About Us
MAVF is dedicated to the idea that it is possible to permanently move people out of hunger and malnutrition in a manner that is sustainable, self-reliant and healthy.
MEERA & ASHOK VASUDEVAN
We met in the summer of 1980 in Chennai and were married two years later. Over the next decade we wound our way from Chennai to Mumbai to New Delhi pursuing our independent careers and found ourselves in Stamford CT, our home for the last nearly 25 years.
Even as we each developed our own special interests, our common abiding passion was food. In 1995, we co-founded Preferred Brands International, a food Company that manufactures and markets TastyBite® and a range of other natural and organic foods, both ambient and frozen. Over the years, the company expanded its operations to include new technologies, new markets and today its products are available in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, UK and India. The company’s mission (tastybite.com) is to build a socially responsible company that would provide consumer delight.
Now we come together one more time to set up The Meera & Ashok Vasudevan Foundation (MAVF) -a fully funded initiative with a mission to permanently end hunger and malnutrition in a manner that is sustainable, healthy and self reliant.
Meet Our Team
I started off at SoundView Technology Group, a boutique investment bank specializing in high tech stocks that was located in Stamford, CT. I was a Vice President on the Syndicate Desk and in my tenure we raised over 26 Billion in new capital for our clients. After the internet bubble collapse and SoundView was no more, I moved to Wachovia Securities and headed branch operations for their Greenwich office which was later downsized during a restructuring. After that I was called back to work for Wells Fargo Advisors, which had bought Wachovia Securites during the financial crisis of 2008 and worked on a compliance team that would oversee 220 brokers in CT and NY.
During that time, the local food bank knew me by name, since each year I would fund raise among friends and family and make an annual cash donation for the needy. It was important for me to share, since I and my friends had been fortunate, and as the saying goes “there but for the grace of God go I.” That phrase is more timely today than it has ever been.
I am very fortunate to be able to work for the MAV Foundation at this point in my life. After almost 20 years in finance, with a job description amounting to “Make the rich, richer” I reached a point where it’s not about enriching your own net worth, but enriching the lives of others. We will certainly do that and more at MAVF.
