Regional chapters represent a regional representation of the WGF organization, and hence carry out most of the activities, albeit for the regional footprint. They help connect the global WGF entity to the grassroots of the ecosystem.
The DC Metro Chapter is led by Himanshu Verma.
Himanshu Verma
Himanshu Verma also serves on the Wheels’ Board as Vice-President & Secretary and is an entrepreneur who applies Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to create innovative applications. Over the last 20 years, he has managed the conceptualization, planning, delivery, maintenance, and retirement of Analytic, Data Visualization, GIS, Business Intelligence, Data Warehouse, Master Data Management, Data Integration, Data Mining, and Text Mining, eDiscovery & predictive AI solutions. He specializes in designs of massively parallel (MPP), high volume, low latency big data solutions.
He has successfully played diverse roles as a Chief Technology Officer, Enterprise Information Architect, Data Integration Architect, Data Architect, Solution Architect, and Project Manager. He undertakes tasks related to Solution Architecture, Strategy & Vision, Requirements Gathering, Data Modeling, Project Management, Big Data Architecture, and Technology/talent acquisition.
Dr. Smita Siddhanti
Dr. Smita Siddhanti is the founder and President of EnDyna Inc., specializing in management and environmental consulting for various federal agencies in Washington DC. She was the past president of the DC Chapter of TiE – “The Indus Entrepreneurs”, and currently serves on the Global Board of Trustees for TiE. She has served on the Virginia Governor’s Air Quality Board and on the Board of the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Siddhanti is a recipient of several awards, including the 2014 Future 50 award of Smart CEO, and the White House Green Government award in 2016.
Smita is committed to enhancing entrepreneurship as the basic engine for economic development and has been actively involved in this pursuit with global organizations such as the Ashoka Foundation for changemakers, American India Foundation, Indiapora, and TiE chapters around the world. She is on the board of Magan Sangrahalaya Samiti (MSS), an Indian NGO in Wardha, Maharashtra, working for rural enterprise development in villages.
Ashok Siddhanti
Ashok Siddhanti is currently CEO of EnDyna Inc. (www.endyna.com) where he leads cybersecurity and technology-based practices. Ashok brings over twenty years of experience with the commercial sector and ten years’ experience working with U.S. federal government. Ashok started his career first as a design-manufacturing engineer with Westinghouse, then as a management consultant starting with Boston Consulting Group (BCG). He went on to be partner at global consulting firms – Mercer Management and AT Kearney. During his consulting career, Ashok led the reengineering of key business processes in over twenty countries to increase productivity, speed, and revenue of U.S. Fortune 100 multinationals. One of the engagements included redesign of a client’s supply chain spanning 90 countries. In addition to being an investor in various technology startups, Ashok is engaged with TiE-Global’s angel investing. He also heads up a company specializing in prediction of equity and commodity prices using machine learning. Ashok holds BTech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Bombay, MS in Management Engineering, and an MBA from RPI in New York, USA.
Ashok has been engaged with WHEELS since its inception. In the IIT-2005 global alumni conference held in Washington, DC, he was instrumental in introducing sessions on rural technology. This rural focus was embraced by several IIT alumni conferences downstream. One of the culminations of IIT-2005 conference was formation of WHEELS, of which Ashok was a co-founder. Ashok has been a funder of and advisor to NGOs working in rural entrepreneurship area for the past two decades.
The members of the chapter include:
♦ Rajiv Agrawal (Senior alumnus from IIT Delhi)
