BOSTON – The New England Chapter of the American India Foundation (AIF) is hosting its tenth annual celebration gala on Saturday, March 26th 2016, at the Boston Park Plaza IN bOSTON. The gala will raise funds and awareness for AIF’s Maternal and New Born Survival initiative (MANSI), a successful public private health partnership that has yielded promising results. The gala will also honor veteran entrepreneur Jit Saxena.
Saxena, one of the most successful New England entrepreneur and philanthropist, will be the honoree at this event. Saxena has a long and successful career of entrepreneurship and business leadership in growing new global companies.
As founder, Chairman and CEO of Netezza, the leading provider of data analytics and monitoring appliances, Saxena led its initial public offering and its acquisition by IBM for $1.7 billion in 2010. Saxena also founded and led Applix, a leader in analytical CRM software, which he took public in 1994 and was acquired by Cognos/IBM in 2003.
Saxena is passionate about entrepreneurship and serving the community by fostering and mentoring entrepreneurs. Saxena serves on the boards of several technology companies in Massachusetts including Actifio, Applause, Cazena, ClearSkyData, Demandware, Evergage and others. Saxena has a BSEE from IIT Mumbai, MSEE from Michigan State University and an MBA from Boston University.
“We are delighted to honor Jit Saxena who has made significant contributions to technology world and local economy,” said Santhana Krishnan, Co-Chair of the New England Gala. “It is fitting that this being our tenth annual gala we honor someone who has made a lasting impact on the community by focusing on the mission of each of his ventures and being a role model for many.”
The gala is an opportunity to showcase AIF’s pioneering work in India helping uplift the most marginalized communities: providing education to children of migrant workers, helping rickshaw pullers with micro loans to make them self-sufficient, introducing technology to students, and helping youth to be gainfully employed.
“AIF ensures that 100 percent of the donations that it receives are deployed in well-managed and well-monitored social impact programs.AIF is fully transparent, applies business principles to philanthropy and is completely secular,” said Farida Kathawalla, Co-Chair of the gala.
The New England AIF gala chairs are Namita and Santhana Krishnan and Farida and Imtiaz Kathawalla. The New England AIF trustees include Nalini and Raj Sharma, Pratima and Venkat Srinivasan, Drs. Sunita and Brian Periera, and Vandana and Vivek Sharma.
CNBC anchor, Seema Modi will be the gala’s mistress of ceremonies. The evening begins at 6:30 PM and includes a pledge drive along with a charity art auction and scintillating music from ‘Woman of the World’.
Many of New England prominent business leaders, community organizers, and philanthropists will be attending the fundraising gala to show their support for AIF. The first event held nine years ago garnered the attention of committed New Englanders to the worthy cause of raising money for grants to NGO’s in India. This year too, this elegant Black Tie affair is a tribute to giving – a celebration of achievement and paving the way for programs in education, livelihood, health and leadership.
To learn more about AIF visit www.aif.org .
The American India Foundation is committed to disrupting poverty, catalyzing social and economic change in India, and building a lasting bridge between the United States and India through high-impact interventions in education, livelihoods, public health, and leadership development. Working closely with local communities, AIF partners with NGOs to develop and test innovative solutions and with governments to create and scale sustainable impact. AIF’s programming seeks to achieve gender equity through developing inclusive models that focus on and empower girls and women.
Founded in 2001 at the initiative of President Bill Clinton following a suggestion from Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee, AIF has impacted the lives of 2.5 million of India’s poor and aims to reach 5 million by 2018-2019. With offices in New York and California, eleven chapters across the U.S., and India operations centered in New Delhi, AIF is transforming lives across 23 states of India while addressing these issues on a regional, country, and international scale. President Bill Clinton serves as Honorary Chair and former Ambassador to India Frank Wisner chairs the Advisory Council.
