WALTHAM, MA–On Sunday, Oct. 29, about 400 entrepreneurs, corporate executives, philanthropists, educators and community leaders will attend the New England Choice Awards gala, which is presented annually by the INE MultiMedia in collaboration with INDIA New England News, the region’s oldest and largest online, print and video magazine serving the South Asian community.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, the Democratic Party’s national rising star, will be the Chief Guest at the event, as NECA celebrates success.
“It has been an honor to create and co-produce NECA Awards. The success of NECA Awards is due to the dedicated team . We all have the shared goal of showcasing people who have done great work so others can be inspired,” said Dr. Manju Sheth, MD. “It has been a humbling experience to see the tremendous impact that this award has created in the community. I am very grateful for all the love and support.”
Here is the team behind this year’s NECA Awards gala, which will be held at Westin Hotel in Waltham, MA.
Dr. Manju Sheth, MD
Harvard Vanguard/ Atrius Health
A physician with a passion for media, Dr. Manju Sheth, MD, is an internist at Harvard Vanguard/ Atrius Health. Her accomplishments in the field of medicine include an appointment to the prestigious Patient Care Assessment Committee at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Committee. She served as the President of the Indian Medical Association of New England in 2013 and was also the co-chair of Indian Women Physicians Forum. Dr. Sheth’s medical training and practice across three continents gave her a unique perspective into issues that impact women across the globe. This is what led her to serve as the Chair for the Advisory Board at Saheli, an organization that supports South Asian victims of domestic violence.
Dr. Sheth also served on the Board of Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence and as a trustee for Indian American Forum for Political Education. Dr. Sheth co-founded the annual New England Health Expo in 2013 to raise awareness around health and wellness related issues that are prevalent in the South Asian community. As co-founder of India New England Multimedia (INE), a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering, entertaining, and educating the Boston community, Dr. Sheth created the annual New England Choice Awards (NECA) in collaboration with INDIA New England News to recognize and celebrate the achievements of the Indian diaspora. Dr. Sheth’s passion for media led her to create the popular celebrity interview series, “Chai with Manju”, an inspiring talk show and podcast sharing stories of South Asian leader with millions of viewers. The show recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary.
She is also the Co-founder and president of award-winning global media platform called Women Who Win. Dr. Sheth has received numerous awards for her community service including being named India New England Woman of the Year (2011) She has been listed in the “150 Women of Influence” by YWCA Boston
Anu Chitrapu
Senior Vice President, Bank of America
Ms. Chitrapu is Senior Vice-President and Executive at Bank of America. She is passionate about women empowerment, eliminating gender based violence, education for girls and protecting the environment. It was this passion that led to the creation of Nyrvaana, a social enterprise with a mission to save fabric from landfill while providing employment to disadvantaged women.
Ms. Chitrapu recently created You Can Be, a book for young girls. It inspires them to pursue any profession they like, by showing them examples of accomplished women role models who look like them.
Ms. Chitrapu served as President of TiE Boston between 2020 and 2022. She is on the Board of Advisors for the Museum of Science, Boston and on the advisory board of Direct Action for Women Now (DAWN). She is also an active member of several Boston based non-profit organizations including American India Foundation (AIF). Ms. Chitrapu holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management.
Upendra Mishra
Publisher, India New England News
Mr. Mishra is founder and president of the Waltham, MA-based The Mishra Group, an integrated full-service marketing and public relations firm. Since 1997, the Mishra Group has provided comprehensive, results-oriented solutions for the fast-paced new age of online and traditional marketing through the area’s best writers and editors and most talented graphic and Web designers and digital media strategists. He is also publisher of INDIA New England News, IndUS Business Journal, Life Sciences Times and the Boston Real Estate Times.
