Abraham M. George is an Indian-American businessman, academic, and philanthropist. He began his career in the Indian army as an artillery officer at the Sela pass in the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) on the China-India border. Following brief military service, he moved to the United States. George pursued an entrepreneurial career before returning to India in 1995 to address discrimination and economic oppression faced by the country's social underclass.
Among the initiatives he embarked on in India are the Shanti Bhavan Residential school to provide education to children from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and the Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media, a post-graduate institution aimed at fostering a free and independent press in India. Further, he set up Baldev Medical & Community Center to serve the healthcare needs of 15 villages across Tamil Nadu and Karnataka states. His work in environmental health was pivotal in the removal of lead from gasoline across India in April 2000.
George is the author of three books on international corporate finance and two on his social work in India. He has served on the Human Rights Watch and the International Center for Journalists boards. He has been honored with the Hind Rattan.
George was born and brought up in the seaside city of Trivandrum, Kerala, at the southwestern tip of India. He is the second son of Mathew and Aleyamma George; one of four children.
The assignment in Sela pass in the NEFA ended abruptly after ten months when George was injured in a dynamite explosion. Upon his return from convalescence, he was assigned to the Indo-Pakistan border, where he served for nearly two more years and rose to the rank of captain.[1][2]
Education and career
George joined his mother in Alabama during the heyday of the segregationist governor, George Wallace. He found the transition to be overwhelming, later writing of it: "I felt I had gone to another world, not simply another country".[4]
George had worked for Chemical Bank for two years when he decided in 1976 to start his own company, Multinational Computer Models Inc. (MCM),[1] which offered computerized systems to multinational corporations. MCM subsequently formed a joint venture with the global investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston where George served as the Chief Consultant and Managing Director of its new operations. In 1998, George sold MCM to SunGard Data Systems, a Fortune 500 company, where he served as a Vice-Chairman for two years.[2][4]
George returned to India in January 1995. His intent was to reduce the injustices and inequalities of which he had become aware and to this end he established The George Foundation, a non-profit charitable trust.[4] One of The George Foundation's first projects was to formally study the issue of leaded gasoline in India and its long-term effects on children. The study showed that 51% of children in urban areas suffered from high lead levels. This ultimately led to India's government banning leaded gasoline.[1]
International Finance Handbook (2 volumes), John Wiley & Sons (ISBN0-471-09861-2)
Foreign exchange Management and the Multinational Corporation, Holt, Rinehart and Winston (ISBN0-03-046641-5)
Protecting Shareholder Value: International Financial Risk Management, Prentice Hall (ISBN0-7863-0439-1)
India Untouched: The Forgotten Face of Rural Poverty, Writer's Collective (ISBN81-88661-18-X) - A description of Dr. George's initial 10 years of social work in rural India.
Lead Poisoning Prevention and Treatment: Implementing a National Program in Developing Countries—distributed by World Bank to governments of developing countries in 2001 for policy implementation.[citation needed]
