Biography/WhoISWho

How easy would everyone’s lives be if they knew how they wanted to change the world as a child? While discovering the love of their life in their early years isn’t a cup of tea for many of us, Bala Ghimire was enthusiastic about a political reformation in Nepal since he joined a student union on campus. Born and raised in Arghakhanchi, in a middle-class family earning their livelihood through farming, Ghimire went to Delhi University and Asmania University for a master’s in political science after receiving his School Leaving Certificate in 1983.
As he was highly patriotic, he packed his bags and started his journey of political improvement in Nepal after completing his education.
He decided to move to the United States in 1996 and has contributed to society as an active social servant and a dexterous business person. The terrifying days of struggle right after moving to the States left him with memories of home and made him more determined to start his own restaurant named Curry Hot in 2005 in Chicago. As the business grew exponentially, he knew it was an excellent platform for promoting Nepal, and he started another restaurant in 2007. Since 90 percent of his clients were American in a chain restaurant named Nepal House in 2012, the government of Nepal honored him by nominating him as a Tourism Representative in 2016.
Ghimire has been involved in social service since 2005. He was appointed as the advisor of the Chicago Mayor’s Office in 2008. There he was responsible for assisting Richard Daily, the most powerful mayor in the US. Then, in 2010, Cook County recognized him as Entrepreneur of the Year. His vision of promoting Nepal reached a new height when he was appointed as the advisor to the secretary of state of Illinois in 2011. Additionally, Ghimire served as the president of the Association of Nepali in Midwest America in 2016; received the Presidential Volunteer Award from the US president in 2012 for his outstanding contributions to the society; and has been honored by many Nepali organizations in acknowledgment of his social dedication.
Ghimire believes that the United States is a land of opportunity where hard work, honesty, empathy, and persistence guide you to success. As a resident of Chicago, Ghimire continues to light the candles of hope and empathy with his wife and two daughters there.

Rishi Punnakhar Dhakal, better known as Rishi Dhakal, is a prominent businessman and social servant living in Los Angles, California. Former president Ram Baran Yadav awarded him the Commercially Important Person (CIP) Award in 2014 as the number one importer of garment products from Nepal. Due to his outstanding contribution, the government of Nepal has appointed him as the honorary consul general for San Diego.
Dhakal, who has experience in international exports, freight forwarding, and wholesale distribution of Nepali products, holds nearly three decades of experience promoting Nepali products at global markets. He is currently involved in five different businesses. He believes that via his sales and distribution of Nepali products at international markets, he is not only running businesses but also preserving and expanding Nepal’s identity and culture abroad.
Dhakal, also involved in various social organizations in the US, has plans to keep working to preserve Nepali culture, values, and identity in the global arena. Born in Prithvi Narayan Municipality, Gorkha, he completed his education at Mahendra Secondary School in Kundur, Gorkha. He then completed his higher-level education at Saraswati Multiple Campus, Ratna Rajya Laxmi Campus, and Patan Multiple Campus.
He has worked in different sectors, starting as an office clerk in 1992 and becoming a manager in 1998. He set up his freight forwarding and export business, Rising Star Cargo Pvt. Ltd., and an export company, Rising Traders and Exports, from 1998 to 2005. He currently runs a fashion company, hotels and restaurants, a real estate business, and a beauty company.
Lila Nath’s son currently works as the president/CEO of Rising International Inc, besides running Dhakal Brothers LLC, Himalayan Investment LLC, and Rising Star Trading. For his active role in promoting Nepali products at international markets and social service, Dhakal was nominated as an honorary member of the Non-Residential Nepali Association (NRNA) International Community Council (ICC) 2017. He was also a member of the NRNA Special Task Force of Nepali Products Abroad, an advisor of the CNC Task Force, and an advisor of the NRNA NCC, United States.
Dhakal served as the founder and treasurer of the Pashupatinath Buddha Foundation, which is all set to build Pashupatinath and Buddha temples in the US, and became the organization’s vice president. Besides participating in several other organizations in the US, he is also the founding secretary of the America Nepal Chamber of Commerce.
He has obtained professional memberships in the El Monte Chamber of Commerce (CA), the America Nepal Chamber of Commerce (USA), the Irwindale Chamber of Commerce (CA), the San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership (CA), the San Diego Diplomacy Council (CA), the Los Angeles Diplomacy Council (CA) and the San Diego Consular Corps.
Dhakal has played a vital role in many decision-making bodies as an advisor, including in the NRNA ICC (CNC) Special Task Force on the continuation of Nepalese citizenship and the Association of Nepalese in America, among others.

