TROY, NY: The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has named A.P. Parigi, managing director of Entertainment Network India Limited and managing director and CEO of Times Infotainment Media Limited, as the “2009 William F. Glaser ’53 Rensselaer Entrepreneur of the Year.”

The “Entrepreneur of the Year Award” recognized Parigi’s vision and commitment in transforming Times’ Network’s Radio Mirchi, once a small player in a heavily regulated industry, into India’s largest private FM radio network in just seven years.

Parigi received the prestigious award at a reception at the Troy, NY-based Rensselaer’s Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center Concert Hall on April 8.

Entrepreneurship is one of four building blocks at Rensselaer and is a key element in preparing future leaders to think about and approach challenges creatively, especially in a globalized economy. To that end, the institute has worked diligently in identifying entrepreneurial case studies globally that can be benchmarked.

“Radio Mirchi illustrates the specific transformation of India into the modern world—integrating the rural, non-money-based economy into the expanding money economy of the growth areas, principally in the major cities—using an ignored technology, radio,” said David Gautschi, dean of the Rensselaer’s Lally School of Management & Technology.

“The Rensselaer Entrepreneur of the Year Award represents an emerging, and growing, global recognition – among academia, businesses, and governments – of India’s potential in the international community,” Parigi said in his acceptance speech.

Radio was a ubiquitous, but ignored, technology at the time of Radio Mirchi’s launch in 2000 when India privatized the radio industry.  State radio covered 98 percent of India, but it ignored the 600 million Indians under the age of 30.  It was this reality that fueled Parigi’s passion that Radio Mirchi could become a “hot” brand in the world’s second most populous country, and set the tone for what would be the birth of a whole new kind of media company.

Radio Mirchi currently reaches more than 200 million listeners, in 32 cities and in 10 languages. And in what one might consider historical irony, Radio Mirchi expanded its international presence in 2008 when it purchased U.K. radio giant Virgin Radio – one of the largest deals brokered by an Indian media company outside of India.

Established in 1990, the William F. Glaser ’53 Rensselaer Entrepreneur of the Year Award recognizes successful entrepreneurs whose vision, commitment, and creativity exemplify the entrepreneurial spirit that is Rensselaer’s past, present, and future. Those honored with this award bring the world of entrepreneurship into Rensselaer’s classrooms and laboratories.

The award’s ceremony and the reception were sponsored by the Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship and the Lally School of Management & Technology.

Parigi joins past recipients who include Warren Bruggeman ’’46, former vice president and general manager of GE’s Nuclear Business Operations; Fred Smith, chairman, president, and CEO of FedEx Corporation; James Crowe ’72, CEO of Level 3 Communications; and Tom Le Fevre ’71, co-founder of Intuit. In addition to a multimedia presentation about Parigi and Radio Mirchi, the reception featured a panel discussion with Parigi, and selected Indian and American entrepreneurs from Rensselaer’s extended community, including: Michael J. Miller ’79, senior vice president for technology strategy at Ziff Brothers Investments, formerly editor-in-chief of PC Magazine; Tobi Saulnier ’84, founder and chief executive officer of 1st Playable Productions; and Vikram Agrawal ’02, chief executive officer of Etransmedia Technology Inc.