BOSTON–American India Foundation, known as AIF, will host its annual Boston gala on March 28 in Boston. Gala co-chairs Meena and Sundar Subramanyam talk about the gala, guest of honor, the program and AIF’s charitable activities in India.
On the Face-to-Face interview with INDIA New England News, Subramanyams announced that AIF will honor Susan Whitehead at the gala. Ms. Whitehead is vice chair and life board member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a life member of the MIT Corporation, or MIT’s Board of Trustees.
To watch the full interview, please click here, or on the image below.
At 2020 Gala, AIF will feature its transformative impact on women and girls, through the organization’s multi-pronged interventions in education, public health and livelihoods primarily serve the needs of women and girls, who are among the most disadvantaged in society. These interventions advance the cause of gender equality.
The event will be held for on Saturday, March 28, 2020 at the elegant Renaissance Waterfront Hotel in downtown Boston. This year’s Emcee for the evening will be Comedian Rajiv Satyal.
For more information and to register online please go to aifnegala2020.givesmart.com
Other co-chairs of AIF gala this year are philanthropic couple Tasneem Chipty and Aleks Franz.
Sundar and Meena Subramanyam are long-time residents of the Boston area and have been involved with several charitable NGO organizations that are committed to improving education, healthcare and community development services for the economically underprivileged in India.
Sundar received a Ph.D. from Kent State University in Ohio and a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School in Boston. He is a patent attorney in the Boston area, focusing his practice on intellectual property matters involving patent strategy, IP portfolio development, due diligence and patent infringement and litigation in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device areas.
He advises start-up entities as well as large corporations and academic institution clients on intellectual property matters. Additionally he provides pro-bono legal assistance to non-profit organizations in the Boston area, and has worked on immigration issues with organizations such as Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) pertaining to asylum and border detention issues, and with Project Citizenship to assist eligible permanent residents obtain U.S. citizenship.
Meena received her Ph.D. from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and is currently Vice President and Global Program Leader at Takeda Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Prior to joining Takeda, Meena was at Biogen in Cambridge, as Vice President and Head of the Translational Sciences and Technology group.
Meena is the recipient of the 2019 Healthcare Business Association’s Luminary Award and the 2019 Global Leader Award from the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists for her leadership and contributions in the biotech and pharmaceutical areas. She serves on the board of the non-profit organization Women in the Enterprise of Science and Technology. Meena is also a highly accomplished Bharatanatyam artist and has trained several students in her dance school.
Sundar and Meena have a daughter, Kriti, currently a graduate student pursuing her Ph.D. in medical engineering in the Health Science and Technology Program at MIT.
The American India Foundation is committed to catalyzing social and economic change in India, and building a lasting bridge between the United States and India through high-impact interventions in education, livelihoods, public health, and leadership development. Working closely with local communities, AIF partners with NGOs to develop and test innovative solutions and with governments to create and scale sustainable impact. Founded in 2001 at the initiative of President Bill Clinton following a suggestion from Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee, AIF has impacted the lives of 5.6 million of India’s poor. Learn more at www.AIF.org
