Friday March 14, 2014 7:00 PM

Fredrick P. Rose Auditorium, The Cooper Union New York, NY

Organized By Zoroastrian Association of Greater New York

Video

Part I

The Power of Cultural Influences and Inspirations for Success: Part I from ZAGNY on Vimeo.

Part II

The Power of Cultural Influences and Inspirations for Success: Part II from ZAGNY on Vimeo.

Images

Message from Gev Nentin, President ZAGNY

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Zoroastrian Association of Greater New York (ZAGNY) it is my pleasure and honor to welcome you to The Power of Cultural Influences and Inspirations for Success, a thought provoking dialogue with prominent Zoroastrians.

On a per capita basis, the Zoroastrian community is considered to be one of the most successful worldwide.  Considering our numbers, the contributions made by us to humanity through our accomplishments in business, industry, art and culture, science and technology, and philanthropy are staggering.  Today, we present you with a unique opportunity to meet five such contributors, at an event moderated by two outstanding professionals. Each one of these exceptional individuals has reached the pinnacle of their chosen careers.  They are Academicians, Financiers, Musicians, Cordon Bleus and Philanthropists. They delight our souls through the music they perform and the foods they create.  You will learn their stories and discover what it Is that inspired them to such great heights.  I hope you get to meet them up close.

For the past 40 years, ZAGNY has served the cultural, educational and religious needs of Zoroastrians in the greater New York area.  Today, we continue in that endeavor. To better serve the needs of our growing community, we have embarked on a major project to build a new cultural center in Pomona, New York. Please take a moment to visit the new building model on display in the foyer.  While significant progress has been made in raising funds, we are still short of our targets to successfully bring this project to fruition.  There is no turning back now and I urge you to kindly donate generously for this cause.

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to each of our speakers and moderators for joining us today.  Thanks to The Cooper Union for the use of their premises; to all the volunteers, sponsors, and advertisers for making this event possible; and to the superb vocalist for sharing her talent with us. Last but not the least, thank you, for being with us this evening!

May we remain united as we pursue our dreams for peace and success.

Sincerely,

Gev Nentin, President ZAGNY

 

Speakers

 

Dr. Jamshed Bharucha is the twelfth President of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.

A cognitive neuroscientist, he has published extensively on the cognitive and neural underpinnings of music, and has been awarded grants from NSF and NIH for his work. More recently, he has written and lectured widely on the challenges facing higher education, emphasizing the need for bold innovations in learning and global engagement.

A 1978 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Vassar College, Dr. Bharucha majored in biopsychology and subsequently received an M.A. in philosophy from Yale University (1979) followed by a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Harvard University (1983). He was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University (1993-94), and is currently an Honorary Fellow of the Foreign Policy Association. He received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Alumnae & Alumni of Vassar College, and has served as a Trustee of Vassar College.

Dr. Bharucha began his academic career at Dartmouth College, where he was named the John Wentworth Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences and served in several leadership positions, including Associate Dean, Deputy Provost and Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences. At Dartmouth he received the Huntington Teaching Award in 1987 and the Undergraduate Teaching Initiative Award in 2002. A signature accomplishment of his administrative work at Dartmouth was the creation of the nation’s first brain imaging facility for the study of cognitive neuroscience outside of a clinical setting.

In 2002, Dr. Bharucha was appointed Provost and Senior Vice President of Tufts University. Under his leadership as Provost, annual sponsored research doubled to $175 million, revenues from the transfer of technology increased eight-fold to $8 million, and the university launched an international strategy focusing on Mexico, India and China.

Dr. Bharucha is a classically trained violinist, having received an Associate’s Diploma in Violin Performance from the Trinity College of Music, London, in 1973.

 

Dinyar (Dinny) Devitre is an international business executive who has held various leadership positions in the consumer products and banking industries in Asia, Australia, Europe, and the U.S over the past 40 years. He is currently Special Advisor to General Atlantic Partners; member of the Board of Directors of Altria Group, Inc., and SABMiller plc; Chairman of the Audit Committee of Markit; and Chairman of the Nominating and Governance Committee of The Western Union Company. In addition, he serves on the Board of the Brooklyn Academy of Music and is Chairman of Pratham USA.

