2010 IALI Conference Opening Remarks

Rajeev Sharma, IALI Advisory Board Chair

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Welcome to IALI’s national conference, “Supporting Our Political Pioneers”. We want today to be a great experience for everyone and we have an incredible agenda for the day.

IALI’s mission is to SUPPORT, CONNECT and INVEST in Indian American leaders. These three components mean different things to different people, but they represent the important aspects of being successful as a community in politics.

We’ll be discussing these different aspects from a myriad of angles throughout today’s discussion, but I wanted to spend a moment talking about why I am involved in IALI and why it is so encouraging to see all of you here today.

As an entrepreneur and as an Indian American, I felt it was very important personally, to participate in the world around me, including joining the political realm, and becoming a part of IALI.

As an entrepreneur in business our strengths, our successes are in identifying, innovating and prospering for the betterment of society. I see in business the power of the collective when it comes to ideas and execution, and that same concept applied at a community level, of being part of something bigger is what led me to want to get involved in the political process and is what brought me to IALI which serves as the movement for Indian Americans to exercise their right to participate in civics and politics.

I hope I can serve as an example for those who do not want to make a career of politics but find it important to be involved, and IALI helped me with that. And for those who do want to make a career of politics, it’s a great thing that an organization like IALI is here to help guide you.

As we embark on this new decade, we have a lot of excitement this year with our candidates. I have been reading about them, and about this phenomenon of Indian Americans in politics, in the Washington Post and New York Times. None of us have seen this before, and it is noteworthy and shows that we are at crossroads.

“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie -- deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought” – John F. Kennedy

Myths are the currency of the fringe and the extremists. We need Indian American Representatives to help dispel myths and force the discomfort of thought.

I hope that we will all be conscious of our need to act in support of organizations like IALI and our candidates. Indian Americans play a very unique role in participating in, and shaping, the new direction this world is taking. We see that happening globally, and we see a dramatic and intriguing change in the political landscape and the unique role that Indian Americans are playing. This is what we will explore here today, and I really appreciate the effort each of you has made to be here and to be part of the process.

Rajeev Sharma serves as the Chair of the Advisory Board of the Indian American Leadership Initiative.

With over 25 years experience in the information technology industry, Rajeev Sharma brings a track record of success to his position as the founder and CEO of ABSi. Mr. Sharma’s knowledge of the IT industry was honed during his years of service at IBM where he worked in IBM’s World Wide Government Systems Group managing US Federal and Law Enforcement customers such as the FBI, the Department of Justice Criminal Division, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Having founded ABSi’s Technology Practice in 1995, Mr. Sharma has steadily guided it to distinction and prominence as a recognized technology consulting and solutions company with a global footprint. ABSi today delivers full life cycle consulting and technology solutions with specific domain expertise in the areas of Enterprise IT, Healthcare IT and Cybersecurity to customers in all parts of the world. In 2008, Mr. Sharma expanded ABSi’s business presence and capabilities to become an innovator in the renewable energy space with next generation technology and solutions. ABSi’s Energy Practice is currently engaged in multiple renewable energy projects both domestically and internationally. Mr. Sharma’s leadership, business philosophy and commitment to ethical business practices have facilitated ABSi’s growth in highly competitive markets and attained outstanding levels of customer loyalty and satisfaction.

Mr. Sharma holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics degree from the University of Maryland, College Park.