INDRA NOOYI SPEAKS AT SASA CONFERENCE 2006
(January 16 2006)

NEW YORK: The South Asian Students' Alliance (S.A.S.A.) held its 2006 Conference at the New Yorker Hotel in New York City from January 12th - 16th. The largest student South Asian conference of its kind in North America, the S.A.S.A. 2006 Key Note Address was given by the most powerful South Asian Woman in North America, President and CFO of PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi. Along with being the most powerful South Asian woman, Indra Nooyi is also considered the 11th most powerful woman in the North America and the 28th most powerful woman in the World - a very impressive position by any standard.

Born and raised in India, Nooyi first came to the U.S. at the age of 23 to attend Yale School of Management and worked her way up after working at companies like Boston Consulting Company and Motorola until she joined Pepsi in 1994 as Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy. After working closely with then CEO Roger Enrico and being part of every major strategic decision, Nooyi was promoted in 2000 to CFO of Pepsi. Nooyi continues to be successful in her role as she works hard to leave behind a lasting corporate legacy. Along with Nooyi, there were a number of high profile names on speaker roster. They included: Fashion Designer Anand Jon, Virgin Record's Leota Blacknor, Director/Actor Manan Katohora, Publisher of 'Anokhi Vibe' Raj Girn, XM Radio's Raj Vasa, Super Model Saira Mohan, NBC Apprentice's Toral Mehta, and the crowd favorite Dr. Vijay Mehta.

This year, the S.A.S.A. Recognition of Excellence awards coincided with the Culture Show. The awards recognized outstanding individuals who have significantly contributed to increasing the profile, awareness, and impact of the South Asian community in America. The award recipients for the 2006 Conference included, Dr. Vijay Gupta for Humanitarian of the Year, Hari Srinivasan for Outstanding Achievement in Journalism and Vidur Kapur for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy, Bikram Singh for Outstanding Achievement in Music, Little India Magazine as the South Asian Magazine of the Year and Nayan Padrai received the S.A.S.A. Visionary Award.

ABOUT SASA

The South Asian Students' Alliance (S.A.S.A.) aims to increase the awareness of South Asian culture within the North American framework. The objectives of S.A.S.A. include celebrating diversity, along with promoting unity amongst South Asian people.

S.A.S.A. provides a networking base for those interested in the South Asian culture to learn, teach, and interact with others who share similar interests. The success of S.A.S.A. is attributed to its members, alumni, and sponsors who recognize the importance of an organization that not only focuses on cultural issues, but also emphasizes political, community, and social awareness and development.

S.A.S.A. is committed to helping current members participate in leadership, communication, and career development seminars, in addition to peer and alumni advisory workshops. These workshops are directed towards helping members build a base of strong leadership skills applicable to future career and community activities.

S.A.S.A. is expanding to become a continental force, culminating most of its efforts in an annual conference that moves from city to city each year. The annual conference is open to any individual who is interested in the South Asian mosaic. The conference also serves as a forum for individuals to share ideas and experiences from others that have attained academic and financial success.

In addition, the conference provides prominent role models from diverse backgrounds. Speakers such as CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, award winning author Chitra Bannerjee, motivational guru Deepak Chopra, Director of 'Bend it Like Beckham', Gurinder Chadha, and Pentium chip creator Vinod Dham are just examples of the many who have come to the conference to encourage and motivate students to explore non-traditional careers.

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