Kapil Adhikari was born November 26, 1963, in Trishuli, Nepal. He completed his secondary education at Trishuli High School (SLC) in 1979.
His love of logic puzzles led him to pursue a degree in law from Tribhuvan University, which he completed in 1987. He was a member of the Nepal Bar Association and practiced law for a period before deciding to explore his family’s construction business. After a few years of working with his family, Kapil decided he wanted to explore other options.
Shortly after marrying, Kapil and Anupa Adhikari came to the United States to complete their higher education. Their initial transition was difficult, as they had to adjust to leaving the comfort of family and friends behind—not to mention Texas slang, which was far from easy to understand. During his time working, Kapil considered starting his own business as a way to better provide for his growing family. After contemplating several options, he knew his best option was to open a convenience store. In 2000, Kapil took the risk and opened his first convenience store in Weatherford, Texas. Years following his first opening, with the help of hard-working and sincere partners, his business ventures began to grow and become successful. Kapil learned a lot through his business expansion, but he learned even more from his mistakes. As the Nepalese community grew around him, he became highly involved in mentoring recently settled families on how to succeed as small business owners.
Family is essential to Kapil. He enjoys traveling and enjoying new experiences with his wife and two children. When he’s not with his family, he’s involved with multiple organizations, such as being a member of Lion’s Club International and serving on the board of directors of the Nepalese American Chamber of Commerce of Dallas.
Because the community was his way of connecting to his family back in Nepal, Kapil strives to be a constant presence in the Nepalese community and is highly involved on the board of trustees of the Nepalese Cultural and Spiritual center, the more extraordinary Fort Worth Hindu Temple.
His advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is to utilize the community around them. These days, technology gives us the gift of networking with diverse groups of people, and taking advantage of the resources in front of you is essential. While being your boss is rewarding, it’s essential to acknowledge the work and sacrifice it takes when you’re starting. With hard work, he believes that you will find success. He also adds it’s important to look ahead and to lean on others for support, as he often does with his biggest supporter: his wife of twenty-four years.

Dr. Desh Raj Sonyok is a civil/geotechnical engineer and entrepreneur based in the Washington DC metro area. He holds Master’s Degree in civil engineering with a specialization in tunneling from Kyushu University, Japan, and Ph. D. in civil engineering with a specialization in tunneling from New Mexico State University, USA. He has research and professional experience in experimental geotechnics, tunneling, pavement engineering, construction quality management, geo-structural analysis and design, infrastructure economics, and engineering project management. His work experience includes diverse and challenging infrastructure projects ranging from residential developments to extensive industrial facilities and public sectors such as cities, municipalities, and state and federal agencies. He was involved in the pavement project with the New Mexico Department of Transportation and recently worked in tunneling projects in DC Water’s clean rivers mega-project. Additionally, he has an extensive leadership experience in various social, political, and professional organizations with a proven track record of defining vision and ability to plan, prioritize and implement projects.
Dr. Sonyok is deeply interested in diaspora knowledge networks and diaspora engagement in economic development through knowledge flows, technology transfer, investment, etc. He has been actively engaged in various Nepali diaspora organizations in Japan and USA. He was the former Chairman of the Science, Technology, and Economic Policy (STEP) Committee of the Non-Resident Nepali National Coordination Council of the USA (NRN NCC USA). As a chairman of the STEP committee, his work was directed towards harnessing Nepali diaspora intellectual and financial resources to support development efforts in Nepal. He worked on creating a diaspora knowledge-sharing platform and developing policy on the Nepali diaspora’s collective investment in Nepal. His committee’s policy work is directed toward democratizing investment opportunities by reaching out to untapped resources from millions of small-scale NRN investors in the USA and across the globe. He actively lobbied for the bilateral tax treaty between the United States of America and Nepal to mitigate double taxation for the benefit of Nepali and US citizens, as well as an improvement of the investment environment. His committee also lobbied with the Securities Board of Nepal regarding foreigners and NRN-friendly policies and regulations to allow them directly invest in the Nepalese capital market. Recently, he has been collaborating with experts and pioneer members of NRNA on the concept of Knowledge City in Nepal.
Currently, he serves as chairman and CEO of Nepali Diaspora Investment Fund Inc, which is a collective investment platform for the Nepali diaspora as well as foreign investors. He also serves as a Vice-President of Development for Global South, a Washington D.C.-based organization for good governance and development.

