# Sanjay Dhawan

> Sanjay Dhawan is the CEO of SymphonyAI, a Palo Alto-based vertical AI software company assembled by entrepreneur Romesh Wadhwani. He spent thirty years moving between operator and founder seats - co-founding Inkra Networks, running Symphony Teleca through its Harman acquisition, leading Cerence from a $500M Nuance spinout to a >$5B market cap, and now scaling SymphonyAI across retail, financial crime, manufacturing, media, and IT operations. He is also Chairperson of Pioneer Corporation and a Senior Advisor at EQT.

- **Role:** CEO at SymphonyAI
- **Organizations:** SymphonyAI, Pioneer Corporation, EQT, Cerence, Harman International, Symphony Teleca, Aricent, Inkra Networks, AMD, StarNet, Netopia
- **Nationality:** Indian-American
- **Education:** M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, Brunel University, England, B.Sc. in Electronics and Communications, REC Kurukshetra (NIT Kurukshetra), India
- **Known for:** Grew Cerence's market cap roughly 10x, from ~$500M (2019) to a peak above $5B (2021), Led Symphony Teleca through acquisition by Harman in 2015, On the management team during Samsung Electronics' $8B acquisition of Harman in 2017

## Career timeline

- **1990s** — Engineering and product roles at AMD, StarNet and Netopia
- **early 2000s** — Co-founded and led Inkra Networks as Chairman and CEO, pioneering the virtual networking segment
- **pre-2010** — President and COO of Aricent
- **2010** — Became President and CEO of Symphony Teleca Corporation
- **2015** — Symphony Teleca acquired by Harman International
- **2015-2019** — President of Connected Services and CTO at Harman; part of management through Samsung's $8B acquisition of Harman in 2017
- **2019** — Led Cerence's spin-out from Nuance and became President and CEO
- **2021** — Cerence market cap surpassed $5B (from ~$500M at spin-out)
- **2022-01** — Appointed CEO of SymphonyAI
- **2022-06** — Appointed Chairperson of the Board of Pioneer Corporation
- **2023+** — Senior Advisor at EQT

## Achievements

- Grew Cerence's market cap roughly 10x, from ~$500M (2019) to a peak above $5B (2021)
- Led Symphony Teleca through acquisition by Harman in 2015
- On the management team during Samsung Electronics' $8B acquisition of Harman in 2017
- Co-founded Inkra Networks, credited with defining the virtual networking segment
- Authored networking publications and chaired IEEE standards committees
- Took on Chairperson role at Pioneer Corporation, Tokyo, in 2022

## Latest updates

- **2022-01** — Joined SymphonyAI as CEO to lead integration across retail, CPG, financial crime, manufacturing, media, and ITSM business units.
- **2022-06** — Elected Chairperson of the Board, Pioneer Corporation.
- **2024** — Continued positioning SymphonyAI's Eureka platform and Sensa/Media/Industrial business units around agentic and generative AI.

## Links

- Website: https://symphonyai.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanjay-dhawan-29909423
- Twitter/X: https://www.twitter.com/ayasdi
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uziep9fYOM
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ayasdi

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/sanjay-dhawan
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-15