5th Anniversary Leadership Forum Bios Nish Acharya is CEO of Equal Innovation, a firm that ...

36 Pages·2017·2.45 MB·English

by  Mansi Patel

5th Anniversary Leadership Forum

Bios

Nish Acharya is CEO of Equal Innovation, a firm that consults with leading
universities, governments, foundations and companies to assist them with
innovation, entrepreneurship and philanthropic strategies. Mr. Acharya is also a
Senior Fellow with the Center for American Progress, a contributor to Forbes and
the author of the “The India-US Partnership: $1 Trillion By 2030” by Oxford
University Press. Nish previously served as Director of Innovation &
Entrepreneurship and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Commerce for the Obama
Administration, as Executive Director of the Deshpande Foundation, and in the
Clinton White House.

Riju Agrawal is currently pursuing an MBA/MPP joint degree at the Harvard
Business School and Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where he was
selected as a Rubenstein Fellow. He was previously on the Private Equity team at
The Blackstone Group and the investment banking team of Morgan Stanley’s
Global Energy Group. Riju graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa
from Harvard University with a degree in Engineering Sciences, where he was co-
founder of the Harvard U.S.-India Initiative and co-president of the Harvard
College Global Energy Initiative. In 2011, Riju was selected to serve as a White
House Intern, where he worked for the Deputy Assistant to the President for
Energy and Climate Change. In addition, Riju was selected as a Future Energy
Leader by the World Energy Council and a Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum.

Maya Ajmera is the President and CEO of Society for Science & the Public and the
Publisher of Science News, and an alumna of the organization’s most prestigious
competition, the Science Talent Search. In 2013-2014, Maya served as the Inaugural
Social Entrepreneur in Residence for Duke University. In 1993, Maya founded The
Global Fund for Children (GFC), a nonprofit organization that invests in innovative,
community-based organizations working with some of the world’s most vulnerable
children and youth. To date, GFC has awarded nearly $40 million to more than 700
grassroots organizations in 80 countries, touching the lives of nearly 10 million
children. Maya also authored Invisible Children: Reimagining International
Development at the Grassroots, published by Palgrave Macmillan last year. She is
an award-winning children’s book author of 20 titles with more than 5 million readers
worldwide. She is a recipient of the Aspen Institute’s Henry Crown Fellowship and
holds an MPP from Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.
Rahul Ali is Country Director - India for Orbis International looking after strategy,
operations and financial performance of Orbis programs in India, Nepal and Indonesia.
Rahul is also a Board Member of VISION 2020: The Right to Sight India. Prior to joining
Orbis, Rahul was in the Kingdom of Bahrain with a large real estate developer where he
was responsible for their healthcare vertical. And before that he was with the L V
Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad where he served as a member of the faculty at the
International Center for Advancement of Rural Eye Care. Rahul completed his MBBS
and MS Ophthalmology from Christian Medical College, Ludhiana and Vellore
respectively as well as Master of Public Health and Master of Business Administration
from the Johns Hopkins University.

Prakash Ambegaonkar (known as DrP) is a successful serial entrepreneur and a
lifetime socioeconomic activist and philanthropist. Dr. Prakash started several high
technology companies like Frontier Technologies, E-Lock Technologies and
CareersUnbound that developed award winning software products. He started an
online college providing courses in energy, environment and sustainability. Dr.
Prakash's companies have won over 30 industry awards, including LAN Magazine's
Product of the Year three times running. He was also named Inc. Magazine's Regional
Entrepreneur of the Year in 1995. He is founder of ‘Bridging Nations Foundation’ a
non-profit policy and advocacy organization in Washington, DC that works on issues of
leadership, technology, international relations, education and employability. Dr. Prakash is currently working on
setting up a data driven personalized, career centric university.

