Panels & Workshops

Manish is the spokesman for The Nanubhai Education foundation, a non-profit working to improve rural education in India.

Prior to RIVA in the Public Sector, Naveen worked at CACI, Booz Allen & Hamilton and helped lead another small business to $15M in annual revenue before exiting.

His greatest passion is creating an organization culture which caters to talented employees. Within RIVA he developed a Social Media Division which focuses on Online Brand Management, Customer Service Command Centers, Social Media Campaigns & Community Management. The goal within this division is to provide a home for passionate social media “rockstars” and build out a repeatable framework & methodology using management consulting best practices to drive value to customers. Follow him today @naveenk22

Vijay Setlur is a marketing lecturer, freelance soccer journalist/analyst, and aspiring sport business leader with a passion for soccer, particularly Canada’s men’s national team. Currently, Vijay teaches sport and tourism marketing in the Bachelor of Business Administration program at Schulich School of Business-York University, and sport marketing at Ryerson University in Toronto, where he applies an industry-centric approach to business education.

His passion for the business of sport parlayed into providing opinions on industry developments for the Toronto Star and Bloomberg.com. Recently, Vijay orchestrated Schulich's inclusion into the NASCAR Kinetics: Marketing in Motion case competition for 2012-2013, marking the first time an international business school will be participating in the popular competition. Vijay reports on international soccer as a freelance journalist and analyst. He covers Canada’s national teams and international soccer for CONCACAF.com - website of the governing body of soccer for North America, Central America and the Caribbean, while serving as an analyst for Toronto's all-sports radio station, Sportsnet 590 The Fan, and CBC Radio. Since 2007, Vijay has participated in nearly 400 radio, TV, webcast, podcast and print interviews analyzing soccer and the business of sport. Over his professional life, Vijay has held editorial positions in the sports departments of The Canadian Press, Toronto Star and Toronto Sun.

His career highlight to date is managing communications for the Toronto organizing committee of the record-setting FIFA Under-20 World Cup Canada 2007, which drew nearly 1.2-million spectators across the country.

Prior to Avinta Services, Gita worked in marketing and sales for GT Nexus, Beckman Coulter and Verizon. This industry diversity and continued engagement feedback are the keys to Avinta’s explosive 70% annual
growth with each additional year of operation. Gita also serves on the Board of Directors for the Houston chapter of Women in Technology International and non-profit DiscoverU.

In July 2011, Reggie led the company’s first round of funding in over a decade—a $136 million investment—which, according to the Wall Street Journal, was the biggest U.S. software funding deal since 2007.

Reggie was named Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year® for Greater Washington in 2010, selected as one of Washingtonian Magazine’s 100 Top Tech Titans in 2010 and 2011, and named a rising star of Washington by Forbes Magazine. MeetingNews has twice named him one of the 25 most influential people in the $250 billion dollar meetings industry along with the CEOs of Marriott, Hilton and Linkedin . In addition, Cvent was honored for the 2010 “Management Team of the Year” by the American Business Awards, and voted one of the “50 Best Places to Work” in Washington three years in a row by the Washington Business Journal. Reggie has been featured in over 100 articles in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Businessweek, USA Today, Forbes, and The Washington Post, and has appeared on ABC News, CBS News, NBC News and CNN.

Ami works with a broad spectrum of organizations across Chicago. She serves on the advisory council for the City of Chicago’s Office of New Americans and on the advisory board of Common Cause Illinois. She is a volunteer attorney for Coordinated Advice & Referral Program for Legal Services (CARPLS), which runs a legal aid hotline for lowincome residents of Cook County.

Chris is the Executive Director of the Northside Community Resource (NCR), a sixty year-old non-profit community service agency in Chicago’s Roger’s Park neighborhood, which provides advocacy and programming for affordable housing, community and economic development, domestic violence court advocacy, landlord-tenant mediation, senior services case management, small accessibility repairs for seniors and multi-cultural resources. Prior to joining NCR, Chris served as the Director of the Council on Asian Affairs for the City of Chicago’s Commission on Human Relations. In this position, he served the interests of 18 Asian American communities in Chicago and raised the visibility of the Asian American community in Chicago, while identifying and addressing practices and issues which had a discriminatory and disparate impact on Chicago’s Asian American community. Chris’ role was also that of community liaison between City government and the Asian American constituency to enhance communication and improve access to city services. Chris currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Indian American Medical Association’s Charitable Foundation (IAMACF) - a free, non-profit medical clinic serving Chicago’s West Ridge community and is a former member of the 2012 NATO Chicago Welcome Committee, the Asian American Action Fund of Greater Chicago, the City of Chicago’s CDBG Public Services Committee and is also a former president of NetIP Chicago (1998).

