Sudhakar Kesavan

Sudhakar Kesavan serves as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ICF International. In 1997, he was named President of the ICF Consulting Group when it was a subsidiary of ICF Kaiser. Since he took on this leadership role, he has led ICF through a leveraged buyout, an initial public offering, and consistent growth. Mr. Kesavan’s leadership in global environmental issues helped ICF International to become the first professional services firm in the world to go carbon neutral and to achieve recognition by the United Nations as one of the first firms to participate in the Climate Neutral Network.

Mr. Kesavan serves on the Board of the Rainforest Alliance, a New York based nonprofit environmental organization committed to protecting ecosystems by transforming land-use practices, business practices, and consumer behavior. He is also the vice chairman of the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC), the largest technology council in the United States. In addition, he is an active supporter of IIMPACT, a nonprofit focused on primary education for girls from economically- and socially-underprivileged rural areas of India.

Mr. Kesavan received the Executive of the Year award in 2009 from the Greater Washington Government Contractor Awards in the large-sized firm category. He was also named a “Tech Titan” and “industry leader” by Washingtonian magazine in 2011.

Mr. Kesavan received his Master of Science degree from the Technology and Policy Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), his postgraduate diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and his Bachelor of Technology degree (chemical engineering) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.

Saira Mohan

Saira is a veteran of the New York fashion world and enjoys one of the most professional reputations in the business. She began her career at age 13 after winning an Elite Look-Of-The-Year contest at a mall in Los Angeles, which gave birth to an international career that is still strong today. Having worked with photographers that include Steven Meisel, Diego Uchitel, Patrick Demarchelier, Albert Watson, Jack Perno, Walter Chin and Dewey Nicks—and having walked the runway for designers such as Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld, Calvin Klein, Emmanuel Ungaro, Valentino and Victoria’s Secret—she has been featured on covers, interviewed, and in fashion spreads for many top publications such as Marie Claire, Mademoiselle, Glamour, Vogue, Elle, GQ, Maxim (“Top 100 Models”), Stuff, Allure, Amica, Vital, She, Shine, Company, Cosmopolitan.

Saira has recently been the subject of several mainstream newspaper stories in publications such as India Today, The Telegraph (UK), The Sunday Times (UK), The Evening Standard (UK), Indian Express (USA), the Hindustan Times(India), and The Daily Mail (UK), in which Saira was named as one of the most beautiful women of the past 400 years by the National Portrait Gallery in London. She was ranked #91 on the Maxim Hot 100 Women of 2002 and was recently featured in Esquire Magazine’s “Women We Love” issue.

Although successful for many years prior in New York City, she was launched into international fame in 2003 after Newsweek put her on their cover with the headline “The Perfect Face”. She is actively involved with product endorsements worldwide.

Saira made her Bollywood debut with the film ‘Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna’. The film was a huge success internationally, and in the United States it became the highest grossing Indian film of all time. Her second Bollywood film, Teen Patti, was released in February 2010 staring Amitabh Bachchan, Sir Ben Kingsley, R. Madhavan, Raima Sen, Shraddha Kapoor.

Saira Mohan is a wife and mother of two young boys. She has been an invited speaker at several World Economic Forum events and has participated in the India Today Conclave in New Delhi. Saira also has recently completed studies at the Graham School in business and entrepreneurship at The University of Chicago.

Monica Bhide

My name is Monica Bhide and I am an engineer turned food/travel/parenting writer based out of Washington DC.

I have been published in many major national and international publications, including Food & Wine, The New York Times, Parents, Cooking Light, Prevention, Health, SELF, Bon Appetit, Saveur, and many more.

I am a contributing editor to the AARP magazine, write a weekly syndicated for Scripps Howard Media called Seasonings, and am a frequent contributor to NPR’s Kitchen Window. My work has garnered numerous accolades, including my food essays being included in
Best Food Writing anthologies (2005, 2009 and 2010).

I have published three cookbooks, the latest being: Modern Spice: Inspired Indian recipes for the contemporary Kitchen (Simon & Schuster, 2009, which Padma Lakshmi called her personal – “BESTS.BOOK.EVER” in Newsweek. I recently launched a spice app, iSPICE for the iPHONE and iPAD.

Becky Lee

After receiving her B.A. Degree in Women’s Studies from the University of Michigan, Becky Lee continued on to receive her J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Interested in the prevention of domestic violence, Ms. Lee has been working on issues concerning domestic violence survivors over the last fourteen years as an advocate, a kickboxing instructor, a policy associate and an attorney.

