Building Pride for Future Generations

It’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the U.S., so I thought I’d share my experience at GE Power, where 10.3% of leadership, 10% of professional-level, and 7.6% employees overall identify as Asian.

Passion, Excitement & Determination at Steam Power

I am the Finance Lead for the Nuclear Services business at GE Steam Power – Americas, but I’ve been a lifelong fan of GE since my childhood. I still remember that classic GE advertisement with the tagline “We bring good things to life.” That passion and energy in that message excited me so much that I always looked forward to working for GE one day.

Looking back on my 14-year career with GE, my passion, excitement, and the determination to take our Power business to newer, greater heights only continues to grow. As always, GE is going to lead the global efforts on decarbonization and net zero emissions challenge. I was thrilled to read about GE’s first Energy Industry Leadership Forum (EILF) that recently concluded at the Crotonville campus of GE in New York and was attended by cross-functional leaders from various GE Power businesses. The goal was to broaden and deepen our common understanding of the energy transition by challenging some of our own assumptions, thinking through what we need to do differently to succeed going forward, and to engage on the growth fundamentals of a future GE energy company.

How We Support Asian Employees

GE supports Asian employees in many ways, including employee resource groups (ERGs), hosting webinars, and creating opportunities to showcase talent. In today’s world, we need diversity of thought to think more holistically and take actions accordingly.

I have met and made several life-long friends via GE’s Asian Pacific Allies & Friends (APAF) ERG. It’s an excellent platform to meet colleagues from similar cultures and share common interests, activities, and bonding. In addition to helping each other grow professionally, we celebrate festivals together, play friendly matches, and support our local community through teaching and donating. It’s a perfect platform to expand your network and make new friends.

I recently joined the inclusion and diversity (I&D) team led by Dave Begley for the GE Steam Power – Americas region. We have developed a full list of action items to promote I&D in our business as part of our 2022 goals and objectives. I’ve also started working with my alma mater, Emory University in Atlanta where I earned my MBA in 2015, to further expand our community outreach.

Would He Be Proud?

My son Yohaan was only three months old when the COVID-19 pandemic broke in 2020. Working from home was becoming a new normal, but the grim news of thousands of people losing their jobs every day was becoming more than a new normal. Companies were going bankrupt, cash flow was drying up, and the whole lifecycle chain was badly impacted.

I imagined my son when he was older, looking back on that difficult time. He would surely ask a common question shared by future generations: “Hey dad, what did you do during COVID?” What would I say? And then I realized the opportunity to give back to the community.

At the onset of COVID, I started a small non-profit named “RAAH” on Facebook (means “to show path” in Hindi language) in April 2020 to help my community members who lost their jobs due to COVID. Our mission was to support them on their job search through resume preparation, interview practices, connecting them to recruiters, mentoring them, etc. We just celebrated our two-year anniversary on April 17, and I am very proud to say that we have built a very strong ecosystem of thousands of members who have helped each other find a job and support their families. When my son grows up, I hope he’ll be proud of what we built too.

Want to join me? Visit https://invent.ge/gepapaf to sign up for job opportunities at GE Power.