Harker Parents Look to the Future by Donating Visionary Gifts

This article originally appeared in the winter 2013 Harker Quarterly.

The Krishnamurthi/Iyengar Family

From sports to performing arts to longrange strategic planning, Ashok Krishnamurthi, his wife Deepa Iyengar, and their two sons (Gautam ’11 and Sidhart, grade 11) have been involved in just about every Harker activity imaginable.

In 2006 Krishnamurthi, a current member of the Harker Board of Trustees, and his wife helped make Phase III of Harker’s master site plan a reality. Krishnamurthi and Iyengar supported the planning and construction phases of Nichols Hall, Davis Field and the Singh Aquatic Center; Krishnamurthi had the honor of making the inaugural swing of the Foucault pendulum at the Nichols Hall opening gala in 2008.

The Krishnamurthi Physics Center in Nichols Hall was a visionary gift to the campaign, and was named in memory of Krishnamurthi’s father, a former diplomat for the World Health Organization who emphasized the importance of global citizenship among his children.

Krishnamurthi grew up in New Delhi and received his master’s degree in computer engineering from Syracuse University. He has held engineering and management positions with Sun, Philips, Xerox, PARC and AT&T Bell Labs, and was one of Juniper Network’s original engineers, subsequently advancing to the role of executive vice president of engineering there in 2003.

In 2004, Krishnamurthi left Juniper to join his brothers S.K. Vinod and R.K. Anand to found Xsigo Systems. Xsigo provides input/output virtualization solutions for data center server connectivity and management and has operated as a subsidiary of Oracle since 2012.

Iyengar also holds a master’s degree in computer engineering and has worked for Thomson Multimedia, TVCom International and Grundig Designs. She is a very active parent volunteer at Harker, having assisted with the Harker Family & Alumni Picnic, Grandparents’ Day, classroom parties, arts, athletics and admissions. She also has been a member of the Parent Development Council since 1998.

Gautam and Sidhart have been active in both arts and athletics at Harker through the years. While attending Harker, Gautam played varsity football and basketball, participated in performing arts shows and was a member of the link crew and student council; he is now a wide receiver for the Stanford football team. Sidhart is participating in varsity football, link crew and DECA this year.

The Chen/Huang Family

Though their young daughters have yet to begin their studies on the upper school campus, Dr. Winston Chen and Phyllis Huang already have pledged to make a visionary level gift to support programs and capital improvements on multiple campuses at Harker. Via the Paramitas Foundation, which Chen founded in 1994, the Chen/Huang family gives generously each year to causes and organizations in the areas of education, wildlife conservation and community services.

Chen has served as chairman of the Paramitas Foundation and Paramitas Investment Corporation since 1994, after working for Solectron for 16 years. Solectron, one of the largest electronics manufacturing service companies in the world, benefited under the guidance of Chen first as an executive vice president and later as the CEO and chairman of the board. Prior to his positions at Solectron, Chen worked at IBM and later served on the board of Intel. Within the field of higher education, Chen has been a trustee of both Santa Clara University and Stanford University and is currently an advisory board member of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. He holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University in applied mechanics and applied mathematics.

With a reputation as a highly intelligent, hard-working innovator, Chen lends his tenacity and good will to Harker with his participation on the Harker Board of Fellows, as well as the newly minted Harker business and entrepreneurship committee.

The couple met in the Yun Lin Temple in Berkeley, and together they have supported events such as the Harker Family & Alumni Picnic and the fashion show. Daughters Karina, grade 5, and Nicole, grade 7, have both been active in performing arts, and Nicole currently participates in forensics at the middle school.

July 22, 2014Tags: advancement, giving