BOSTON–The independent jury of nine judges for 2021 Woman of the Year broke from the tradition this year and instead of voting a women with riche and diversified experience, they took a bold step and selected a 27-yearl-old climate activist Varshini Prakash.
During the selection process for the Woman of the Year every year, judges have the toughest job of choosing the Woman of the Year of a talented pool of 20 outstanding women, and they always choose the best.
Judges, whose names are not disclosed until the Woman of the Year winner is announced, are the key part of the Woman of the Year selection process. Like in the past, the independent panel of judges this year consisted of seven respected individuals from the community, representing various fields.
Nikhil Bhojwani, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Recon Strategy
Mr. Bhojwani is the Founder and Managing Partner of Recon Strategy, a consulting firm that since 2010 has worked with leaders at prominent healthcare organizations on questions relating to vision and strategy. Prior to co-founding Recon, Mr. Bhojwani spent 8 years at the Boston Consulting Group where he was a core member of the strategy and healthcare practice areas. Experienced in working with health plans, biotech and pharma companies, med devices and health care services, Mr. Bhojwani has helped his clients innovate and execute solutions, develop strategy, make critical business decisions and plan and enable executive level and organization wide change.
Shipra Dubey, PhD, Principal Associate, Harvard Medical School, Director, Radiochemistry, Research and Development, BICOR, Radiology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Ms. Dubey is a Director of Radiochemistry, Research and Development at Biomedical Imaging Core, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, as well as Principal Associate, Harvard Medical School and Member Faculty in Joint Program of Nuclear Medicine Residency. Ms. Dubey is involved in the development of PET radiopharmaceuticals for clinical, preclinical imaging and translational studies in Oncology, Neurology, Psychiatry and Cardiology to improve understanding of disease mechanisms and, ultimately, employ them as companion diagnostics to support therapeutic development. Ms. Dubey has published several papers, abstracts and is listed as an inventor in patents.
Vineeta Kumar, President, Indian American Getting Involved Group (iGiG)
Ms. Kumar is a management consultant and business advisor by profession. In December, she was elected as president of Lexington, MA-based Indian American Getting Involved Group, known by its acronym as iGiG. The mission of iGIG is to provide a platform and support system for Indian Americans to help increase their participation in town government and committees, especially in Lexington.
Ms. Kumar has more than 25 years of experience in the IT Services and Advisory industry. She has led key business initiatives, managing multi-million dollar operations globally and working with Fortune 500 clients.
Santhana Krishnanm Founder, South Asian Art Gallery and Managing Partner, Om Ventures
Mr. Krishnan is a Boston-based serial entrepreneur. As the Managing Partner at Om Ventures, he invests and advises startups focused on disruptive business models to create new markets. He founded New England’s first South Asian Art Gallery as a social enterprise to promote emerging artists from South East Asia. Previously, Mr. Krishnan founded InteQ and as its Chairman and CEO led from inception to its position as an industry leader in managed services (acquired by CSS) and SaaS service management (acquired by CA). He serves on several boards of startups and charitable organizations.
Revathy Ramakrishna, Co-Founder, Vision-Aid
Ms. Ramakrishna Co-Founder of Vision-Aid and Woman of the Year 2019. She serves as the volunteer Vice-President for Vision-Aid, a non-profit organization that serves the visually impaired by Enabling, Educating and Empowering them to live their lives with independence and dignity. Vision-Aid has blossomed into an organization which has offered enablement, rehabilitation and skills training programs for thousands of blind and visually impaired across 10 locations in India, besides also running several programs online through the Vision-Aid Online Academy. Ms. Ramakrishna also works as a Program Manager at Fresenius Medical Care of North America, overseeing the CMS and CDC mandated Government Reporting programs aimed at improving the quality of health care and patient outcomes for the vulnerable dialysis patient population.
Preetesh Shrivastava, Founder, Hindi Manch and Preetesh Entertainment, LLC.
In addition to being a Practice Head at Infosys, Mr. Shrivastava is the founder of Hindi Manch, a non-profit organization that brings people who know Hindi and related languages or those who want to know Hindi together, through cultural, social and educational programs and activities. His Preetesh Entertainment strives to bring happiness and joy through entertainment. He has produced or directed about 50 shows in New England in the past 10 years and his stand-up comedy is admired by many.
Meena Subramanyam, Vice President and Global Program Leader, Takeda Pharmaceuticals
Ms. Subramanyam is Vice President and Global Program Leader in the Oncology division at Takeda Pharmaceuticals. In this capacity, Dr. Subramanyam oversees the strategic development of Alunbrig® in lung cancer and additional pre-clinical immunotherapy assets. Prior to joining Takeda, Ms. Subramanyam spent 19 years at Biogen in Cambridge as Vice President and Head of the Translational Sciences and Technology group. Dr. Subramanyam currently serves as the President of the Board of WEST (Women in the Enterprise of Science & technology), a non-profit organization focused on the development of early- and mid-stage career women, based in Boston, and as an observer on the board of Portal Instruments, Cambridge, MA. Ms. Subramanyam is also a highly accomplished Bharatanatyam artist and Director of the dance school “Natya Vidyalaya” which she established in 1990.
Bala Sundaram, PhD, Vice Provost for Research & Dean of Graduate Studies, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Prof. Sundaram is Vice Provost at UMass Boston. He was formerly Chair of the Department of Physics at UMass Boston. His research interests include quantum and classical chaos, the quantum-to-classical transition and applications of nonlinear dynamics in biology and cognitive science.
Praveen Tailam, Chairman, TiE Global Board of Trustees
Mr. Tailam is Chairman of the TiE Global Board of Trustees. TiE was founded in 1992 in Silicon Valley by successful entrepreneurs to foster entrepreneurship and currently has 60 chapters across 12 countries. As the global organization leader, he recognizes the disparity in the startup and corporate world and focuses on promoting women, students, and entrepreneurs from the under-served communities. He is an active investor, advisor, and philanthropist. Mr. Tailam has served as president of the TiE Boston Chapter. He co-manages multiple dental practices in New Hampshire and Maine in partnership with Aspen Dental. He served as chair of the 2021 Woman of the Year Independent Judging Committee.
