Bala Swaminathan

Bala Swaminathan was born in 1968, in Tamil Nadu, Madurai. His father was born in a poor family in a tiny village of T. Subbulapuram near Aundipatti in Theni district; his father Dr. G. Swaminathan was the first doctor from his village but became a renowned orthopedician. Bala was brought up under this shining role model that he learnt there are no substitutes to perseverance and hard work. Bala has one sister and two brothers. In 1989, he graduated from Regional Engineering College, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India. He came to the United States in 1990 and earned his D. Sc. in computer science from Washington University in St. Louis. He has worked in several technology companies and currently works in Research at Renaissance Technologies, a quantitative fund. In 2015, he and his wife Prabha launched Mathi Mathi Ventures, a fund that has been investing in small businesses and startups. While in St. Louis, Bala served as the secretary of Missouri Tamil Sangam. A few years after he moved to NY, he started the NY Tamil Academy, a non profit organization to teach the Tamil language to second generation Tamil children and anyone that is interested. In 2018, he became a board member at Tamil Chair, Inc., a non profit created to raise funds to set up a Tamil Professorship at Harvard University. In 2017, Bala and his wife set up the Anandavalli and Dr. G. Swaminathan Professorship for Tamil at Stony Brook University, Stonybrook New York. After a successful two year stint as the Secretary of Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America, Bala Swaminathan was elected as President of FeTNA in 2022; he also volunteers his time as the secretary of the New York Tamil Sangam. Apart from supporting almost every Tamil cause through FeTNA or NYTS or NYTA, Bala enjoys spending time with friends and family, working out, biking, walking, playing volleyball, and watching pro-football.