Manpreet Singh Anand is a Distinguished Professor of Practice at the National
Defense University, Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies. Mr. Anand
previously managed U.S. policy with the countries of the subcontinent as Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia. Mr. Anand also served at the U.S. Agency
for International Development as the Deputy Assistant Administrator for South and
Central Asia. In the past, Mr. Anand worked as a Senior Policy Advisor for Chevron
Corporation and as the lead staffer on South and Central Asia to the Chairman of the
U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs. Mr. Anand is also an
Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security. Mr. Anand earned
an MBA and an MA in International Studies from the University of California, Berkeley,
as well as a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

Niraj Antani is serving his second term in the Ohio House of Representatives. Having
been elected age 23, now 26, he is the youngest currently serving member of the House.
In addition, he is youngest Indian-American state elected official in United States history,
and the first Indian-American Republican. Currently. Antani serves as Vice-Chairman of
the Committee on Higher Education and Workforce Development.
Antani was named to Forbes Magazine's list of the top "30 Under 30" people in the
United States for Law & Politics in 2015. As well, the conservative media organization
Newsmax named him the 2nd most influential Republican in the nation under age 30.
Mandar Apte is a social entrepreneur, thought leader and first-time film director.
Deeply pained by the ongoing violence in America, Mandar started the From India
With Love endeavor to reinvigorate our commitment to nonviolence. Mandar is a co-
founder of Media Rise — a nonprofit, social enterprise to inspire the creation and
consumption of meaningful media to accelerate social good. Until March 2016,
Mandar managed Shell's GameChanger social innovation program investing in ideas
that create shared value.

Balan Ayyar is the founder and CEO of Percipient.ai, an artificial intelligence firm
based in silicon valley focused on the most challenging intelligence and national
security missions. He is previous CEO of a $100M IT firm and Commanding General
of a Joint Interagency Task Force in combat in Afghanistan. He is a White House
Fellow and Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Suchit Bachalli is the CEO of Unilog, a global technology company which specializes in
e-commerce solutions and enriched product data for the B2B marketplace. He brings
nearly 15 years of technology sales and management experience with a particular focus
on wholesale distribution, retail and online commerce. As Unilog’s business grew into
North America, in 2014, he relocated to Philadelphia to establish its U.S. headquarters
in Wayne, Pa as Unilog’s President of North America. The company is now a multi-
million dollar business with 800 global employees and hundreds of customers across
diverse industries. In 2017, the Unilog Board of Directors unanimously voted to appoint
Suchit Bachalli as the new Chief Executive Officer of Unilog Content Solutions and all its
global subsidiaries.

Rishi S. Bagga is an attorney handling a variety of civil litigation and hospitality matters.
In addition to his practice, Rishi is an Adjunct Professor at Valencia College in Orlando
where he teaches Hospitality Law. He previously worked at a statewide law firm focused
on insurance defense issues, and is a a former Assistant State Attorney in Miami-Dade
County. Rishi currently serves as the President of the South Asian Bar Association of
North America (SABA). Rishi is licensed to practice law in Florida, New York, and the
District of Columbia. He earned his Juris Doctor (J.D. ’06) as well as a Master of Laws
(LL.M. ’10) in Law & Government from the Washington College of Law at American
University in Washington, D.C. Rishi also has a Bachelor of Arts (B.A. ’03) in Political
Science, summa cum laude, from the University of Central Florida in Orlando, FL.
Gunjan Bagla is Managing Director of Amritt, Inc an management
consultancy that helps American companies to do business in India. He writes
about business with India for the Harvard Business Review and has appeared
in the New York Times, Financial Times, Bloomberg TV and BBC TV for his
India expertise. His book "Doing Business in 21st Century India" was
published by Hachette and is five star rated on Amazon. He speaks about US-
India business at major conferences.

Nitin Bajaj is a Los Angeles-based entrepreneur and runs Esri Labs-the
innovation incubator for the billion-dollar enterprise GIS market-leader. Nitin
has always been intrigued and fascinated by the resounding success of Indian
entrepreneurs around the world. So intrigued, he did his doctoral thesis on the
topic and launched the broadly telecast The INDUStry Show. In addition to a
strong record of running successful start-ups, Nitin has led several multi-
million dollar strategic initiatives for Fortune 100 organizations such as Esri,
IBM, and Thomson Reuters. Nitin serves on the boards of Akshaya Patra LA
and Pratham Los Angeles. Nitin has a Doctorate in Strategy & Innovation and
MBA in Leadership and Organizational Change Management. As a Pepperdine alum, he loves the Waves and
is a paddleboarding enthusiast. Nitin is also an avid cyclist and has a few century rides under his saddle.

