Know Our People - Sivaramakrishnan Somasegar

As senior vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft, S. Somasegar leads the teams responsible for providing tools and developer platform technologies targeted at developers, designers and teams involved in software development. This includes the Microsoft .NET developer platform that provides a consistent programming model spanning client, Web, server, device and services platform, Silverlight, the Visual Studio family of products, and Expression Studio.

Somasegar is also responsible for the Web server platform including Internet Information Services (IIS), Media Server and Commerce Server. His team also owns MSDN and TechNet online properties to enable a deep connection with the developer and IT professional audience.
In addition, Somasegar oversees the Microsoft India Development Center (IDC) in Hyderabad, India, and the Microsoft Canada Development Center (MCDC) in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Somasegar joined Microsoft in 1989, and worked on eight different operating system releases before heading up the Developer Division.

Before joining Microsoft, Somasegar was a graduate student in computer engineering at the State University of New York in Buffalo. He holds a master's degree in computer engineering from Louisiana State University, USA and a bachelor's degree in electronics and communication engineering from Guindy Engineering College, Anna University, Chennai, India.
In November 2006, Somasegar was awarded an honorary doctorate (honoris causa) by Anna University, India. In February 2008, he was awarded the Asian American Engineer of the Year Award.

http://www.livemint.com/2008/04/19000208/Sivaramakrishnan-Somasegar--B.html

Know Our People - Thiru Thangarathinam

Thiru Thangarathinam specializes in architecting, designing, and developing distributed enterprise-class applications by using .NET-related technologies. He is a frequent contributor to leading technology-related online publications, and his most recent book is Professional ASP.NET 2.0 XML (Wrox Press).

Know Our People - P.V. Viswanath

P.V. Viswanath, Ph. D, is Professor of Finance and New York Stock Exchange Scholar at Pace University’s Lubin School of Business where he teaches both graduate and undergraduate students. PV also serves as a consultant to the financial industry in the areas of margin policy and dividend policy, and has been a financial consultant to start-up businesses. He received his undergraduate degree in economics and statistics from the University of Bombay, his M.B.A in management science from the University of Kentucky, an M.B.A. in economics and management science and PhD in finance from the University of Chicago.

He is the author of numerous educational publications, research articles and papers. One of his recent articles is, “Bondholder-Stockholder Conflict: Contractual Covenants vs. Court-Mediated Ex-post Settling-Up,” which was published in The Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting. His research spans the areas of corporate finance, investments, insurance, Law and Economics and the application of economics to Jewish Law. PV has conducted professional development programs on Interest Rate Risk Management and Advanced Fixed Income Securities Management in Bangalore and Bombay, India, and has been an instructor at the New York Society of Security Analysts.

At Pace, he is also Director of the Global Portfolio Analysis Center (G-PACT).

Know our people - Dushyanthi

Dushyanthi - Model, singer, actress, and dancer

Dushyanthi's debut video "Many Men" has secured the #2 spot on the MTV DESI countdown, the #4 spot on MTV Tempo, and is in rotation on MTV Tr3s, ImaginAsian, and AVS tv. Vote for Dushyanthi on MTV Tr3s here.

Since the age of 5, Dushyanthi has been singing and dancing. Performance is her passion. "My grandmother was a music teacher in Sri Lanka so she always had my sisters and I singing Tamil songs while she played the piano and violin."

Born in Brooklyn, raised in Connecticut, Dushyanthi also was heavily influenced by the American sounds around her. "My music is urban/pop with a bit of Indian influence. We worked hard to get that fusion sounding right." Dushyanthi teamed up with well-known producer Mark Wilson (Destiny's Child, Will Smith, Brandy) and co-wrote every song with Wanda Lewis and Tre and LA (Tamia, Christina Milian). The result is a sound that people from all backgrounds can identify with.

From the age of 12, Dushyanthi trained intensively in vocal and dance classes. She studied ballet, hip-hop, and Indian dance. "I love to dance—hip-hop, belly dancing, Indian, salsa—I love all of it." She also spent years in acting classes—even dedicating herself to a program in musical theater at the Boston Conservatory.

All the while, Dushyanthi focused on college. "My parents always stressed the importance of education." Dushyanthi graduated summa cum laude from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst with a major in Psychology and a double minor in Women's Studies and Spanish.
After returning to NYC, Dushyanthi was approached by several top modeling agencies while working as an inner city youth counselor in SoHo. She quickly found modeling success with jobs including Savoy magazine, a bridal show for FOX, Redken hair, and many more. She then expanded her career into the realm of acting and landed spots on Sex and the City and a commercial for Showtime to name a few. Recently she wrote and directed a play infused with spoken word entitled Love Vibe with the help of Reg E. Gaines, writer of Tony Award winning musical Noise Funk.

Singer, dancer, actress, writer—Dushyanthi does it all. Her incredible beauty is matched by God-given talents, an amazing work ethic, and unstoppable drive. "I work hard at everything I do, I rely on my family to keep me grounded and I love being creative," she says. "I hope that when people hear my music, they just enjoy it." And they will. Dushyanthi is a unique talent in the music industry today.