Mr. Devitre has held several senior executive positions at Philip Morris. He was Executive Vice President and Group Head of Citibank’s Global Consumer Bank for Europe, Middle East, Africa, and South Asia between 1998 and 2001. He was Director of Kraft Foods Inc. from 2002 to 2007 and Director of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts from 2002 to 2010. Most recently he was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Altria Group Inc., before retiring in 2008.

Born in Jamshedpur, India, Mr. Devitre earned a B.A. (Honors) Degree from St. Joseph’s College in Darjeeling, India, and an M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Mr. Devitre resides in New York with his wife Aashish.

 

 

 

Jehangir Mehta is a renowned participant on Food Network’s Next Iron Chef Redemption 2012; was the runner-up at the Next Iron Chef 2009; was a participant in the Iron Chef America; and a guest on Martha Stewart Living. Chef owner of Graffiti and Mehtaphor restaurants, and Me & You, a successful event management business, Mr. Mehta’s trademark cooking style has been featured not only in traditional food magazines but also in publications like Vogue and the New Yorker.

Prior to his own restaurant ventures, Mr. Mehta was a highly acclaimed pastry chef at some of New York City’s finest restaurants including Aix, Union Pacific, Mercer Kitchen, Compass, and Jean-Georges. Mr. Mehta authored his first cookbook, “Mantra: The Rules of Indulgence” (Harper Collins), in  2007.

Mr. Mehta’s passions include helping children enjoy food and eating healthy. Ten years ago, he was a pioneer in this field, when he started “Candy Camp”, a private cooking class for children. Since then, he has worked closely with Whole Foods in a nationwide program called “Kids Food Adventure with Chef Jehangir”. He has also worked with Scholastics, Children’s Museum of Manhattan, and at various Kids Food Festivals. He is best known for his initiative, “Gastro Kids After School”, a cooking program at Mehtaphor, and for his participation in the “Wellness in Schools” program at PS 107 in Brooklyn.

Mr. Mehta is the brand ambassador for the National Foundation of Celiac Awareness, the Chef Ambassador for the National Association of Celiac Awareness and the Chef Ambassador for the Mushroom Board.

 

Zubin Mehta was born in 1936 in Mumbai, India and received his first musical education from his father, Mehli Mehta, who was a noted concert violinist and the founder of the Bombay Symphony Orchestra. After a short period of pre-medical studies, Mr. Mehta left for Vienna in 1954 where he eventually entered the conducting programme under Hans Swarowsky at the Akademie für Musik. Mr. Mehta won the Liverpool International Conducting Competition in 1958 and was also a prize-winner of the summer academy at Tanglewood. By 1961 he had already conducted the Vienna, Berlin and Israel Philharmonic Orchestras and recently celebrated 50 years of musical collaboration with all three ensembles.

Mr. Mehta was Music Director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra from 1961 to 1967 and also assumed the Music Directorship of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in 1962, a post he retained until 1978. In 1969 he was appointed Music Adviser to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and became it’s Music Director in 1977. In 1981 the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra awarded him the title of Music Director for life. Mr. Mehta has conducted over three thousand concerts with this extraordinary ensemble including tours spanning five continents. In 1978 he was appointed Music Director of the New York Philharmonic commencing a tenure lasting 13 years, the longest in the orchestra’s history. Since 1985, Mr. Mehta has also been Chief Conductor of the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence.

Mr. Mehta made his debut as an opera conductor with Tosca in Montreal in 1963. Since then he has conducted at the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Vienna State Opera, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, La Scala Milano, and the opera houses of Chicago and Florence, as well as at the Salzburg Festival. Between 1998 and 2006 he was Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. In October 2006 he opened the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia and is since then the President of the annual Festival del Mediterrani in Valencia where he conducted the celebrated Ring cycle with the Fura del Baus in coproduction with the Florence Opera House. Other Ring cycles were completed at the Chicago Opera and the Bavarian State Opera.

Mr. Mehta’s list of awards and honors includes the “Nikisch-Ring” bequeathed to him by Karl Böhm. In October 2008 Mr. Mehta was honoured by the Japanese Imperial Family with the “Praemium Imperiale”. In March 2011 he was honoured with a star on Hollywood Boulevard. In July 2012 The Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany was bestowed on him. In September 2013 the Indian Government honored him with the “Tagore Award for Cultural Harmony”.