Bharat Barai is Medical Director of the Cancer Institute, Methodist Hospitals, Clinical
Assistant Prof. of Medicine: Indiana University Medical School, Secretary & former
President of the Medical Licensing Board, State of Indiana (since 2000). He has
received numerous community service awards in last 25 years for his voluntary
services to the local communities. Dr Bharat Barai is deeply Honored and Humbled to
receive the “Ellis Island Medal of Honor” on May 11, 2013; a highly Prestigious Civilian
Honor in USA. In 2014, Dr Bharat Barai was the lead person and President of the
Indian American Community Foundation that organized the legendary reception for
Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Madison Square Garden. On Jan 9, 2017
President of India Pranav Mukerjee bestowed Pravasi Bharatiya Sanman Award
(Highest Civilian Honor given to NRIs by Govt of India) at Bangalore, India. In March 2017, India’s Minister of
External Affairs, Mrs Sushma Swaraj appointed Dr Bharat Barai as a Trustee for India Development
Foundation of Overseas Indiana (IDF-OI). His Medical Professional story as an immigrant is featured in the
Recent Immigration section in the US National Museum of Immigration, Ellis Island, NY.

Dilip Barot is the founder of Creative Choice Group, a conglomerate of companies
having interests in real estate development, investment, construction, asset
management, and IT/ITeS. Creative Choice Group’s core business activity is private
real estate investment, development, and management. Dilip also serves as
President and CEO of several companies under the umbrella of Creative Choice
Group (CCG), which span across the realms of development for multifamily
residential, mixed-use, and commercial properties, investment management, and
technology.
Shama Barot, who is currently pursuing her MBA at Wharton, embodies what it
takes to balance life, career and wellness. Her keen business acumen, international
business experience across four continents and dance/fitness background blend for
success with Creative Choice Group where she is the driver of the $500M luxury
wellness project Amrit Ocean Resort and Residences—in all areas from finance to
construction to innovative wellness concepts. Shama gained her hospitality
experience from the Fontainebleau Miami Beach where she governed the utilization
of convention space, balanced revenue through room inventory, and ensured guest
satisfaction throughout the operation.

Joy Basu is the Impact Sector Lead for Food and Agriculture at The Rise Fund,
TPG’s new global impact fund. She holds the deep conviction that economic
opportunity is foundational for human development and critical to countering
extremism. She’s focused her work on implementing private-sector solutions to help
address pressing social-sector challenges – particularly food insecurity. Prior to
joining TPG, Joy was a consultant at McKinsey & Company. Joy earned a JD/MBA
from Stanford University with a Certificate in Public Management and Social
Innovation. Joy has a BA in Public Policy and Economics from Duke University.

Pat Basu is a business leader who has served as a senior executive in the corporate,
government, private equity and clinical sectors. A former Stanford Physician and White
House Advisor, Pat currently serves as Senior Vice President and member of the
Executive Leader Team of United Health Group a Fortune 10 company that provides
health services and health insurance.

Vrundan Bawankar is Executive Director of Pawan Public School. By the time she
graduated from college, her life-long dream of joining the Indian Armed Forces to
become a pilot was close to becoming reality. But a chance school gathering
challenged her to soar in different skies. At the age of 21, she decided that her
battlefield would be the rural primary education sector, not the blue skies of our
beloved country. In addition to her work as an Executive Director of Pawan Public
School, run by Gram Vikas Sanstha, she is a Project Manager with Pratham
Education Foundation. She also recently started a livelihood program for single
mothers. She is actively involved with NIRMAN, Jagriti Yatra, and Alag Angle. She
was chosen as A Young Leader 2017, IVLP, by the US Government, where she
represented India in the US.
Anurima Bhargava served as the Chief of the Educational Opportunities Section of
the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice from 2010-2016. At the
DOJ, she led the enforcement of civil rights laws in schools, colleges and universities.
She served on the White House Task Force to Prevent Campus Sexual Assault and
the Supportive School Discipline Initiative. She previously served as Director of the
Education Practice at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Anurima is currently serving
as an inaugural Leadership in Government Fellow at the Open Society Foundations.
Anurima earned her law degree from Columbia Law School and graduated magna
cum laude from Harvard College. She is a Presidential Leadership Scholar, a
member of the Council on Foreign Relations; a Partner with the Truman National
Security Project.

