FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New York, NY, April 12, 2012 – The American India Foundation (AIF) announces the appointment leading entrepreneurs and executives Dinesh Paliwal,Chairman, President and CEO of HARMAN International, Arvind Ragunathan, CEO of Roc Capital Management, and social activist Anjali Sharma to its Board of Directors.
Dinesh Paliwal is Chairman, President and CEO of HARMAN International. Over his career, Dinesh has worked and lived in six countries on four continents and spent 22 years with the ABB Group where he held the dual role of President of ABB Group and Chairman/CEO of ABB Inc. prior to joining HARMAN in 2007. Dinesh has received numerous accolades, including Metro New York Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young and the Indian American Achiever Award from the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO), while serving on the boards of several institutions in the public and private sectors such as Tyco International. Dinesh and his wife, Ila, have had a long-standing relationship with AIF and India and have been key supporters for many years. Most recently, Dinesh was honored with the AIF Corporate Leadership Award at the Annual Southern California Annual Gala in Los Angeles in 2011.
Arvind Ragunathan is currently CEO of Roc Capital Management LP. In 1991, he joined Credit Suisse First Boston in the Equities business and served as Managing Director and Head of Global Arbitrage at Deutsche Bank from 1995-2009, where he co-founded a new division of the bank, Equity Arbitrage. Among his many community leadership activities, Arvind serves on the Asia Society’s India Fund Advisory Committee and helped to establish an endowed professorship in South Asian studies at Columbia University. Arvind was honored by the Asian American Federation of New York at the 2007 Spirit of Asian American Gala, an event that lauds individuals who have made a substantial contribution to society.
Activist and humanitarian Anjali Sharma has supported AIF since our founding 2001 in a variety of roles, including Chairperson of Philanthropic Engagement. In this capacity, she has supported national AIF chapters and events while spearheading AIF’s fundraisers in New York and cultivating key stakeholders and expanding AIF’s community in the Tri-State region. She has also been a member of the AIF Council of Trustees since 2008. Anjali worked in a variety of marketing and financial analysis roles in corporate America for 14 years at Avon Products and at Young & Rubicam. She came to the US in 1976 and completed her undergraduate studies at the College of Charleston followed by a Master’s degree in International Business at the University of Southern California. She won the Junior National Tennis championship in India in 1975 where she was ranked #1 Junior in India. While continuing as Chairperson of Philanthropic Engagement, Anjali will chair the Board’s Stakeholder Engagement and Outreach Committee.
