Suri Sehgal
| Suri Sehgal | |
|---|---|
Sehgal in 2008
|
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| Born |
May 16, 1934 Guliana, Punjab, India (now Pakistan) |
| Residence | Captiva, Florida, USA |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Plant genetics, agricultural science, business, philanthropy |
| Alma mater |
Harvard University, USA Harvard International Senior Management Program, Switzerland Punjab University, India |
| Known for | Seed industry development, plant breeding, socioeconomic development in rural India, philanthropy S M Sehgal Foundation, India Sehgal Foundation, USA |
| Influences | William Lacy Brown Paul C. Mangelsdorf Henry A. Wallace |
| Spouse | Edda Gudrun (nee Jeglinsky) Sehgal |
| Children | Kenai K. Sehgal Bernd U. Sehgal Oliver S. Sehgal Vicki D. Sehgal |
Surinder Mohan (Suri) Sehgal is an India-born American philanthropist with a long career as a crop scientist, seedsman, entrepreneur, and leading expert in the global hybrid seed industry. His research and professional successes in the areas of plant breeding and genetics, agbiotechnology, intellectual property, business management, and seed industry development were carried out in executive capacities in several companies in the United States, Belgium, and Germany. After the divestment of a group of four seed companies that Sehgal founded and ran with his wife, Edda Sehgal, the couple created two nonprofit organizations to promote rural development in Suri's country of origin: Sehgal (Family) Foundation in 1998 in the USA, and S M Sehgal Foundation in India. The foundations’ work focuses on water security, food security, and social justice with particular emphasis on women’s empowerment. A proponent of corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability, Sehgal has also provided support individually and through the foundations for projects related to agriculture research, the preservation of biodiversity and the conservation of natural resources.
Suri Sehgal was born 16 May 1934 in the town of Guliana in the Punjab Province of India. He was the second son, and one of eight children, of a Hindu father, Faqir Chand (Shahji) Sehgal, and a Sikh mother, Shushila Kaur. Shahji Sehgal was an associate of Mahatma Gandhi in the Indian National Congress, and the family home was a center for community organizing for India’s independence from British rule. Suri was thirteen when independence brought about the Partition of India in August 1947. The Sehgal family home, in the region of the Punjab that became part of Pakistan, was along the route of the mass migration of people who were displaced amidst the violence that followed Partition—Hindus and Sikhs to India and Muslims from India to Pakistan. Suri ended up homeless for a time on the streets of Delhi and a witness to horrific violence and bloodshed before being reunited with his family in a refugee camp in Amritsar, India. Suri achieved a bachelor of science with honors and a master of science with honors in botany at Punjab University, where he received silver medal, merit certificates, and scholarships for academic achievement in 1955 and 1957. He came to the United States in 1959 to study plant genetics and work with Paul C. Mangelsdorf at Harvard University. He received the Anna C. Ames Memorial Scholarship in 1961. He attained his PhD in plant genetics from Harvard in 1963. He later (1982) completed the Harvard International Senior Management Program in Mont-Pelerin, Switzerland.
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