Rakesh Bhatia has 32 years of leadership experience in management, technology and
risk consulting with leading system integration and Big 4 firms. Currently, as partner in
PwC, he is responsible for leading PwC's global delivery. He is a board member of PwC
Charitable Foundation, Ascend and Pratham. He lives in Great Falls, VA.

Rhonda Binda is VP Policy for Venture Smarter and Director of their Regional
Smart Cities Initiatives. She has a distinguished history of public service, as Deputy
Director for the U.S. Department of State’s Global Intergovernmental Affairs
Division and in the West Wing of the White House. In between her government
tours she practiced law with Alston & Bird. Rhonda most recently served as the
Executive Director of the Jamaica Business Improvement District. Under her
tenure, Governor Cuomo awarded Jamaica the #1 award state-wide for downtown
revitalization, Jamaica was named #1 hottest neighborhood in NYC by the Wall
Street Journal and was winner of NYC’s Neighborhood Challenge Grant. In 2016,
she was Queens Chamber of Commerce’s Business Leader of the Year and named
Community Leader of the Year by QCYD. Binda attended Duke and Oxford and received her JD from
Georgetown.

Nisha Biswal is a Senior Advisor with ASG, where she draws on three decades of
experience to help clients of the firm’s South Asia practice expand and strengthen
their business operations in the region. She is serves on the Board of the Institute
for Sustainable Communities in Vermont, Creative Associates in Washington DC
and is on the International Advisory Council of the US Institute for Peace in
Washington DC. During the Obama Administration, Ms. Biswal served as
Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs from September
2013-January 2017 where she was responsible for formulating U.S. foreign policy
and managing relations with Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
Udayan Bose founded NetElixir with a vision to provide online marketers
worldwide with a paid search campaign optimization solution capable of delivering
magical performance. Udayan recognized the potential of paid search as an
essential advertising channel in 2002. Having experienced first-hand the
complexity involved in running a profitable paid search campaign, he was driven
to develop a system that delivers predictable and efficient campaign performance,
allowing marketers to fully leverage the power of paid search as a high value
sales generator. Udayan regularly lectures the MBA classes at the Johnson
Graduate School of Management, Cornell University; Zicklin School of Business,
Baruch, NY and the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. Udayan holds a Bachelors Degree in Chemical
Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and an M.B.A. from Mumbai University, India.

Jay Challa is Chairman and CEO of Ace Info Solutions (AceInfo). He founded
AceInfo in 2000. Under his leadership and outstanding management capabilities,
AceInfo has grown from a two-person, $50,000 revenue company in 2001 to a mid-
sized leader serving the Federal Government market space. The company has
won many awards from Federal Government agencies, including the SDB
Contractor of the Year from the US Department of Agriculture and the National
Directors Award from the US Department of Commerce Minority Business
Development Agency. Mr. Challa received Fifty Influential Minorities in Business
award from Minority Business Enterprise Network in 2006 and was on the cover of
the Minority Enterprise Advocate magazine in 2009. Mr. Challa lives in Herndon
with his wife Kavita, his daughter and son.

Rakesh Chand is the Principal of a Single Family Office and a social investor who uses
his business, banking and philanthropic experience to help develop social businesses
around the world. He coaches leaders on philanthropy and social responsibility and also
teaches and give talks on topics such as impact investing, philanthropy, next generation
planning, social investing, leadership and communications at Stanford University, the
University of California in San Diego, IES in Madrid, St Gallen Business School and the
HEC in Montreal and at numerous conferences. In 2016, he joined the Board of Drashta
Ventures, advising them in developing an Impact Fund and leading the next generation of
Impact Investment professionals. He is a member of the Campden Club and the Swiss
ICT Investors Club.