Mr. Mehta is an honorary citizen of both Florence and Tel Aviv and was invited to become an honorary member of the Vienna State Opera in 1997, the Bavarian State Opera in 2006 and the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde Wien in 2007. The title of “Honorary Conductor” was bestowed on him by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (2001), the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra (2004), the Los Angeles Philharmonic (2006), Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (2006), and the Bavarian State Orchestra (2006), with whom he performed in Srinagar, India in September 2013.

Mr. Mehta continues to support the discovery and furtherance of musical talents all over the world. Together with his brother Zarin, he is a Co-Chairman of the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation in Mumbai where more than 200 children are educated in Western Classical Music. The Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv, is a new project, closely related to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, that teaches young Arab Israelis in the cities of Shwaram and Nazareth with the aim of developing young talent in Israel.

 

Navroz Udwadia is Co-Founder and Partner at Falcon Edge Capital. Mr. Udwadia spends considerable time focusing on the technology and healthcare sectors amongst others, on the long and short side.

Prior to founding Falcon Edge, Mr. Udwadia was an investment professional at Eton Park’s Emerging Markets team in London from 2005 to 2011.  Before joining Eton Park, Mr. Udwadia earned an M.B.A. (Distinction) from Harvard Business School. Prior to that he spent time at JP Morgan (private equity) and Goldman Sachs, where he was an investment banker in the Financial Institutions Group and worked on the Firm’s internal strategy team.

Mr. Udwadia graduated from Columbia University (B.A. English) and subsequently completed a Law Degree (M.A. Law) at Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar from India. While at Columbia University, Mr. Udwadia also received an NCAA Post Graduate Scholarship Award, the Arthur Ashe Sports Scholar Award and was voted an Academic All-American (District Team). Mr. Udwadia was a ranked tennis player (#1 ranked junior in India). He captained both the Oxford University (Double Blue) and Columbia University Men’s Tennis Teams (EITA Senior Of The Year and All Ivy League, 1997), leading Columbia University to it’s first EITA Championship in a decade.

 

 

Moderators

Shanaya Deboo is currently Director of Commercial Development at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. She is responsible for global market development for Pfizer’s Biosimilars assets for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases. In this role, she works closely with colleagues across the organization and external partners on policy development and market preparation. Prior to joining the Biosimilars business unit, Ms. Deboo was Regional Marketing Director, Europe, based in Brussels. She was responsible for driving strategy and tactics for Pfizer’s pain products in 42 countries across the region. Ms. Deboo has also held roles in US Marketing and Corporate Affairs at Pfizer.

Prior to joining Pfizer, Ms. Deboo was a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group.

Ms. Deboo graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Public and International Affairs and has an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

 

After more than twenty years in the securities industry, Anahaita N. Kotval moved to the non-profit sector in November 2011 and is currently Chief Operating Officer & General Counsel for Inspirica, Inc., the largest provider of services to homeless individuals and families in lower Fairfield County, Connecticut.

Prior to joining Inspirica, Ms. Kotval served in various positions with RBS Securities, Inc. (formerly Greenwich Capital Markets) including serving as its General Counsel and a member of its Management Committee from 2007 to 2011, Deputy General Counsel from 2004 to 2007 and Associate General Counsel from 1998 to 2004. Prior to RBS, Ms. Kotval spent five years in Enforcement at the Northeast Regional Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission as a Staff Attorney, Branch Chief and Senior Trial Counsel.  While at the Commission, she investigated and prosecuted a wide variety of securities fraud cases including insider trading, market manipulation, prime bank fraud and pay to play cases.

Ms. Kotval is a Director of Springleaf Holdings, Inc., a public consumer finance company and chairs its Compliance Committee. Ms. Kotval is also a Director of My Sister’s Place and the Pro Bono Partnership.  She received the Partnership’s Volunteer of the Year award in 2003 and Volunteer of the Decade award in 2007.  She is the former Chair of the RBS Greenwich Capital Women’s Working Group, a former Director and Co-President of the Women’s Bond Club of New York, and a former Executive Committee member of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association’s Compliance and Legal Division.

Ms. Kotval received a B.Sc. magna cum laude in Applied Math and Economics from Brown University in 1988 and a J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1991.