Obama names 3 Indian-Americans to Asian advisory body

Washington, April 25: President

plans to name fourteen individuals, including three Indian-Americans, to a commission charged with working to improve the quality of life of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs).

Members of the President's Advisory Commission on AAPIs will advise him on innovative ways to engage AAPIs across the country and to improve their health, education, environment, and well-being.

Hailing from all over America and from across a wide range of disciplines, these accomplished individuals will work to advance the inclusion of the AAPI community and to uplift the community's contributions to America, White House announced Thursday.

"I am pleased to announce that these experienced and committed individuals have agreed to join this Administration, and I look forward to working with them in the coming months and years," Obama said.

Indian-American nominees are: Shekar Narasimhan, Maulik Pancholy and Ravi Chaudhary.

Narasimhan is co-founder of the Emergent Institute (formerly known as the Indian Institute for Sustainable Enterprise) in Bangalore, India, a nonprofit institution training entrepreneurs to build social ventures.

Narasimhan received a BS from the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi and an MBA from the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh.

He has been Managing Partner at Beekman Advisors since 2003 and chairman of Papillon Capital since 2012.

Previously, Narasimhan was the managing director at Prudential Mortgage Capital Company from 2000 to 2003 and the chairman and CEO of The WMF Group, Ltd. from 1988 to 2000.

Pancholy, a film, television, and stage actor, is the voice of Sanjay, the title character in the Nickelodeon animated series Sanjay & Craig, as well as the voice of Baljeet in the Disney animated series Phineas and Ferb.

He worked closely with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Centre on its exhibition "Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation," which opened at the National Museum of Natural History in February 2014.

Pancholy is widely known for playing the role of Jonathan for six seasons on NBC's award-winning series 30 Rock.

He also appeared in six seasons of the Showtime series Weeds and played Neal on the first season of the NBC series Whitney.

Pancholy shared the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series with the cast of 30 Rock in 2009. He has also appeared in numerous films and plays.

He received a BS from Northwestern University and an MFA from Yale University.

Lt. Col. Chaudhary is an Air Force officer, currently serving as executive officer to the commander, Air Force District of Washington, Joint Base Andrews, Maryland.

Chaudhary has logged over 3,000 flight hours as a pilot and flight test engineer, including over 700 combat hours.

Previously, Chaudhary served as commander of the US Air Force's 317th Recruiting Squadron from 2011 to 2013.

From 2009 to 2011, he served as Chief of Strategy Integration in the Air Force Strategic Plans and Programmes division as well as speechwriter in the Secretary of the Air Force Executive Action Group at the Pentagon.

Chaudhary's awards include the NASA Stellar Award, Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal, and Iraq and Afghanistan Campaign Medals.

IANS