Dr. Wagle has been a research ecologist at the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) since September 2016. As an adjunct faculty member, he supervises/mentors graduate (MS and Ph.D.) students at Oklahoma State University. His primary research interests include biosphere-atmosphere interactions, terrestrial ecosystems’ carbon, and water cycles, and remote vegetation sensing. He has published around forty peer-reviewed journal articles, a book chapter, several non-peer-reviewed articles and proceedings, and over eighty conference abstracts/posters. He has been invited to several national and international conferences. He has served as a member secretary/editor of the Global Journal of Agricultural and Allied Sciences (GJAAS, a publication of the Association of Nepalese Agricultural Professionals of Americas) and guest editor for special issues of sustainability and remote sensing journals. He is a reviewer of several scientific journals of agriculture, meteorology, atmosphere, ecology, ecosystems, environment, climate change, bioenergy, and remote sensing.
Dr. Wagle was born in Amppipal, Gorkha, Nepal, to his father, Tikaram Wagle, and his mother, Kamala Wagle. He completed his secondary schooling (SLC) at Shree Janata Secondary School, Amppipal, Gorkha. He studied for his ISC (agriculture) at the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science (IAAS), Lamjung Campus. He completed his BS (agriculture) at IAAS, Rampur, Chitwan, in 2004. Dr. Wagle then moved to the United States for his higher education in 2008 and completed his MS (horticulture) in 2010 at Oklahoma State University and his Ph.D. (crop science) at Oklahoma State University in 2013. For his excellent academic records and achievements, he was given the Outstanding Ph.D. Student Award in 2012 by the Plant and Soil Sciences Department at Oklahoma State University. Dr. Wagle worked as a postdoctoral researcher for two years and as a research scientist for one year at the University of Oklahoma before joining the USDA.
For his exceptional research and professional achievements, Dr. Wagle received a Certificate of Merits and Outstanding Performance Awards from the USDA for FYs 2017 and 2018. He also received Outstanding Reviewer Awards from several journals (Environmental Research Letters, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, and Agricultural and Forest Meteorology). He was awarded the President’s Volunteers Service Award by the White House with a Silver Pin and a Certificate of Appreciation by the Association of Nepalese Agricultural Professionals of Americas (NAPA) in 2018 for his outstanding community service. Currently, he is a member of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and the general secretary of NAPA. He enjoys playing volleyball and basketball, watching games, and traveling with family in his leisure time. He married Dr. Monika Ghimire (tax economist, Oklahoma Tax Commission) and has a three-year-old son (Anwesh Wagle).

Tara Niraula grew up in an isolated village in the northeastern hills of Nepal. At thirteen, young Tara started his first days of formal schooling. By demonstrating sheer determination early on, he was top in his grades, often school-wide, through his school years. A graduate of Tribhuvan University, he relocated to New York, USA, to pursue double master’s degrees in educational administration at Teachers College, Columbia University. However, this did not end his desire to learn, as he also pursued his doctorate in organization and leadership in education at the same Ivy League institution.

During his stay in Nepal, he was an administrator and education program officer of the Save the Children Fund and Swiss Development Cooperation, respectively, for approximately ten years. As an academician and development professional in Nepal, he has significantly developed aspiring school teachers’ teaching methods and strategies through his much-appreciated lectures and instructional materials.
He decided to join Teachers College (the graduate school) of Columbia University, where he took his graduate and postgraduate studies. Where he assumed several positions, namely research and program associate, graduate instructor; senior research scholar, and director of Education Schools Research Project. Aside from his position at Teachers College, Mr. Niraula worked as an education researcher and consultant at Fordham University Graduate School of Education and as the director and an education faculty member at the Institute for Urban Education, New School University. He also served as the executive administrator of the Backstreet Graduate School of Education, New York.

He served as the president of the student senate (student government) of Teachers College, Columbia University, where he represented approximately five thousand graduate and postgraduate students to the college’s board of trustees and Columbia University senate in the mid-1990s. He also serves as a member of the Alumni Council, a body that represents more than ninety thousand graduates of Teachers College, Columbia University. He was twice a member of Nepal’s delegation to the executive board meeting of the United Nations Children’s Fund in the ’90s; and the president and vice president of both the Nepalese Americas Council/Non-Resident Nepali Association, North America Coordination Council, a coordinating body for over thirty-five organizations and Nepali diaspora in North America, and the America Nepal Friendship Society. In 2009, as the president of the Nepalese Americas Council (also a coordinating body for the NRNA in North America), he laid a foundation to establish an individual membership-based Non-Resident Nepali Association, the National Coordination Council of the USA. He is the founding member of the America Nepal Medical Foundation and the charter president of the Rotary Club of New York, Queens. He also took on the position of vice president of the Asian American Coalition.
Mr. Niraula received the Asian American Coalition’s Hall of Fame Award. He also worked as the director of education and advocacy of the New York Immigration Coalition, an umbrella organization for over two hundred community organizations. He was honored as one of the outstanding leaders by the comptroller of the city of New York, with council members of the city council also issuing citations recognizing him as an outstanding and one of the most contributing residents of New York City.

