How we began:

As a cultural anthropologist with a doctorate from Stanford University and through my term as a distinguished fellow at Harvard University, the vision of IGR kept following me from one horizon to the next over several years as the Silicon Valley made its way into Bangalore and other parts of India. My cross-cultural upbringing and extensive research spanning India, Japan and the US led me to understand the need and mechanisms for investing value into the forces of globalization as it became relevant within localities.

It was apparent to me that the mechanisms, symbols and practices defining cultural modes of representation, comprehension, performance and recreation were being challenged in unprecedented ways. And looking closely, it was all the more evident that a sustainable means of establishing Global Meeting Grounds(TM) was necessarily going to be valued as a renewable resource.  

India's diversity, brainpower and innovative capacity to maneuver across worlds which were local, regional, national, cinematic, mythological and virtual needed to be powerfully translated into the emerging global world-view, making it a valuable partner for leaders who were willing to invest in sustainable relationships. India certainly was a densely layered culture wherein the creative human potential awaited its value proposition.

Subsequently, as a cultural anthropologist, I sought to reflect back into IGR its own global ground as an internal resource, which would help build the IGR foundation. It was essential to involve partners who could powerfully guide both US, European and East Asian companies growing within India, and Indian companies expanding globally. I aspired for a diverse and widely experienced team based both in the US and India, who could creatively work across boundaries and borders, and whose understanding of globalization and its pivotal forces resonated with integrity and value.

As a highly respected consultant on organizational culture and transformation, diversity and multiculturalism, and integral forms of leadership, Dr. Darya Funches, the founder of REAP Unlimited Incorporated, provides invaluable insight and experience to build IGR's Global Meeting Ground across the US and India. Dr. Funches's rich experience and keen understanding of how people can be challenged to shift and re-anchor themselves across indigenous and international ways of knowing, so as to nurture leaders who are able to take people along a path of transformation, is of great value in a world that compels companies and corporations to cultivate a global mind-set as a part of organizational culture.

Brad Satkin, one of the founders of Intercultural Somatics LLC, brings to the enterprise a pool of experienced consultants offering a fine tuned understanding of cross-cultural and non-verbal embodied communication, working in a scalable manner toward the enhancement of leadership, motivation, and communication. Intercultural Somatics acts as a vibrant bridge between Eastern and Western mind-body traditions and practices.  

Finally, a group of experienced consultants based in India are affiliates of IGR who provide keen insight into localizing knowledge, awareness and skills. They enhance IGR's capacity to effectively translate and implement workshops on the ground in India.

As a multi-cultural, inter-disciplinary, pan-generational and multi-national team, IGR is committed to effectively address the challenges of globalization and localization abounding across the US-India meeting ground.  

Mukund Subramanian, Ph.D.