LONG TRIP TO ENID
He and a buddy landed at the airport in Oklahoma City, hopped into a cab and told the driver to take them to Enid. They were shocked when the driver said it was a 90-mile trip and demanded $150 before he’d leave the curb.
Since the duo had a combined $60, they slept at the airport, took a taxi to the Greyhound station the next morning, and spent six hours on the bus winding their way to Enid.
“There was an apartment that [the university] had arranged for us. We just loved it,” he says. But Adi ran out of money by the end of his first semester. So he drove to New York looking for summertime work and became a leased-limo driver.
When he finished his MBA in 1990, Adi and his girlfriend and now-wife, Zenobia, headed due south to see if they might want to live in Dallas. “We made a right turn off Southwestern Boulevard into the Village Apartments and saw paradise,” he said. “Swimming pools, nice apartments for 300, 400 bucks in rent. We said, This is our place. We’ll settle in Dallas.”
In 1997, Adil Adi decided to use his engineering connections in India to start a tech staffing company. SAP, the German giant software corporation, was gearing up operations in the states, but there was an acute shortage of talent. “So I got talent for SAP from India. That’s how the business got started,” he said.
Today nearly all of the tech workers WorldLink recruits are here in the United States.
Adi, who owns WorldLink, has added other services — software programming and technical support services — to its IT staffing business.
Its biggest client is Samsung and its U.S. operating units. Adi is using his relationship with the South Korean telecommunications giant to network into other companies there. “After 17 years, we have ventured into a new territory,” he said.
He might also add a small operation in Japan if his research this week pans out.
For the last five years, WorldLink has provided tech staffing and project management services to Texas Capital Bank. Rob Palacios, the bank’s chief information officer, says WorldLink invested the time to understand Texas Capital’s culture and its needs. “This has helped us find new leaders for our business solutions group who can be effective in our environment,” Palacios says.
Last year, WorldLink added more than 400 employees and opened offices in Washington, D.C., Detroit and San Jose, bringing its total to 1,200, including about 250 in the Dallas area. This year, Adi says the company will hire 300 to 400 people as it expands.
Both of the Adi sons are promising golfers. The eldest is about to graduate from Texas Christian University and hopes to join the PGA Tour. The younger will join Southern Methodist University’s team next year. If they turn pro, they’re guaranteed at least one big sponsor, Adi says.
