Chicago, Oct 24 (IANS): Sohan Joshi, a practicing accountant in Chicago, has been elected president of the National Federation of Indian American Associations (NFIA), an umbrella organization of various Indian community associations, for 2013-2015.
Joshi, who served as the convener of the 17th biennial convention of the group, Oct 12-14 in Chicago said: "We are very proud to have hosted the convention and made history in Chicago by bringing diverse delegates from all parts of the country."
In addition to Joshi, Kanti S. Patel of Chicago was elected as the Executive Vice President; Angela Anand of Washington DC, Chandrakant "CK" Patel of Atlanta, Georgia and Hari Har Singh of Maryland were elected as Vice Presidents, according to an NFIA release.
Satheesan Nair from Chicago and Yogendra Gupta from Maryland were elected as the Secretary and Joint Secretary, respectively and Anil Pillai as the Treasurer.
The seven Directors-at-large are Arvind Joshi, Rajasekhar Reddy, Vargese Palamalayil, Arvind Pillai, Satish Misra, Ashwin Shah, and Gulshan Bajaj.
Regional Vice Presidents representing different parts of the United States were Om Sharma (Capital), Babu K. Patel (Central), Jogeswara R. Peddiboyina (Great Lakes), Vasav Mehta (South East), Lavanya Reddy (North Pacific), Deepa Thakor (South Pacific), and Rajeshwar Prasad (New York).
Lal Motwani, the outgoing NFIA President was elected as the Chair of the NFIA Foundation. He will be a voting member of the NFIA Board. The newly elected officers will assume their office on Jan 1.
The newly elected Board of Directors appointed Joydeb Roy as the Executive Director (administration) and Ashok Madan as the Executive Director, Special Projects. It also appointed Anil Yadav and Sachin Amin as members of the Business Concil.
Thomas Abraham, the founder of the NFIA, Sushila Gidwani and Haresh Panchal served as the members of the Election Committee and conducted the elections.
Rajen Anand, the past president of the NFIA administered the oath of office to all elected officers who solemnly pledged to serve the Indian American community.