Several Indian American Entrepreneurs Named National Finalists for Ernst & Young Award
Truepill co-founder Sid Viswanathan was a regional winner in the Northern California region for the Ernst & Young U.S. Entrepreneur of the Year Award. (ey.com/Truepill photo)
By GIOVANNI ALBANESE Jr./India-West Staff Reporter
Ernst & Young in its 35th year of the EY U.S. Entrepreneur of the Year Award, named the national finalists across 20 regions, with a number of Indian Americans among the honorees.
In the Northern California region, Back to the Roots co-founder and co-chief executive officer Nikhil Arora, as well as Truepill co-founder and president Sid Viswanathan were among the 11 regional winners.
In the Greater Los Angeles region, Dr. Geeta Gupta-Fisker, co-founder of Fisker Inc., was the lone Indian American winner among the 15 honorees.
The Pacific Southwest-San Diego region honored four individuals as winners, with Indian American CEO of Cortica Dr. Neil Hattagadi named among the honorees.
The Pacific Northwest announced eight winners, with Flyhomes CEO and co-founder Tushar Garg among them.
In the Southwest, Birdeye CEO Naveen Gupta, MTX Group Inc. founder and CEO Das Nobel, MTX Group Inc., and co-founder and chief marketing officer Nipa Nobel were among the 11 winners.
Among the nine Gulf Coast region winners were HIREtech president Saqib Dhanani and HIREtech chief technology officer Zee Makhani.
There were 14 winners in the Midwest region, with The AZEK Company CEO Jesse Singh was among them.
The Greater Philadelphia’s region honored 10 individuals with two Indian Americans — Abhi Ramesh, founder and CEO of Misfits Market; and Phenom People CEO and co-founder Mahe Bayireddi — among them.
Fourteen winners were chosen in the Southeast region. Vishal Hiremath, the co-founder and JetClub and CEO of Jet It, was named among the winners.
In Florida, Suneera Madhani, the founder and CEO of Stax, and Sal Rehmetullah, the founder and president of Stax, were among the nine winners.
The New York winners included Zuben Mathews, CEO and co-founder of Brigit; Gotham Greens CEO Viraj Puri; and Gaurav Shah, CEO of Rocket Pharmaceuticals. A total of 15 people were honored in the region.
Among the 15 winners in the New England region were Cambridge Mobile Telematics chief technology officer and co-founder Hari Balakrishnan, and LinkSquares CEO and co-founder Vishal Sunak.
Arshad Masood, CEO of Visionet Systems Inc., was the lone South Asian American of the 17 individuals honored in the New Jersey region.
There were no Indian American winners in the Pacific Southwest-Orange County, Utah, Mountain Desert, Heartland, Central Texas, Michigan and Northwest Ohio, East Central and Mid-Atlantic regions.
The Entrepreneur Of The Year recognizes the most ambitious leaders who are building and sustaining successful, dynamic businesses around the world. Entrepreneur Of The Year Award winners comprise a global network of like-minded visionaries, each on a transformational journey to create, innovate, grow, learn and build a better world.
They become lifetime members of an esteemed multi-industry community of entrepreneurs, with exclusive, ongoing access to the experience, insight and wisdom of program alumni and other ecosystem members in nearly 60 countries who are supported by the vast resources of EY, the organization noted.
The winner of the U.S. Entrepreneur of the Year competition will be announced during the Strategic Growth Forum in November. The Entrepreneur of the Year National Overall Award winner will then move on to compete for the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year Award in June 2022.
