CONCORD, MA—You may have seen her at charitable or business events. You may also know names of some technology companies she has quietly been behind, but you may have no clue who she is.
Her name is Priti Chatter. She holds five patents with additional pending. She is a General Partner at NeoNet Capital, LLC., and a successful entrepreneur. As a partner at NeoNet, she is focused on investing in companies that translate groundbreaking science into innovative products. Over the years, NeoNet has partnered with incredible entrepreneurs in fields ranging from healthcare analytics to alternative energy.
Prior to NeoNet, Ms. Chatter was a founding team member at technology startups in the telecom and internet space. Her primary focus was strategy, marketing, and media communications, in addition to the wider responsibilities inherent in startups including building teams and managing finances.
Ms. Chatter currently serves on the boards of MarvelBiome, Inc., a microbiome company and MyHealthMath, focused on health benefit decisioning support. She has served as trustee for Nashoba Brooks School (Concord, MA), Johns Hopkins University President’s Parent Roundtable, and Georgetown University’s Parent Leadership Council.
On March 6, Ms. Chatter will be honored as one of the 20 Outstanding Women of 2021 during the 18th Annual Woman of the Year Awards ceremony—virtual this year. To buy a ticket, please click here.
Here is a Q/A with Ms. Chatter:
INDIA New England News: Please tell our readers about your work and what you enjoy most about it?
Priti Chatter: I’m currently engaged with MarvelBiome as a co-founder. We focus on harnessing the power of gut microbes to develop therapeutics that can safely address Central Nervous System diseases such as Alzheimer’s, the most common cause of dementia that affects memory, thinking, and behavior. Alarmingly, one in ten people age 65 and older has Alzheimer’s in the United States; many estimate that this will rapidly increase in the coming years due to lack of appropriate therapy. My motivations are two-fold: first the interactions and learnings from amazing minds behind this research and second, the possibility of making a real difference via microbiome therapeutics towards halting cognitive decline and maintaining healthy brain tissue with aging.
INE: If you’re engaged with any charity or non-profit, please tell us why this group and what do you do for them?
PC: I’m a member of The Hestia Fund, a women’s grant-making organization operating in the Greater Boston area. The mission is to support programs that create opportunities for children from underserved families to thrive in school and realize lasting change in their lives.
My husband, Mukesh, and I have been supporters of several non-profits mainly focused on education and community well-being such as Massachusetts General Hospital, Ekal Vidyalaya, Indian Center for Caring and other community non-profits.
INE: What are your hobbies and interests?
PC: 2020 has brought a fresh focus on long meditative walks and gardening. I enjoy playing a good board game or watching a Patriots game with my family.
INE: In what way you feel you have most positively influenced or served the local community and your company/organization and professional field?
PC: From a wider perspective, even today, clean energy and clean water remain among the largest global challenges we face. What we need, in order to vastly improve lives, are approaches that are both affordable and robust, which can bring about a transformational change. Mukesh and I have endowed two engineering chaired professorships at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY, to support creative researchers whose studies focus on clean energy and clean water.
We have also been supporting the efforts for the Dharmalaya at Georgetown University, the first consecrated multi-Dharmic space on a U.S. college campus. The Dharmalaya will be dedicated to Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Sikh practices.
This provides a space for students for celebration, gathering, meditation, leadership development, and traditional observances.
INE: Your rare talent?
PC: The art of flower arrangement – I learned different styles and techniques in my teenage years.
INE: Your favorite books?
PC: Books are like my children; I can’t pick a favorite! Currently, reading Caste – The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. I have not been disciplined about carving out time to read but enjoy a good novel on the lighter side.
INE: Your favorite quotes?
PC: “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln
“It’s not the mountains we conquer but ourselves.” – Edmund Hilary
“Don’t look for big things, just do small things with great love.” – Mother Teresa
“In a conflict between the heart and the brain, follow your heart.”– Swami Vivekananda
INE: Who inspires you the most?
PC: My grandfather. His optimism, his entrepreneurial spirit, and his life experiences and stories still encourage me to take on both things small and large.
INE: Your core value you try to live by?
PC: Commitment to making an authentic difference in our global community.
