Keith Krach

Keith Krach was appointed to the Purdue Board of Trustees by Governor Mitch Daniels in July of 2007. In July of 2009, he was elected by his fellow Trustees to be the Chairman of the Board.

Keith Krach is currently the CEO of 3Points, Inc., an investment holding company based in Los Gatos, CA. Krach co-founded Ariba (ARBA on NASDAQ) in 1996, serving as CEO and Chairman of the Board for 7 years. Under his leadership as CEO, Ariba not only pioneered the business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce industry, but also grew rapidly to become the dominant global player. During his tenure as CEO, Keith Krach took Ariba public, ultimately achieving a market capitalization of $34 billion and becoming one of the fastest growing software companies in history. In honor of his accomplishments in e-business, Ernst & Young named Krach the 2000 National Entrepreneur of the Year, the same year in which he was honored at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, with the Technology Pioneer Award.

After earning his B.S. degree in industrial engineering from Purdue University in 1979 as a General Motors Scholar and an MBA from Harvard University in 1981 as a GM Fellow, Krach worked at GM’s Cadillac Division, New York Treasurer’s Office, and GM’s Technical Center before being named as GM’s youngest-ever vice president at the age of 26. Krach then went on to spearhead GM’s first-ever Japanese joint venture, GMF Robotics.

After 10 years with GM, Krach headed out to Silicon Valley to join the founding team of Rasna Corporation as the Chief Operating Officer. Rasna was recognized as #3 on the Inc. 100 list of Fastest-Growing Companies and was sold in 1995 to Parametric Technologies (PMTC on NASDAQ) for $500 million. Keith Krach then became the first entrepreneur-in-residence at Benchmark Capital where he assembled the team to form Ariba in 1996.

Krach has lectured at Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley and IMD in Switzerland, and was named a Distinguished Engineer at Purdue. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for numerous companies ranging from software to clean technology. Krach is committed to numerous philanthropic endeavors, including co-founding the Children’s Autistic Network, serving on the Board of Governors for Opportunity International, the largest issuer of micro loans in the world, and being named as the International President for the Sigma Chi Fraternity (2005-2007), with over 250,000 members. In 2007, Krach also had the honor of serving as a member of the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference in the Middle East, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Krach has three children, Monica (Princeton ‘08), Stephen (USC expected ‘11) and Carter (high school senior.) Krach and his wife, Metta (B.A. UCLA; J.D. Georgetown), call both California and Indiana their home.