Business Wire India
The US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) announced the addition of four new board members today. New business leaders recently inducted into the Washington-based advocacy group’s board include Bob Moritz, Global Chairman of PwC; Malcolm Frank, Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Marketing Officer of Cognizant; Sanjiv Puri, Managing Director of ITC; and Uday Shankar, President of 21^st Century Fox, Asia and Chairman and CEO of Star India.

With the addition of these four business leaders, USISPF continues its goal to strengthen business ties across the two nations at the highest level by attracting high caliber board members. USISPF’s board members are prominent business leaders and global influencers who possess an ability to impact international relations and corporate affairs worldwide.

Mr. Moritz brings a wealth of experience to his position on the Board. He has been with PwC his entire career, joining in 1985 and becoming a partner in 1995. His role as Global Chairman of PwC, which spans 157 countries and includes more than 220,000 people, has focused him on bringing governments, businesses, and civil society together to create a sustainable and inclusive future world. Mr. Moritz said, "I'm proud to join the Board of US-India Strategic Partnership Forum, given the importance of India to PwC's overall global presence. India's growing economy, talented workforce, and innovative culture make it an important country for us, today and into the future. I look forward to working closely with USISPF in the coming years."

Mr. Frank has been with Cognizant since 2005 and has helped the company grow to over 260,000 professionals. He is a recognized industry thought leader on key issues of digital business. With regards to his new position on the USISPF Board, Mr. Frank said, “India is a very attractive market for digital services and infrastructure and Cognizant sees much potential in building the U.S.-India relationship. I look forward to working with USISPF and its members to increase opportunities and collaboration between the two countries.”

Mr. Puri joins the USISPF board as a leader in the Indian business world. In his 32 years career with ITC, he has overseen the FMCG, Information Technology, Paperboards, Paper & Packaging and Agri Businesses of the Company, with success, in both India and Nepal. Mr. Puri brings many years of Industry advocacy experience with various National Chambers of Commerce in India. Regarding his new position on the USISPF board, Mr. Puri said, “I look forward to engaging with the business community and the government, as a member of the USISPF Board, to further mutual collaboration and to promote our shared goals in the area of innovation, technology and trade so that we can, together, create a future that is inclusive and sustainable.”

Mr. Shankar leads 21^st Century Fox’s video businesses across Asia and has driven the transformation of Star in the most important growth market, India. Under the leadership of Uday Shankar, Star India has grown 7-fold in the last decade to become India’s leading media and entertainment company reaching over 700 million viewers every month, while using its programming as a catalyst for social change. His tenure has been marked by persistent leadership in television through innovative programming, sparking a multi-sports revolution and the creation of India’s largest premium streaming platform, Hotstar, with 350 million downloads. He is a leading voice of the media and broadcasting industry and has been at the forefront of landmark reforms for the industry. Regarding his appointment to the USISPF Board, Mr. Shankar said, “These are exciting times for the technology and media sector in India and there are great opportunities for transformative collaboration. I look forward to building upon this momentum through a greater partnership between the U.S. and India in my role with USISPF.”

While promoting trade is an important part of the organization’s work, it focuses on promoting job creation, inclusion, start-ups, innovation, and education. USISPF works to create the most powerful strategic relationship between U.S. and India and believes this goal can be achieved by business and government coming together to create meaningful opportunities that have the power to change the lives of citizens.

“These four new leaders have already made a tremendous impact on U.S.-India relations,” said Dr. Mukesh Aghi, President of USISPF. “Their knowledgeable backgrounds and distinct interests bring even greater value to the strong Board of Directors that leads The Forum’s strategic goals. With the most valuable leadership team for U.S.-India relations, we look to bring the two countries closer together than ever before.”

As champions of the U.S.-India commercial and strategic partnership, we believe there is an unprecedented opportunity for business communities in both countries to play a larger role in the next chapter of this important bilateral-partnership. USISPF is uniquely suited to work together with leaders in the U.S. and India to achieve our shared goals.
Headquartered in Washington D.C., USISPF has offices in New York, Silicon Valley, Mumbai and New Delhi.
About the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF)

The U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum is committed to creating the most powerful strategic partnership between the U.S. and India. Promoting bilateral trade is an important part of our work, but our mission reaches far beyond this. It is about business and government coming together in new ways to create meaningful opportunities that have the power to change the lives of citizens. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., USISPF has offices in New York, Silicon Valley, Mumbai, and New Delhi.

For more details, please visit http://usispf.org/.

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