South Asian Trailblazers

Joining us on South Asian Trailblazers is Actor and Broadway Star, Nikhil Saboo. Most recently, Nikhil played the iconic Connor Murphy in the National Tour of  Dear Evan Hansen , becoming the first South Asian to ever take on the Tony-nominated role. He  also performed in the 1st National Tour of Hamilton: An American Musical  and in the original Broadway cast of Mean Girls: The Musical .   Nikhil...

For our mid-season finale, Simi is joined by Priya Singh — Chief Strategy Officer,  Senior Associate Dean, & Vice President of Stanford Medicine. Stanford Medicine encompasses a $13 billion preeminent academic health center comprised of the Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford Health Care, and Stanford Medicine Children’s Health . Priya first began her career at Stanford in 2002, when she joi...

Simi is joined by Nora Ali , the CEO and Co-Founder of Mason Media , a full-service production company and brand studio, which she co-founded alongside MLB all-star Alex Rodriguez (A-Rod) and tech billionaire Marc Lore . With a degree in Statistics and Quantitative Finance from Harvard, Nora began her career by building a foundation in capital markets as an Asian Equities Associate on the trading...

In a first for South Asian Trailblazers , we welcome Global Influencer and Entrepreneur Diipa Büller-Khosla . Diipa is not only one of the first Indian influencers to have gained international renown, but is also breaking barriers as a founder, model, public speaker, and activist. At age 18, Diipa moved from India to Amsterdam and eventually London to study international human rights law. She inte...

Simi sits down with Ruchi Bhowmik , Vice President of Public Policy at Netflix. In this role, Ruchi strategizes around the streaming giant's relationships with key stakeholders: regulators, non-governmental organizations, and elected leaders in the United States and Canada.   Prior to joining Netflix, Ruchi was Global Vice Chair of Public Policy at EY, one of the big four accounting firms. Th...

To kick off South Asian Trailblazers Season 7, power duo Dr. Vas Narasimhan (CEO of Novartis) and Dr. Srishti Gupta Narasimhan (Physician Leader in Health & Education) join Simi all the way from Basel, Switzerland for a LIVE recording at Novartis Headquarters in Cambridge, MA. WATCH this episode on YouTube. South Asian Trailblazers is dedicated to elevating leading South Asians. To learn about...

For our Season 6 Finale, Simi invites Shruti Rya Ganguly : award-winning Filmmaker, Producer, and Writer to the podcast. In 2017, Shruti started honto88 , a production company that works in a variety of formats — from narrative and doc features to series and branded content. She launched it with a narrative feature produced by Keanu Reeves . She has directed videos for Google, Unilever, Nike, and...

The founding CEO of a breakout biotech company AND a Grammy Award winner?  Gaurav Shah is no stranger to dualities. In this episode, Simi speaks with the Co-Founder and CEO of Rocket Pharmaceuticals , a company developing first-in-class gene-modified cell therapies to treat rare diseases.  Prior to his role as founding CEO, Gaurav was a Global Program Head in the Cell & Gene Therapies Unit at...

In this special edition of South Asian Trailblazers , Simi hosts a LIVE podcast with Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal — the first South Asian woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives — to kick off Indian American Impact 's 2023 Summit in Washington D.C.  WATCH this episode on YouTube. In addition to elevating the stories of South Asian leaders, South Asian Trailblazers is also dedicate...

You’ve likely seen Zarna Garg — the Indian immigrant mom and comedy sensation cracking mom jokes on Instagram , opening for Tina Fey, or most recently, making headlines for her comedy special, Zarna Garg: One in a Billion , which premiered on Amazon Prime in May. But do you know what came before ?   Born and raised in India, Zarna Garg immigrated to the U.S. as a teenager to escape her father&apos...

In this episode, we meet Pooja Goyal : Partner and the Chief Investment Officer of Carlyle Global Infrastructure , Co-Head of the Carlyle Global Infrastructure Opportunity Fund (CGI), and Carlyle’s Head of Renewable and Sustainable Energy. With over $381 billion assets under management (AUM), Carlyle is one of the world’s largest investment firms — a megafund that specializes in private equity and...

In this episode, Simi speaks with Medha Gargeya : Associate Counsel to Vice President Kamala Harris, reservist with the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps, and Adjunct Professor of Law. As Associate Counsel at the White House, Medha helps manage ethics and oversight for the Vice President's office and works on policy areas ranging from criminal justice to voting and reproductiv...

In this special edition of South Asian Trailblazers , Simi speaks with trailblazer Anjula Acharia in front of a LIVE audience in New York City.  WATCH this episode on YouTube. In addition to elevating the stories of South Asian leaders, South Asian Trailblazers is also dedicated to convening them. If you're interested in attending future community events, including our live podcasts, subscrib...

