World Malayalee Council honors 10 young achievers at the 20th anniversary event

Edison, New Jersey: Two groups of the World Malayalee Council, which has chapters in several countries, joined together to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its starting in New Jersey.

The factions, led by Alex Vilanilam and Andrew Pappachen decided to work together as one organization forgetting the differences of the past.

The highlight of the event held at the Renaissance hotel in Edison, New Jersey, Sunday was presenting Malayalee Achievers Awards to 10 young people who excelled in their area of work.

Technocrat Ragy Thomas was the chief guest as well as one of the honoraries. In a spirited speech, he narrated the steps to achieve success in life.

Thomas  is a technology visionary, entrepreneur, and investor who has played an instrumental role in the evolution of two business-critical channels for the enterprise: social media and email. As the founder and CEO of Sprinklr – the most complete social media management platform in the world, serving more than 650 enterprise brands globally – he is helping large companies re imagine their office infrastructure to manage consumer experiences across every touch point. Prior to founding Sprinklr, Ragy was the president of Epsilon’s (NYSE:ADS) Interactive Services from 2006 to 2008 and the CTO of Bigfoot Interactive, an email marketing leader that Epsilon acquired in 2005. Ragy also serves on the board of directors at Kenscio, a digital marketing services company he co-founded in 2009, and Cloth, a mobile fashion application company.

Thomas earned his M.B.A. in Finance and Information Systems from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business and his Computer Science Engineering degree from Pondicherry University in India.

Profiles of other winners:

2. Abdul Naushad

As the CEO, founder and board member of PayCommerce, Abdul has been the driving champion for excellence in product innovation and customer centricity driven business strategy since company's inception. Under Abdul's leadership, PayCommerce has transformed itself to become a world leader in cross border payments serving global financial institutions and Fortune 500 corporations all across United States and Europe.  Through his efforts the company achieved several industry awards for business excellence including recently “2014 Most Innovative Company” awards by NJTC (New Jersey Technology Counsel) and “Future 50 Company - 2015” award by SmartCEO..   Abdul has been recently selected as the “E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year 2015” finalist.

Prior to founding Pay Commerce, Abdul was the co-founder at two other businesses in the online travel and technology segment where he served as the President & CEO of these companies and  also served in management and technical leadership roles at industry leading organizations including Oracle Corporation and Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC).

Abdul earned his Bachelor of Engineering from Mysore University and holds a Master of Business Administration (Executive MBA) from Penn State University, SMEAL College of Business.

3. Adarsh Alphons

Adarsh is Founder and Executive Director of Project Art.  The objective of Project Art is to provide underprivileged children in neighborhoods such as Harlem, the help they need to work through their personal challenges, stay in school, and express themselves creatively and constructively .

The honors he accumulated include Selection as one of the '25 Rising Stars in NYC' by PAVE (March 2014), Columbia University Community Scholar, Recipient of the citation of ‘Hero of Education’, by NYC Councilman Robert Jackson (June 2012), and New Yorker of the Week by NY1 News (July 2011). He has organized Art Exhibitions across the world and projects for Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa.  He received a commission from the Pope for the Pontiff’s 1999 Holy Mass in New Delhi

Before Project Art, he was the General Manager at STREB Lab for Action Mechanics, home of McArthur Award-winning choreographer Elizabeth Streb.  Prior to that he was Director of Visual Arts at the Harlem School of the Arts where he implemented initiatives that doubled enrollment and launched city-wide projects in partnership with Department of Parks, City of New York.  He was formerly the General Manager of Chashama, the largest studio-residency program in New York City.

 He was educated in Arts and Arts Administration at Boston University and Maryland Institute College of Art. At MICA, he developed an inter-university academic partnership with National Institute of Design, India. While in college, he spent a semester in Florence, Italy, where his work focused on Michelangelo Buonarroti, his struggles and contributions to the Renaissance.

