Bill Clinton to address IITians at PAN IIT

By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 30 September 2009, 00:27 IST   |    2 Comments
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Bill Clinton to address IITians at PAN IIT
Chicago: The IIT hat will add another feather as the IITians share their minds with former U.S. President Bill Clinton, during the largest entrepreneurship conference of PAN IIT in Chicago, from 9th October to 11th October, 2009. The former President will address the challenges and opportunities in today's key global issues such as public health, education, and climate change with a focus on transforming ideas into action. "We approached Clinton - as we have approached many luminaries through alumni - and were thrilled when his people confirmed that he can do it," Ram Kelkar, a coordinator for the IIT alumni in U.S, said. The seventh Global Alumni conference of PAN IIT, a global organization which represents alumni from all Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) campuses, will address the importance of 'Entrepreneurship and Innovation in a Global Economy'. The event would see business leaders from leading corporations delivering their significant experiences in the line of entrepreneurship. The Indian origin U.S. Federal Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, will deliver the keynote address at the conference which will be opened by India's Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal. The other keynote speakers will include Nathan Myhrvold, CEO, Intellectual Ventures and Founder of Microsoft Research, Carl Schramm, President & CEO, Kauffman Foundation, Jim Owens, Chairman & CEO, Caterpillar and Jim Rogers, Chairman & CEO, Duke Energy. An estimated 35,000 IITians live in U.S. and past pan-IIT events have been attended by as many as 3000. The conference will honor the winners of the first-annual Pan IIT American Leadership Awards, who have significant achievements and contribution in the American society. "The IITs are renowned for producing some of the country's best global corporate leaders, academicians, technologists and entrepreneurs. Pan IIT recognizes the important contributions these alumni have made in American job creation, education and philanthropic initiatives, and we want to honor these individuals through the IIT American Leadership Awards," said Jai Rawat, Vice President, Marketing, Pan IIT and Chairman of the Awards Committee. The winners of 2009 Pan IIT award were selected from over 200 nominees by a panel of luminary judges. The Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded to Dr. (Late) Rajeev Motwani, who was an advisor to Google founders Sergery Brin and Larry Page and many more. The Academic Excellence Award is given to Dr. Pradeep Khosla, Dean, College of Engineering, Carnegie Mellon. The Corporate Excellence Award is awarded to Padmasree Warrior, Chief Technology Officer, Cisco. Dr. Suhas Patil, Chairman, Emeritus Cirrus Logicand Chairman, Digite and Cradle Technologies has won the Entrepreneurial Achievement Award and Technology Leadership Award is given to Dr. Ravi Sethi, President, Avaya Labs. "These individuals have helped to make the IITs in India one of the most elite educational institutions in the world today," said Umang Gupta, Co-Chairman, Board of Directors, Pan IIT and CEO, Keynote Systems.