Philanthropists Jaishree And Desh Deshpande Will Be Honored With Lifetime Achievement Award
Lifetime Achievement Award For Jaishree And Gururaj Deshpande
Jaishree and Gururaj Deshpande, founders of Deshpande Foundation are going to be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the New England Choice Awards gala today by INE Multimedia. Jaishree and Desh have been putting their philanthropic efforts in their Deshpande Foundation for a promotion of the use of entrepreneurship and innovation as the catalyst for sustainable change in the United States, India and Canada since 1996.
The New England Choice Awards Gala is expected to be attended by 400 entrepreneurs, corporate executives, philanthropists, educators and community leaders.
Jaishree and Desh have donated $20 million dollars to launch the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In December 2010, they gave a grant of $5 million to start up the Merrimack Valley Sandbox in Lowell and Lawrence, Massachusetts. Gururaj Deshpande is also the chairman of Akshaya Patra USA.
“Desh and Jaishree Deshpande have taught us how to dream big and give back to the community. We are very excited at the opportunity to honor them at New England Choice Awards gala for all that they have done for our community, ”says Dr. Manju Sheth, President of INE MultiMedia, as reported by India New England News.
“We are honouring Jaishree, Desh and the Deshpande Foundation in recognition of their invaluable support of education, innovation, entrepreneurship and helping create a new generation of technology leaders and entrepreneurs in the United States, India and Canada,” said Upendra Mishra, publisher of INDIA New England News and the IndUS Business Journal. “also, they have wholeheartedly championed the cause of Akshaya Patra Foundation, the world’s largest school meal program that serves 1.5 million children daily in India.”
Deshpande Foundation has also set up three other centers: Deshpande Center for Social Entrepreneurship in India, Merrimack Valley Sandbox in Lowell/Lawrence Massachusetts and Pond-Deshpande Center at the University of New Brunswick in Canada.
Jaishree Deshpande who is the founder of the Deshpande Foundation is also a treasurer of Sparta Group LLC, and she serves as a Trustee for the Museum of Science. She is also involved with HESTIA fund which is committed to the importance of educating women about strategic philanthropy. She received a Master of Science in Physics in 1975 from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras and further received a Master in Computer Science in 1989 from Boston University. She had also worked with Indian Space Research Organization in Bangalore, India before she moved to Canada in 1980.
Gururaj Deshpande is also a passed out from Indian Institute of Technology- Madras. He is a holder of B.Tech in Electrical Engineering and further received an M.E. from the University of New Brunswick in Canada and PhD from Queens University in Canada. He is the President and Chairman of Sparta Group LLC and also a chairman of Tejas Network. He has pursued an entrepreneurial career for the last three decades and is involved with many companies like Cascade Communications, Sycamore Networks, Coral Networks, Tejas Networks, Cimaron, Web dialogs, Airvan.
It is a proud moment for every Indian and in addition to honoring Deshpandes with Lifetime Achievement Award, INE will also be honoring New England’s eight shining stars for their outstanding contributions in the areas of Academics, Art and Culture, Business and Entrepreneurship, Community Service, Healthcare, Non-Profit Organization, Philanthropy and Youth Leadership.
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