Rice Indo-American Business Club to connect alumni, business owners, students across Houston
Rice President David Leebron and Ashok Rao, member of the Council of Overseers of the Jones School of Business, converse at the launch of the new Indo-American Business Club.
The Rice Indo-American Business Club launched at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business on Sept. 2. According to RIABC Vice President Nishanth Babu, the club serves as a platform for Houston Indo-Americans and Rice alumni to meet, learn from each other and network.
“This organization really does the two things we’ve been trying to put a lot of emphasis on,” President David Leebron, the opening speaker, said. “One is connect to the local Indo-American business community, and ... create opportunities internationally to connect to India. Ultimately, that will provide more opportunities for students.”
According to Babu, about 140 Indo-Americans from across Houston met for the inaugural event. Babu said the board of the RIABC did not envision the event to be as large as it ended up being, and they had initially planned for a small inaugural event with around 25 people.
“When we started reaching out to alumni, they were very passionate about it,” Babu said. “It was that passion and we were impressed that if everyone else was thinking that [the event is] worth something, then let’s do it.”
The program featured speeches from Prashant Kale, associate professor of strategic management at the Jones School, and Parvathaneni Harish, consul general of India in Houston. Kale said he encouraged a view of India as a disruptive innovator, driven by the needs of its people to create products that are improvements on those in American markets.
Martel College senior Komal Agarwal is currently the only undergraduate involved with the club. All other members are Rice MBA students.
“This club has a lot to offer for undergraduates involved with the club at the moment,” Agarwal said. “Ultimately, this club is about promoting ideas across a diverse community. The Rice community and the Greater Houston population are such a diverse population that learning how to communicate with people of various backgrounds is essential to everyone.”
Ashok Rao, an entrepreneur who will serve as a long-term associate of the club, is on the Council of Overseers of the Jones School. Rao was the first Indo-American to take a company public on NASDAQ and has founded, grown and traded several companies since founding Midcom Communications in 1990. Rao spoke about the Indian diaspora and how American immigration policies resulted in Indo-Americans consisting of mainly highly skilled workers. Rao said he believed students would get as much out of the club as they were willing to put in.
“It’s a terrific idea ... long overdue,” Rao said. “[RIABC] will connect students to the Indian community here, and into the business community, so it will help them with potential employment and assimilation into the milieu.”
Hanszen College junior Sai Chilakapati said his interest in combined M.D./MBA programs drove him to attend though he is pursuing medicine.
“As an undergraduate, I think it’s a great opportunity to come to these networking events and get to know businesspeople in the community as well as more of the graduate population,” Chilakapati said.
Babu said he hopes to have more input from undergraduates as the club grows and even hopes to see them on the board of the organization. RIABC President Himanshu Upadhyaya voiced similar opinions, and both said they see the future of the club as largely flexible in nature.
“We encourage all undergraduates to join this club,” Upadhyaya said. “There’s plenty of opportunities for mentorship [and] networking. We plan on keeping our regular meetings so anyone can come participate and volunteer.”
For more information or to get involved in RIABC, contact Nivriti Chowdhry at nivi@rice.edu.
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