BOSTON– Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, the first woman, first person of color, and first Asian American elected mayor of Boston, will be the Chief Guest at the Annual New England Choice Awards gala, which will be attended by over 400 community leaders, educators, business trailblazers and philanthropists, among others.
The awards gala, which is produced annually by the non-profit organization INE MultiMedia, in collaboration with INDIA New England News, will be held on Oct. 29, 2023 at Burlington Marriott Hotel in Burlington, MA.
This year’s NECA award recipients are: Ash Ashutosh, a serial tech entrepreneur and Global Director of Solution Sales at Google; Pranav Ghatraju, a rising tabla player and New Product Development Engineer at Entegris; Dr. Salil Midha, MD, Cardiology Chief at Melrose-Wakefield Hospital; Priyamvada Natarajan, a Physics Professor and Theoretical Astrophysicist at Yale University, known for her work in mapping dark matter and dark energy; Trupti Patel, an immigration attorney and Saheli Advisory Board Member; Phil Scarff, a Saxophonist, Composer and Founder of world-jazz ensemble Natraj; and the India Society of Worcester, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year as a vibrant non-profit community organization.
Raj Sharma, Managing Director of Wealth Management and Head of The Sharma Group, a high-end boutique within Merrill Lynch’s Private Banking and Investment Group, will receive the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award.
“It is a true privilege for us to have Boston Mayor Michelle Wu as our Chief Guest at New England Choice Awards,” said Dr. Manju Sheth, CEO of INE MultiMedia, a Waltham, MA-based non-profit organization devoted to promoting and supporting charitable organizations, art, culture, education and empowerment through workshops, seminars and multimedia. “Mayor Wu is a very inspiring leader. We are looking forward to welcoming her and to hear about her vision for our great city of Boston.”
Mayor Wu is a daughter of immigrants, Boston Public Schools mom to two boys, MBTA commuter, and fierce believer that we can solve our deepest challenges through building community. She has been a voice for accessibility, transparency, and community engagement in city leadership. First elected to the Boston City Council in November 2013 at the age of 28, Wu is the first Asian-American woman to serve on the Council. In January 2016, she was elected President of the City Council by her colleagues in a unanimous vote, becoming the first woman of color to serve as Council President.
“At 38, Mayor Wu has become one of the rising stars of the Democratic Party and one of the 50 most influential women in America. Mayorship of Boston is only the first step in her bright future political journey,” said Upendra Mishra, Co-Founder of INE MultiMedia and publisher of INDIA New England News, Boston Real Estate Times, Life Sciences Times and IndUS Business Journal. “It will be an inspiring evening, listening to Mayor Wu and all the winners. We’re so excited to welcome and honor Boston’s first woman, first person of color, and first Asian American mayor.”
As a Councilor, Mayor Wu was the lead sponsor of Boston’s Paid Parental Leave ordinance and Healthcare Equity ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity — both of which passed unanimously through the Council and were signed into law by former Mayor Martin J. Walsh. She also authored Boston’s Communications Access ordinance, which guarantees translation, interpretation and assistive technology for access to City services regardless of English language proficiency or communications disability.
Mayor Wu got her start in City Hall working for Mayor Thomas M. Menino as a Rappaport Fellow in Law and Public Policy, where she created the city’s first guide to the restaurant permitting process from start to finish, and was also a driving force to launch Boston’s food truck program. She later served as statewide Constituency Director in the U.S. Senate campaign of her former law professor, Elizabeth Warren.
As a former restaurant owner, legal services attorney, and legal guardian of her younger sister, Mayor Wu understands firsthand the barriers that families and communities face. She has a background in community advocacy, having worked at the WilmerHale Legal Services Center in Jamaica Plain, providing legal advice to low-income small business owners, as well as at the Medical-Legal Partnership at Boston Medical Center on immigration law cases for survivors of domestic violence.
In 2016, Councilor Wu was honored as one of Ten Outstanding Young Leaders by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and as part of Marie Claire magazine’s New Guard: The 50 Most Influential Women in America.
Mayor Wu graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School. She is fluent in Mandarin and Spanish, and lives in Roslindale with her husband Conor and her sons Blaise and Cass.
