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Ravi Talwar

Ravi Talwar

Just over 60 years ago, Ravi Talwar’s first opportunity to travel outside of his home country of India brought him to Indiana Tech and started what has been a glorious journey for him—as an engineer, entrepreneur, business manager, mentor and philanthropist.  

Talwar earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Indiana Tech in 1965 and worked as a machine and process design engineer at Sheller-Globe from 1965 to 1968. In 1968, he began pursuit of a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering at Purdue University, which he completed in 1969. After earning his master’s, Talwar joined General Electric as a manufacturing engineer. He went on to hold various supervisory and managerial job responsibilities at GE prior to becoming managing director of JEDAC, a GE/Saudi Arabian joint venture, from 1984 to 1987.

In 1987, Talwar was ready to strike out on his own, and he acquired the Indiana Bridge structural fabrication shop in Muncie, Indiana. Following the success of Indiana Bridge, he started another Muncie-based partnership, RJ Rebar, Inc., in 1988; and Tishler Industries, Inc., in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1990. In 1993, he started Gate City Steel, Inc., as a parent company for his growing rebar operations. Over the next decade he added eight more rebar fabrication shops, stretching from Sterling, Illinois, to Tampa Florida, and in 2000, he created Gate City Software Solutions, LLC, in Pune, India, to support detailing needs for the rebar operations.

Talwar sold all of his rebar shops to global steel manufacturer Gerdau Industries in 2005, but he still owns and operates Gate City Steel and Tishler Industries, which employ approximately 60 people. He is also active in his community as a mentor for SCORE, a not-for-profit organization that supports small businesses through mentoring and educational workshops.

In addition to his degrees from Indiana Tech and Purdue, Talwar holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Delhi University in India. He is a member of Indiana Tech’s Board of Trustees and its Alumni Hall of Fame, and he has earned an honorary Doctor of Engineering from the university.

In December 2021, Indiana Tech dedicated the Talwar College of Engineering and Computer Sciences in honor of he, his wife of 50 years, Eleanor, and his family.

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