Shajeev Padmanivas (President)
Shajeev, a native from Ernakulam district, has been in Atlanta since 2000. After graduating with a Bachelor of Engineering, he worked four years for a prestigious firm in the United Kingdom. At the end of 1999 he moved to the land of opportunity, the United States Of America. He currently manages a team of DevOps for an Interaction Analytics company that provides indexing and mining software for audio and video. Outside his professional world, he loves to volunteer for various non-profit organizations and community service. At leisure time, Shajeev loves to spend time with his family – wife, Shalini who works for a reputed partner focused cloud solutions company as Partner Success Manager and with their two beautiful kids, Akshaj and Anwitha – at their home at Forsyth county.
Srija Kulakizha (Vice President)
Srija is a native of Palakkad, Kerala and was brought up in Tamilnadu. She obtained her Bachelors of Engineering in Computer Science degree from Bharathiar University. She is an employee of Telecommunication services provider – Amdocs, managing the Solutions Delivery team at AT&T. Srija and her spouse Anup Nair relocated to the USA in 2005. They currently reside in Cumming, Georgia with their two sons Advaith and Sanay. Srija is a vivid personality with interests in event coordination, volunteering, travel, cooking, music and dance. She was an event coordinator of multiple cultural events hosted by Kairali Atlanta, a non-profit which promotes Kerala culture and heritage among newer generations.
Binu Kasim (Secretary)
Binu hails from Trivandrum, Kerala. He graduated from the prestigious College of Engineering, Trivandrum and completed his Masters from Georgia State University. He moved to Atlanta in 2011 and lives in Cumming with his wife Sheena and two boys Aman(16) and Arman(14). He is passionate about community service, cultural activities, Cricket, Soccer and Tennis and has been instrumental in bringing several flagship programs to Atlanta and represented Atlanta in multiple All North America Malayalee Association events. He works for Atlanta based IT Outsourcing company – IQVIA – in a Director capacity and has performed various roles in the field of Account Management, Delivery Management, Pre-sales, and Product Management across multiple geographies including NA, EMEA, India.
John Mathai (Treasurer)
John hails from Thirumeni, a beautiful village in Kannur district. He came to Atlanta in 2000 and has been an active member of GAMA from 2001. He has served twice as executive member of GAMA. With his humble and lovable character, John is well known among Atlanta malayalees. In his leisure time, he loves to spend his time gardening. He lives with his wife, Joby and two kids, Rosemary & Tessa.
Tony Thomas (Joint Secretary)
Tony is a native of Kozhikode with roots coming from a small village in Kottayam. He graduated from Cochin University of Science & Technology. He is currently working as a Solutions Architect at Hitachi Vantara. He currently resides in Johns Creek with his wife Veena and two kids Richa and Ryan. Prior to moving to Atlanta, he lived in Canada, Central/Northeast US. He is a curious person with a dream to become an explorer.
Jayamon Nedumpurath (Chairman for Malayalam Academy, Newsletter & Correspondence)
Jay is originally from Pala, Kerala. He completed his B. Tech degree in Computer Science from T. K. M. College of Engineering: and started his career as a teacher. He worked as software engineer in Bangalore before moving to Bergenfield, New Jersey in 1999. There, he was the secretary of Kerala Community Center, a Malayalee cultural organization. Jay moved to Atlanta in 2004 and has been a GAMA member ever since. Jay currently works in the IT field for Truist Bank. Prior to Truist, Jay worked in software development leadership roles at Ventyx an ABB Company, Indus Inc, and Wishbone Inc. He is an active volunteer at various charity organizations in Atlanta and a teacher at GAMA Malayalam academy from its beginning. He currently lives in Roswell with his wife Rekha, originally from Trivandrum, son Pranav and daughter Poornima.
Anil Nair (Chairman for Charity Initiative, Food and Refreshments)
Anil originally from Thiruvananthapuram. He completed Bachelors from Madurai Kamaraj University and Post-Graduation from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Before moving to Dallas, TX in 1998, he worked for Evergreen Exports in Chennai and National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) in Hyderabad. While living in Dallas, he was associated with different community organizations doing volunteer activities including community food drive. Anil is currently working for Virgin Pulse and lives in Johns Creek with wife Snigtha Nair and kids (Akhil and Smriti). Anil enjoys reading, gardening, travel and spending time with family and friends. He is also an active volunteer for Access Life America, Sai Baba temple and treasurer for HOA.
Manoj Varghese (Chairman for Sports, Cultural Program)
Manoj Varghese is Born & Brought up in Kochi, spent most of his professional life in Bangalore & moved to Atlanta by mid of 2018 with his wife Bindu, Son Georgie & daughter Naomi. Musician by passion & plays Electric Bass with 2 Bands in Atlanta with Indian & International Musicians. He loves Off-Roading, hiking and is also an Adventure motorcyclist & a trained track rider by the California Superbike School, in Madras Motor Race Track. He has done solo cross country rides in India & currently exploring the mountain motorcycle trails of Georgia & the neighboring states. He Played for the B division Soccer leagues in Kochi & was privileged to be trained by the legendary Russian Goalkeeper Rinat Dasayev.
