Hi guys,
Have you ever heard of a CEO, who is only 14 years old? Well here is a 14 years old girl, who loves to play like other kids, but she chooses to play with animation. Sindhuja Rajaraman, the ninth standard girl,CEO of Seppan,launched her Chennai based animation company in October 2010. She is the youngest digital caricaturist certified by Corel Corporation, India, fastest 2D animator in the country certified by Nasscom Animation and Gaming Conclave, 2010.
Sindhuja Rajaraman is also in world’s youngest CEO List as of earlier Suhas Gopinath at the age of 14 was recognized as the world’s youngest certified professional web-developer. Checkout here about Sindhuja Rajaraman, 14-year-old Chennai girl, who become the world’s youngest CEO.
The ninth standard student Sindhuja Rajaraman became the head of Seppan Company, an animation firm, in October 2010, set up by her father. Sindhuja Rajaraman was adjudged the fastest 2D and 3D animator by software lobby NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies) at the Gaming and Animation Conclave 2010 held in Hyderabad.
Rajaraman said: “I am just proud to be an animator. The CEO is just a post given in this company. I am learning animation for this CEO post to make myself worthy for the CEO post. There is no age bar or age limit for animation. Everybody can do animation”
“The scope for animation in India is growing everyday. There is going to be a big boom in India and all industries are into the animation, they need animation and multimedia. I am enjoying work and I am also getting challenging works” she added.
Seppan Company, which is having 160 employees.
Suhas Gopinath at the age of 14 was recognised as the world’s youngest certified professional web-developer through his project coolhindustan.com. Suhas Gopinath is from a middle class family of Bangalore, where his father was a defence scientist. Gopinath went on to set up Globals Inc, in 2000 at San Jose, California as he was not allowed to set up a company in India due to his age. From then Globals Inc has grown as a multinational IT consulting company with representation in over 11 countries. Suhas Gopinath is CEO and president of Globals Inc and carries with him the tag of the world’s youngest CEO. Today, his company, which started from California, US has presence in 11 countries, has 250 employees (most of them young) and a multi billion turnover.
Well, she had also made a Guinness Book record attempt for the fastest animation film. The film was on Exnora, a Chennai based non- profit organization. She made it to mark the occasion of 10-10-2010. She did a three minute animation film in ten hours. Now she is awaiting her results.
Talking about how she got into the animation profession, she said "It all started five years back when I wanted to take my mind off studies and do something new. My father, who is a cartoonist, instilled in me the passion to do animation and taught me the entire process. I have tried my luck with animation even before I started learning it prossfessionally. I did my first mini animation project when I was in sixth standard. It was on 'do not disturb animals'."
She got a offer from First Planet to work as Seppan's chief executive when she didn't even know the meaning of CEO, and now she is handling three projects, Virtual Street, Garbo.in and First Planet.
Kumaran Mani, her mentor, who helped her with the setting up of Seppan, says, "Initially she was a little uncomfortable being a CEO. But now she has learnt the tricks of the trade. When she meets a client she immediately shakes hands, collects their cards and neatly puts it in her folder."
In Seppan, there are ten people working and they will be adding more people when needed. Sindhuja added in a positive way that she is the only CEO who is paid less than her employees.
Her colleagues, who are older than her, mentioned that she is very creative and they have learned lot from her.
Software lobby Nasscom's regional director for Chennai, K Purushothaman said "Sindhuja is very passionate and committed in what she is doing. She has mastered the domestic animation skills. Now she has to sharpen her knowledge and skills on what's happening in the international market."
Though she gets offers from other big corporate companies, she has not shown any keen interest in joining them. She wants to live a normal life like any other 14 year old girl.
She aims to study at the Vancouver Film School in Canada and would like to specialize in animation.Sindhuja dreams that when she is 20 year old,Seppan would be a company with a turnover of one crore.
