WALTHAM, MA—The 2019 New England Choice Award winners were selected by jury of 12 members of diverse backgrounds. Here is a list of the jury members:
Geeta Aiyer
Geeta Aiyer
CEO, Boston Common Asset
Geeta Aiyer is the founder and CEO of Boston Common Asset Management, LLC, which manages over $2 billion in assets. Based in Boston, the company is an investment manager and a leader in global sustainability initiatives. Boston Common Asset Management specializes in long-only equity and balanced strategies and pursues long-term capital appreciation by seeking to invest in diversified portfolios of high quality, socially responsibly stocks.
Aiyer received her MBA from the Harvard University and her BA and MA degrees from the University of Delhi. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Sierra Club Foundation, Earthworks, YW Boston, and Ubuntu at Work, a global nonprofit for women. She is the 2010 recipient of the Women’s Venture Fund’s Highest Leaf Award and was honored to accept the 2013 Business Leader in Human Rights Award from the Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project on behalf of Boston Common Asset Management.
She is also founder of a non-profit organization Direct Action for Women Now, or DAWN.
Anantha P. Chandrakasan (Photo: Patsy Sampson)
Anantha P. Chandrakasan
Dean, School of Engineering and the Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at MIT
Anantha Chandrakasan is the Vannevar Bush Professor at MIT and served as head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, known as EECS. During his six-year tenure as head of MIT’s largest academic department, Chandrakasan spearheaded a number of initiatives that opened opportunities for students, postdocs, and faculty to conduct research, explore entrepreneurial projects, and engage with EECS.
Since joining the MIT faculty in 1994, Chandrakasan has produced a significant body of research focused largely on making electronic circuits more energy efficient. Born in Chennai, India, Chandrakasan moved to the United States while in high school. His mother was a biochemist and Fulbright scholar, and he enjoyed spending time in her lab where she conducted research on collagen.
Chandrakasan is a recipient of awards including the 2009 Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) University Researcher Award, the 2013 IEEE Donald O. Pederson Award in Solid-State Circuits, an honorary doctorate from KU Leuven in 2016, and the UC Berkeley EE Distinguished Alumni Award. He was also recognized as the author with the highest number of publications in the 60-year history of the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), the foremost global forum for presentation of advances in solid-state circuits and systems-on-a-chip. Since 2010, he served as the ISSCC Conference Chair. A fellow of IEEE, in 2015 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
Pranav Gill (File Photo)
Pranav Gill
General Manager, BMW Sudbury
Pranav Gill is the General Manager of BMW Sudbury, an unit of the Herb Chambers Companies. Under Mr. Gill’s leadership, BMW Sudbury has been repeatedly named a Center of Excellence award winner, including in 2019.
This elite honor is presented annually by BMW of North America. The award recognizes top performing BMW dealerships for their superior performance in various areas of business including: sales, service, parts, operations and customer experience.
This is the third time since 2016, that BMW of Sudbury under the leadership of Mr. Gill has been named a Center of Excellence award winner. In 2017, Mr. Gill was named one of Automotive News’ 40 Under 40. This annual program honors 40 high achievers at new-car dealerships who are under 40 years old.
Upendra Mishra
Publisher
INDIA New England News, Indus Business Journal and Boston Real Estate Times
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.
Bharat Patel
Bharat Patel
Co-Founder, New England Office Supply, Inc.
Bharat Patel is co-founder of New England Office Supply Company. He has served on various community organizations, including Indian American Forum for Political Education, which educates and creates political awareness among Indian Americans.
Kim Shah
Kim Shah
CEO, KnowYourMeds
Kim Shah is founder and the CEO of KnowYourMeds. Prior to founding KnowYourMeds, Mr. Shah served as global director of marketing at Thermo Fisher Scientific.
He has also served in high-level positions with Sciformix, Convoq, e-tractions, Micrografx, and IBM/Lotus Development.
Mr. Shah holds a B.Sc. from Imperial College London, and an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.
Dr. Pramod Shah, MD, chairman of the Board of Trustees of IMANE
Dr. Pramod Shah, MD
Chair, Board of Trustees of the Indian Medical Association of New England
In addition to serving as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Indian Medical Association of New England, Dr. Shah is a general surgeon in Winthrop, MA. He performs surgical procedures to treat conditions affecting the abdomen and related structures, like hernias or tumors.
Anupendra Sharma
Former Senior Investment Partner, Siemens Venture Capital
Anupendra Sharma is currently working on his own entrepreneurial venture while being involved with several therapeutics, medtech, diagnostics and Healthcare companies. His skills lie in company creation, spinouts, fundraising, governance, product development strategy and exits. The companies he is invested in the US and China have raised nearly $180M in venture capital and he has been involved with $16B in M&A transactions. His most recent role was Global Head of BD for Siemens Healthineers. Prior to that, for eleven years Sharma was a Senior Investment Partner at Siemens Venture Capital (SVC) in Boston, where he was responsible for leading investments in healthcare (devices, diagnostics, software and services). He previously worked in Mergers and Acquisitions for JPMorgan & Salomon Smith Barney.
Sharma founded the Startup Leadership Program, which has educated 3,500 entrepreneurs in 13 countries who have raised more than $600M; nearly 60 of these companies have been acquired. He also cofounded the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at BITS Pilani, and started of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Startup Initiative (MALSI) to accelerate the pace of startups in the Commonwealth, co-created and teaches the Healthcare Innovation & Commercialization course at Harvard Medical School and serves a mentor, reviewer or judge for many grants and business plan competitions including Cornell, BITS Conquest, Harvard President Challenge, MassChallenge, Mass Life Sciences, MIT 50K and the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health.
Sharma holds an MBA from Cornell University, MS in Accounting & Finance from Manchester Business School, Masters in Economics and Bachelors in Instrumentation Engineering from BITS Pilani, India.
Manju Sheth
Dr. Manju Sheth, MD
Co-founder, INE Multimedia
Beth Israel Lahey Health
Co-founder, INE MultiMedia, and Physician Beth Israel Lahey Health
Dr. Sheth, a Board Certified Internist with keen interest in women’s health, is co-producer of NECA Awards and 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 Beth Israel 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.
Vivek Soni
Vivek Soni
Managing Director, TiE Boston Angels
Managing Partner, Boston Cleantech Partners
Vivek Soni is a venture advisor and thought leader in the Boston clean tech community, who has advised clean tech firms and funds in India and the United States.
He also serves as Managing Director of TiE Boston Angels, which helps entrepreneurs raise early-stage rounds of capital and helps new investor fight right companies to invest.
Aditi Taylor
Chief Risk Officer
MFS Investment Management
Ms. Taylor is president of the India Association of Greater Boston and serves as Chief Risk Officer of MFS Investment Management. Previously, she was is a Principal with Deloitte & Touche LLP’s Risk Advisory practice where she serves as a leader in the firm’s Life Sciences practice leading variety of engagements related to governance, ethics and compliance, risk and controls.
She holds a BA Economics from University of Mumbai and a MBA from Bentley University, Waltham, MA. Ms. Taylor, who was named an emerging leader by the Boston Business Journal, is active in the New England cultural community.
A stage and theater performer since the early age of 4, Taylor continues to nurture her passion for the cultural and performing arts and often directs, produces and performs in large musical and theater productions with participants of many ages.