BOSTON—She was an educator, mother, and wife until early 1992. Radha Jalan unexpectedly became the President and CEO of ElectroChem Inc., a Woburn, MA-based electrochemical company after the sudden death of her husband in February of 1992. She successfully ran the company until 2020 when she closed the business and retired.
In 2022, Ms. Jalan published her autobiography entitled “From Calcutta to Concord: The Journey of an Independent Woman.” The book chronicles her journey from a little girl growing up in Calcutta to getting married and moving to the dream land of the United States of America.
In the book Ms. Jalan remembers the time when she realized she was a woman of tremendous inner resourcefulness. “It happened with an incident of domestic violence, when my husband struck me for the first and only time in my life,” she recalls in her book. “It was as if at the moment his hand made contact with my skin, a new personality jolted into existence. I knew that I would fight for myself from that moment on.”
On April 26th, 2024, Ms. Jalan will be honored with the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award at the 21st Annual Woman of the Year Awards gala at the Burlington Marriott Hotel in Burlington, MA. The event will be attended by over 400 community leaders, social activists, entrepreneurs, academicians, and philanthropists.
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“I am humbled,” Ms. Jalan told INDIA New England News. “I did everything in life based on doing the right thing as a rational human being while recognizing the hold of the culture on our being. After my husband passed away in 1992, I had an option to take a job at Commonwealth of Massachusetts education department or take charge of the hydrogen energy company that my husband had started in 1986. I knew nothing about technology or running the business, but I decided to take my chances and I successfully ran the company for about 30 years.”
Ms. Jalan managed to get ElectroChem to become the first company in the world to manufacture a tabletop demonstration unit of fuel cell/ hydrogen energy, playing a disc player totally powered by hydrogen and oxygen gases.
“I had no credentials to run the company. It was mainly a research and development company and relied heavily on getting funds from various government agencies,” said Ms. Jalan. “I was very open with the funding agencies about my limitations as well as my determination to keep the company. The only thing I needed was their support. The agencies believed in me and as they say the rest is history.”
In 1997 when several Boston-area Indian-American entrepreneurs were founding TiE-Boston, Ms. Jalan joined the group as its founding and charter member.
“I have known Radha for more than 30 years. During the founding stage of TiE Boston, Radha was the only women entrepreneur in Massachusetts, and TiE-Boston was lucky to have her leadership during its founding days,” said philanthropist and first TiE-Boston President Desh Deshpande. “When misfortunate hits you hard, most breakdown whereas very few bravely face it and come out ahead. As they say what does not kill you makes you stronger. Radha is an excellent role model for all of us when we have to deal with adversity. Thank you, Radha, for your friendship.”
While Ms. Jalan’s extended network of professionals provided her much needed support at ElectroChem, her entire existing staff, except for one employee, left within the first six months of her taking the helms of the company for better job security. How did she succeed then?
“Being a woman entrepreneur in the 90s was not easy! I had to deal with several legal battles including successfully fighting a publicly traded utility company,” Ms. Jalan once told TiE-Boston. “I look back and am happy at what I accomplished and wish every woman entrepreneur success. There is no field a woman cannot excel in – it just needs courage, confidence, and hard work!”
Ms. Jalan was born in Calcutta in 1946 before the partition of British India. When she moved to US with her new husband, Vinod Jalan, she filled the traditional role of a young Indian wife while also earning two more degrees and raising two daughters.
An active member of the local and business communities, in addition to TiE-Boston, Ms. Jalan co-founded several organizations, including U.S. Fuel Cell Council, Massachusetts Hydrogen Coalition. She has also received numerous awards, including Asian Business Woman of the Year Award (1997), Woman’s Business Magazine “Woman to Watch” (2002), Mass High Tech All-Star Award in the field of Energy (2004), and Mountain States Hydrogen Business Council Award for Lifetime Contribution to Hydrogen Energy (2009).