Becky Lee is the Executive Director of Becky’s Fund, a national non-profit organization committed to addressing and preventing the occurrence of domestic violence through advocacy, research and support for survivors. When she was given the opportunity to try out for Survivor: Cook Islands during the summer of 2006, Ms. Lee decided to go for it because she wanted to break media stereotypes of Asian Americans and bring awareness to the prevalence of domestic violence. After coming in third, Ms. Lee took much of her 3rd place winnings to create the non-profit organization, Becky’s Fund, (www.beckysfund.org) due to seeing the lack of attention given to addressing the issue of violence prevention and education. Even though she has never personally experienced domestic violence, she wanted to show people by example how important it is to work on domestic violence as it affects 1 in 3 women in the United State, calling the organization Becky’s Fund to stress how each person can make a difference in our community on this issue.

Realizing that she would need to mobilize and organize a grassroots effort from the ground up with little budget and no staff, Ms. Lee specifically built a targeted marketing/branding campaign for Becky’s Fund utilizing social media, technology, and her connections with both the reality t.v. world and domestic violence network. Ms. Lee built a website that coordinated closely with sites like twitter, facebook, and Constant Contact which allowed her to successfully and quickly connect with thousands of people from all over the world who are from different backgrounds, interests and ages. People are often surprised that Becky’s Fund is only a small non-profit with no full-time staff by the appearance of its thorough outreach through social media, it’s website, and implementation of successful and innovative projects. However, with the use of social media and related-technology, Ms. Lee has been able to create, maintain, and grow an organization with over hundreds of volunteers all over the country to help assist in the programs and outreach to the specific audiences to address domestic and dating violence.

One such cutting-edge project that Ms. Lee is working on is the development of a unique mobile/web application to assist victims of domestic violence and people who want to support victims. This application, ENDDV is the first of its kind and will fundamentally alter the way domestic violence resources are accessed, empowering victims with the tools and knowledge to fight their abusers by making informed decisions. A multi-media campaign, ENDVV will harness the latest technological advancements in communication and social media to effectively raise awareness and help put an end to domestic violence.

Vivek Murthy

Vivek Murthy, MD, MBA is an attending physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an instructor at Harvard Medical School where he is an internal medicine hospitalist.

He is co-founder and President of Doctors for America, a grassroots organization of over 15,000 doctors and medical student in 50 states who are working build a better health care system for all Americans. In 2011, Dr. Murthy was appointed by President Barack Obama to the National Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health.

He has lectured widely on health care reform and physician advocacy, and his writings and research have been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Science, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, and The Washington Post.

Dr. Murthy’s past research has focused on the participation of women and minorities in cancer clinical trials. Dr. Murthy is also the co-founder and Chairman of Epernicus, LLC, a privately held company that builds social networking platforms for scientific institutions and clinical trials.

In the past, he co-founded VISIONS, a youth organization focused on HIV/AIDS education and community empowerment in India and the US. He also co-founded the Swasthya Project, a community partnership in rural South India focused on training young women to be health educators and counselors for their communities.

Dr. Murthy received his BA from Harvard University, his MD from the Yale School of Medicine, his MBA from the Yale School of Management, and his residency training in internal medicine from Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Jasbina Ahluwalia

Founder and President: Intersections Match (www.IntersectionsMatch.com) Host: Intersections Talk Radio

Jasbina Ahluwalia is an attorney turned entrepreneur, happily married, second-generation, Indian-American Relationship Expert, Matchmaker and Radio Show Host.

She is pursuing her entrepreneurial passion as the Founder and President of Intersections Match, the only Elite Personalized Matchmaking & Dating Coaching Firm in the country serving Selective Singles of South Asian descent Nationwide in the U.S.

The mission of Intersections is broader than elite matchmaking and includes ‘Thought Leadership’ and spearheading a dialogue on relationships and health and wellness, each of which contributes to meaningful and fulfilling lives.

Jasbina is also the host of Intersections Talk Radio, a monthly holistic lifestyle show, focused on our continual evolution into the best versions of our authentic selves – conversations with published authors/experts on relationships and health and wellness. Recent guest include New York Times Best Selling Authors Rachel Greenwald and Lori Gottlieb and Star of Bravo TV Show, THINTERVENTION – Jackie Warner.

She has received worldwide press including in Business Week, Chicago Tribune, Entrepreneur Magazine, San Jose Mercury News, Live TV and Radio.

Jasbina was one of the finalists in OPRAHS search for a new TV Host.

She has also moderated/participated on panels at Harvard Business School, Wharton, Northwestern & Columbia.

