An Anthology of Power: Several South Asian Americans Listed Among Atlanta’s Power Elite
- They include 10 Indian Americans, four of Pakistani origin, one and Bangladeshi American.
Several South Asian Americans including 10 Indian Americans, four of Pakistani origin, one and from Bangladeshi American are in ‘Atlanta 500,’ a list of the city’s top 500 most powerful leaders. The list is “an anthology of the power that resides in Atlanta,” according to Jacqueline J. Holness, editor of Atlanta magazine that compiled the list.
Aparna Bhattacharyya is the executive director of Raksha, Inc., a non profit serving the South Asian community since 1995. Raksha’s mission is to promote a stronger and healthier South Asian community through confidential support services, education, and advocacy. Having served as executive director since 1998, Bhattacharyya built the organization’s capacity from a volunteer-run, grassroots organization to a nationally known full-service agency providing counseling, legal advocacy, economic empowerment, training, and technical assistance locally and nationally. Additionally, she increased the organization’s budget by over 400 percent. As a representative of Raksha, she has served as a founding task force member and board secretary for the International Women’s House, the only shelter in the nation to serve battered women and children of all nationalities, supported by a multicultural and multilingual staff.
Kabir Barday is the founder and CEO of OneTrust, a privacy, security, and third-party risk technology platform utilized by 14,000 customers around the globe. Barday, who founded the company in 2016, oversees all aspects of OneTrust’s product development, operations, and sales internationally. He sits on the advisory boards for the Future of Privacy Forum, the Center for Information Policy Leadership, the International Association of Privacy Professionals, the Cloud Security Alliance, and Shared Assessments. Additionally, he is a member of the Aspen Institute’s 2023 class of Henry Crown Fellows.
Entrepreneur, start-up adviser, and motivational speaker Sanjay Sehgal is the founder and CEO of MSys Technologies, which designs, develops, and manages modern distributed systems and complex integrations. He also founded Pramana and cofounded FarCare and Scentric, and successfully acquired tech companies including Clogeny and DigiFutura. In 2022 and 2023, he was recognized as a top CEO in Georgia Titan 100. Additionally, he is a member of Forbes Business Council.
Ambrish Baisiwala, CEO and chairman of Portman Holdings, oversees operations including real estate development, investment, and capital raising in the U.S., China, India, and South Korea. Prior to joining Portman, he was development director of Aldar Properties in Abu Dhabi, responsible for a portfolio in excess of $20 billion. Previously he was development manager for the Greater Union Organization, and he has held senior positions with Coopers & Lybrand Consulting and the Tata Group.
Romil Bahl serves as president and CEO of KORE, bringing nearly 30 years of experience delivering high growth among SaaS and IoT companies. Prior to KORE, Bahl served as president and CEO of Lochbridge, a leading technology consulting and solutions provider in the IoT and digital enablement space. Before that, as executive vice president and general manager of Global Industries for CSC, he led the industry go-to-market dimension across the $9 billion commercial business unit, creating global growth strategies and expanding CSC’s global footprint into offerings such as cloud, cybersecurity, and big data.
Shaneel Lalani, CEO of Lalani Ventures, immigrated to the United States in 1990 with his family from Mumbai when he was nine years old. After high school graduation, he took over his family’s gas station business. In 2012, he founded Lalani Ventures, buying, developing, and leasing gas stations, medical offices, and retail locations throughout Georgia. A few years later, he began leasing coin-operated amusement machines in gas stations. By age 31, he had amassed over one million square feet of real estate in Georgia. In 2020, he bought Underground Atlanta and is leading the overhaul of the 400,000-square-foot property. He also bought 34 Peachtree, a 30-story building in downtown Atlanta, with plans to revive the office tower. “Under his leadership, Lalani Ventures has completed more than 150 transactions valued at approximately $750 million,” the magazine added.
Jagdish N. Sheth is the Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Business at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. The author or coauthor of numerous books and hundreds of scholarly papers, he is known globally for his work in consumer behavior, relationship marketing, competitive strategy, and geopolitical analysis.. Sheth and his wife, Madhu Sheth, established the Sheth Family Foundation to support charities in the U.S. and India. He has 50 years of experience in teaching and research at University of Southern California, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Columbia University, MIT, and Emory. He is the recipient of the 2020 Padma Bhushan Award for literature and education, one of the highest civilian awards given by the Government of India.
Dr. Suresh Ramalingam serves as executive director of Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. He is past president of the Georgia Society of Oncology and a member of the board of Georgia CORE. He is a fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and a Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scholar. The Chennai native’s present research involves developing immune checkpoint inhibitors and improving outcomes for patients with EGFR mutation. He has authored more than 350 scientific publications, and serves as editor-in-chief of Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.
Gaurav Kumar is president of the Andrew J. Young Foundation, where he leads the research, design, and engineering of advanced aquaponics systems and Lemna protein extraction technologies. He previously worked at the National Monuments Foundation, where he developed the initial plan of the $45 million Rodney Cook Park in Vine City, which opened in July 2021. He also oversaw the construction and placement of the statue of U.S. Rep. John Lewis in the park.
