2014 - 2015 Team

The Team

  • President: Vijay Ilavarasan
  • Vice President: Subha Singaram
  • Secretary: Ravi Velayutham
  • Treasurer and Web master: Manivanan Janardhanan
  • Public Relations: Kirubhakaran Kaliannan
  • Cultural Coordinators: Divya Balachandran, Deepa Sarangapani, Monisha Gnanasundaram, Hema Shankar
  • Event Coordinators: Murali Balan, Ajoy Naveen, Raj Govindarajan, Niroop Shankar
vijay

Vijay Ilavarasan is the President of the present 2014-2015committee. Vijay has been a regular in the past GPTM events helping with event management. Vijay works as a Program Manager developing Digital Analytics and Marketing applications at Webtrends in Portland downtown. Apart from being a Tamil film buff, he enjoys various forms of creative arts. He lives in the Bethany area with wife Deepika and his children Anush and Shyla.

Subha Singaram, a project manager at IBM, serves as the Vice President of GPTM 2014-15 committee. She has a passion for art and culture and served as the cultural secretary last year. She teaches Indian classical dance during the weekends to the neighborhood kids. She has actively participated in the GPTM local talent shows every year since its inception. Subha is a lively energetic person who likes to socialize and spend time with friends and help the community.

Ravi

Ravi Velayutham is excited to be part of 2014-15 GPTM committee and serves as the Secretary. Ravi enjoys doing volunteer work and believes in giving back to the community. He likes playing soccer & riding bike with his kids, listening to music & cooking. Ravi lives in Camas (WA) with his wife Lalitha and kids Neha & Pranay.

mani

Manivanan Janardhanan (Mani) currently serves as a web-master and treasurer for GPTM committee. Continuing on the work of previous committee, Mani has been instrumental in setting up payment system that makes GPTM ticket and membership purchases a breeze. Mani works for Intel as an engineering manager and lives in Hillsboro with his wife Deepa, and sons Nandu and Adithya. His hobbies include writing poetry, classical music, reading and volunteering

kiru2 (1)

Kirubakaran Kaliannan (Kiru) currently serves as a Personal Relationship coordinator of the GPTM 2014-2015 committee. Kiru lives with his family in Beaverton and has been an avid supporter of GPTM since its inception in 2003. A software engineer by profession, Kiru enjoys playing chess and conducts chess camps for kids in his free time. Kiru loves to volunteer in his spare time and served as the vice president of GPTM 2011-2012 committee

Hema Shankar is one of the cultural secretaries for 2014-15. She was the cultural secretary in 2009-10 as well. She loves music of all genre and is an ardent fan of Ilayaraja songs. She also enjoys dancing and actively participates in many of the community events. She lives in Tigard with her husband and two daughters.

Divya Balachandran is a professor in Business at Clark College. She serves as one of the cultural secretaries for GPTM. She is also a carnatic vocalist who loves to teach music in her spare time. She lives in Bethany with her two girls (Mayukha and Laya) and husband Mouli. Divya is loves to spend time in the park during summer and her favorite past time is to play with the neighborhood kids.

deepa

Deepa Sarangapani, one of the cultural coordinators of GPTM, is a busy full-time volunteer involved in numerous activities in the community and school. She loves to be involved in her children's activities, cook, read, write poetry, creative projects, hike and run. She recently ran her first marathon and looks forward to many more. She lives in Tualatin, OR with her husband, two daughters and their puppy.

monisha

Monisha Gnanasundaram serves as one of the cultural coordinators of GPTM 2014-15 committee. She lives with her family in Bethany and works as an engineer at IBM. Monisha loves coordinating events and is an active volunteer in several neighbourhood events.

murali

Murali Balan, structural engineer with McMillen, LLC, currently serves as event coordinator of the GPTM committee. Prior to moving into Portland earlier this year, Murali has done event coordination for other non-profits in the US. Murali manages facility and equipment rental aspects of event coordination. Murali lives in Hillsboro with his wife Avantika. His interests include travelling, playing soccer & training for contact sports

Ajoy

Ajoy Navin Chakrapani is one of the event coordinators for GPTM committee. Ajoy has been actively involved in the GPTM initiative and activities in the past and has served as the event coordinator in the 2011-2012 committee as well. A CAD engineer by profession working at Intel, Ajoy has been involved in various community and volunteering activities on his own. Ajoy has a great passion for robotics and embedded systems and has been serving as a the technical panel head judge for Intel robotics tournaments (JFLL, FLL, FTC etc.) for last 4 years. His other hobbies and interests include music, dance, food, travel and volunteering.

Raj

Rajkumar Govindarajan (Raj) is one of the members of GPTM committee and serves as one of the event coordination team. Raj along with Ajoy takes care of print media and catering requirements of event management. Raj just moved to the Portland area and works for Intel as a process engineer. Raj enjoys cooking, playing tennis, cricket and driving

niroop

Niroop Shankar is one of the event coordinators for GPTM committee. A software engineer by profession serving the healthcare industry working with 3D geometry for digital dental applications, and continuing onto making healthcare robots in beautiful Santa Barbara and currently in Portland city making pacemakers for Biotronik. Active and adventure seeking in general, loves to Hike, Bike, Walk, Play games and any sports and also a good movie buff. Niroop has an active interest in social activities including cooking for shelter homes, teaching Indian culture through chinmaya mission, and various other activities through CORD and VIBHA organisations.

Board of Director

swagandhi

Swa Gandhinathan (Gandhi), is a Director, co-founder and life time member of GPTM. Gandhi with his wife Seetha and children Suganya & Siddharth have been an integral part of GPTM since its inception. Gandhi’s family has volunteered, mentored and nurtured the GPTM’s growth to its present status. When vacationing Gandhi and Seetha love going on cruises. Gandhi works for Wells Fargo Bank - Wells Fargo has been the major sponsor of GPTM for several years since 2003

gidu

Gidu Sriram is a director of the GPTM organization and together with Gandhi has been a guiding force for every GPTM committee that has donned office. Sriram is passionate about all forms of fine arts and has been an avid supporter of many cultural forums that exist in Portland today.