Meet the Members of New England Choice Awards Jury 2017

WALTHAM, MA—The 2017 New England Choice Award winners were selected by jury of 11 members of diverse backgrounds. Here is a list of the jury members and a brief introduction:

Gouri Banerjee

Gauri Banerjee

Co-Founder and President, SAHELI

Ms. Banerjee is co-founder and president of SAHELI . She has served on the Saheli Board for many years. She supervised the anti-domestic violence portfolio and has successfully raised fund from many foundations to support Saheli’s work. She is an Associate Professor Emeritus at Emmanuel College in Boston and holds a Ph.D. from Boston University.

Manisha Bhatt

Senior Attorney, Greater Boston Legal Services

Ms. Bhatt was named Woman of the Year earlier this year. She is a senior attorney with Greater Boston Legal Services where she practices family law concentrating in domestic violence law. Currently, she works with area hospitals’ domestic violence programs to facilitate their patients’ access to civil legal services and staffs a legal clinic at Rosie’s Place, a refuge for homeless women in Boston. Bhatt also serves on the advisory board of Saheli, a South Asian domestic violence prevention organization. She is a past president of the South Asian Bar Association of Greater Boston.

Anu Chitrapu

Senior Vice President, Bank of America

Ms. Chitrapu is Senior Vice-President and Executive at Bank of America. She has won awards at the bank for exceptional performance, been named to the high potential women leaders group and is the executive sponsor for the Boston chapter of the Asian Leadership Network. She serves as treasurer of DAWN (Direct Action for Women Now. Ms. Chitrapu holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management.

Ashish Cowlagi

President, India Society of Worcester (ISW)

Mr. Cowlagi is president of India Society of Worcester (ISW), one of New England’s oldest and largest Indian community organizations. He is a senior business executive with proven expertise in Healthcare, Cognitive Computing, AI, Machine Learning, Strategy and Product Management. Currently, he is in lead product management and strategy for the Watson Health Oncology portfolio, bringing cognitive computing and analytics to help doctors improve patient outcomes.

Upendra Mishra

Managing Partner,Publisher, INDIA New England News and IndUS Business Journal

Mr. Mishra is founder and president of the Waltham, MA-based The Mishra Group, an integrated full-service marketing and public relations firm. Since 1997, the Mishra Group has provided comprehensive, results-oriented solutions for the fast-paced new age of online and traditional marketing through the area’s best writers and editors and most talented graphic and Web designers and digital media strategists. He is also publisher of INDIA New England News, IndUS Business Journal and Boston Real Estate Times.

Mandy Pant

Academic Research Director, Intel

Ms. Pant is the Academic Research Director at Intel, and works with leading academic researchers worldwide and technical experts to seed and drive research efforts in areas of strategic importance to Intel in particular and the computing industry in general. She has published 20+ technical papers in prestigious VLSI conferences and journals, has two issued patents and five pending patents. She is regarded as a very strong and motivating technical speaker having given numerous invited talks at various conferences and universities, including several keynote talks and distinguished lectures. She is an active proponent of STE(A) M for Women and young girls.

Dinesh G. Patel

Dr. Dinesh Patel, MD

Associate Clinical Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Patel is one of the pioneers of arthroscopic surgery in the world. He has played a key role in showing that arthroscopic technology can reduce healthcare costs by improving safety and quality and decreasing a patient’s post-operative recovery time. In addition, he has been a very active member of the Indian-American community organizations, including TiE-Boston, Indian Medical Association of New England and Indian-American Forum for Political Education, among others.

Anupendra Sharma

Senior Investment Partner at Siemens Venture Capital

Sharma is Senior Investment Partner at Siemens Venture Capital (SVC) in Boston, where he is responsible for investing in healthcare. Prior to SVC, Sharma worked in investment banking and M&A for eight years at JPMorgan, Citigroup and Siemens. He founded the Startup Leadership Program to educate entrepreneurs, which has been launched in 29 cities in 13 countries; Mobile Medics, a social health venture; the Healthcare Innovation and Commercialization course for Harvard Medical School students; The Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at BITS Pilani; and Massachusetts Life Sciences Innovation Day.

Dr. Manju Sheth, MD

Co-founder, INE MultiMedia, and Physician at Lahey Health

Dr. Sheth, a Board Certified Internist with keen interest in women’s health, is co-founder of INE Multimedia, a Waltham, MA-based (501c-3) non-profit organization devoted to promoting and supporting charitable organizations, art, culture, education and empowerment through workshops, seminars and multimedia. She works at Lahey Health. She was voted in the 150 ‘Women of Influence’ by YW of Boston in 2016. Dr. Sheth served as president of Indian Medical Association of New England in 2013. She has been a big advocate for empowerment of women and has been voted Woman of the year in 2011. Dr. Sheth is the creator and host of the popular “Chai with Manju” celebrity interview series as well as “Dreamcatchers” featuring people from the local community who have made their dreams a reality.

Venkat Srinivasan

Founder, Rage Frameworks, Philanthropist and Vice Chair, America India Foundation (AIF)

Mr. Srinivasan is founder of Rage Frameworks, which was recently acquired by Genpact, a global professional services firm focused on delivering digital transformation for clients. He is Vice Chairman of AIF. Last year, Srinivasan also published a book entitled: ‘The Intelligent Enterprise in the Era of Big Data’, which explores innovative developments in artificial intelligence and more importantly talks about how tomorrow’s enterprises should be organized.

Praveen Tailam

President, TiE-Boston

Mr. Tailam, president of TiE-Boston, is an entrepreneur, investor, start-up advisor, conference speaker, mentor, and philanthropist with strong connections to TiE. He co-founded TiE Angels Alliance, a consortium of 15 TiE Angel groups from all across the country. TiE Angels Boston works with TiE Global. In addition, he co-manages multiple dental practices in New Hampshire and Maine in partnership with Aspen Dental, a leading nationwide Dental Service Organization. Tailam founded Redtail Consulting, a Boston area IT consulting practice, in 2006 and managed the business through 2012. Additionally, he has managed enterprise scale messaging systems for companies in the technology, banking, and insurance sectors, including IBM, Putnam Investments and Wellpoint BCBS.