He has organized many events in Kochi & Bangalore & also instrumental in launching & executing the first season of the Iconic reality show, Idea Star Singer. He graduated from MG University, done his Diploma in Sales Management from NIS & also an EDP Certification in People Management from IIM Calcutta. Professionally into Telecom Sales & distribution Management & his last assignment was with a leading Cellular Service Provider, heading Sales & Distribution, based out of Bangalore. Currently working in the Logistics Industry.
Harish Velayudhan (Director for Information Technology, Sports Coordinator)
Harish was born and brought up in Thiruvananthapuram. After graduating with a Bachelor of Engineering, he worked 7 years at Technopark Trivandrum. He later moved to Kochi- Infopark to join Wipro and came to USA – San Francisco in 2011 and moved to Atlanta in 2017. He is currently working at T-mobile as a Senior Product Owner managing multiple teams and orchestrating product development related to Order Management Portfolio. He lives in Suwanee – at Forsyth county with his wife Aradhana and two kids Advait (15) and Aveda (5). Harish enjoys gardening, cooking, travel and spending time with family and friends.
Geethu Venugopal (Director for Cultural Events)
Geethu Venugopal is an Indian Carnatic music vocalist and vocal trainer settled in Alpharetta, Georgia. She is the Founder/Creative Head of GK School of Music. She started performing concerts at the age of 10 and has been training in classical music for more than 2 decades, currently under the tutelage of Sangeetha Nataka Academy award-winning Carnatic maestro and retired professor of the renowned RLV College, Shri Mavelikkara P. Subramaniam. Her debut into Malayalam Film Music Industry was with Singer Karthik under the direction of National award-winning music director, Shri Ouseppachan. She also worked with him on various jingles for Malayala Manoranama, a leading publishing house in Kerala. Geethu has also worked with yesteryear music director, Shri Alleppey Ranganathan in a devotional album along with playback singer, Biju Narayanan. She has had the privilege to share stages with eminent personalities of the South Indian Music Industry like Unni Menon, G Venugopal, Radhika Thilak, Ambilikuttan and Music Directors Sharreth and Jerry Amaldev and Poet/Lyricist Vayalar Sarath Chandra Varma. Geethu was one of the finalists of the music reality show Gandharva Sangeetham 2013 broadcasted on Kairali TV. A practitioner of violin and piano, she has also won various other reality shows like Voice of Arabia broadcasted on Asianet TV, Sky Sangeetha Varsham conducted by Radio Asia, a leading Radio station in Dubai. Geethu grew up in Dubai, U.A.E. and did her schooling and graduation there. She is a Post Graduate in Banking and Insurance but teaching music and imparting Indian culture to the younger generation is her passion and sole purpose and has chosen it as her career. She aims to uphold the essence of teaching Carnatic Music to kids in its truest form.
Shaji Kamalasanan (Asst: Director for Cultural Events)
Shaji Is originally from Trivandrum but born and raised in Mumbai, He is a Biomedical Engineer by profession working as a Director of Biomedical Engineering, Southeast and Mid-South US Region for Compass group of Companies. He migrated to the US in 2003 along with his wife Sonali and two sons Sunay and Sujay. He at present resides in Augusta GA.
Shaji served as a Cultural Chair for Indo American Cultural Association where he directed several events for India Day. He has also served as the President and Vice Chairman of the Hindu Temple society. He has acted and Directed several plays and skits which were presented at Jabez Sanford Hardin Performing Arts Center. He has done Hindi theater and was a part of a Theater group before shifting base to movies.
Shaji Kamalasanan is into film Direction as a Passion and for the creative aspect. He is at present directing an English film inspired by true events with a strong social message named AnGsT to be released this Spring.
Supriya Namboodiri (Director for Women, Senior Forum, Youth Affairs)
Supriya is originally from Thrissur but did most of her schooling in Mumbai. She completed her Bachelors in Accounting and Finance from Nottingham Trent University in the United Kingdom. She moved to the US in 2010 and completed her Masters in Accountancy from Mercer University and started working as an auditor at Deloitte. She is currently working as an Internal Auditor at Synchrony. She currently resides in Alpharetta with her husband Viju and two daughters Saanvika and Vaamika. During her free time, she loves to paint and bake. She is passionate about Indian culture, volunteering and making a positive impact on society.
Nelson Parappully (Director for Information Technology)
Nelson hails from Irinjalakuda and he completed B.Tech from NIT Kurukshetra, Haryana. He has been working with TCS for the last twenty-two years. He is currently working as Director in TCS. He has been living in Georgia for the last four years. Before moving to the U.S in 2015, he worked in Dubai, South Africa, Australia, and Norway. He currently lives in Cumming in Forsyth county with his wife Naviya, and two daughters Namita and Namratha. He spends his free time reading and traveling, and enjoys spending time with his friends and family.
