Usha R. Balakrishnan is the Founder & Chair of the following organizations: CarthaGlobal™ Ventures (www.carthaglobal.com, a strategic advisory services firm founded in 2009); CARTHA (www.cartha.org, a 501c3 nonprofit organization founded in 2006); and Technology Managers for Global Health (www.tmgh.org, a collegial network founded in 2003).
As a collaborative entrepreneur, Usha is passionate about inducing creativity and innovation through multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral alliances for new product or program development. Her professional work since 2002 have been driven by her interests in testing and implementing pragmatic and culturally-appropriate "human-centered" managerial approaches at the intersections of science/research translation, the law, philanthropy, and the creation of new public-private partnerships and enterprises in a globalized society. Working with teams of academic scientists, researchers, entrepreneurs, filmmakers, writers, and other professionals from varied backgrounds, Usha continues to organize thought leadership dialogues and has made presentations on several campuses and conferences in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, UK, Italy, and India. Usha's work as the founder of Technology Managers for Global Health (www.tmgh.org) led her to becoming a grantee (2004-2006) of The Rockefeller Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Prior to her entrepreneurial journeys, Usha had a long and successful career in academic administration, working for over 15 years at the University of Iowa directing corporate partnerships and economic development-related outreach efforts, and managing inventions, patent licensing, and technology transfer functions. Her passionate vision and ventures as an academic administrator were featured in the University of Iowa President's 2002 Report under the title Establishing a network of partnerships for a community that ranges far beyond the borders of the campus: The work of a matchmaker; Collaborations build economic and social capital.
Usha has served on numerous civic boards and committees including the Committee on Scientific Freedom, Responsibility and the Law of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She currently serves on the Council on Foundations-Community Foundations Leadership Team; and the Community Foundation of Johnson County (Iowa) Board chairing its Resources Committee. She belongs to the Iowa City Noon Rotary Club.
Usha received her B.Com. from Bombay University and her MBA from the University of Iowa.
Having grown up in New Delhi and Mumbai, she has lived in the United States since 1985. She is married to Ramji, Professor of Accounting at the University of Iowa, and they have two children: Vasu, a junior at Carnegie Mellon University; and Uma, a freshman at West High School.
