Sacha Shashi calls Rotary “a unique global family of people with high ethical standards and a focus on doing good community and developmental work.” He first joined the Rotary Club of Berkeley in 2010 and became a member of the Rotary Club of San Francisco in 2015, citing our “amazing legacy” as the second oldest Rotary Club in the world and our role in the founding of the United Nations. “That really raises the bar for members to get involved with something big and impactful.”
Sacha was born and grew up south of Mumbai in India, where he earned his undergraduate degree in electronics and communications. After earning a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Toledo in Ohio, he worked for a startup for two years, then became an independent consultant before starting his own company, which does technology and communications consulting in the US and India. While running his company, he earned dual MBAs in entrepreneurship at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and in finance at Columbia University in New York City. He is single, lives in the San Francisco Panhandle and has a sister in Boston and “a little bit of family” in the UK and India.
As Vice President of International Service, Sacha is attempting to apply his experience with development work to the Club’s international projects. “Many nonprofits have good intentions, but they’re focused on charity and not so much on empowerment,” he says. “To transition from charity to empowerment requires scientific rigor and a structural approach.” To that end, he enlisted the help of a couple of Berkeley professors and is focusing on making long-term commitments rather than on short-term projects. The International Committee is in the process of applying for a two-to-three-year Global Grant from The Rotary Foundation for a clean water project in a drought-prone area west of Mumbai in partnership with the Rotary Club of Jalna Midtown in Rotary District 3132. In addition to grants to Alliance for Smiles, Rotaplast, and Roots of Peace, the committee also is considering applying for a multi-year Global Grant for a day care center in Syria.
As the Club's Vice President of International Service, it's natural for Sacha to have a leading role on the committee organizing World Wide Rotary Day, which will be held on March 20 this year. This is one of our Club's most popular events, when we host a large contingent of the San Francisco Consular Corps and feature speakers who address global issues that are of special interest to the consuls who attend. This year's speaker will be Jonathan Granoff, president of the Global Security Institute.
Along with the international work, Sacha says the best thing about being a member of the Rotary Club of San Francisco is “building friendships and connecting with people, making friends with really interesting members. People are genuine and passionate.”