Gupta was a board member of corporations including Goldman Sachs, Procter & Gamble and American Airlines, as well as an advisor to non-profit organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

He is the co-founder of the Indian School of Business, American India Foundation, New Silk Route and Scandent Solutions.

Gupta was convicted in June 2012 of four criminal felony counts of conspiracy and securities fraud in the Galleon scandal.

An application to remain free until the court determined whether it would hear the appeal was denied in June 2014, leaving Gupta having to commence his two-year prison term that month.

After high school, Gupta ranked 15th in the nation in the entrance exam for the Indian Institutes of Technology, IIT JEE.

His economics professor at IIT Delhi was Subramanian Swamy, who wrote his recommendation letter when he applied for Harvard Business School.

[7][8] Declining a job from the prestigious domestic firm ITC Limited, he received an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1973.

He was initially rejected because of inadequate work experience, a decision that was overturned after his Harvard Business School professor Walter J. Salmon called Ron Daniel, then head of the New York office and later also the managing director of McKinsey, wrote on Gupta's behalf.

"[10] According to The Financial Times, "the two operated as a forceful double-act to secure business for McKinsey, win access in Washington and build a brotherhood of donors around the Hyderabad-based ISB and a handful of social initiatives.

Gupta is widely regarded as one of the first Indians to successfully break through the glass ceiling, as the first Indian-born CEO of a multinational corporation (not just a consultancy).

[12] During Gupta's time as head of McKinsey, the firm opened offices in 23 new countries and doubled its consultant base to 891 partners, increasing revenue 280 percent to $3.4 billion.

During the dot-com bubble he and Anil Kumar created a program for McKinsey to accept payment from its clients in stock.

[6][16] According to close friends when he stepped down as McKinsey management director, Gupta lost what NYU's Lechner called "the halo effect" including the tremendous status afforded by his previous role.

Gupta reportedly began to express a certain resentment about money, as his peers in Silicon Valley and Wall Street (including McKinsey's private equity clients) at the time "raking in staggering amounts of money while Gupta soldiered on with a mere senior partner's millions".

[19] However, in the wake of subsequent scandals a McKinsey spokesperson was quoted as saying, "Our firm no longer has a professional relationship with Rajat Gupta.

"[20] According to NDTV, "sources tell us that the firm dropped Mr Gupta from its alumni database, and called clients worldwide to say that they would have nothing to do with him going forward."

[22] In 1997 Gupta co-founded the Indian School of Business (ISB) with friend and fellow senior partner Anil Kumar.

[24][25] Before stepping down as managing director he co-founded Scandent Solutions with Ramesh Vangal and the American India Foundation with Victor Menezes and Lata Krishnan.

After McKinsey Gupta co-founded and chaired the private equity firm New Silk Route, formerly named Taj Capital Partners, with Parag Saxena and Victor Menezes.

[28] Gupta has also served on the board of Russian bank Sberbank, and as a managing advisor to Symphony Technology Group.

In the past, Gupta has been involved with a number of universities and other educational institutions, volunteering and serving as chairman and member of several boards and councils.

[35] With Anil Kumar, Gupta co-founded the Indian School of Business, and was chairman of the governing and executive boards.

[61] On March 1, 2009, the SEC filed an administrative civil complaint against Gupta for insider trading with billionaire and Galleon Group hedge fund founder Rajaratnam.

Coverage of the event noted that Anil Kumar — who, like Gupta, had graduated from IIT, was a highly regarded senior partner at McKinsey, and had also co-founded the Indian School of Business — had already pleaded guilty to charges in the same case.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said, "Rajat Gupta was entrusted by some of the premier institutions of American business to sit inside their boardrooms, among their executives and directors, and receive their confidential information so that he could give advice and counsel.

"[64] Details of wiretap recordings and trading activity related to the charges were analyzed at length in the media, assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the prosecution's and defense's cases.

[68] All were involved to varying degrees as founding partners of private-equity firms Taj Capital and New Silk Route, though Rajaratnam and Kumar left before they began operation.

[72] On October 24, 2012, Gupta was sentenced to two years in prison by Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the United States District Court in Manhattan for leaking boardroom secrets to Rajaratnam.

[74] On June 11, 2014 US Supreme Court rejected Gupta's bail plea, a week before his prison term began.