Rohit Malhotra is the founder and executive director of the Center for Civic Innovation, which seeks to eliminate inequality by empowering people to design public policy from the ground up. He was an Ash Innovation Fellow in the Obama White House’s Office of Management and Budget, working on social impact bonds and pay for performance. He received the the Echoing Green Global Fellowship. In 2015. In 2020, he was named to the Emory Alumni Association’s annual class of 40 Under 40.
In 1993, Mit Shah founded Noble Investment Group, a real estate investment manager which has invested nearly $6 billion in upscale hotels throughout the U.S. As CEO, he provides overall strategic guidance for the Noble organization and heads its investment committee. The Penn State School of Hospitality Management and the Penn State Hotel & Restaurant Society named Shah 2023 Hospitality Executive of the Year, and he was honored by UJA-Federation of New York in recognition of his professional and philanthropic achievements. He is serving his fifth term as a member of the board of trustees for his alma mater, Wake Forest University, where he is chairman of its investment committee.
Emmy-winning chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta plays an integral role in CNN’s reporting on health and medical news for all of the network’s domestic and international shows, and he contributes to CNN.com. His medical training and public health policy experience inform his reporting from war zones and natural disasters. Gupta is also a member of the staff and faculty at Emory University School of Medicine and an associate chief of neurosurgery at Grady Memorial Hospital. An Atlanta resident, he regularly performs surgery at Emory University and Grady hospitals.
Aisha Yaqoob Mahmood is the executive director of the Asian American Advocacy Fund, a grassroots social welfare organization dedicated to building a politically conscious, engaged, and progressive Asian American base in Georgia. She formerly worked as the policy director for the Atlanta chapter of Asian Americans Advancing Justice. Additionally, the Pakistani American founded the Georgia Muslim Voter Project which has “activated more than 100,000 Muslims across Georgia by hosting programs that make the electoral process and legislative process accessible,” the magazine said. “These experiences have strengthened Mahmood’s desire to fight for justice for all marginalized people, including Muslims, immigrants, and refugees.”
Rahim Charania is the founder and managing director of Woodvale, an alternative investment firm based in Atlanta. Over a career that spans 20 years, Charania has formed and grown multiple organizations that have made significant impacts in their respective industries and in Georgia. The Pakistan -born serves on the board of Georgia State University’s Robinson College of Business, as well as on the advisory council of GSU’s Center for International Business, Education, and Research. He received a GSU Robinson College of Business Alumni Award for his impact in business and the community in 2023.
Aziz Hashim is the managing partner of NRD Capital, a private equity firm he founded in 2014. It invests in companies that offer compelling unit-level economics, as well as in technologies that improve the profitability of operators. Its portfolio includes iconic brands such as Ruby Tuesday and Frisch’s Big Boy, and fast-growing concepts like the Captain’s Boil.
Georgia state Rep. Farooq Mughal is chairman and managing partner of Mughal Strategies Global Partners. The Pakistani American focuses his practice on government relations, business advisory, and public engagement. Since founding the firm in 2008, he has built it into a government relations powerhouse that has come to be regarded as one of the state’s best. He was elected to represent District 105 in the Georgia House of Representatives in 2022. He is the first Muslim man to be elected to the state House. During his first legislative session he focused on veterans, law enforcement, and small business owners.
Senator Sheikh Rahman, a Democrat, is the first immigrant and first Asian American to serve in the Georgia State Senate. He is also the first Muslim legislator in the state. Elected in 2018, he represents the 5th Senate District, and serves as a member of the Senate committees on Appropriations, Economic Development and Tourism, Government Oversight, Natural Resources and the Environment, and Urban Affairs.Rahman grew up in Bangladesh, where his country was devastated by the Bangladesh Liberation War of Independence in 1971. At 13, Rahman was kidnapped at gunpoint as a prisoner of war. He came to America in 1981, becoming a citizen in 1995.
Also listed in Guyanese American Balram “B” Bheodari, the general manager at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Im that role he oversees all facets of airport governance, including operations and a multibillion-dollar capital improvement program. Bheodari is a retired Army aviator who has had an extensive career in aviation executive management. He rejoined the airport leadership team in 2016 after serving as the chief operating officer for the Houston Airport System (HAS). Before joining HAS, he served more than three years as the Atlanta airport’s deputy general manager.
Joining Bheodari is Dr. Gulshan Harjee, Chief Medical Officer at Clarkston Community Health Center (CCHC), who was raised on a sisal farm in a Karanga village of 500 about an hour from the town of Moshi, Tanzania. Following three decades in private practice, she co-founded CCHC in 2013 and committed herself to it fully in 2016. The nonprofit free health clinic serves the immigrant, refugee, and uninsured populations of metro Atlanta. She oversees clinical operations and quality of care while forging new collaborations with medical training programs and spearheading a capital campaign. She is a 2023 AARP Purpose Prize fellow and received $10,000 and a year of support from AARP to help broaden the scope of her work.