Aditi Taylor is an experienced management consulting professional in a global management consulting firm. She has experience implementing large risk management and transformation programs for multinational companies. She obtained a B.A. Economics from University of Mumbai and an MBA from Bentley University, Waltham, MA. She has been recognized by the Boston Business Journal (included in ’40 Under 40’ Leaders, 2009), Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce (recognized as ‘Ten Outstanding Young Leaders, 2015) and India New England Women of the Year (Most Versatile Leadership, 2017).
Sanjay Kenchegowda is an experienced senior technology professional currently working as a Senior Product Manager at Verizon. He was an entrepreneur and also worked at a few early-stage innovative start-ups in the area. Sanjay lives in Littleton, MA with his wife and two daughters. He obtained bachelor of engineering from University of Mysore, India and graduated with an MBA in Entrepreneurship and General Management from Babson College, Wellesley, MA.
What motivated you take on the challenge and fight the elections?
A: IAGB is the pride of Boston. We have deep respect for the founding fathers and all those who worked very hard over the last few decades to bring IAGB to where it is today. It has served very well for the community needs in the past. However, the demography and needs of Indian American population have changed drastically and are ever evolving. We realized IAGB needs to come out of just being a cultural organization, adapt to changing needs of the community and more importantly, be a unifying voice of all issues concerning to Indian American community at large in our area. We wanted the community to pause and think about the IAGB's journey going forward.
You ran on an expansive CHANGE platform for the elections. What are the top 5 priorities that you intend to tackle?
A: We have organized the new EC to aggressively pursue multiple frontiers. To that end, we will be driving several activities in parallel across 5 specific platforms: Civic Leadership, Community Services, Youth Next/Gen Engagement, Senior Interactions and Culture. We intend to have at least one activity across these every other month. The first set of activities will be under Civic Leadership (Nov. 18th - CGNY Visit, community introduction and Q&A in partnership with Global Indians for Bharat Vikas (GIBV)) and under Community Services (Dec. 9th - Donation Drive & Well Wish Card project for low-income and homeless children in partnership with Cradles to Crayons). Details on both will be shared soon.
What do you anticipate as the major challenges in implementing your platform?
A: We are bullish in our thinking, but we also recognize that IAGB has mostly been known for its cultural initiatives. The other platforms will require significant investment of effort, time and dedication to make the change we want to bring along. As an organization or the elected team of 19, we cannot do this alone. We need the ground swell of members and volunteers to broaden the reach and elevate the view of the organization. That's not something we can achieve overnight, we need to constantly demonstrate value, increasing and retaining the membership of the organization.
Given the large number of organizations that have mushroomed over the past few decades how does IAGB differentiate itself and validate the tag of a "Premier" organization that it attaches to itself?
A: We don't think we want to be known as the 'premier' organization anyway. Our goal is to make IAGB a 'unifiying' organization across the various aspects of social, political, cultural, community and economic needs of the Indian-American community and strive to present a unified voice as 'Indian-Americans' to the society at large. We want to be able to constantly identify and partner with all the organizations in our community, but be the glue that could bind our community together as a unified Indian-American voice even as individuals can continue to thrive within their chosen regional or cultural or other theme-based organizations.
Like most other Indian organizations IAGB continues to engage only with first generation Indians. Do you think this is a problem ? What strategies do you have to engage second generation Indians as part of the core team?
A: We certainly think this is something that needs attention and we have to devise ways to engage our second generation Indians. As part of our Youth/Next Gen platform, we will be actively looking for opportunities to engage our future generations as part of core activities and planning.
The by-laws for IAGB was written over 50 years ago. Do you have any plans to update them so that they are current?
A: Absolutely. The prior EC had done a great job at drafting certain revisions. We will be working on completing the updates and will soon be announcing a date for a Special Hearing with the General Body to approve the by-laws before the end of this calendar year.
What support would you like to see from the community?
A: As mentioned above, we humbly request the community to join us in this journey. We need the collective strength of our community to create, harness and mobilize the resources that our community can bring to bear.
Any special message for the community?
A: As members of the EC, we are honored to have the opportunity to serve you. But this is YOUR organization, therefore, please come forth with ideas and engagement to help us make it what you believe it should be for your children and our society!
Members of the Executive Committee for 2017-2019 are:
Ms. Aditi Taylor, President
Mr. Sanjay Gowda, Vice-President
Ms. Vaishali Gade, Secretary
Mr. Sanjay Sahasrabudhe, Treasurer
Directors
Ms. Ruchi Agrawal
Mr. Ketan Benegal
Mr. Matthew Chacko
Ms. Mandy Deb Pant
Mr. Ashok Jakati
Mr. Sanjay Kudrimoti
Ms. Hardeep Mann
Mr. Praveena Naduthota
Mr. Krishna Podipireddy
Ms. Nilanjana Rakhit
Ms. Lata Rao
Mr. Nagendra Rao
Mr. Umesh Rao
Mr. Prag Singh
Ms. Aruna Varshney
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