Ruma Neogy is  an environmental engineer and works in a consulting firm specializing in environmental compliance management, remediation, air and wastewater pollution controls and environmental sustainability.  She is also the co-founder of GreenExcel (www.greenexcelinc.com), a leading green building online training and informatics company. Buoyed by the large professional community interest in GreenExcel’s assessment tests, she  launched a K12 education site called www.satsubjectprep.com that helps high school students prepare for SAT subject tests. Both sites already have thousands of global members. She is  married to Chitro Neogy, managing director of Acadia Edge Group, a social media games and application development company. They live in Acton with their sons Chirantan and Rupayan Neogy.

She is very actively involved with the Boston Pledge and talked about her involvement with this organization and their upcoming event on Feb 13, 2011.  Click here to buy tickets for the event

You are very actively involved in the Boston Pledge. What brought you to this organization?

Along with my busy professional life and married life I have been involved in a supporting role with The Boston Pledge (TBP) since its inception in 2001, primarily through my husband. TBP organizes conferences and seminars every year and I generally had helped in arranging the food, registration and similar logistics. Since 2009 I became more active as core member and helped to organize the annual conference on “Making Green Economy Real” which was more related to my profession. I also helped in the core operations by providing inputs to the ESP business plan evaluations, especially in areas where I could provide some ideas. For example, there was an excellent business plan I reviewed from a Kolkata grass root entrepreneur about a technology to package ground dehydrated green chilly for export, and how it would be a healthier option to ground dry red chilies. I believe that plan won a top Entrepreneurship Springboard Program (ESP) award for innovativeness.
 
We hear that you are organizing an event on Feb 13. Could you tell us about it?
 
This year, we have planned several events and fundraisers to celebrate the Boston Pledge’s 10th anniversary. Feb 13th is a pre-Valentine day charity event where the leading philanthropists and community leaders of Boston area are congregating to talk about their public service initiatives.  To keep the Valentine theme we have arranged a live entertainment by well known local Bollywood band Kashish (www.kashishtunes.com), a dazzling fashion show directed by Miss Maharashtra Finalist Piya Banerjee, and several dance performances choreographed by Boston’s best dance instructors. A Sunday brunch buffet will be served in this event starting at noon at the beautiful Hilton Hotel in Woburn. All proceeds for the show will benefit ESP of  Boston Pledge.
 
Why should people support The Boston Pledge?

TBP’s work at the base of the pyramid is not only critical, but extremely relevant for improving endemic economic problems. Around the globe, jobs are on a decline, not just in numbers but also in terms of the quality of lifestyle they assure. The trend is not likely to reverse, and in fact is now a major issue in western countries as well, which is the reason our ESP program has been adopted in various locations from Egypt to India, Portugal to Dorchester, Massachusetts. The fundamental idea is to help develop enterprising minds and enable individuals start a small business in their locality, helping themselves and also hiring a few others. The people we are helping are those who often have a basic education or were raised in villages and are unable to find suitable employment, self-respect or security. Our goal is to transform them from job-seekers to job-givers.
 
This is not a pipe dream. The ESP Program has already helped to create more than 500 entrepreneurs, many of whom now have a security and confidence they did not enjoy a few years back. The method of training and preparation – which we assembled after examining proven ideas such as the MIT 100K, chamber of commerce programs, advice from mentor groups etc – is simple and motivates young people to explore opportunities of business in their local communities. ESP is again appropriate for more affluent societies as well, and in fact, if we can be bold enough to say, could be a solution for President Obama’s job creation goals as well.

Any special message for our readers?

As I enjoy devoting myself in community services, I took the lead to organize this upcoming Feb 13th event “Communiqué 2011” to listen to local philanthropists on their community service initiatives.  All TBP members are working hard to present a fabulous program on Feb 13th.  Please join us and enjoy the program.  Also please mark your calendar for all the upcoming events from Boston Pledge as noted below:

April 24, 2011  - "Navarasa Nayika" a Bharatnatyam dance drama at Keefe Tech High School
September 24, 2011 - Boston Pledge's 10th Anniversary at Kresgee Auditorium

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