Jasbina has anchored relationship Q&As for NetIP, NetSAP Boston, Indus Women Leaders, Cornell India Association, Indo-American Arts Council and has served as a Relationship Expert in publications and online forums throughout the country, including India Currents, ABCDLady.com, Washington Masala, and YourTango.

Jasbina previously practiced law in San Francisco and Chicago. She earned her B.A/M.A. in Philosophy from Vanderbilt University, and JD from the University of Michigan Law School.

Shahana Kanodia – Partner & Chair of the South Asia Practice Group, Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP

Shahana is a Partner in the Business Law Department and Chair of the South Asia Practice Group at Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge (EAPD). Her practice areas include general corporate matters with a focus on cross border business transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, private equity and other strategic investments. EAPD is a full service, global law firm with over 600 lawyers and 13 offices, including offices in the US, UK and Hong Kong.

Shahana serves on the Executive Board of the Yale Law School and was recently nominated as Vice-President and Chair of the Nominating Committee of this prestigious Board. She is a member of the New England Finance & Steering Committee for President Obama and accompanied President Obama to India in November 2010 as a delegate of the Presidential Business Executives Mission.

Shahana is a Charter Member of The Indus Entrepreneurs and a Founding Member and Co-Chair of the TiE India Special Interest Group in Boston. She also serves on the Steering Committees of the International Law Section and is a Fellow of the Cambridge Commonwealth Society in England. She served on the Board of the Community Dispute Settlement Center and the Board of the Children’s Advocacy Center for Suffolk County. Shahana currently serves on the Advisory Board of The Loomba Foundation, is an Overseer of the Peabody Essex Museum and a Trustee of the Lincoln Kanodia Foundation.

Shahana graduated with a BA (First Class Honors) in History from Delhi University, a Tripos in Social & Political Sciences with First Class Honors from Trinity College, Cambridge University, an MA with First Class Honors in Sociology from the University of Chicago and a JD from Yale Law School.

Apoorva N Gandhi – Vice President, Multi-Cultural Markets & Alliances

Marriott International, Inc. has named Apoorva N. Gandhi as vice president for multi-cultural markets and alliances. In his new role, Gandhi is responsible for creating and executing an externally focused global strategy that builds preference and loyalty from diverse customer segments for the Marriott portfolio of brands. He will help ensure the company’s marketing, sales and operations consider and reflect multi-cultural markets and alliances as Marriott continues its aggressive growth throughout the world. Thirty-six percent of the company’s rooms pipeline and two-thirds of its 42,000 rooms under construction are outside the U.S.

“I am delighted to welcome Apoorva to the team,” says Jimmie Paschall, senior vice president for external affairs and global diversity officer, Marriott International. “His passion for diversity and inclusion coupled with his keen program management and strategic business and leadership skills will help further our efforts in integrating diversity and inclusion as a lens through which we look at business performance on every level.”

Before assuming this new role, Gandhi was Marriott’s senior director for organizational capability where he led the company’s global reorganization program in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. He has held other positions with Marriott, beginning as a front desk associate when he first completed college. He also worked as vice president for global lodging services where he helped deliver critical brand initiatives.

“I am excited to be part of this important team and to be working to accomplish business goals and to help position Marriott as a global diversity leader,” says Gandhi. “Diversity is the one thing that we all have in common and I eagerly anticipate sharing with our stakeholders how we at Marriott celebrate it everyday.”

Before joining Marriott, Gandhi was a senior consulting manager in Accenture’s Communications and High Tech practice for 13 years, where he managed merger and integration programs as well as process reengineering efforts for large telecom clients. Gandhi also led Diversity programs at Accenture.

Gandhi is an honors graduate of the University of Maryland, School of Business and Management. He is a member of the J.W. Marriott, Jr., Diversity Award committee, Delta Sigma Pi Business Fraternity and Omicron Delta Kappa Leadership Society.

Anthony Kim, Policy Analyst – Center for International Trade and Economics (CITE)

Anthony B. Kim researches international economic issues with a focus on economic freedom and free trade at The Heritage Foundation.

As a Policy Analyst in Heritage’s Center for International Trade and Economics (CITE), Kim assumes the primary responsibility of coordinating the complex research and production process by which the Index of Economic Freedom is produced.

The Index is co-published annually with The Wall Street Journal. It tracks the march of economic freedom around the world by measuring 10 freedoms – from property rights to entrepreneurship – in 157 countries. In 2007, after a decade of publishing the Index, Heritage executives decided that the Index needed changes to make it more accessible to more people – from the congressional staffer to the college student, from the finance minister to the financial adviser.

