UC Irvine Alumni Association to Honor Jai Hakhu with Distinguished Alumni Award

Nov. 3, 2025 - Jai Krishan Hakhu ’79 Ph.D. has been named the UC Irvine Alumni Association 2025 Lauds & Laurels Distinguished Alumni honoree from the UCI Samueli School of Engineering. Hakhu is the president of RC International, advisor to HORIBA Limited and the former chairman and CEO of HORIBA International Corporation.

As CEO of HORIBA International Corporation, Hakhu led the company’s offices in all of North and South America, India and HORIBA Medical France. He built HORIBA India from just a handful of people into one of the company’s major success stories. When asked about his approach to leadership, Hakhu said he prides himself in being able to spot people’s potential. “I picked 30 to 40 people who are now leaders in the industry,” Hakhu said.

Hakhu comes from a family of educators and says his father’s advice has guided him throughout his career. “My father told me, ‘If you want to grow, you need to take everyone with you,’” he recalled. “He believed in giving opportunity and education to all — as he did for my sisters, who earned their master’s degrees at a time when that was uncommon for women in India.”

When Hakhu retired, HORIBA IT Lead Jiffry Uthumalebbe described his leadership in a poem. “Expectations high, but gently said, with wisdom that quietly led,” he wrote. Uthumalebbe said Hakhu is a highly admired mentor and a guide second only to his father.

Throughout his career, Hakhu has been active in training the next generation of engineers.  He has taught at UCI, the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee and California State University, Long Beach. He has also lectured at Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

As a member of UCI Samueli School of Engineering Dean’s Leadership Council, he has provided expertise that has helped shape the school’s strategic initiatives. “Jai Krishan Hakhu has been an extraordinary and steadfast supporter of the Samueli School of Engineering both in his professional capacity as a corporate executive at HORIBA and in his role as a dedicated alumnus,” said Dean Magnus Egerstedt. “His leadership and contributions have significantly advanced the mission of the school and have helped strengthen the bridge between academia and industry.”

In partnership with UCI, Hakhu helped establish the HORIBA Institute for Mobility and Connectivity, which focuses on the future of zero-emission vehicles, connected and autonomous vehicle technology, and the integration of the energy and transportation sectors to benefit the environment and people’s lives.

Hakhu earned his doctorate in electrical engineering at UCI and remembers those years fondly, as he recalls that it was then a small community of around 5,000 students. The close-knit environment, he said, fostered collaboration and a strong sense of belonging that encouraged both academic and personal growth. “You got to know every dean and professor one on one. You got so much attention and there was so much freedom to explore research you were interested in,” he said.

Some of his vivid memories include the paper airplane contest from the Dean’s balcony and winning the classic egg drop contest, where students had to engineer a packaging design that allowed an egg to be dropped from the top of Engineering Tower without breaking on impact. “I made it so it could land very softly,” he said with a smile.

After he received his Ph.D., he was recruited by Rockwell International, where he led teams that built the technologies that made GPS, cell phones and avionics for space shuttles possible. He would eventually become vice president, a position he also held at Varian Semiconductors. After Varian, he joined Intel Corporation, where he rose to the position of corporate vice president. Before joining HORIBA, he served as a senior advisor at Golden Gate Capital, bringing his deep engineering and leadership experience to the private equity sphere.

Hakhu was inducted into the UCI Engineering Hall of Fame at its inaugural celebration in 2015, held to coincide with the UC Irvine 50th Anniversary. He also spoke at the 2021 UCI Samueli School of Engineering commencement.

Hakhu is proud to have shared 50 years of marriage with Dr. Nalini Hakhu and is the proud father of Dr. Nisha Hakhu and Dr. Navneet Hakhu. He credits his family’s unwavering support as a cornerstone of his success throughout his career. 

Hakhu will be honored at the 54th Lauds & Laurels Awards Ceremony and Dinner on Friday, Nov. 7, 2025, at the Hyatt Regency Irvine.

- Natalie Tso