Ravi Chaudhary is a member of the Senior Executive Service, and is the Executive
Director for Regions and Operations at the Federal Aviation Administration. In this role
he is responsible for execution of operations in 9 different regions located nationwide.
He is also responsible for executing a $254 Million operating budget. In May of 2014,
Ravi was appointed by President Barack Obama to his Advisory Commission on Asian
Americans and Pacific Islanders. Ravi is a former Air Force pilot, having completed 21
years of service to the Nation. He is currently conducting doctoral research in Executive
Leadership and Innovation at Georgetown University. He has logged over 3000 hours
as a pilot and flight test engineer (760 combat hours) and multiple deployments since
Sept 11, 2001.
Senator Jay Chaudhuri represents parts of Raleigh, Cary, and Morrisville. As one of
the newest and youngest members of the State Senate, Senator Chaudhuri has
expanded computer science education in public schools and helped fund $1.2 million
to create an Alzheimer's Disease Registry. He also played a vital role in recruiting
global IT company Infosys to Wake County to create 2,000 jobs, one of the largest
job announcements in the state's history. Prior to serving in the Senate, Senator
Chaudhuri served as senior counsel to former Attorney General (now Governor) Roy
Cooper and former State Treasurer Janet Cowell. He also served as Chair of the
Council of Institutional Investors, an association of more than $3 trillion that serves as
the leading voice for effective corporate governance and shareholder rights.

Navneet Chugh is Managing Partner of a full service Law Firm and a CPA Firm with
500 employees in 15 offices in USA, India, & South America. Graduate of USC &
Harvard. He is on the board of HAB Bank, Pratham. Previously, he was as on the
board of AIF, ICC, NASABA, & TiE Global.

Alex Counts is President and CEO of American India Foundation since 2016, and
prior to that worked with Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus in several capacities,
including founding and running Grameen Foundation for 18 years. Author of "Small
Loans, Big Dreams" published by John Wiley & Sons.

Rupa Dainer is a pediatric anesthesiologist and the Chief Strategy Officer at the
Pediatrics Specialists of Virginia. Additionally she is the Medical Director of Ambulatory
Surgery. She served honorably as a Commander in the United States Navy until her
end of service in October 2015. During her time in service she was Chief of Pediatric
Anesthesia at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. In 2009, Dr. Dainer
deployed to Afghanistan to serve in Operation Enduring Freedom with the US Marine
Corps and then deployed to the Dominican Republic in 2013 to participate in Medical
Readiness Training Exercises with the US Army. She is currently a Director of the
American Board of Anesthesiology.
Joya Dass is a long time business news anchor in New York City. She has been
seen delivering live reports on the markets from the floor of the New York Stock
Exchange for Bloomberg, CNN, ABC, CBS, and most recently NY1 News. Since
December 2002, she was also the host of the popular Saturday morning show AVS,
bringing the latest on the Bollywood film industry news into the living rooms of first
and second generation Indians living in the United States. Joya was recently
recruited by Morgan Stanley to join a wealth management team at the New York City
flagship operation. This continues the thru line of empowering women, which began
with Joya’s networking initiative LadyDrinks, working to support South Asian female
professionals in senior to mid level management or entrepreneurship in New York, Princeton, Toronto, and
New Delhi.

Ronak D. Desai is a Law & Security Fellow at The New America Foundation and an
Affiliate at the Belfer Center’s India and South Asia Program at Harvard University. Until
recently, he served as Counsel to a high-profile Select Committee on Capitol Hill. Prior to
this, Desai worked as an attorney at a prominent international law firm in Washington
D.C. Mr. Desai is a member of the Aspen India Strategy Group, and serves as General
Counsel and Board Director of the Partnership for a Secure America. Desai teaches a
popular course on U.S. foreign policy toward South Asia at the Johns Hopkins University.
He writes frequently on South Asia, anticorruption, governance, and diaspora politics,
and is a regular contributor to several prominent American and South Asian publications,
including Forbes. He earned a joint public policy and law degrees from the Harvard
Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Law School.