Meet Pooja Bavishi, Founder and CEO of Malai , a trailblazer who is sure to pique your interest and... your sweet tooth. Malai is an artisanal ice cream company, with flavors inspired by the nostalgic, aromatic spices and ingredients of South Asian culture. Pooja had always wanted to be in the business of delivering happiness, AKA desserts, and in 2015, she founded Malai following her graduation f...

In this special episode, we mark our first-ever foray into Bollywood and the land of Indian cinema. Trailblazers Host, Simi Shah, joins some of Bollywood’s biggest stars on the Red Carpet as they kick off a U.S. show tour entitled, The Entertainers . The Entertainers is led by Bollywood icon Akshay Kumar , and also welcomes Nora Fatehi , Mouni Roy , Disha Patani , Aparshakti Khurana , Zahrah  Khan...

To kick of Season 6, Simi speaks with Anita Chatterjee, Founder and CEO of A-Game Public Relations. A-Game Public Relations is a bicoastal firm representing celebrities, business leaders, venture capital firms, and innovative technology and consumer packaged goods companies. Anita has built the profiles of several high profile individuals, including Rohan Oza, Guest Shark on ABC's Shark Tank...

In this very special edition of South Asian Trailblazers , we celebrate our 50th episode. To mark this exciting milestone, we wanted to do something a little bit different. In the 50 episodes, 50 stories we’ve shared thus far, we’ve met some phenomenal individuals — visionary entrepreneurs, seasoned executives, next gen creatives... all the way from fashion to medicine. These leaders affirmed a lo...

Joining us for this episode is Ulta Beauty's first-ever Chief Digital Officer, Prama Bhatt. Prama brings 20 years of digital expertise to this role, having brought to life innovative experiences and initiatives like Virtual Beauty Advisor, Skin Analysis, GLAMLab, real-time recommendations and more to meaningfully disrupt and drive the industry forward. Before serving as CDO, Prama was senior...

At 23-years-old, Ziad Ahmed is our youngest trailblazer to date. In this episode, Simi catches up with the CEO/Co-Founder of JUV Consulting , a purpose-driven Generation Z consultancy that works with clients (small businesses, non-profits, and major corporations) to help them authentically reach young people. To date, the company has worked with 20+ Fortune 500 companies (Unilever, VF Group), has...

Simi speaks with Megha Desai , President of the Desai Foundation . The Desai Foundation empowers women and children through community programming that elevates health, livelihood and menstrual health, primarily in India. Initially established by her parents 25+ years ago, the public foundation has impacted 5 million+ lives across 2500 communities to date. Before pivoting to the nonprofit world, Me...

In this episode, Simi is joined by a legend in the media business: Raju Narisetti , Global Publishing Leader at McKinsey. Raju grew up in India where he studied business and journalism. He immigrated to the U.S. in the 1990s, earning his Masters in Journalism from Indiana University. Here he kickstarted his career in local news in Dayton, Ohio. In 1994, he was recruited to the Wall Street Journal...

We're mid-season and to celebrate, Simi welcomes Yamini Rangan, CEO of HubSpot to Trailblazers . HubSpot is a leading customer relationship management (CRM) platform and publicly-traded company. Prior to becoming CEO, Yamini served as the company's first-ever Chief Customer Officer . In September 2021, she succeeded CEO Brian Halligan , the co-founder of HubSpot who had served as CEO for...

Beck, Paul McCartney, Troye Sivan, Maggie Rogers, Katy Perry, Sam Smith, Halsey, Masego, Doechii, Norah Jones — just a few of the greats on Arjun Pulijal’s star-powered artist roster. In our latest episode, Simi speaks with the esteemed President of Capitol Music Group. Capitol Music Group is a premier American front line umbrella label owned by Universal Music Group. As President, Arjun oversees...

In this episode, Simi catches up with a legend in the League, Sean Desai, Associate Head Coach-Defense for the Seattle Seahawks.  Sean has over a decade of experience as a coach at the NFL and collegiate levels. When he became defensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears in 2021, he became the first Indian-American NFL coordinator in U.S. history. Sean joined the Bears in 2013, where he served on s...

In this episode, Simi sits down with a familiar face, Seema Mody, CNBC Global Markets Reporte r. A leading business journalist, Seema is CNBC’s FIRST South Asian on-air personality. She joined the network in 2011 and currently focuses on the intersection of foreign policy and Wall Street, as well as the travel industry. She also hosts European Close , a daily segment that keeps U.S. investors info...