As one of the handful of Heritage experts who grades the Index’s 157 countries, Kim helped oversee those changes and his work earned him Heritage’s prestigious Drs. W. Glenn and Rita Ricardo Campbell Award in 2007. The award is given to the employee who has delivered “an outstanding contribution to the analysis and promotion of a Free Society.”

Before joining Heritage in 2001, he studied economics at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N. J., and earned his master’s degree in international trade and investment policy from the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Sumeet H. Chugani – Associate Attorney

Sumeet H. Chugani is an attorney at the international law firm of Diaz, Reus & Targ, LLP. Sumeet focuses his practice on international dispute resolution, cross-border transactional matters, and regulatory compliance and support. Diaz, Reus & Targ, LLP is a full service law firm with strategically positioned offices in Miami, Bogotá, Mexico City, Caracas, Shanghai, Dubai, Frankfurt, Buenos Aires, and Sao Paulo/Belo Horizonte.

Sumeet was recently elected as President-Elect of the South Asian Bar Association of Florida. Sumeet also serves on the board of the India U.S. Chamber of South Florida, and NetIP Miami. Sumeet received his Juris Doctorate from The University of North Carolina School of Law and holds a Graduate Certificate in International Development from the University of North Carolina. He received his undergraduate degree from North Carolina State University. Sumeet has authored numerous articles on international issues based on money-laundering and global development.

Having both lived and worked in Singapore, Malaysia, and China, and as a regular traveler to India, Sumeet has a deep understanding of the cultural dynamics of doing business in emerging markets.

Sheel Mohnot serves as Director of Business Development for FeeFighters

Prior to FeeFighters, Sheel worked as a consultant for the Boston Consulting Group in Chicago. At BCG, Sheel did emerging markets work for a large conglomerate seeking growth opportunities in Brazil, the Middle East, India, and China, including in-country work leading to significant management changes and acquisitions. Before BCG he had a stint at the Insitor Fund, a social venture capital fund based out of Cambodia investing in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. During business school at the University of Michigan, Sheel co-authored 2 cases with CK Prahalad on Bharti Airtel and a case with Allen Hammond on new technologies to create Safe Drinking Water in India. Prior to business school, Sheel was an Indicorps fellow and worked for Kiva.org on the ground in India.

At Kiva, Sheel was responsible for navigating the legal environment in India, building MFI partnerships in South Asia and raising awareness about Kiva within the South Asian community worldwide, along with work to help Kiva.org build a sustainable and scaleable business model. He lived in Ahmedabad, India on <$2 a day to better understand the borrowers lives and serve Kiva “on location” in India. Prior to joining at Kiva, Sheel was a management consultant, and came to Kiva and Indicorps while searching for a way to connect with India and at the same time make a meaningful change with his background. Kiva / Indicorps was a perfect fit.

In his free time, he runs a South Asian open mic in Chicago, enjoys the outdoors, and travels a lot.

Deepa Purushothaman

Deepa is a Principal in Deloitte Consulting’s Telecommunications, Media and Technology practice focusing on mergers & acquisitions and business transformation. Her clients include both domestic carriers and international wireless providers. She has worked with key executives to manage complex integrations and launches across the globe. Deepa also leads Deloitte’s Asian Business Resource Group. In this capacity, she is working to develop thoughtware that addresses the growing number of Asians in corporate America.

Outside of Deloitte, Deepa is working with a core group of women to establish Avasara. It will be the first leadership academy targeting young women in India.

Deepa has a Master’s degree in Public Policy with a Concentration in Negotiation Studies and Conflict Resolution from Harvard University. She also holds a Master’s degree in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Philosophy from Wellesley College.

Alka Kesavan

Alka Kesavan is the Global Officer for Organizational Capability at Marriott International. Marriott is a leading lodging company with more than 3,600 lodging properties in 71 countries and territories. The company is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, and has approximately 129,000 employees and reported sales of nearly $12 billion. As a key member of the Global HR leadership team and the practice leader for the organizational capability discipline, she has led major transformational initiatives to support the strategic priorities of MI businesses. She works with senior executives across the company to provide consultation expertise on organization strategy and effectiveness, business process design, culture alignment and change management issues.

Alka’s career includes earlier assignments as a consultant at the World Bank and as Director of Organization Development with Rolls Royce North America. Prior to joining Marriott, Alka was an associate partner with Accenture. As part of Accenture ‘s Human Performance practice, she consulted with clients on a wide variety of workforce performance issues. Her clients included leaders from consumer products, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, health insurance, federal and state government agencies.

