SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee for November’s presidential election, is miles ahead of Republican candidate Donald Trump in terms of donors when it comes to the country’s Indian-American technology leaders, entrepreneurs, and executives.
Vivek Ranadive; Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka; MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga; and Padmasree Warrior, CEO of U.S. for NextEV have all made donations to the Clinton campaign. None have pledged a single cent to Trump. The only other presidential candidate to receive a donation from an Indian-American executive was Sen. Marco Rubio, who received $2,700 from Bharat Desai, co-founder and chairman of Syntel, before dropping out of the race. Desai is a Florida resident.
In total, candidates, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and various other PACs have received $111,075 from Indian-American donors.
Here is a complete list of donors:
Ajay Banga: The MasterCard CEO, who was the recipient of the Padmi Shri in 2016 from the government of India, has donated $5,400 each to Senators Rob Portman and Chuck Schumer, and $2,700 to Clinton.
Bharat Desai: The Syntel Inc. founder’s sole campaign donation was to the presidential campaign of Sen. Marco Rubio, to whom he gave the maximum $2,700.
Rajiv Gupta: The Delphi executive donated $2,700 to the campaign of Barve and $5,000 to the Tyco International PAC. The former GM at Hewlett Packard sits on the board of Tyco.
Vinod Khosla: In addition to his $19,000 donation to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Sun Microsystems co-founder has given $5,400 to Rep. Ron Wyden and $2,700 to Rep. Jerry McNerney.
Thomas Kurian: The Oracle executive gave $5,000 to the congressional campaign of Ro Khanna — ostensibly $2,700 for the primary and $2,300 for the general election campaign. Among the top 25 highest paid men in 2010, Kurian was also the 5th highest-paid tech executive in the same year. Kurian is the President of Product Development at Oracle Corporation.
Shantanu Narayen: The Adobe CEO gave $1,500 to Democrat Zoe Lofgren. In 2011, US President Barack Obama appointed him as a member of his Management Advisory Board.
Indra Nooyi: The PepsiCo CEO gave eight donations of $192 to PepsiCo Inc’s PAC totaling $1,536. The only other campaign money she gave was a $1,500 donation to Kathleen Matthews, the wife of broadcaster Chris Matthews who ran against Barve in Maryland. Ranked among the top 100 most powerful women the world, Nooyi has a net worth of nearly $150 million.
Sundar Pichai: The Google CEO has given $5,400 each to Ro Khanna and Sen. Chuck Schumer and $2,700 John Thune. The billionaire was formerly the Product Chief at Google, however, Pichai later became the CEO.
Vivek Ranadive: The Sacramento Kings owner has given $2,700 to Clinton—the maximum he can donate during the primary. As the founder and former CEO of TIBCO, Ranadive has amassed a net worth of $700 million.
Kanwal Rekhi: The Inventus Capital founder has donated money to congressional candidates Raja Krishnamoorthi ($5,400), Kumar Barve ($2,700), Ro Khanna ($5,400), Ami Bera ($5,400), and Tulsi Gabbard. The Venture capitalist angel investor also spreads his welath around the community — he has donated a combined $8 million to Michigan Tech and IIT Bombay.
Kavitark Shriram: The Sherpalo Ventures founder has given $5,400 to Ro Khanna. Shriram was one of the first investors of Google and at one point owned 3.4 million shares of the company’s stock.
Romesh Wadhwani: The tech titan has given money to three congressional candidates: Bera ($2,700), Krishnamoorthi ($2,700) and Khanna ($5,400). Wadhwani is Executive Chairman of Symphony Teleca Corporation, MSC Software Inc., Symphony Health Solutions Inc. and Shopzilla Inc.
