India West: Chandrika Tandon: If You Don’t Do What You Can Do With Your Money, What’s The Point?

Most people you speak to have a job and probably a hobby making it easy to spread questions around whatever has made them successful. But Chandrika Tandon presents all kinds of challenges: One among just eight women in her class at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad; the first Indian American woman to become a partner at McKinsey & Company, founder of Tandon Capital Associates a financial advisory firm in the business of creating billions in market value for clients; philanthropist who gives away millions including, with husband Ranjan the founder of the hedge fund Libra Advisors, a cool $100 million to New York University’s School of Engineering; promoter of education and mentor to several students in STEM studies; writer and composer; singer with a Grammy nomination who has also previously been in leadership positions at the Berklee School of Music and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; spiritualist and meditator; wife; mother to one “precious” daughter who heads Sesame Ventures at Sesame Workshop and son-in-law a prosecutor at Southern District of New York; and more recently, a delighted grandmother of three to Kavi 5, Jahnu 3, and Amaya 4 months.