Financial expert and freelance consultant Bhim Karki is a multi-dimensional personality who is active in social service and equally passionate about Nepali art and literature. He has authored numerous poems and has published his poem collections in book format.
Born in 1961 in Syangja, Karki has vast experience in accounting, financial planning and analysis, financial management, and supply chain finance. After completing his MBA in profit and tax planning from Tribhuvan University in 1994, Karki moved to the USA in 1996 and completed an MBA in finance from the Huron University of South Dakota in 1998. He also conducted various professional courses, including his CPA (2005), PMP (2012), and CGMA (2013) in the US.
The founder and president of the International Literary Society (INLS), Texas, Karki, has served there in various capacities since 2005. His poem collection, dobatoma ubhiyeko samaya, loosely translated to Time in the Crossroads, was published in 2012.
Karki, who holds direct experience with consumer packaged goods (CPG) in the manufacturing and software industry, has developed standard cost, benchmarks, scorecards, and capacity utilization models for various business houses and companies. He is also a professional advisor on tax and financial matters in the broader economic and fiscal environment. He is the founder and chief of Karki CPA LLC based in Dallas and has also served as a freelance consultant since 2016.
After arriving in the US, he worked in different multinational companies, like Pepsi and McAfee, in finance and strategic planning roles from 1998 to 2007. He also worked as a planner and strategist for the corporate finance and supply chain from 2007 to 2016. Before leaving for the US, Karki also worked as an internal auditor at Tribhuvan University and project auditor and finance officer for BAPSO (currently known as DFID).
He has in-depth knowledge of strategic planning, profit planning, budgeting, forecasting, rolling forecasts, program management, and team development. As a business enthusiast, Karki is interested in recent trends and developments in fiscal policies and reform, tax policies, and economic megatrends. Moreover, he closely monitors macro and micro movements in fiscal, economic, and social policies. He is also a finance, accounting, and cost accounting manager trainer using the cost model.
Karki is renowned among the Nepali community in Texas for his social service. He not only coordinated in preparing the first draft of bylaws for the Nepal Society of Texas (NST) but also played a role in establishing and sustaining NST, serving on the first board of NST. He conducted the first election of NST as the chief election commissioner and served in NRN’s first global dual-citizenship task force. Currently living in Texas, he is passionate about helping underprivileged members of the community in Nepal.

Dr. Manoj K. Jha has worked as an associate professor in the Civil Engineering, Civil Architectural, and Environmental Engineering Department of North Carolina A&T State University since 2016.
He completed his Ph.D. in environmental and water resources engineering at Iowa State University and his MS in environmental and water resources engineering from the same university. Before this, he earned an ME in integrated water resources management from the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand, and his BE in civil engineering from the Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University.
He worked as an assistant civil engineering professor at NC A&T State University, Greensboro, USA, from July 2010 to June 2016. He also gained experience working as an associate scientist, assistant scientist, and post-doc at the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA, from 2005 to 2010. Before this, he was a research associate at the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand, in 2000.
Dr. Jha is a recipient of several awards and honors for his professional excellence. He was the recipient of NC A&T’s Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award for 2015–2016, NC A&T’s Outstanding Young Investigator of the Year Award in 2014–2015, and the College of Engineering’s Outstanding Young Investigator of the Year Award in 2015. He also received the Research Excellence Award – Ph.D. Dissertation for Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering (CCEE), Iowa State University, in 2004, as well as several other awards.