Rahul Brahmbhatt made a career change after 7 years in engineering and manufacturing to an intersection of two areas he felt more passionate about – sports and development. Rahul interned with the Washington Redskins for projects run by USA Football, Nike, and Ashoka. In 2009, Rahul undertook a one year sport for development Fellowship with Indicorps where he lived and worked in urban slum and rural Gujarat, utilizing Ultimate Frisbee as a tool to galvanize underserved communities. It was during this time in India that Rahul first heard about Magic Bus.

Magic Bus was founded in Mumbai in 1999 that used sport as a catalyst for social change and development. It is Asia’s largest mentoring charity with 700 local staff and 7,000 youth volunteers delivering programs to more than 220,000 children across India. 95% of these children attend school regularly and with 44% girl participation, more than 85% of children in Magic Bus have taken part in mixed gender leadership projects and activities. Magic Bus is on a mission to take 1 million children from childhood to livelihood by 2015.

In 2010, Rahul moved back to the US and founded Magic Bus USA. Events have been held in San Francisco, Houston, and New York City. Magic Bus is proudly supported by global sponsors such as BMW, Nike, Barclay’s, Premier League, Laureus Sport for Good, and others.

Sheel Mohnot has spent most of his life in consulting and technology, including stints at BCG, Kiva.org, The Insitor Fund (a social venture capital fund in Cambodia), and most recently his own startup FeeFighters, which was acquired by Groupon earlier this year. Back in 2006, Sheel was looking to do something to give back to the world and left his job as a management consultant to work at Kiva.org as an Indicorps fellow. He also hosts a South Asian open mic night in Chicago (with proceeds supporting South Asian charities).

Priya Shah, Founder at the Simple Good is an artist, world traveler, social entrepreneur, diversity/inclusiveness advocate, basketball enthusiast, dessert lover, chai drinker and overall curious wanderer. She has traveled the world as a student, under the corporate scene and as a volunteer working under NGO’s. Her experiences have inspired her many ways her life and have created a desire to continually learn more from every individual I come across.

Ashvin worked for several years in the financial services industry and the medical device industry serving in product development, marketing, business development and clients relations roles. In 2010, he ran for the Republican nomination for Congress in Illinois’ 5th congressional district earning the endorsement from the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, as well as from many elected officials and organizations.

Prior to joining the Treasurer's Office, he spent 8 years as a economist at RCF Economic Consulting, Deputy Policy Director for David Hoffman for US Senate, Environmental Policy Advisor for Obama for America, and volunteer coordinator for SAFO Chicago.

Prior to working at IDHFS, Selma was a solo practioner and previously a partner at the law firm of D’Souza & Gosrisirikul Ltd. in Chicago, formerly known as Mondero, D’Souza & Gosrisirikul Ltd.

Last year, she served as a member of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s transition team, and a member of its Intergovernmental Affairs committee. Selma has been volunteering for nearly 16 years to empower the Asian American community, particularly with respect to its political strength. Last year, she received the Vanguard Award from the Chicago Bar Association and Asian American Bar Association, for her work in promoting diversity in the legal profession, and the community at large. She also received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Indo American Democratic Organization (IADO).

Selma also served as a delegate (elected in the 9th Dist.) for Presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008, John Kerry in 2004 and Al Gore in 2000. She also served as the Obama campaign’s Illinois Asian American outreach director.

Raja currently serves as President of Sivananthan Laboratories, a Bolingbrook-based business dedicated to the research, development and commercialization of cutting-edge products and technologies in national security and renewable energy. The company specializes in night vision military technology, solar cells, biosensors to detect weapons of mass destruction, and radiation detectors.

Before joining his current company, Raja served as Deputy Treasurer for Illinois where he helped revamp the state’s unclaimed property system by increasing the amount of returned property while cutting the program’s costs. He also helped to run the technology venture capital fund, which has helped create hundreds of good-paying jobs in Illinois.

In 2006, Raja was appointed by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to serve as Special Assistant Attorney General to help start her Public Integrity Unit. Before that, he served as a member of the Illinois Housing Development Authority where he was Chairman of the Audit Committee.

Following law school, Raja clerked for a federal judge in Chicago and rose to become a partner in the international law firm of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He served as issues director for Barack Obama’s successful U.S. Senate campaign in 2004 and as an advisor to his successful presidential campaign in 2008. As a resident of Hoffman Estates, Raja served on the Village’s Comprehensive Planning Advisory Commission.

