Raju Reddy named Vice Chair of the 2nd World Hindu Congress

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Angel Investor Raju Reddy has been named vice chair of the 2^nd World Hindu Congress where more than 2,000 prominent Hindus and 250 thought leaders are expected to gather from September 7 to 9, in Chicago.

Heads-of-state, media personalities, top tier corporate executives and national community leaders will share the dais to discuss how Hindus can make their presence felt in 7 key areas: education, economy, media, politics, greater visibility of Hindu Women and Youth and Hindu organizations, a press release from the organizers said.

“Hindus are viewed as great doctors, engineers and entrepreneurs, as positive role models but they need to become ‘change makers.’ This requires them to be organized,” Reddy is quoted saying in the press release, adding that the release of a Diwali stamp by the US Postal service, corrections about Hinduism in California textbooks, the election of the first Hindu Congressman Ro Khanna were visible examples of the benefits of organization.

“America is our ‘Karmabhoomi’ and as proud Hindus and Indo Americans, we need to do more philanthropy in our local communities, be more active in public policy and more visible as people making a positive difference and WHC is a perfect opportunity to elevate this goal,” said Reddy, who is originally from Nizamabad, Telangana.

According to the press release, Reddy’s father was an active leader in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and enrolled his son in the Sainik School in Korukonda.

Reddy is a BITS, Pilani and Virginia Tech graduate, who worked at Intel for 10 years and then took his mentor, Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor Kanwal Rekhi’s advice and started Sierra Atlantic in 1993.

The company had 2,500 employees in 12 countries before it was bought by Hitachi in 2010, after which Reddy went into mentoring and philanthropy. Reddy brings 25 startups from India to Stanford each year and invites senior executives from Silicon Valley to meet with them under the StartupBridgeIndia initiative, the press release said.

His second big initiative is Kakatiya Sandbox, a nonprofit that focuses on creating better economic opportunities and positive role models at the grass root levels in rural Telangana. Reddy to travel to India every two months but as he puts it, there’s no substitute for being there in person.