User:Desmond Nazareth/sandbox

Desmond Nazareth (born on March 5, 1957 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India) is the co-founder and Managing Director of Agave Industries India Ltd (Agave India). He is the son of (late) Claude J. N. Nazareth, an electrical engineer who worked with All India Radio, and Sybil M. Nazareth, a home-maker and teacher.

Contents


 * Early life
 * Personal life
 * Career
 * Businesses
 * Achievements
 * Highlights
 * CSR activities
 * References
 * External links

 Early life

With his father being in a transferable job, Desmond’s early education covered seven different schools in Rajkot (Gujarat), Malad and Dhobhi Talao in Mumbai (Maharashtra), Kolkata (West Bengal), Bhagalpur (Bihar), Gauhati (Assam) and Ahmedabad (Gujarat).

He went on to study at the Government Arts College, Coimbatore and St. Joseph’s College of Arts and Science, Bangalore. Desmond then attended the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, to graduate with a B. Tech. in Mechanical Engineering in 1981. This was followed by a Masters degree at Temple University, Philadelphia, with an MA in Film and TV Production & Computer Science in 1988.

Personal Life

Desmond married and divorced while in Philadelphia and has no children. He is now a resident of Goa, India.

Career

Desmond’s professional life began in 1984 when he started working in applications and systems programming at Mellon Bank, Philadelphia. Four years later, he co-founded, and was CEO of Nazub Software, Inc. a Y2K solutions provider, till 2000. He then co-founded Isthmus Multimedia Associates in 2000, creating IP and content for film and TV.

In 2007, Desmond set up Agave Industries India Ltd, to manufacture international quality distilled spirits, liqueurs and cocktail blends, from indigenous raw materials. Agave India’s signature brand, DesmondJi, has launched six products to date. Agave India is the result of about ten years of intense R & D carried out on the blue-green Agave plant found in the Deccan Plateau. The Company currently has facilities in Andhra Pradesh and Goa in India, with its agro-facility and micro-distillery located on a 44-acre plot in Chittoor District in Andhra Pradesh. Its blending, bottling and packaging unit is located in Goa.

As with a number of spirit brands in the distant past, Agave India’s DesmondJi brand has been named after its founder, Desmond Nazareth. He came up with the original idea in 2000; was personally responsible for the R & D behind the product; raised the funds from an international group of investors; spearheaded the search for the site for a micro-distillery in rural Andhra Pradesh; is the master distiller and master blender; and was, and is, deeply involved in a host of other critical operations, including marketing.

Businesses

Desmond has been simultaneously involved in other businesses over the years, including Turn of the Century Solution, Inc as a Partner, and as Business Partner of Wipro Infotech and Ultra Film and Video.

Achievements

Highlights Desmond has a series of achievements to his credit including:
 * Awarded the prestigious National Science Talent Scholarship & National Merit Scholarship (India).
 * Awarded a full University Fellowship to study Film & TV in the US at the Master’s level, right after completing B. Tech (IIT, Madras).
 * Created the first software toolkit (in 1986), to deal with the Y2K problem and ran the longest lived company in that field (12 years).
 * Co-developed an international 3D CGI feature screenplay which is highly regarded and may yet be made as an international co-production (2004).
 * Co-made “Souls and Spices” – a feature documentary on 500+ years of Indo-Portuguese history (2003).
 * Co-made the first 13-part “Contacto Goa” TV series which aired internationally in 2006.

CSR activities

Committed to the environment and with a strong sense of social responsibility, Desmond has ensured that Agave India’s primary facilities were set up in a remote, semi-arid rural area in Andhra Pradesh. Working with villagers and enhancing their livelihood opportunities, the Company helps them derive value from the utilization of wasteland for Agave cultivation. Desmond also proposed, and is actively following up on, a global project to deal with the mosquito menace using a unique method of handling mosquitoes based on how they are attracted to hosts. He is also developing a multi-generational empowerment project for the world’s bottom-of-the-pyramid children, age group 4-12, using real-life children’s stories that teach, by example, problem-solving and critical thinking skills alloyed with some basic human values.

 References DesmondJi FAQ’s

External Links

Agave India on LinkedIn Official DesmondJi website DesmondJi on Facebook