4. Vidya Kishore

Vidya Kishore is Global HR Senior Director at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Group of Companies. In this role, Vidya works with senior leadership to support and implement the innovation and M&A agendas, as well as contribute to grow diverse leadership, talent and strategic capabilities for the Research & Development organization. 

Innovation Human Resources (HR) team in August 2008, where she progressed through various roles of increasing responsibility. Subsequently she was promoted to support the Discovery & Clinical Development teams in the Cardiovascular & Metabolism and the Neuroscience Therapeutic Areas where she played a key role in driving engagement, talent development and other HR strategies for these groups.

In April 2011, Vidya was promoted to HR Director for the Janssen Global Commercial & Business Development teams where she played a pivotal role in the re-organization of the Global Commercial Strategy Organization (GCSO).

Vidya holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and a Master of Science in Public Administration, from the University of Madras, India. She holds a Masters in Human Resource Management from the School of Management & Labor Relations at Rutgers University. She has also completed Executive Management programs at Cornell University. She widely traveled across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

5.  Dr .Mathew Varghese 

Dr .Mathew Varghese  is a board certified allergist/immunologist practicing in Bergenfield, New jersey. After completing his medical graduation from  Madras Sree  Ramachandra college and research Institute ,he continued his education different American university and successfully completed his Fellowship in allergy/immunology in 2009 from University of South Florida. Now he is a reputed Allergist in New Jersey with a patient base of above 4000 within this short span of time.

Dr. Varghese has been the first author on several recent several peer reviewed publications appearing in the annals of allergy and asthma, allergy and clinical Immunology Canadian and clinical and experimental allergy (UK). He has also submitted numerous  abstracts to national scientific meetings.
 He is an active member of different medical professional organization .

6. Anjana Jose

Anjana Jose  who is an IT professional  gained strong and professional experience in ‘Technical Drawing’after being trained in advanced watercolor techniques under renowned artist Joel Popadics at Ridgewood Art Institute, New Jersey.

She has displayed her watercolor art works at Edison Public Library as part of their Community activities. Intention behind the exhibition was to create awareness of Art among children and adults and the impact it has in spreading a message of peace and harmony. Anjana who has a very specific style demonstrated in her paintings, with lot of details and colors contributed her paintings to raise funds for goodwill activities in India and US. She also sells paintings.

She currently displays her artwork ‘Into the woods’ at Metuchen Inn restaurant at Metuchen, NJ under the banner of Edison Arts Society. This is a juried exhibition following the theme ‘Travel with Art’. It is truly an honor for her to be part of this show which showcases several other original art works by various artists. contributed her paintings to raise funds for goodwill activities in India and US.

7. Dr. Christina Stevenson

Christina E. Stevenson, M.D. is Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Division of Surgical Oncology at the University of Connecticut Health Center.  She graduated as salutatorian from Clifton High School in Clifton, NJ in 1995 and from The George Washington University in Washington, DC with a major in Classical Humanities and minors in Biology and Mathematics in 1998. She graduated from The George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, DC in 2002.  She completed her residency training in general surgery at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, PA. 

She has also completed fellowships in Surgical Oncology at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health as well as at Virginia Commonwealth University.  Dr. Stevenson is board-certified in general surgery and has a special interest in the treatment of breast cancer and endocrine surgeries.  She has recently completed a MS in Clinical and Translational Research at the University of Connecticut.  Dr. Stevenson is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and is a member of various other professional organizations.  She is actively involved in medical student and resident education at the University of Connecticut as well as multiple research endeavors.

she is the daughter of John and Teresa Thiruvathukal of Clifton, NJ, wife of Clay Stevenson, and mother to Elizabeth, age 3, and Katherine, age 7 months.  They reside in Avon, CT.

8. Joseph J Kanjamala

Joseph J. Kanjamala, CPA, is a Partner at Marks Paneth LLP. Marks Paneth is one of the leading Top 100accounting firms in the US having offices in New York, Washington DC, New Jersey and Cayman Islands witharound 600 professionals of which 59 are partners. Marks Paneth is the 16th largest accounting firm in Northeastand 10 fast growing firms in the US> He is Marks Paneth’s first minority community partner.

