Ketan Shah sworn-in as new President of SIAEA

- ADVERTISEMENT -

Ketan Shah was sworn-in as the new President of the Society of Indo American Architects and Engineers (SIAEA), in the presence of over 200 guests, at Terrace on the Park, in Flushing, NY, on March 30, 2019.

The event was represented by many well-wishers and past presidents of the organization. The chief guest of the event was Ruth Hassell Thompson, Special Advisor for Policy and Community Affairs, Governor’s office, New York. Along with Shah, 16 other board members took oath as a new executive committee, according to a press release.

The board members who took oath are: Amil Patel (President-Elect), Mitul Patel (Executive Vice President), Avinash Chauhan (Vice President), Nihal Shah (Secretary), Dilip Shah (Treasurer), and 9 board of Directors, Prakash Shah, Jashvant Mody, Yogesh Mistry, Tejas Desai, Chitra Radin, Vinod Devgan, Sudhir Sachdev and Bina Parikh.

SIAEA is a thirty-eight years old organization, founded in 1981, which is actively serving its members, community, and provides excellent opportunities for networking, professional growth and service in the Tri-State area.

The event started with a touching tribute to past president of the organization, the Late Bansi Shah, by observing a minute of silence in his memory.

Spouses of some of the board members, including Neha Shah, Bhavna Patel, Heena Patel, Shilpa Sampat and Asha Parikh, opened the event by lighting of the lamp. Harshad Lakhani, the election committee chair, announced the election results and names of the new executive board members.

Thompson, in her address, stressed the significance of the minority-owned and women- owned businesses and their contributions and importance in the Tri-State area.

Shah, in his address, mentioned his long association with SIAEA for 16 plus years in various capacities and his commitment to not only maintain the current mission and vision of the society, but to improve on the successes of the past with many other activities, and improve membership involvement.

Shah outlined the goals of his team for the next two years. He said he wanted to enhance the visibility of the organization in the new age of technology and innovation, and gave his commitment to continue to bring about new changes and ways to not only improve communication with the members, but also important initiatives that will enhance the spirit and vision of the founding members.

He further said that each year new challenges are being faced by the architects and engineers and therefore, he and his team will develop programming that will bring cutting edge knowledge to SIAEA’s members through focused seminars.

Shah said in his address that many companies look for good talent and SIAEA membership was certainly a repository of excellent professionals in their field of expertise. Therefore, he and his team were committed to work to improve the visibility of opportunities at all levels of government or private enterprise to their members so that everyone could benefit from such relationships.

Shah also highlighted that with higher cost of living, the amount of scholarship being offered to students is not enough and his team is looking forward to make SIAEA’s scholarship program stronger and more self-sufficient.

He also outlined opening of new committees and subcommittees at SIAEA, where all past presidents could participate with their thoughts, wisdom and ideas.