Born and raised in India, Alka also worked for 3 years with two renowed state-owed enterprises in steel manufacturing and automobiles after completing her MBA from the Xavier Labor Relations Institute in India. She also has an M.S. degree with a concentration in Organization Development from the American University/NTL Institute, Washington D.C. She lives in Washington D.C. with her husband and 2 sons.

Chitta Mallik

Chitta Mallik is an experienced NFL Agent who helps run the Football Division of Perennial Sports and Entertainment where he and his partner, Tony Paige, represent a total of 27 NFL players. He is responsible for all aspects of athlete representation, including the recruitment of college players and negotiation of their NFL team contracts. Mallik has quickly become a premier NFL agent in the business and serves as one of the agents for Cam Newton, the #1 overall pick of the 2011 NFL Draft.

Mallik also spearheads the marketing and promotion for all of Perennial’s NFL clients and handles the negotiations for all major endorsement deals.

Mallik has practiced corporate law for more than 10 years. His legal training is invaluable in helping to manage and resolve various types of client issues ranging from family law to criminal law.

Prior to joining Perennial, Mallik worked for Octagon where he drafted and negotiated endorsement deals, broadcasting agreements and book deals for athletes such as Emmitt Smith, John Elway, Chris Paul and Michael Phelps. He also practiced corporate law for several years at the law firm of Latham & Watkins, LLP, in Washington, DC where he specialized in mergers and acquisitions and joint venture deals.

Mallik received his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School and his B.S. in Marketing from the University of Maryland at College Park.

Rohit Bhargava

Rohit Bhargava

is currently a member of the Global Strategy & Planning team at Ogilvy. Back in 2004, Rohit helped to found the 360 Digital Influence specialty social media practice within Ogilvy – which has grown into the world’s largest global network of social media strategists. His personal blog called

Influential Marketing

has been ranked by AdAge magazine among the top 50 marketing blogs in the world and he has been named one of the Most Influential South Asians In Media and Marketing by Korn Ferry. His first book, called

Personality Not Included

was published by McGraw-Hill, was a global marketing bestseller and has been published in 8 languages. Rohit is has been featured as a marketing expert in the Wall Street Journal, NPR, Fast Company and BusinessWeek – and recently spoke at a TEDx event on

Reinventing Marketing

. He lives in Washington DC with his wife and two young sons – where he is an Adjunct Professor of Global Marketing at Georgetown University and is currently working on his second book called

Likeonomics

which will be published globally by Wiley in early 2012.

Anurag Varma

Anurag Varma is an attorney in Patton Boggs’ International practice, where he focuses on public policy and trade matters relating to clients from, or with interests in, India. Before joining Patton Boggs, Mr. Varma was a name partner at a general practice law firm based in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Varma currently serves as public policy counsel for the Embassy of India to the United States, as well as individual U.S. corporations with policy interests in India. In 2008, Mr. Varma served as one of the lead public policy counsel to the U.S.-India Business Council, successfully advocating for the historic passage, by the U.S. Congress, of the U.S.-India Civilian Nuclear Cooperation Initiative. Since 2000, Mr. Varma has also served as counsel to numerous national organizations of Americans of Indian descent. Of note, Mr. Varma represents the Asian-American Hotel Owners Association, whose membership owns and operates 40% of all hotel properties in the United States.

Mr. Varma’s legislative work began in 1998 as legislative counsel to the Embassy of Canada in Washington, D.C., where he handled trade and tourism issues.

Representative Matters

• In 2007, Mr. Varma was lead public policy counsel to a grassroots organization advocating to the U.S. Congress and Administration for reform of U.S. policy on permanent residency for over 1.1 million high-skilled immigrants backlogged in the nation’s Green Card process.
• In 2006, Mr. Varma was lead counsel to a coalition of Indian-American organizations and individuals working in support of the successful passage of the first U.S. law directed towards U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Cooperation.
• From 1997 to 2007, Mr. Varma had been a lead lawyer in the $1 billion racial discrimination class-action lawsuit brought by over 25,000 African-American farmers across 35 states– one of the largest civil rights class action settlements in U.S. history.
• Currently serves as counsel on a national civil rights class action matter on behalf of Native American farmers and ranchers located on tribal reservations across the United States.

Professional Affiliations:

• South Asian Bar Association – D.C. (1999-present)
• National Board Member, Indian American Leadership Initiative (2005-present)
• Pro bono counsel (Global Advocacy Team), Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights (2003-present)