Category: Leaders

Indian-American appointed President & CEO of ‘Bank of the West’ USA . April 2016.

Nandita Bakshi has been appointed President and CEO of ‘Bank of the West’, Corporate Headquarters in San Francisco, California.

She joins the Bank of April 01st as CEO-in-training on April 01st and will take the helm officially on June 01st, 2016

Bank of the West is a unit of the French banking giant BNP Paribas. The California based Bank operates more than 600 retail, wealth, commercial and business banking offices in 22 states.

 

Bakshi previously held Senior positions at:

EVP Head of Consumer Banking – TD Bank (New Jersey), EVP and Head – North American Direct Channels

Executive positions at :

Washington Mutual, Seattle (Washington – now JP Morgan Chase), Fleet Boston (now Bank of America), First Data Corp, Home Savings of America and Banc One Corp.

Nandita Bakshi did her Bachelors in History, University of Calcutta and Masters in International Relations & Affairs, Jadavpur University (West Bengal)

First Captain in the World to create a ‘World T20 Captaincy’ Record. March 2016

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (M S Dhoni), India’s National Cricket Team Captain created a World Record . He became the only Captain from any Nation to have led a team in all 6-editions of the ‘World T20’ championships. March 15th, 2016.

M S Dhoni was first appointed Skipper for the Indian Cricket Team in 2007. Subsequently 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014 and presently 2016 edition.

The 34-year Dhoni, is the only Captain in history to have won all 3 ICC Trophies (World T20 in 2007, Word Cup in 2011 and Champions Trophy in 2013.

First Indian to Receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. 1913 .

Rabindranath Tagore was the first Indian to receive the Nobel prize for Literature . He was also the first Asian and simultaneously the first non-European to be awarded the Nobel for Literature. December 19th, 1913.

He was awarded the prize for Gitanjali, a collection of songs and poems. Tagore himself had translated the poems into English in 1912 with an introduction by W.B.Yeats who won the Nobel for literature a decade after his Indian friend in 1923.

This year (2016) marks the 103rd anniversary of Tagore winning the Nobel prize in 1913.

 

More Info….Coming Up.

British Mission in India, gets its First Indian-Origin Diplomat. July 2013 .

In a first Kumar Iyer, a Diplomat of Indian-origin is appointed as the British Deputy High Commissioner for Western Region. He will have responsibility of all aspects of diplomatic engagement in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Goa.

He will also simultaneously be Director General India for UK Trade & Investment (UKTI),for the whole of India – a new top-level post that has been created to reflect the increasing importance of the UK-India business ties.

He will be take up both positions based in Mumbai at the British Mission on August 05th, 2013.

Kumar Iyer has a MPhil in Economics from Cambridge University, where he was a Bank of England scholar. He was an undergraduate tutor in Microeconomics. He was also a Kennedy Scholar and Teaching Fellow in International Capital Markets at Harvard University.

He joined the British Government in 2008 as Deputy Director, Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit. In 2010 he moved to the Treasury, first as Deputy Director, Strategy Plannig & Budget and then as Head of Financial Sector Intervention. Prior to that he was at the Boston Consulting Group where he worked mainly in the Financial Services Practice.

Kumar Iyer was born in London to parents of Indian origin. He spent his formative years in India, including time in Mumbai. He is married to Kathryn, a barrister practicing criminal law and they have 2 children a son and a daughter. He is a keen cricketer and chess player.

First Indian to be appointed Global CEO of Worldwide Italian Confectionery Giant . August 2013 .

Sameer Suneja has been promoted to the top job as global CEO of the 2,245 million Italian sugar confectionery making – Perfetti Group. He will take over the role on October 01st, thus making him the first ever Indian Global head and perhaps the first non-Italian global CEO of the privately held firm.

Perfetti Van Melle Spa (PVM)is the world’s 3rd largest confectionery group after Kraft-Cadbury and Mars-Wrigley. Perfetti makes Alpenliebe and Mentos candies, Chlormint toffee, Center Fresh, Hanny Dent and Big Babool gum.

Sameer Suneja will report to the Board of Directors of the Netherlands based holding of the Group.

His promotion comes barely a year after he was promoted as Executive Vice President (EVP), Innovation & Business Development based in the Netherlands reporting to the global CEO of Perfetti, Ubalto Traldi. Suneja’s mandate included exchanging successful experiences in marketing and commercial fields across the group.

Previous to moving to the global role based out of Netherlands, Suneja was the Managing Director, Perfetti Van Melle India for 4 years. In India Suneja also launched Alpenliebe candy, now the country’s single-largest confectionery. He has been with PVM India, a subsidiary of the global conglomerate for over 16 years. He joined Perfetti as brand manager in 1997 when it was only 3 years old in India.

Sameer Suneja, 41 years, an IIM-Bangalore alumnus 1994 batch, started his career at Colgate-Palmolive toothpaste maker as management trainee. He then moved on and became product manager handling Colgate toothbrush portfolio. Subsequently he joined Pepsico’s snacks arm Frito Lay as brand manager, handling both the chips and traditional snacks categories before joining Perfetti Van Melle India as brand manager in its early days in the country in 1997.

