A strong academic background and a talent lot drawing helped him land a full scholarship at the Indian Institute of Technology, a school that selects only 1 percent of its applicants. Later, he studied in the United States on a Rockefeller Foundation scholarship.

His inability to find work after returning to India in 1976 brought him back to the United States, where he began work for a number of firms in Illinois and Ohio before settling into Southern California in the late '80s.

Kulkarni started GKK Corporation in 1991, backed by two investors whom he bought out within five years. Besides expanding throughout California, he wanted to establish operations in India--both to secure work in that country as well as tap into less expensive labor for its projects in the U.S.