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| Abraham M. George | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India |
| Occupation(s) | Founder, The George Foundation |
| Spouse | Mariam George |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | shantibhavanchildren.org |
Abraham M. George is an Indian-American businessman, academic, and philanthropist. He began his career in the Indian army as an artillery officer at the Sela pass in the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) on the China-India border. Following brief military service, he moved to the United States. George pursued an entrepreneurial career before returning to India in 1995 to address discrimination and economic oppression faced by the country's social underclass.
Among the initiatives he embarked on in India are the Shanti Bhavan Residential school to provide education to children from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and the Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media, a post-graduate institution aimed at fostering a free and independent press in India. Further, he set up Baldev Medical & Community Center to serve the healthcare needs of 15 villages across Tamil Nadu and Karnataka states. His work in environmental health was pivotal in the removal of lead from gasoline across India in April 2000.
George is the author of three books on international corporate finance and two on his social work in India. He has served on the Human Rights Watch and the International Center for Journalists boards. He has been honored with the Hind Rattan.
George has been recognized as one of the world's leading social entrepreneurs.
Early years
George was born and brought up in the seaside city of Trivandrum, Kerala, at the southwestern tip of India. He is the second son of Mathew and Aleyamma George; one of four children.
At fourteen, George was admitted to the National Defence Academy in Khadakwasla. He subsequently went on to graduate as a second lieutenant in 34th medium artillery regiment of the Indian Army. George's first posting in 1966 was to the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) that borders China, following the Sino-Indian War.
The assignment in Sela pass in the NEFA ended abruptly after ten months when George was injured in a dynamite explosion. Upon his return from convalescence, he was assigned to the Indo-Pakistan border, where he served for nearly two more years and rose to the rank of captain.
Education and career
George joined his mother in Alabama during the heyday of the segregationist governor, George Wallace. He found the transition to be overwhelming, later writing of it: "I felt I had gone to another world, not simply another country".
Soon after arriving in America, George attended New York University's Stern School of Business as a graduate student. During that time, he became an American citizen. He specialized in developmental economics and international finance, and soon after completing his doctoral work he decided to enter the teaching profession. Later, Chemical Bank, now part of JP Morgan Chase Bank, offered George a job as an officer in the bank which he accepted.
George had worked for Chemical Bank for two years when he decided in 1976 to start his own company, Multinational Computer Models Inc. (MCM), which offered computerized systems to multinational corporations. MCM subsequently formed a joint venture with the global investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston where George served as the Chief Consultant and Managing Director of its new operations. In 1998, George sold MCM to SunGard Data Systems, a Fortune 500 company, where he served as a Vice-Chairman for two years.
George returned to India in January 1995. His intent was to reduce the injustices and inequalities of which he had become aware and to this end he established The George Foundation, a non-profit charitable trust. One of The George Foundation's first projects was to formally study the issue of leaded gasoline in India and its long-term effects on children. The study showed that 51% of children in urban areas suffered from high lead levels. This ultimately led to India's government banning leaded gasoline.
The Shanti Bhavan story is told by the life-journey of five of its girls in a four-part Netflix documentary, Daughters of Destiny.
Publications
- International Finance Handbook (2 volumes), John Wiley & Sons (ISBN 0-471-09861-2)
- Foreign exchange Management and the Multinational Corporation, Holt, Rinehart and Winston (ISBN 0-03-046641-5)
- Protecting Shareholder Value: International Financial Risk Management, Prentice Hall (ISBN 0-7863-0439-1)
- India Untouched: The Forgotten Face of Rural Poverty, Writer's Collective (ISBN 81-88661-18-X) - A description of Dr. George's initial 10 years of social work in rural India.
- Lead Poisoning Prevention and Treatment: Implementing a National Program in Developing Countries—distributed by World Bank to governments of developing countries in 2001 for policy implementation.
Awards
- NYU Stern School of Business' Stewart Satter Social Entrepreneurship Award, US
- Lifetime Achievers Award for Philanthropy - Year 2000, Indian American Kerala Cultural & Civic Center (The Kerala Center)
- GOPIO 2017 Community Service Award by the Global Organization for People of Indian Origin (GOPIO)
References
- ^ Gross, Daniel (Fall–Winter 2006). "Return of the Native Son". STERNbusiness. Retrieved 13 April 2007.
- ^ "In search of the poor, with his own money". Indialife. Fall–Winter 2018. Retrieved 6 December 2018.
- Friedman, Thomas (2006). The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. pp. 630–634. ISBN 0-374-29279-5.
- ^ George, Abraham (2005). India Untouched: The Forgotten Face of Rural Poverty. Cranston, RI: Writers' Collective. ISBN 1-59411-122-7.
- Hale, Mike (28 July 2017). "Review: 'Daughters of Destiny' on Netflix Explores Caste Struggles in India". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
- "The Alumini magazine of NYU Stern". Fall–Winter 2007. Retrieved 21 April 2010.
- "Awards & Achievements". 2000.
- "GOPIO News Special Bulletin". January 2017. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
- "GOPIO 2017–Community Service Awards". January 2017.