Currently, Rep. Goyal is the Ranking Member of the Financial Institutions, Housing and Urban Development Committee and the Health and Human Services subcommittee of Finance and Appropriations and is a member of the Finance and Appropriations and Economic Development Committees He is also a member of the Legislative Service Commission and the Power Siting Board.

Prior to joining the IUB Board, Swati Dandekar served in the Iowa House of Representatives from 2002 until 2008 and was elected to the Iowa Senate in 2008. She was the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, vice-chair of the Economic Development Budget Subcommittee, and was elected President of the National Foundation of Women Legislators for 2011.

Chaudhuri is co-founder of SocialxDesign, a strategy consulting firm with offices in Silicon Valley, San Francisco and Washington D.C. Most recently, Chaudhuri helped Dilma Rousseff become the first female president of Brazil and helped re-elect Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, in major upset elections in the last midterm elections. Chaudhuri has managed more than $100 million in state and federal campaigns in the U.S. and abroad and has worked at the helm of national media operations. He worked hard to protect children as civil rights leader Marian Wright Edelman’s spokesman and media strategist at the Children’s Defense Fund; took on corporate polluters to provide safe drinking water and clean air as a political appointee to President Bill Clinton; and worked to elect several principled state and federal candidates including serving as deputy press secretary to Vice President Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign.

Chaudhuri has received several accolades for his work, including the American Association of Political Scientists’ Pollie Award, Campaigns & Elections Magazine’s Rising Star Award and the highly-coveted Reed Award and India Abroad’s Community Service Award. He has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and The Times of India and as a commentator on National Public Radio, the BBC, MSNBC, CNN, and Al-Jazeera English.

Prior to this appointment, Ann worked for more than 18 years at the University of Chicago in Information Technology Services, where she worked in Emerging Technologies and Communications but previously was Director of Client Services and Support. Ann has taught interdisciplinary courses on Asian Americans at DePaul University, Loyola University Chicago, and the University of Illinois at Chicago.

She is very active in many community and civic activities dealing with education policy, campaign finance reform, immigration reform, and documenting Asian American history. A Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow, Ann has also served on several government task forces and has participated in many panel discussions on the above issues. She is also co-Director of the South Asian American Policy & Research Institute and a member of many community based organizations. Ann's appointment is historic as she is the first woman to serve as Regional Administrator of the General Services Administration in this Region.

Bhargava's filmmaking builds from his pioneering work as a commercial director and motion designer. Bhargava spear headed the campaigns for HBO's The Wire, Def Poetry Jam, Rome and OZ. His other clients include Accenture, NBC, Woolrich, PBS, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Volvo and OMango.

Bhargava is currently collaborating with grammy nominated musician Vijay Iyer on a film/orchestral work entitled Radhe Radhe. Bhargava's next feature film, in development, is set on the south side of Chicago, and is entitled The Highlands.

Currently, she is one of the five faces of Bare Escentuals International, becoming the first Indian American to represent a global cosmetics brand. She is also a co-founder of Hospital for Hope, a non-profit focusing on the construction of hospitals in rural India.

She will next star in the horror feature film, Muck. Other recent film work includes the comedic feature, I’m Not Like That No More, where she played alongside comedians Paul Rodriguez and Felipe Esparza. Puja’s dramatic work can be seen in the films, Foreign and Second Best, which have traveled to festivals worldwide.

She will return to her stage roots later this year when she brings her one-woman show to Los Angeles and New York. TV Credits include: Undercovers, CSI: Miami, Three Rivers, Miami Medical, Ghost Whisperer, All My Children, Valentine, and the HBO pilot, “1%.

Amrapali Ambegaokar, Dancer & Actress

Amrapali Ambegaokar is a UCLA graduate of World Arts and Cultures, and a lifelong disciple of Master Dancer. She has been the Co- Artistic Director and Principal dancer of Anjani’s Kathak Dance of India for 23 years. She was the Principal Dancer of Cirque Du Soleil’s Dralion in over 730 shows. You may have seen her guest solo performance on So You Think You Can Dance and her solo silver medalist performance on Superstars of Dance! Amrapali has recurring acting roles on Grey’s Anatomy, guest starring roles on Heroes, and credits on Desperate Housewives, Outsourced, Alias, Boston Legal, ER. She has also acted in international films American Blend, Gone Hollywood, and Ram Gopal Varma’s Naach. Amrapali continues to create and perform extensively for various mediums internationally.