Last modified: Tuesday, September 15, 2009
IU to present Mendhekar with its Distinguished Asian Pacific American Alumni Award
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 15, 2009
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Entrepreneur Anurag Mendhekar of Los Altos, Calif., founder of Blue Vector Systems and twice an alumnus of Indiana University, will be the 2009 recipient of the IU Asian Alumni Association's Distinguished Asian Pacific American Alumni Award.
Anurag Mendhekar
This award recognizes outstanding professional achievements and community service of Asian/Pacific American Alumni of IU. Mendhekar, a native of Tarapur, Maharashtra, India, will receive the honor on Sept. 26 at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, 275 N. Jordan Ave., during a dinner being held in conjunction with the inaugural Graduate Student Conference in Asian American Studies. Robert B. Schnabel, dean of the IU School of Informatics, will introduce Mendhekar.
Mendhekar earned a master of science degree in 1994 and a doctorate in 1998, both in computer science, from IU. He also has a bachelor's degree from the University of Mumbai (formerly Bombay University) in India and a master's degree from the Indian Institute of Science.
He has contributed to the field of computer science as an entrepreneur, founding three successful companies. His first start-up company, Online Anywhere, was the first firm to create the whole new market category of content transformation tools for Mobile and non-PC devices.
The success of the company was demonstrated through its acquisition by Yahoo!. As a key executive of Yahoo! Everywhere, Mendhekar developed a global business around Yahoo!'s Mobile Internet services, achieving distribution through almost 40 different wireless carriers to serve millions of people around the globe.
He began his career at Xerox's Palo Alto Research center, where he was one of the inventors of Aspect Oriented Programming, a rapidly spreading paradigm of programming that forms the core of products produced by his current firm, Blue Vector Systems.
Along with several scientific publications to his credit, Mendhekar has been awarded six patents, with several more pending. In 2008, he was named the "2008 Pro to Know" by Supply & Demand Chain Executive magazine. Blue Vector also was recognized last year by the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal with its Emerging Technology Award.
Among his personal successes came in 2001, when a friend and coworker needed a bone marrow transplant. Mendhekar organized several drives for bone marrow donors in Northern California and his efforts were significant as the number of bone marrow donors available for the South Asian community makes up a tiny percentage of the 4.5 million donors registered on the National Bone Marrow Registry, often leaving those of South Asian origin with no potential matches.
"We are pleased to partner with the IU School of Informatics and the inaugural IU-Purdue Asian American Studies Conference for the recognition of our distinguished Asian alumni," said Sophia Travis, president of the IU Asian Alumni Association. "Informatics, and the newly established Asian American studies programs, are both arenas that are dynamic for our academic environment and alumni relations in so many ways.
"The IU Asian Alumni Association board is forging these partnerships for both highlighting, and strengthening, the awareness of all that Asians and Asian-Americans contribute towards the progressive academic excellence of Indiana University. It's our hope that Anurag Mendhekar will be pleased to see how IU has grown by expanding the fields of technology studies in addition to focused East Asian and Asian-American studies in the liberal arts," Travis added.
"All of us are pleased and proud that Anurag has been chosen to receive such an honor," said Schnabel, dean of the School of Informatics. "Anurag has contributed significantly to the field of computer science -- as a serial entrepreneur and founder of three successful companies, a multiple patent-holder, and as author of an extensive array of academic publications.
"It is also important to note his extraordinary level of service outside of his profession -- organizing multiple bone marrow drives is an impressive undertaking," Schnabel added. "Anurag is committed to academic and professional excellence, as well as service to community, which makes everyone at the School of Informatics and Computing proud to have him as an alumnus."
The IU Asian Alumni Association -- whose Web site is located at https://alumni.indiana.edu/asianaa/ -- is an affiliate group of the IU Alumni Association. The IUAA is dedicated to serving the university and its diverse alumni, students and friends. As one of the nation's largest alumni organizations, serving more than 528,000 graduates worldwide, the IUAA provides many programs and services to its members, nonmember alumni and the university. For more information, visit https://www.alumni.indiana.edu or call 800-824-3044.
