Mrs. Aruna Katragadda Miller

Aruna Katragadda Miller was born in Andhra Pradesh, India and arrived in the United States in 1972. She received a degree in Civil Engineering and has spent the 23 years working as a transportation engineer in Maryland.

In 2010 Aruna Miller was elected as the first Indian-American woman to serve in the Maryland House of Delegates and in doing so, became the first Telugu woman in the nation to be elected to the state legislature. She represents 125,000 residents in Montgomery County, Maryland which borders the nation's capital and is one of the most affluent, educated, and politically charged regions in the country.

Aruna serves on the Ways and Means committee where she has championed legislation protecting children, the environment and promoting public safety and advancing gender equality in the workplace. In 2012, Aruna served as Delegate for Obama at the Democratic National Convention.

She resides in Darnestown, Maryland with her husband for over 23 years, David, their three daughters, her mother, and 3 dogs.

Mr.N T Chowdary

Chairman, Next Wave Group of Companies, Hyderabad.
MD, Swiss India Group of Companies, Hyderabad.
Director, Bollineni Developers Limited, Hyderabad.

It takes great vision to make a dream project possible and great vision is what Mr. NT Chowdary is all about.

A young, dynamic entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in the Infrastructure industry, Nageli Thirupalappa Chowdary, fondly known as NT is a man driven by passion and leadership qualities. Born in a remote village of Anantapur District, Andhra Pradesh, NT is an icon for the young aspiring entrepreneurs. After successfully completing MBA, he pursued opportunities largely in Infrastructure and in a very short span of time, diversified into Technology, Agriculture, Hospitality, Education and Healthcare.

As the Chairman of Next Wave Group of companies, NT is leading initiatives in Information Technology, Skill development, Health care etc. His Vision for this group of companies is to put "a million smiles by building a billion dollar social enterprise".

NT as the Managing Director of Swiss India Group of Companies, Leads and invests in people as a sector against Venture Capitalist. His investments span from education, hospitality to incubation of IT products in social protection and health care. Some of these start-ups are growing rapidly and are creating large value to all the stakeholders.

He is a man with global vision and shares global concerns. He believes that innovative, efficient and large scale agriculture is the key for ensuring food and nutrition security for all in the near future. His keen interest in agriculture has taken him to several countries in Africa and Asia for developing large scale farming.

NT is also a Director of Bollineni Developers Ltd which is a division of BSCPL - a leading company that has executed various projects worldwide. It has business interest in various types of infrastructure projects that include roads, ports, bridges, irrigation projects and airports. It's is one of the largest infrastructure companies of India.

NT is a philanthropist at heart. He is the Founder, Chairman of Aswameda Charitable Trust that was founded in 2007 to provide Scholarships to the poor students pursuing professional post graduate and graduate degrees and also to provide coaching as well as accommodation for competitive exam aspirants irrespective of caste, creed and religion. Hundreds of children are benefitted from these initiatives. He also adopts children to educate them with the sole aim of making each of them independent, responsible, and respected individuals.

NT currently focusing on enterprises that have a social purpose and is keenly working towards the double bottom line. He is committed to spreading happiness in society through enterprises that nurture human values and promote humaneness as they build "Profits with a purpose".

Bio Profile of Consul General

Mr. Parvathaneni Harish assumed charge as the Consul General of India, Houston on 30th July 2012. Since joining the India Foreign Service in 1990, he has learnt Arabic at the American University of Cairo and passed the examination with distinction.

He has served in India Mission in Cairo and Riyadh and headed the Post as India Representative to the Palestinian Authority stationed in Gaza city. He was on Secondment to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) as the Chief of the Policy Analysis Unit at UNRWA Headquarters in Gaza.

He thereafter worked in the East Asia and External Publicity Divisions in the Ministry of External Affairs. For a period of five years since 2007, Mr. Harish was the Joint Secretary and Officer on Special Duty to the Hon'ble Vice President of India and Chairman of the council of States of the Indian Parliament, Mr. M. Hamid Ansari.

Mr. Parvathaneni Harish is a Mechanical Engineering graduate from Osmania University College of Engineering, Hyderabad. He is married to Mrs. Parvathaneni Nandita and has two daughters, Ayushi and Amani.

Mrs. Beth Van Duyne, Mayor City of Irving

A 25-year Irving resident, Beth Van Duyne was honored to be elected Mayor of the City of Irving in 2011, having served as a city council representative from 2004-2010. She fought hard against tax and fee increases, championed the movement against more apartment complexes and promoted smart development backed by legitimate investors. Beth is a dedicated volunteer, experienced professional, involved homeowner and devoted mother of two.

Throughout her 20-year career, she has had the opportunity to work with small startup companies, mid-size private companies and Fortune 500 corporations like Verizon, American Airlines and SAP. She also founded and ran her own consulting business, working with executives to develop strategic business plans, negotiation strategies, grassroots coalition building, and federal and state legislative policy strategies.