Mandy Pant
Lead Technologist, Design Engineering Group at Intel
Ms. Pant is a Lead Technologist in the Design Engineering Group at Intel. Prior to this, she was the Director of Intel’s Corporate Research Council, a body that works with leading academic researchers worldwide and senior technical leaders at Intel to seed and drive research efforts in areas of strategic importance to Intel in particular and the computing industry in general. Before this, as Intel’s lead technologist in the area of power delivery and power management, she investigated and drove several issues in the power space, particularly on-chip power delivery issues, power management and power reduction on the Intel next generation high volume server microprocessors.
Ms. Pant has led Intel’s die power delivery company wide synergy efforts and recently driven Intel’s power delivery Roadmap program. Further, she has also been a key player in driving and deploying Intel’s internal innovation programs. She has published 20+ technical papers in prestigious VLSI conferences and journals, has 3 issued patents and 5 pending patents.
Ms. Pant received her Bachelors (B.Tech) in Computer Science and Engineering from I.I.T Kharagpur, India, a Masters (MS) in Electrical Engineering and a Doctorate (PhD) in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA. She joined Intel in 2001 as part of the Alpha team acquisition from Compaq Computer Corporation where she worked since graduating in 2000. Ms. Pant enjoys hitting the gym regularly, dancing, reading, doing yoga and spending quality time with her husband.
Anupendra Sharma
CEO, AXLMED
Mr. Sharma founded AXLMED to make it easier to understand disease. His skills lie in company creation, spinouts, fundraising, governance, product development strategy, and exits. The companies he is invested in the US and China have raised nearly $180 million in venture capital and he has been involved with $16 billion in M&A transactions.
His most recent role was Global Head of BD for Siemens Healthineers. Prior to that, for eleven years Mr. Sharma was a Senior Investment Partner at Siemens Venture Capital (SVC) in Boston, where he led investments in healthcare (devices, diagnostics, software, and services). He previously worked in Mergers and Acquisitions for JPMorgan & Citigroup.
Mr. Sharma founded the Startup Leadership Program, which has educated nearly 4,000 entrepreneurs in 13 countries who have raised more than $4 billion, co-founded the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at BITS Pilani and co-founded the Massachusetts Life Sciences Startup Day to accelerate the pace of startups in the Commonwealth. He co-created the Healthcare Innovation & Commercialization course at Harvard Medical School and serves on the board of Cornell Life Science Ventures and as a reviewer for National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health.
Mr. Sharma holds an MBA from Cornell University, MS in Accounting & Finance from Manchester Business School, Masters in Economics and Bachelors in Instrumentation Engineering from BITS Pilani, India.
Aditi Taylor
Chief Risk Officer, MFS Investment Management
Ms. Taylor is a Senior Vice President at MFS Investment Management overseeing Trade Support and
Broker Relations. In her current role, she leads middle office operations overseeing aspects of portfolio support, trade management and manages strategic relationships with global sell side research providers.
Previously, she served as the Chief Enterprise Risk Officer of the organization providing oversight of enterprise risk management.
Prior to that, Ms. Taylor served as the Partner/Principal in Deloitte Advisory LLP where she spent almost 19 years working on various consulting engagements across multiple global companies. Aditi holds an MBA from Bentley University, MA and a bachelor’s in economics from the University of Mumbai, India.
Ms. Taylor has been active in the New England community serving in leadership roles for various community organizations, including as President of the New England Marathi Mandal and the India Association of Greater Boston. In 2014, she was inducted in the Boston Business Journal’s class of ‘40 Under 40’ Leaders to watch for as well as recognized as Boston Business Journal’s ‘Leaders in Diversity’. In 2015, she was honored by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce as one of the ‘Ten Outstanding Young Leaders’. She was also recognized by the India New England News as the ‘Most Versatile Leader’ in 2017. Until recently, Ms. Taylor sat on the board of Tech Goes Home (TGH) a non-profit organization working towards bridging the digital divide. Ms. Taylor also serves as an Adjunct Professor at Boston University MET and teaches Advanced Enterprise Risk Management.
