iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
An Indian American entrepreneur and startup executive, Piyush Malik[Above first from left], has been conferred with 2022 NAAAP100 Award by the National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP).
Malik is a startup executive, entrepreneur, board advisor, and business and technology transformation leader in the domain of emerging technologies. Through his engineering, product management, and customer success experiences he has built worldwide teams and scaled his firms’ businesses manifold.
NAAAP National promotes leadership development, professional excellence, and DEIB targets, but is not limited to, Asian and Pacific Islander professionals and students. NAAAP celebrated its 40 years of inception by hosting an extraordinary group of leaders at the Limitless Leadership Convention in Washington, DC from August 11 to 13, 2022. The leadership convention featured more than 50 speakers with activities including an ERG summit, multiple leadership workshops, and a diversity career fair, capped by a red-carpet gala celebrating the 2022 NAAAP Awards.
In 2008, NAAAP established the NAAAP100 Awards to recognize exemplary leaders in the Asian community. The awards, presented annually at the gala of NAAAP’s annual national leadership convention, are to recognize influential leaders who have made significant contributions to their profession and the Asian community. Previous awardees include former Ambassador to China Gary Locke, former Canadian Senator Vivienne Poy, activist Dr. Grace Lee Boggs, Pritzker prize-winning architect I.M. Pei, and playwright David Henry Hwang.
In his LinkedIn profile, Malik has said: “Honored and humbled to accept the 2022 NAAAP100 Award, presented by NAAAP. It is even more humbling to see the list of past awardees which has included very few Indian origin leaders such as Padmasree Warrior and Ryan Patel along with notable Asian professionals and leaders like I.M. Pei, George Takei, Norman Mineta, Mike Honda, and many more accomplished individuals.”
“Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined being onstage at a historic site that has hosted every US President since FDR. It is the same site Martin Luther King, Jr. stayed at following his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963. Behind me on the stage stood a 7ft replica of the Great Seal of the United States used for news conferences and some of the most powerful speeches in history,” Malik said.
Malik, in his acceptance speech, thanked the NAAAP award board for this honor and congratulated fellow 2022 honorees. He said: “Thanking all my collaborators, clients, and colleagues – past and present, I’m inspired to continue partnering with corporate and non-profit organizations alike to champion the cause of sustainable development, youth empowerment, and giving the underrepresented Asians a voice and a shot at career opportunities via technology, entrepreneurship, and sheer passion.”
On its website, NAAAP has introduced Malik: “He has been serving as the founding President of the American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin (ASEI) Silicon Valley chapter since 2015 and also serves as National Chairman of this 4-decade-old organization of scientists and engineers focused on mentorship, youth, and community building. He champions servant leadership and for over 2 decades has been active in community giveback initiatives spanning sustainability, engineering entrepreneurship, diversity, equity, inclusion, and youth empowerment via several non-profits such as OVBI, TiE, IAHV, IAIDQ, ASEI, and more to develop the next generation.”
Piyush has served Fortune 500 clients in over 40 countries spanning diverse industries over the past 3 decades as a management and technology consultant and executive. He is now the Chief Digital and Transformation Officer at a private-equity-backed cloud and digital innovation services startup Veridic Solutions. Previously, he worked as the SVP at Google partner startup SpringML, and before that as the leader of the Worldwide Big Data & Analytics Center of Excellence within IBM’s consulting business. He started his career with the Tata group in India and after migrating to the US, also built the Global Information Integrity practice for PwC.
“Piyush has always been passionate about education and giving back over the years. From serving on school site councils for various California public schools to being appointed Technology Advisor to Fremont School District and the University of California, Irvine to being a champion for STEM via math and science olympiad coaching to being recognized as NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Awardee in 2022 as educator/mentor for encouraging and mentoring women in computing, he is always ready to help build the next generation. Professionally, he has been previously recognized by appointment to IBM’s prestigious Academy of Technology and conferred Global Data Quality Leadership and Service Award by IAIDQ (International Association for Information and Data Quality) in 2015,” said NAAAP’s introduction.
Malik earned an engineering degree in electronics and communications from Delhi University and a master’s in management of technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi prior to immigrating to the Silicon Valley.
Prior to this Malik was selected by the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) as one of the recipients of the 2022 NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Educator Award. Malik was among 107 educators from 43 states, the District of Columbia, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, and Canada to receive the award. Each year, US educators (formal or informal), counselors, administrators, mentors, or other influencers who support the computing-related passions of 9-12 grade students are selected to receive recognition for their efforts to promote gender equity in computing. In 2022, 70 winners and 37 honorable mentions were selected from more than 130 applicants.
The NCWIT is the farthest-reaching network of change leaders focused on advancing innovation by correcting underrepresentation in computing. Each year, US high school students in grades 9 through 12 who are women, genderqueer, or non-binary are eligible to receive recognition for their aptitude and aspirations in technology and computing, as demonstrated by their computing experience, computing-related activities, leadership experience, tenacity in the face of barriers to access, and plans for post-secondary education.
The formal or informal educators and mentors are selected and recognized for enabling these underrepresented high schoolers. Since 2011, more than 800 educators have been recognized and have received more than $236,000 in professional development funding to improve their computing education skills.