Upendra Mishra, publisher of INDIA New England News and its sister publications Life Sciences Times, Boston Real Estate Times, and the IndUS Business Journal, said that Ms. Jalan’s must be commended for her courage to bring the issue of domestic violence at the forefront, especially among the Indian community in the United States, through her book.
“INDIA New England News is honored to bestow 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award to Ms. Jalan,” said Mr. Mishra, the producer of the Woman of the Year Awards gala. “Her courage, resilience, independent mindset, and tremendous inner strength are admirable. She is a great role model for all generations.”
Dr. Manju Sheth, MD, director of the Woman of the Year Awards Gala and host of the celebrity interview series Chai with Manju, said that Ms. Jalan is a true trailblazer.
“It is a privilege for us to honor Radha Jalan,” said Dr. Sheth, who launched the Lifetime Acheiment Award at the Woman of the Year Awards gala. “She is a true trailblazer and one of the first women entrepreneurs of our community. Above all, she is a wonderful human being and has enriched us in so many ways. My heartfelt Congratulations to her on the Lifetime Award.”
Ms. Jalan urged the Indian Americans to spread their wings beyond Indian community.
“It is important to expand our wings beyond our own Indian community,” said Ms. Jalan. “Earlier in my life, soon after my husband’s death, many of my friends who believed in me, supported me, guided me in my journey have been my American friends, now also my family. I don’t think I could have been here without their unconditional support, love and caring.”
Two of her American friends and supporters are husband and wife team of Di and John Clymer.
“Radha Jalan is a very easy person to admire and to get to know. Her warm smile and engaging personality are magnetic. Her inner strength, keen intellect and caring nature are always apparent,” Clymers told INDIA New England News. “The extraordinary challenges she faced make her life story truly remarkable, especially as a woman from India…. She has overcome stereotypes with grace and has won high praise from both her Indian and American communities which have benefitted from her ideas and efforts.”
The couple has known Ms. Jalan for close to 40 years, beginning soon after she moved to Concord.
“I was present when she had a blooming career in multicultural education with projects at the Museum of Science, the MFA and Harvard University, and then, with the sudden death of her husband, saw her take over his fuel cell company to provide for her family,” said Ms. Clymer. “She was successful in learning the technology and in running the company, winning multiple grants from NASA and the Dept. of Energy while raising her daughters. She also continued to be active in the Concord community and kept close ties with relatives in India.”
Shradha Maheshwari, Ms. Jalan’s niece remembers her aunt from India.
“I did not know my aunt very closely while growing up as she would come to Kolkata for few days and was surrounded by family and relatives. However, I was very close to her daughters as we bonded during their trips to India,” said Ms. Maheshwari. “But when I got married and moved to US, my aunt was a huge support to me. She was the only immediate family I had. She pampered me on every occasion by sending chocolates, gifts, home cooked goodies, so I would feel closer to home.”
Ms. Maheshwari said that her aunt is a very strong woman emotionally and has done well for her life.
“As her niece, I feel very proud and emotional that my aunt is getting the lifetime achievement award. She deserves it 100%,” said Ms. Maheshwari. “She finds joy in everything small and big whether it is gardening, or knitting, or eating at home cooked meals or attending weddings anywhere in the world. She has helped everyone around her within her capacity tirelessly and still continues to do so. She is a very family-oriented person, and I am proud that she is my aunt.”
Vaishali Salmond, Ms. Jalan’s daughter who now lives in Dublin, Ireland, said that she was excited about her mother being honored.
“I’m delighted that my mother’s contributions are being recognized in this way,” said Ms. Salmond. “Over the years she has had a big impact on so many people around her and has been an inspiration to many. Her life has taken many twists and turns which she speaks eloquently about in her memoir.”
In the memoir, Ms. Jalan recalls a sentence she had read at a spiritual center: “It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”
“My life has been varied and complex, unfolding on two continents and taking some very unexpected turns along the way, but I have always found wisdom and solace in those words,” said Ms. Jalan.
