Indian Americans Continue to Make Their Mark in the US

By Jawahar Malhotra

HOUSTON: In the past decade or so, Indians have been showing up in key positions all across this country and not only in business but especially in entertainment, politics and the arts. Taking center stage like a bombshell, it was just four years ago that Satya Narayana Nadella, 50, became the Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, succeeding Steve Ballmer in 2014. A little more than a year later, Sundar Pichai, now 46, became the CEO of Google in October 2015.

Ajit Jain

Ajit Jain

It is not uncommon to find Indians in key positions in the engineering and technology fields, especially in information technology and many have made their fortunes in it. Among those are Vinod Khosla, 63, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems; Gururaj Deshpande the co-founder of the now defunct internet equipment manufacturer Sycamore Networks; ‎Girish Rishi, CEO of JDA Software which offers supply-chain solutions and Sanjiv Sidhu who founded another supply chain management and once mighty firm, i2 Technologies.

Rajiv Shah

Rajiv Shah

But it is heartening to see an increasing number who are making their marks nationally in other fields. The standouts among them are mostly in politics where even a decade ago, few ventured or had a chance among the mainstream crowd, entertainment and business. While some entertainers have steadily been rising on the little and big screens, like Kal Penn, Asiz Ansari and, Manish Dayal or on the comedy circuit like Russell Peters, Hari Kondabolu, Alingon Mitra, Dhaya Lakshminarayanan, Rajiv Satyal, Asif Ali, Lilly Singh, Aparna Nancherla and Hasan Minhaj, a really big sensation is still on the distant horizon.

Ajit V Pai

Ajit V Pai

Some of the names that have been in the news lately feature mostly in the world of lower levels of politics, but their numbers are steadily increasing in a prominent way.

Take for example Raj Shah, 33, the White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary who assumed office in September 2017. He has been in the news lately to defend President Trump’s callous attitude towards immigration after “the shithole countries” incident and then how “Democrats blinked” during the recent government shutdown crisis. He was the first Indo-American to gaggle with the press on Air Force One. Shah’s parents immigrated to the U.S. from Mumbai in late the 1970s, living first in Chicago and then in Connecticut, where Shah was born and raised. He studied government at Cornell University, and received his bachelor’s degree in 2006.

Raj Shah

Raj Shah

He is not to be confused with Rajiv Shah, 44, who was appointed as the Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Communications Director and Research Director. He is a physician and health economist who served as the 16th Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) from 2010-2015. After leaving USAID, Shah founded Latitude Capital a private equity firm that works on power and infrastructure projects in Africa and Asia. Shah was named as president of the Rockerfeller Foundation in January 2017, replacing Judith Rodin, who has held the role since 2005. And then there is Ajit Pai, 45, who has gained notoriety in his role as the first Indian-American to become the Chairman of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in dissolving the net-neutrality rules which made sure that there was equal access to the speed of data transmission over the internet. He previously worked as a lawyer for Verizon Communications. His parents, both physicians, are Konkani immigrants from India who came to the US in 1971. Pai was born in Buffalo, New York, attended Harvard University in 1994 with a BA in social studies. He received his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School.

Sunil Mehta

Sunil Mehta

And in the field of business, in a league of his own, is Ajit Jain, 66, who was only last week named as the vice chairman for insurance operations by Berkshire Hathaway’s founder and chairman, the legendary Warren Buffet. He will share the helm of the giant holding company with Gregory Abel, 55, who was named the vice chairman for non-insurance business operations. He was born and raised as a Jain in Orissa and is a strict vegetarian. He graduated from IIT Kharagpur in 1972 with a BTech degree in Mechanical Engineering.

On a smaller scale, but significant nonetheless, especially to Houstonians, is the purchase announced this past week of the bankrupt West Oaks Mall, the virtually shuttered shopping center on 18 acres on the westside of Houston at Highway 6 and Westheimer, by Sunil Mehta of the family-owned Mehta Investments. The company also bought the Macy’s store at the same location in a separate transaction and hopes to transform the center into The Outlet Mall at West Oaks. Mehta is a low-key entrepreneur who is a former merchant marine captain, who came to the US in 1980 with his wife Rita. They own Formal Gallery and Lady Monica boutiques selling fashions and accessories for women and also own the label Sean Collection which sells beaded silk dresses. The family investment firm has owned and operated many real estate holdings. Very private individuals, the Mehtas also support a few Hindu and Jain organizations.