Anand Deshpande is the Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of Persistent
Systems (BSE & NSE: PERSISTENT), a Company that he founded in 1990. He is
responsible for the overall leadership, strategy, and management of the company. A true
technology visionary, Anand’s strengths lie in identifying and investing in next-generation
technologies early on and encouraging internal entrepreneurship to ensure that
Persistent stays at the forefront of technology innovation. Anand has been the driving
force in growing Persistent from start-up to the publically-traded global company of
today. Anand has been recognized for his technology and business leadership as well as
his contributions to public welfare. His awards include the CSI Fellowship Award for
outstanding achievement in the field of IT, the Career Achievement Award from the
School of Informatics at Indiana University, Bloomington and the IIT Kharagpur Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Dinyar (Dinny) Devitre is an international business executive who has held leadership
positions over a 40 year period in the consumer products industry and financial services
in Asia, Australia, Japan, Europe, and the U.S. He is currently a member of the Board of
Directors of Altria Group, Inc., where he is Chairman of the Finance Committee and IHS
Markit Ltd. In addition, he serves on the Board of Trustees of the Brooklyn Academy of
Music where he is on the Executive Committee. He is former Chairman of Pratham USA.
Dinny has held a number of senior operating positions with Philip Morris and then with
Altria where he had a 35 year career.
Sadanand Dhume is a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he
writes on South Asian political economy, foreign policy, business, and society, with a
focus on India and Pakistan. Sadanand has served as India bureau chief of the Far
Eastern Economic Review and as Indonesia correspondent of FEER and the Wall
Street Journal – Asia, and is currently a South Asia columnist for the Wall Street
Journal. He has written articles and op-eds for Foreign Policy, Forbes, Commentary,
YaleGlobal, the Washington Post, and others. His television appearances include CNN,
PBS, BBC World, Al Jazeera International, CNBC Asia and ABC Television. His political
travelogue My Friend the Fanatic: Travels with a Radical Islamist, has been published
in four countries. He has twice been selected by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the
world's top 100 Twitterati. Follow him on Twitter @dhume.

Chris Gali is the CEO and the lead for technical design and management at
Graphite GTC, a Philadelphia-based software firm. Chris has well over 20 years of
experience in the insurance and software development industries. Prior to Graphite
GTC, Chris served as the co-founder, architect, and CIO of AdminServer, where
his expertise and vision guided revolutionary development of policy administration
systems until the company was acquired by Oracle in 2008. Chris holds a MS in
Computer Science from Temple University and a MS in Computer Science from St.
Joseph’s College (Trichy, India). He serves on the Board of Directors of The
Franklin Institute of Science and Technology, and of the Philadelphia Police
Foundation. Chris also is a contributing member of The Barnes Foundation.

Raj Gilda is a banker turned social entrepreneur and co-Founder of Lend A Hand
India, an NGO focused on providing vocational education in secondary schools in
India. Currently dividing his time between USA and India, he has worked across
Asia, Europe and North America. Prior to leaving corporate sector in 2011 to focus
full time on Lend A Hand India, he spent ten years in New York working with Citibank
and Deloitte Consulting. Raj was recently appointed by Government of India as a
member of National Skill Development Agency (NSDA). He is an advisor to
Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyaan (RMSA), Government of Maharashtra and
member of state level committee to effectively utilize CSR resources for education
sector. He was also selected by the UK Government, as a Chevening Gurukul
Scholar (2012) at the London School of Economics.

Raj Goyle is co-CEO and co-founder of Bodhala, a platform using AI and Big Data
to empower the legal industry with the evidence required to make critical business
decisions. Goyle served two terms in the
Kansas House of Representatives where he was the first Asian American elected to
public office in the state. He has worked as a policy analyst and civil rights attorney
and serves on the boards of Hunger Free America,
the American India Foundation, Everyartist.me, Issue One and chairs the State
Innovation Exchange. Goyle lives in New York with his wife Monica Arora, a partner
at Proskauer. They have two daughters.