Beth is experienced in testifying and advocating at the local, state and federal levels for energy, economic development, transportation and water resources and funding. She has extensive experience and strong relationships in the transportation, healthcare, energy and telecommunication industries and is a past member of the North Texas Healthcare Tax Force, President of the Irving Republican Women's Club and Board member of New Tech High. Beth was the first council member to participate in the Irving Citizens Police Academy and the Irving Fire Academy.

A frequently interviewed official, Beth has appeared in The New York Times, CNN, USA Today, ESPN and The Dallas Morning News. While serving as Deputy Mayor Pro Tem, she established and chaired Irving's Communications Committee. As Mayor, she has done extensive coalition building among local, state and federal officials and community leaders throughout the country through her activities with the US Conference of Mayors, National League of Cities, Texas Municipal League and North Central Texas Council of Governments. Beth is the council liaison for the Chamber of Commerce, DFW Board, Dallas Regional Mobility Coalition, TEX-21, Regional Transportation Council, and the Uban Center Task Force.

Beth is a magna cum laude graduate of Cornell University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with studies in City and Regional Planning, Government and Law. She has two wonderful children, Katie and Pearce, who attend school in Irving.

Mr. Mayor Maher Maso

Maher and Val, his wife of 18 years, and their three children have been proud citizens of Frisco since moving here in 1992. Maher serves on the Board of Directors and is the Vice President of the retail services firm Maso, Inc, and the investment firm CMTEX Corp. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the technology company NETWORK CYBERNETICS CORPORATION.

Maher, an Orthodox Christian, is committed to making a difference in our community. He was first elected to public office as a member of Frisco City Council in 2000 and was re-elected in 2002 and 2004. He was the longest serving Mayor Pro Tem in Frisco, appointed by his colleagues five times from 2003 to 2007.

Maher was honored to be chosen as the FRISCO CITIZEN OF THE YEAR IN 2005. He was also selected as one of the 21 for 21st Century leaders in 2004, which is given to Collin County leaders who have demonstrated leadership in varied fields in the new millennium.

Sri P V V Ramaraju

Afghanistan Telugu Association ( ATA ) : As a founding member, Mr Rama Raju was instrumental in uniting all the telugu speaking people in Afghanistan for informal formation of Afghanistan Telugu Association. As a first initiative of ATA, we are thank full to Dr Ghazal Srinivas for accepting our invitation to visit Afghanistan to meet all Telugu People and also other Indian Community in the year 2009 as part of his global peace march. His brave visit to Afghanistan with his melodious Ghazals filled with inspirational messages made the association more formal and active. Since then ATA started participating in social and cultural activities under the guidance of Dr Ghazal Srinivas. We are again thankful to Dr Ghazal Srinivas for choosing Afghanistan with his recent visit in May 2013 and successful on his peace mission by releasing his latest album of Urdu Ghazals by name "RUBARU" through an Ex-Taliban Leader, who reformed himself into normal life under the process to restore global peace.

P V V Rama Raju has been working as a Public Finance Management Advisor for UNDP-MBAW Project at Ministry of Finance, Kabul, Afghanistan since September 2012. Mr Rama Raju, a qualified and experienced professional, is a self motivating and filled with enthusiasm in accepting and executing any challenging assignment in diversified fields. He served at Punjab National Bank, India for a period of 20 years at all the functional and field levels. In the year 2006 he moved to Afghanistan, a war torn and post war conflict country known for it's insecurity and uncertainty and vulnerable for violence. During this long tenure of 7 years in Afghanistan, he feels proud to represent India and able to participate in the economic reconstruction process of Afghanistan. He strongly believes in transforming the knowledge and established a University to provide quality education to Afghan youth. He was instrumental in establishing the Air Traffic Financial Management System at the newly built Kabul Airport. His major and life time achievement was to establish a local commercial Bank in Afghanistan by name Maiwand Bank as per the international banking practices on sound principles and strong fundamentals that too during the difficult period of global financial recession especially in a fragile economic condition of Afghanistan. During the 4 years tenure of Mr Rama Raju with Maiwand Bank in Afghanistan from 2008 to 2012 as a founder President & CEO, he was able to spread the wings of Maiwand Bank to cover all over Afghanistan with a network of 30 Branches supported by Core Banking Solutions with all the latest technological products viz, ATM, POS, Master Card, Online Banking, Mobile Banking and SMS Banking etc.,

Mr Rama Raju was one of the founder member of Afghanistan Banks Association and able to contribute for strengthening financial sector in Afghanistan with his initiatives to introduce all the relevant banking laws in line with the international banking laws and practices. As a Vice Chairman of Afghanistan Banks Association, to strengthen the banking sector, he was instrumental in establishing Afghanistan Institute of Banking and Finance for capacity building of national staff as well as establishing Afghanistan Depositors Insurance Corporation to build confidence of the depositors.

Mr Rama Raju has high socio economic consciousness and under Individual Social Responsibility, he had recently established a Global Charitable Trust by name Chundury-Gudimetla Global Charitable Trust to provide financial support to the needy and talented poor in INDIA by donating all his retirement benefits received from Punjab National Bank for his 20 years of service.