Gurvinder Pal (G.P.) Singh, Ph.D.
Vice President
Santikos Foundation
G.P. Singh is an innovator and successful entrepreneur, a highly published research scientist and civic leader, a husband and father who believes in and teaches the importance of establishing and living by a family mission and set of values, a man of faith who champions tolerance and understanding.
A native of India, Dr. Singh came to the United States in 1974 for graduate school – and by 1979 had earned his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering and mechanics from Drexel University in Philadelphia.
He had visited San Antonio once for a conference when he was a student. During that brief stay, he liked the people, the food and the weather — “hot people, hot food and hot weather” as he likes to say. San Antonio seemed like a good place to raise a family, so he spurned the East Coast and instead implored Southwest Research Institute for a job, finally winning a position as a Senior Research Engineer.
In 1985, he joined the engineering faculty at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and in 1986 formed Karta Technologies, Inc., which, as majority shareholder, he grew into San Antonio’s largest defense contractor for professional services, eventually employing more than 400 professionals in 25 locations across the country. Karta provided engineering, comprehensive training solutions, medical transformation and information technology to its clients, primarily within the federal government.
Along the way, Dr. Singh published more than 50 technical papers and numerous reports related to ultrasound, power plant maintenance and operations, artificial intelligence and computer-based learning, and was granted six US patents for his inventions.
In 2001, Karta was named one of the Top 25 Information Technology Companies by Washington Technology, the leading publication for government contractors and partners. The company’s success led to its acquisition in 2007 by NCI Information Systems, Inc. (NCIT-NASDAQ).
Throughout his career, Dr. Singh has been committed to community service in San Antonio and beyond. While that has led him to involvement in a number of boards and committees (see below), he now has a focused interest in working with families to help them establish their own mission and values for parenting and developing a true family legacy.
He and his wife, Winkey Kaur, began this process with their own family of four sons, all of whom went to public schools in San Antonio, with three moving on to graduate from Trinity University and one from UTSA. They went to graduate school at Harvard, Columbia, Northwestern and Johns Hopkins. Today, they range in age from their mid-20s to early 30s, and three are married.
As adherents of the Sikh religion, Dr. Singh and his family are engaged locally and nationally in Sikh issues, supporting key tenets of tolerance and understanding, not only for Sikhs but for all peoples.