Dr. Nanda L. Regmi is a lifesaver because of his profession and his life-saving acts of donating blood to those in need. Born in the Syangja District of Nepal in 1965, he currently serves as a research scientist at the Department of Neurology and Neurotherapeutics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA. Dr. Regmi conducts biomedical research to identify primary genes for the cause of dystonia, a movement disorder condition in humans, in collaboration with world-famous scientists, including a Nobel laureate. He has saved the lives of more than twenty-five thousand individuals by donating 8,500 pints of blood through Blood Donors of America (BDA).
Dr. Regmi completed his proficiency in science from the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, Rampur, TU, Nepal, in 1987 and his Bachelor of Arts with a major in mathematics and economics from Tribhuvan University, Nepal, in 1992. He was one of the first students in Nepal to achieve a Bachelor of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry in Rampur, Nepal, in 1995. He received his Doctor of Philosophy in veterinary science (with a major in drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics) from the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Fuchu-Shi, Tokyo, Japan, in 2007. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Psychiatry from 2008 to 2011, the Department of Internal Medicine from 2011 to 2013, and the Department of Internal Medicine (Division of Infectious Diseases) from 2014 to 2015 at the UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX, USA. He served as a researcher starting in 2007 at Nippon Zenyaku Kogyo, Pvt. Ltd., Koriyama, Fukushima, Japan; as assistant professor of veterinary pharmacology at the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, Rampur, TU, Nepal (1997–2002); and as a veterinary officer in the Department of Livestock Services, Government of Nepal (1996–1997). Dr. Regmi is also a coordinator for distance education via Skype from the USA to Nepal for students and faculty of higher education.
Dr. Regmi’s most significant scientific contribution is a report on the mechanism-based inhibitory effect of fluoroquinolones (FQs) on the cytochrome 4501A enzyme in dogs at therapeutic dosage. Other works include “Oncogenes Activate an Autonomous Transcriptional Regulatory Circuit That Drives Glioblastoma” (2017), Cell Reports, Vol. 18 (4), 961-976; “CA1-Specific Deletion of NMDA Receptors Induces Abnormal Renewal of a Learned Fear Response” (2015), Hippocampus, 25, 137-9; “Hedgehog Signaling Regulates FOXA2 in Esophageal Embryogenesis and Barrett’s Metaplasia” (2014), Journal of Clinical Investigation 124 (9): 3767- 80; and “Selective Dysfunction of Dorsal CA1 NMDA Receptors Induces Generalized Anxiety-Like Phenotypes in Mice” (2018) (revision). Dr. Regmi has also reviewed several manuscripts for publication.
The president of Blood Donors of America (BDA) from 2016 to 2018, Dr. Regmi, informed people of the perks of donating blood throughout his life. He has been an advisor for the Pulmonary Hypertension Society Nepal since 2017, the Indreni Cultural Association 2008 to date, and the International Nepali Literary Society, Dallas Chapter, from 2011 to 2018. He also successfully led the Nepal Animal Science Students Movement to establish veterinary education for the first time in Nepal in 1992.
Dr. Regmi’s life is shaped by a combined experience in academia and humanitarian services. He is a recipient of the NIH Training Fellowship in Barrett’s Esophagus, 2011 and the NIMH Training Fellowship in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, 2008. During his study in Japan, he was also able to bag the Heisei 18 Nendo International Harmony Club Foreign Student Scholarship, Nagoya-Shi, Japan, 2006.

As the industrial age ended, the culture of holding a single job for an entire life had to end. As of now, many of us have realized the beautiful outcomes of creating multiple sources of income. Madhav Dhakal, a successful entrepreneur, banker, and social hero in Greensboro, North Carolina, is a leader with the best mindset for growth and investment.
Born and raised in Biratnagar, Nepal, Dhakal completed his master’s degree in English literature in 1992. He was the editor-in-chief of the All Nepal Travel Information Directory from 1991 to 1993. He also served as the editor-in-chief for Purina Filma magazine and was a contributor to the English magazine The Record in 1991. He shifted to the USA for his Ph.D. in 1993.
Dhakal’s zeal for a business pushed him to start a car sales business in 1994. He then opened a gas station in 1996, which motivated him to open six more. In 2000, he established his car dealer company and took time to invest in real estate. In addition, he has ventured to start a sports bar, three Charlie Tobacco Outlets, and an investment company. He is the producer of a movie named Challenge. In 1999, he started working at Bank of America as an assistant. He is currently serving as the vice president of the Bank of America North Carolina branch.
Dhakal is the founding member and vice president of the Nepal Center of North Carolina, established in 2000. He was the joint convention chair for NASA in 2015 and was elected president in 2017. He is currently working on extending his steps to the hotel business. Even though the roads Dhakal chooses to walk on are long and intricate, he is bound to reach a destination with all those around him who he inspires and guides. A well-respected social hero Dhakal lives in High Point, North Carolina, with his beautiful family, including his wife, two daughters, and a son.