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Chandrika Krishnamurthy Tandon (née Krishnamurthy; born 1954) is an Indian-American businesswoman, philanthropist, and Grammy-nominated musical artist. She is primarily known for her business ventures as the first Indian-American woman to be elected partner at McKinsey and Company. In 2015, Chandrika Tandon and her husband, Ranjan Tandon, donated $100 million to the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering, now named the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, in what was the largest donation by an Indian American in the United States. Tandon has served as a trustee to New York University, NYU Langone Health, American India Foundation, and was a member of the President's Council on International Activities at Yale University and the President's Advisory Council at the Berklee College of Music. She also is on the Board of Governors for the New York Academy of Sciences.

Chandrika Tandon is also a composer and vocalist, trained by masters in Hindustani, Carnatic, and Western traditions. Tandon released her first studio album, Soul Call, in 2009 which received a Grammy nomination for contemporary world music in 2011. She has conducted numerous benefit concerts on world stages including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center, Olympiastadion, Lobkowicz Palace, and in the National Mall for the World Culture Festival.

Early life

Chandrika Tandon was born into a conservative Tamil Brahmin family in Chennai alongside her sister, Indra Nooyi, and brother. Her mother was a musician while her father was a state banker. As the first daughter in the family, Tandon was to be arranged to marry at eighteen, however, influenced by her grandfather, she pursued a higher education at Madras Christian College. When her mother initially refused to let her attend, Tandon went on a hunger strike for almost two days before her mother was convinced by the headmistress of Tandon’s convent school, Holy Angels Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School, to let her enroll.

After finishing her education at Madras Christian College, Chandrika Tandon initially desired to go to law school and follow the footsteps of her grandfather, who was a judge in Chennai. However, one of her professors recommended she apply to the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and pursue a career in business instead. Amongst thousands of applicants, Tandon was accepted into IIM Ahmedabad as one of eight women in her class.

Business

Graduating from IIM Ahmedabad in 1975, Chandrika Tandon worked as an executive for Citibank in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War. At age twenty-four, she was offered a position at McKinsey and Company in New York City and became the first Indian-American to become partner in the company. In 1992, she formed Tandon Capital Associates and has advised clients including Chase Manhattan Corporation, Comerica, Unibanco (Brazil), Suncorp-Metway Ltd. (Australia), Fleet Financial Group, Bank of America, Rabobank and ABN Amro.

Philanthropy

In 2004, Tandon started the Krishnamurthy Tandon Foundation, a private foundation located in New York City that partners with organizations in the fields of community building, arts and spirituality. After serving as a distinguished executive in residence at New York University, Tandon joined several of the university’s board of trustees and donated $100 million to the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering which was renamed NYU Tandon School of Engineering. She also made several contributions to her alma mater, Madras Christian College and founded the Boyd-Tandon School of Business of which she is the advisory council chairman. Since 2009, the Krishnamurthy Tandon Foundation has donated to several organizations including: the American India Foundation, Art of Living Foundation, World Music Institute, Lincoln Center, Teach for America, Yale University, Berklee College of Music, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and New York University.

Music

For her father-in-law’s 90th birthday, Tandon created a studio recording of his favorite chants as a gift. This inspired her first full-length studio album, Soul Call in 2009, a continuous recitation of the mantra's eight phonemes: Om Namo Narayanaya. The album was later nominated for Best Contemporary World Music Album for the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards in 2011.

Tandon followed up her nomination with her second studio album: Soul March in 2013, which was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's peaceful Salt March in 1930. Classical Hindustani music with aspects of Latin and jazz, it featured over 75 musicians and was recorded in the United States and India.

In 2014, Tandon released her third studio album: Soul Mantra, featuring the chant Om Namah Shivaya in nine ragas.

Three years later in 2017, Tandon released her fourth studio album: Shivoham - The Quest which merged Sanskrit prayer with verses in English. Recorded in nine studios across four continents, Tandon states that Shivoham - The Quest is “a musical expression of my intensely personal journey over the last 20 years.”

In 2023, Tandon released her fifth studio album titled: Ammu’s Treasures, a three-volume collection of songs inspired by her grandchildren in different genres and languages. The album features 17 musicians including Béla Fleck, Romero Lubambo, Kenny Werner, Maeve Gilchrist, Jamey Haddad, Cyro Baptista, Eugene Friesen, Bobby Keyes, Sérgio Mendes, among others and won a Gold Medal in Children's Music at the Global Music Awards in 2023.

Awards and Honors

Music Awards

Discography

References

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• Living people
• Businesspeople from Chennai
• American women chief executives
• American women musicians
• American musicians of Indian descent
• McKinsey & Company
• New York University people
• American people of Indian Tamil descent
• American women philanthropists
• Indian emigrants to the United States
• 21st-century American women