2020 Young Alumni Achievement Award

For exceptional entrepreneurship, leadership, and technical acumen in finance and technology.

Akshay Naheta

Akshay Naheta

BSEE '03

Senior VP for Investments, SoftBank Group

London, England

Akshay Naheta joined SoftBank Group in 2017 and currently serves as Senior Vice President for Investments. Prior to joining SoftBank, Akshay was the Founder and Managing Partner of Knight Assets & Co., an investment manager focused on arbitrage and value investing. He has a S.M. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B. S., highest honors, in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Akshay was named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader in 2020. He was included in Fortune's 2020 list for the "40 under 40" most influential young people in business. Akshay currently serves on the Board of Directors of Arm Limited and Bakkt Holdings.

*While at Illinois, Akshay was a recipient of numerous awards: Best Senior Thesis, Edward C. Jordan Award, Timothy N. Trick Leadership Award, Henry O. Koehler Merit Scholarship, Eta Kappa Nu (HKN) Outstanding Junior Award and the Grainger College of Engineering's Knight of St. Patrick Award.

Current as of 2020.