BOSTON—Sixteen Indian-Americans are named among Boston’s Most Influential Asian American Pacific Islanders 2023. In an event sponsored by The Boston Foundation, Eastern Bank, the Asian Community at the Boston Foundation, Colette Phillips Communications, Commonwealth Seminar and NAAAP Boston, the honorees were bestowed the awards Tuesday night.
Michelle Wu, the first elected Asian American and first elected woman to serve as Mayor for the City of Boston, graced the occasion. She was also honored as 50 Most Influential Asian Americans. Other luminary included Sumbul Siddiqui, Mayor of City of Cambridge.
Boston’s Most Influential Asian American Pacific Islanders 2023 list includes luminaries from academia, arts and culture, business, healthcare and life sciences, media, politics and public sector, legal, philanthropy, social service and social impact and emerging community leaders.
Indian Americans in the honoree list are (in alphabetical order):
Meena Bharath: Chair, Massachusetts Asian American and Pacific Islanders Commission
Meghna Chakrabarty: Host, NPR on Point
Prabal Chakrabarti: Executive VP & Community Affairs Director at Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
Puran Dang,: Chairman Emeritus, IIT Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Desh Deshpande & Jaishree Deshpande: Co-Founders of the Deshpande Foundation
Vilas Dhar: President, Patrick J. McGovern Foundation
Pooja Ika: Founder & CEO, eternalHealth
Reshma Kewal Ramani: President & CEO, Vertex
Upendra Mishra: Founder, India New England News, Boston Real Estate Times, and Life Sciences Times
Sahdev Passey: Director, Free Healthstop
Niraj Shah: Founder & CEO, Wayfair
Raj Sharma: Founder, Sharma Group
Reshma Shetty: Co-founder & Chief Operating Officer, Gingko Bioworks
Jay Tuli: President, Leader Bank
Sushil Tuli: CEO & Chairman, Leader Bank.
The event was organized by GetKonnected and its founder Colette Phillips.