Raja awarded the Diamond Award for Region’s Top CEOs/Presidents by the Pittsburgh Business Times
September 14th, 2008http://ceiamerica.com/PBT_Diamond_Award_2008.pdf
http://ceiamerica.com/PBT_Diamond_Award_2008.pdf
Entrepreneur of the Year winners announced
CEO of Computer Enterprises, Inc.
Winner of Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year
PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania – July 2, 2008 – Computer Enterprises Inc. (CEI) a global leader in
information technology today announced that D. Raja, CEO has been selected as a local winner
of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. D. Raja received the award June 27, 2008
at a banquet held at the Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland for the Integrated Technology Category.
“The Entrepreneur Of The Year award recognizes all of the hard work, ingenuity and care these
leaders have put into building and improving their businesses and communities,” Kevin Pickels,
Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year Program Director for upstate New York, western
Pennsylvania and West Virginia, said in a statement. “This group of winners is truly remarkable
for all that they have accomplished.”
The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards are designed to recognize leaders that haveentrepreneurial and business skills. They are judged on their leadership skills and community
involvement. Raja was also nationally recognized in 2000 when he was a finalist for the Ernst &
Young (US) Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
About D. Raja:
D. Raja co-founded CEI in 1992 with the vision of creating a global leader for providing IT
solutions in leading edge, niche technologies. Today, under Raja’s astute leadership, CEI can
boast of being one of the few companies in the world to provide the benefit of Agile developmentmethodologies, a high level of competence and resource depth in leading edge technologies inMicrosoft and J2EE.
Raja’s passion for excellence manifests itself in CEI’s mission to be “known and trusted to
consistently deliver quality services that exceed customer expectations”. On the strength of thisguiding philosophy, CEI has grown from strength to strength and has provided IT services to over850 clients across the US, including over 60% of Fortune 50 companies.
Raja holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh and an MBA
from Carnegie Mellon University. He also holds an undergraduate degree in Electrical
Engineering from Anna University, India. While still pursuing his Master’s, Raja began his
professional career as a software engineer. He worked for over five years at Formtek, a
Lockheed Company. His sharp business acumen and leadership skills marked him as a star
performer at Formtek where he quickly scaled the ranks from software engineer to manager of
the software department. In 1992, Raja launched his own consulting and project management
practice, a venture that was to become CEI.
Raja’s entrepreneurial and business skills were nationally recognized in 2000 when he was a
finalist for the Ernst & Young (US) Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Raja is also the recipient of
the 2007 Smart Business Pacesetters Award for CEO excellence, which recognized his
leadership both within Pittsburgh and the region. In 2008, Raja was awarded the Diamond Award
by the Pittsburgh Business Times recognizing his effective leadership and his commitment to his
employees and clients. Very active in the community, Raja is currently serving as Commissioner
of Mt. Lebanon (www.mtlebanon.org) and President of TiE Pittsburgh (www.tiepgh.org).
Providing substantial business and industry acumen to regional organizations, Raja is a board
member of the South Hills Chamber of Commerce (www.shchamber.org) and Chairman of the
Computer Science Industry Board at the University of Pittsburgh.