Note: There are other individuals who have made it to the top heading Global multi-nationals. You may use the ‘Search’ feature to access the information.

Anmol Rajan appointed ‘ The Independent ‘s Editor and becomes first non-white Editorial head of a UK national newspaper . June 2013 .

In a bold move Evgeny Lebedev the Russian owner of The Independent named, Anmol Rajan, a  29-year old Indian-origin journalist,as the newest editor of  The Independent newspaper on June 17th, 2013. He was the editor of The Independent Voics section. Rajan takes over from Chris Blackhurst who became Group Content Director.

Anmol Rajan one of the youngest ever at 29, makes Fleet Street history by becoming first non-white newspaper editorial head of a UK national newspaper creating ripples in London’s all-white Oxbridge media elite. And also the first- ethnic minority editor, a first-British Asian editor of a British national newspaper.

Rajan was born in Calcutta (Kolkata)on July 04th, 1983 , before moving to London as a three year old. He grew up in Tooting, South London and went on to read English literature at Downing College, Cambridge University and edited the prestigious student magazine ‘Varsity’. He spent his gap year working at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

After graduating, Rajan worked briefly for the ‘Evening Standard’ and ‘Channel 5’ before moving to ‘The Independent’ in August 2007 where he rose through the ranks from being a news reporter , columnist, comment editor and editor of Independent Voices. He is also a devoted foodie, writing a restaurant column for The Independent on Sunday and appeared as a judge on BBC1’s Masterchef in April. Rajan was the secondary presenter on ‘The Wright Stuff’ the daytime talk show on the Five Network during its 2006-07 season. A former columnist of ‘The Salisbury Review’.

Anmol Rajan is also a volunteer youth worker with Prospex, a charity based in Islington.

Books: Anmol Rajan is a keen cricket fan and has even written a well regarded book ‘Twirlymen: Unlikely History of Cricket’s Greatest Spin Bowlers’ published by Random House in 2011.

First Indian Secretary General of Asian Wrestling body (AAWC) . April 2013 .

Raj Singh became the first Indian to be elected Secretary General of ” Asian Associated Wrestling Council ” (AAWC) by vote of the general assembly on Tuesday, April 16th, 2013.

Raj Singh the current Secretary General of the ” Wrestling Federation of India ” (WFI)secured 20 votes and will hold the office for the term of 4 years. Chang Kew Kim was elected President for the 2nd term, as President AAWC after he got 23 votes.

The 24 representatives of their respective Asian countries cast their vote at the General Assembly, held in New Delhi.

First Indian American and First Asian American elected to U.S. Congress. 1957 .

Dalip Singh Saund PhD., an American – created history by becoming the first Asian American, the first Indian American, the first Punjabi, the first Sikh to become a U.S. Congressman in 1957.

Saund ran for election as a ‘ Justice of the Peace ‘ in 1950 for Westmoreland township in California and won. As a Democrat, he served as a member of the United States House of Representatives, serving the 29th District of California from January 03, 1957 to January 03, 1963. Dalip Singh Saund served almost three terms in Congress.

Obtained his Bachelors degree in Mathematics, Prince of Wales College (Jammu), University of Punjab in 1919. Subsequently went to the US for higher education. Obtained his Masters degree (1922) and PhD (1924) both in Mathematics at University of California, Berkeley. He became an American citizen in 1949.

Saund married Marian Kosta. Dalip Singh Saund (born Chhajulwadi, Punjab, India  September 20th, 1899 – April 22nd, 1973) aged 73, Hollywood, California.

http://wwww.saund.org

First Indian American lawyer confirmed as U.S. Court Judge . May 2013 .

Srikanth Srinivasan (widely known as Sri) scripted history as the first South Asian judge confirmed to America’s second highest court. He is the first new judge to be confirmed to the DC circuit in 7 years.

Described as a “trailblazer” by the US President Barack Obama, Srinivasan’s nomination to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Colombia Circuit, was unanimously approved by the bi-partisan voting of the Senate by 97 in favour.

Srinivasan began his legal career by serving as a law clerk for Judge J Harvie Wiekinson on the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth circuit from 1995-1996. He was a very successful litigator for close to two decades prior to serving as the Principal Deputy Solicitor in the US.

Srikanth Srinivasan received his BA with honours and distinction in 1989 (Stanford University) and his JD (Juris Doctor) with distinction in 1995 from Sanford Law School. He was elected to ‘Order of the Coif’ and served as editor of the Stanford Law Review.He also holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

For his work he received recongnition – the Attorney General’s Award for Excellence in ‘Furthering US National Security in 2003’ and the Office of the Secretary of Defence ‘Award for Excellence’ in 2005.

Chandigarh born, 46 years old legal luminary Srinivasan grew up in Lawrence, Kansas. He immigrated to the US at the age of four and his family settled in Lawrence, Kansas. His father was a mathematics Professor at the University of Kansas and his mother taught at the Kansas City Art Insititute. His father hails from Mela Thiruvenkatanathapuram (near Thirunelveli), Tamil Nadu.