Mrs. Neel Gonuguntla serves as the President of the US India Chamber of Commerce Dallas Fort Worth (USICOC). The USICOC is a 501(c)(6) organization made up of nearly 3000 individual and corporate members and is dedicated to supporting professional, business and economic development throughout the Dallas Fort Worth area. The USICOC also facilitates trade between India and the North Texas area by connecting member companies with resources to aid in their successful expansions.

As President, Mrs. Gonuguntla oversees strategic planning activities for the Chamber in addition to providing oversight of daily operations including, but not limited to, member services, event management and fundraising for the organization. Under her leadership, the Chamber has grown its member participation by 34% and event-based activity by 40%.

Prior to joining the Chamber, Mrs. Gonuguntla served as President of ReadyToWork®, an education and workforce development consulting company where she oversaw the streamlining of operations and the creation of new revenue streams. She managed teams of remote employees, supervised all business development and operations, and provided legal and regulatory oversight.

Mrs. Gonuguntla received her education from Boston University and Baylor University where she earned her Bachelors in Political Science and her J.D./M.B.A, respectively. She is licensed to practice law in the State of Texas and is a member of the State Bar of Texas, the Dallas Bar Association as well as the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers.

Mrs. Gonuguntla is also an active community volunteer dedicating her time to causes including women’s empowerment, inner-city education, and foreign aid.

Currently, she serves on the boards of the following organizations:

• CHETNA which supports victims of domestic violence in North Texas
• COMMUNITIES IN SCHOOLS OF THE DALLAS REGION which supports the education and well-being of over 10,000 at-risk youth attending Dallas area public schools
• OPPORTUNITY PLUS which supports women entrepreneurs and community development in North Texas and India
• US GLOBAL LEADERSHIP COALITION which provides support for the United States’ diplomatic and development efforts among both politicians and the public

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Monique Wedderburn is the Director of the University of Texas Dallas Asia Center. She provides overall leadership for the Center’s programs, ensuring intellectual and cultural education about Asia’s foreign policy, business and public policy.

Ms. Wedderburn has over 20 years’ experience working with professionals and students around the world. She is skilled in bridging gaps by coordinating a wide range of international educational programs, advanced economic development projects, and community outreach activities.

Ms. Wedderburn came to the University of Texas at Dallas in 2011 from her prior work as Senior Program Officer at the East West Center (EWC; Honolulu, Hawaii). At the EWC, she coordinated short-term professional development and led visits to Vietnam, China, Thailand, Japan, Bangkok, Cambodia, and Washington, D.C. that addressed topics such as intercultural leadership, politics of globalization, and economic development. In her work with the Pacific Business Center and U.S. Department of Interior she completed economic development work for communities in Hawaii, American Samoa, Virgin Islands, and Palau.

Ms. Wedderburn spent her formative years in Mexico, Zaire (currently the Democratic Republic of Congo), Pakistan, Thailand, and Zimbabwe. She earned her MBA (with Honors — Beta Gamma Sigma) from the Shidler College of Business at the University of Hawai’i and her Bachelor of Science degree in Business from Colorado State University. Ms. Wedderburn is an alumna of the Board of Directors for the Texas Lyceum, graduate of Leadership Women, and her volunteer efforts have included serving on community boards.

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Namrata Sharma currently heads the SemiChip business segment for the Engineering and R&D Business Unit of HCL Technologies where she is responsible for building collaborativerelationships at CxO level to strategically align goals and capabilities. She is driving HCL’s expansion in these segments by working closely with global engineering teams to define innovative solutions and implement services in this space. Namrata has extensive experience in the Telecom and Semiconductor domains having worked for Motorola and Dell Services as well as consulting for Tier-1 Telecom Service Providers. In her previous role at HCL Technologies, she successfully led the charge to bring new service lines to the market in 5G, SDN/NFV and DevOps. Nam as she is known, is a multidimensional leader who believes in building long term trusted relationships with her co-workers, customers and friends.

oming from a family of strong female role models, she is a big advocate of gender parity and is actively engaged in creating awareness to promote gender diversity at the workspace and beyond. Nam leads the diversity initiatives at her business unit in HCL and the following quote by the Canadian – Indian poet Rupi Kaur reflects Nam’s thoughts

about her goal :

“our work should equip the next generation of women to outdo us in every field this is the legacy we’ll leave”. – Rupi Kaur

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