Health & Fitness
Faces of Cupertino Rotary - Mahesh Nihalani
The Rotary Club of Cupertino has many distinguished members and this week we profile Mahesh Nihalani. Mahesh is one of our more active members, a generous human being and community leader.
Mahesh Nihalani was born and raised in India. He is a Graduate in public Administration and Economics and has over 40 years of working experience across Asia, Africa, Europe and America. He came to Cupertino in the year 2000 and in a short span of 12 years has achieved much more than the average person.
He is also a graduate of Leadership Cupertino class of 2002, got certified and trained as a member of CERT, became a Block leader, member of the Cupertino Chamber and active volunteer for the CCS. He served on the 2003 General Plan Task Force for the City of Cupertino; Mahesh was the Chair of the Cupertino Chamber of Commerce’s Asian American Business Council and has helped bring Indian businesses to Cupertino.
Among his many achievements he conceived and has chaired Cupertino’s Diwali - Festival of Lights for 10 years since 2003. Mahesh has further mobilized the Indian community and raised funds for the Cupertino library.
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He has served as a Housing Commissioner for the City of Cupertino and was also the Cupertino Senior Center’s Advisory Council Vice President and Chair of their 25th Anniversary Celebration for 2005; he also served on the Advisory board of OSF; he is a member of the Chamber Board of Directors, and also serves as member Advisory board of California Cricket Academy, and is an active Rotarian and initiated and organized the first Cupertino Rotary Polio eradication concert, and also championed a World service project to set up 10 computer aided learning centers for the underprivileged children in Pune, India.
A Jeweler by passion and profession he has a store called Jewels in Style. Mahesh has a wonderful wife Kamal ( “my most precious Gem” as Mahesh puts it) and two wonderful sons Rahul and Gaurav.
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Awards:
- Rotarian of the Year, 2009.
- Distinguished Citizen of the Year by International Association for Human Values, 2009.
- Chamber Citizen of the Year award, 2007.
- Asian Hero Award from Liz Kniss, County Supervisor, 5th District, 2004.
- The Lunar Community Bridge award from Asian-American Business Council, 2004.
- The CREST (Cupertino Recognizes Extra Steps Taken) Award, 2003.