He serves numerous large charitable organizations, private foundations, trade Associations and educational institutions. His major clients includes Catholic Charities of Archdiocese of New York, Institute of International Education, Goodwill Industries, Oxford University, Vellore Christian Medical College Foundation, Cerebral Palsy Association, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, etc.

Prior to joining Marks Paneth in 2004, Mr. Kanjamala worked in the assurance and advisory practice of Ernst &Young LLP, where he served both for-profit and not-for-profit clients.

Mr. Kanjamala was also a previous assistant controller for a large nonprofit organization that received New York City, New York State and Federalfunding. He is also a partner of Isaac & Suresh, Chartered Accountants having offices in Kochi, Trivandrum,Calicut and Quilon.

Mr. Kanjamala is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (CPA), and is a fellowmember of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (FCA), He is also credentialed as a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA). He is also a member of the New York State Society of CPAs and currently serves its Tax Exempt Organizations Committee and Sub-Committee for Consolidated Fiscal Reporting. Inaddition, he is an active member of the National Asian American Society of Accountants (ASCEND).

Mr. Kanjamala holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting the City University of New York as well as a Bachelorof Commerce from Kerala University in India. Mr. Kanjamala holds the distinction of scoring among the Top 10candidates at the state level in the November 1996 Uniform CPA Examination in the United States.

9. Sajini Sachariah

Sajini Sachariah is a full time employee of Affinity Credit Union, based in Basking Ridge, New Jersey who also has an excellent and exceptionally good acting talent both on stage and on screen. The audience just loves and adores her. Most of the stage dramas were under the banner of Fine Arts Malayalam. Sajini always acted as the leading lady in all the stage production. Give her any kind of role, she did justice to the role by delivering her best performance. Her first drama was in the year 1999 in the Biblical drama "His Kingdom and Resurrection". Since then, every year, she has acted in a new drama.

She had done leading roles in almost 14  dramas  which have been shown in several cities in the US, namely, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Staten Island, Long Island, A couple of towns in New Jersey, Atlanta, Washington DC, Baltimore, Seattle and Vancouver and Toronto in Canada.

The Malayalam TV shows that she has acted as a leading lady are Madakka Yathra and akkarakazchakal. Akkarakazchakal is amongst the top TV Malayalam shows with over 60 million hits on YouTube. Her popularity increased with her acting in Akkarakazchakal. She acted in many Malayalam movies and her latest movie Njan D.P. Pallickal" which is due to be released in August 2015.

10. Rethi Devi

Rethy devi is the very symbol of liberation of thoughts and passivity which had enslaved the lives of Indian women throughout generations.

She fought Male domination, often accompanied by abuse and torture by men of their wives and daughters. Trained to be a lawyer, Rethy took on authorities, often the police force of Kerala state in courts and in public places and  was arrested twice and thrown in jail . She emerged from jail terms with increased fighting spirit and renewed vigor .

Rethy is a prolific writer also. She wrote ‘Adimavamsam’, a book for which she was presented with the ‘Kishore kumar’ award , a supreme recognition in literary circles In India. Recently, her vastly  researched  novel, ‘The Gospel of Mary Magdalene and Me’ was published in Malayalam and English and was received for recognition of the ‘Literary Crown’ of “Booker Prize’ award. She has attended many unique assemblies in India and the United States which are many in number to list. She spoke on ‘Post Colonial Writings and Feminist Identity’  at a gathering  of notables at the book release of the writings of world-famous Herman Gundert.

Tom Mathews, Chairman of the ‘Global Literary Contest’  of the ‘Malayalee Association of America (MAAM) wrote a novel, “Just Another Day in Paradise’ , based on the life of Rethy and was publishedIn 2014 by American publishers.