Know our people - Vasugi V. Ganeshananthan

Vasugi V. Ganeshananthan, a fiction writer and journalist, lives in New York. She is a 2002 graduate of Harvard College. In 2005, she received an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and in 2005-2006, she was the Bennett Fellow and writer-in-residence at Phillips Exeter Academy.

In 2007, she graduated from the new MA program at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, where she was a Bollinger Fellow specializing in Arts & Culture journalism. She has written and reported for The Atlantic Monthly, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Sepia Mutiny, and The American Prospect, among others. She is the vice president of the South Asian Journalists Association and a member of the graduate board of The Harvard Crimson.

This fall, she is a writer-in-residence at Skidmore College. Random House published her first novel, Love Marriage, in April.

About the Novel - Love Marriage

"In this globe-scattered Sri Lankan family, we speak only of two kinds of marriage. The first is the Arranged Marriage. The second is the Love Marriage. In reality, there is a whole spectrum in between, but most of us spend years running away from the first towards the second"

Yalini, the daughter of Sri Lankan immigrants who left their collapsing country and married in America, finds herself caught between the history of her ancestors and her own modern world. But when she is summoned to Toronto to help care for her dying uncle, Kumaran, a former member of the militant Tamil Tigers, she is forced to see that violence is not a relic of the Sri Lankan past, but very much a part of her Western present.

While Kumaran's loved ones gather around him to say goodbye, Yalini traces her family's roots—and the conflicts facing them as ethnic Tamils—through a series of marriages. Now, as Kumaran's death and his daughter's politically motivated nuptials edge closer, in the tradition of her family, Yalini too must decide where she stands.

Lyrical and innovative, V. V. Ganeshananthan's novel brilliantly unfolds how a new generation of war both forms and fractures families.

Praise for Love Marriage

"Ganeshananthan has created a slow-burning and beautifully written debut in Love Marriage. It is an evocative examination of Sri Lankan cultural mores, and the way one family is affected by love and war."
—The Financial Times

"Innovative….this is an ambitious family drama about an underreported part of the world, filled with well-shaded characters [and] gorgeous flourish…Buy it."
—New York Magazine

"...Love Marriage is surprisingly feminine and fable-like in its inquiry into chilling moral choices... some lines are as evocative as forgotten tunes..."
—Washington Post Book World

"...at its best and simplest, Ganeshananthan can be profoundly moving. She captures the pain of exile poignantly."
—The San Francisco Chronicle

Know our people - Mani Subramanian

Mani Subramanian - Chairman & CEO - Keane Inc.

Mani Subramanian is the chairman and CEO of Keane. Mani founded the company IT Solutions, subsequently re-branded as Caritor, as a one-man operation in 1993, and moved on to create a successful global entity with a solid foundation for significant growth over the coming years. In 2007, Caritor achieved yet another milestone by combining with Keane. The company now operates under the Keane brand name.

Mani's vision and core values have been the driving force for the company and its success since its inception. His unwavering focus on developing relationships and partnering with clients has given rise to an organization that provides high-quality services to Global 1000 organizations across the world. The ongoing success of these long-term relationships provides the foundation for future growth of the Keane business.

Mani has more than 36 years of experience in the global information technology industry, managing divisions and businesses in the UK, India, and the United States. Prior to starting Caritor, Mani was the president of Wipro Systems and was responsible for leading Wipro through a period of significant growth in its IT offshoring business. Before joining Wipro, Mani was part of the top management team at Tata Consultancy Services and was instrumental in growing their UK operation. Widely regarded as a turnaround architect in the IT corporate world, Mani has made several business-related contributions of major significance in the field of computer software. He has been the subject of numerous articles in professional publications in India.

Mani holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai and a post-graduate diploma in business administration (PGDBA) from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Know our people - Srivats Sampath

Srivats Sampath is President and CEO of Mercora, the world's largest and legal music radio network. Srivats was most recently with McAfee.com (NASDAQ:MCAF) before merging the company with Network Associates (NYSE:NET) in October 2002.

He served as McAfee.com's founder, President and Chief Executive Officer from December 1998, bringing over 15 years of experience serving in management and executive roles in the computer industry. Prior to founding McAfee.com, Srivats was with Netscape Communications, a provider of Internet software and services, as Vice President of Product Marketing. From June 1993 to June 1996, Srivats served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Discussions Corporation, a company he founded to develop email-based groupware solutions.

Srivats also worked as Director of Product Marketing for Network and Security Products for Central Point Software, Inc., and was the Chief Architect and co-founder of the LAN Enhancement Operations and Microcomputer Communications Division of Intel Corporation. Srivats serves on the boards of Determina and as Chairman of Voltage Security.

He received his B.S. degree in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering from Madras University in India. Srivats also holds multiple patents in delivering security-as-a-service and contextual internet advertising.