Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from Andhra University, India.

Dave Prasad Katragadda is an accomplished investor and trader in the global markets. He has founded/ has invested in over a dozen technological companies; as a businessman he has been an inspiration and mentor to several startups.

Dave Katragadda is the Founder and President of The Seven Hills Group, a conglomerate with diversified holdings in sectors such as media & entertainment, technology, education, financial services, and healthcare.

The flagship company of the group, Seven Hills Capital Management, is focused on making early and growth stage investments in companies based in India and the US. Its portfolio includes Phat Phish – a media company with subsidiaries in advertising, music, films, TV production and event management, and Novire Technologies, which develops and manufactures GPS enabled tracking devices for the trucking industry.

Before establishing the Seven Hills Group, Dave built an almost unique track record in equity and options trading on the US stock exchanges, achieving spectacular returns on his initial modest investment. Dave Katragadda utilized his exceptional skills at distilling financial information and price trends to create a portfolio of very high-performing stocks in the technology, finance and energy sectors.

Prior to his fulltime trading career, Dave co-founded and ran Smart Software, a fundamental financial data analysis company subsequently acquired by McGraw Hill. Smart Software was a global pioneer in the financial data analysis business and at the time of its inception, only one among four such service providers worldwide.

Dave Katragadda is also the Chairman and Founder of the Katragadda Innovative Trust for Education (KITE), which is in the process of establishing corporate training centers for IT education nationwide in India. The Trust aims to have an impact on engineering education in India through cutting-edge technological education in two engineering colleges, as well as state-of-the-art training for future engineering faculty.

Dave Katragadda currently sits on the board of several firms such as [212] MEDIA, a New York City based media & entertainment conglomerate, Bod Vod - a Bollywood and South Asian programming video on demand distribution company, Younan Properties – a real estate investment firm specializing in commercial properties, Trinox Infrastructure and Good Samaritan Hospital, Bakersfield.

He is an influential participant along with his brother Mr. Krishna Katragadda in the US political scenario, supporting and envisioning a greater role for Non resident Indians in the United States Government. He has addressed several gatherings of TANA, and has been an honorary speaker at several Democratic meetings. He has also contributed $1 million to the Clinton Global Initiatives fund, and is a co-sponsor to the event of former U.S. president Bill Clinton delivering the keynote address to Telugu Association of North America’s bi-annual event, TANA 2007.

He is very active contributor to the world socio-economic development, he has founded “Katragadda Charities” a Not for Profit organization helping in the empowerment of rural India, through the use of technology. As a much respected philanthropist, Dave has donated generously to causes dear to him such as the Clinton Global Initiatives Fund, Women International and the Hindu Temple of Bakersfield.

Some of his major social services activities include:

• Charitable activities in India through Katragadda charitable trust.
• Making their village Chiluvuru the first internet village in India.
• Conceptualizing and funding Jawahar Knowledge Centers in AP to teach the much needed soft skills to engineering students prior to graduation thus providing them with the toolset needed to launch their careers.