BOSTON – INE Multimedia announced that veteran entrepreneur Jit Saxena will be the Guest of Honor at New England Choice Awards gala on Friday at Westin Hotel in Waltham, MA, and will present the awards.

New England Patriots owner and Kraft Group Chairman and CEO Robert Kraft, whose holding company owns many businesses, including New England Revolution, Gillette Stadium, International Forest Products, Rand-Whitney Group, Rand-Whitney Containerboard and a portfolio of more than 100 private equity investments, will be the chief guest at the New England Choice Awards gala, and present the Lifetime Achievement Award to Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria.

“We are very excited to have these two giants present the awards at the gala,” said Upendra Mishra, publisher of INDIA New England News. “It is going to be an exciting evening.”

Mr. Saxena, one of the most successful New England entrepreneurs, has a long and successful career of entrepreneurship and business leadership in growing new global companies.

As founder, Chairman and CEO of Netezza, the leading provider of data analytics and monitoring appliances, Mr. Saxena led its initial public offering and its acquisition by IBM for $1.7 billion in 2010. He also founded and led Applix, a leader in analytical CRM software, which he took public in 1994 and was acquired by Cognos/IBM in 2003.

Mr. Saxena is passionate about entrepreneurship and serving the community by fostering and mentoring entrepreneurs. He serves on the boards of several technology companies in Massachusetts including Actifio, Applause, Cazena, ClearSkyData, Demandware, Evergage and others. He has a BSEE from IIT Mumbai, MSEE from Michigan State University and an MBA from Boston University.