Kontagious is here to inspire ordinary people to embrace a lifestyle of intentional kindness towards those outside their own culture, creating a welcoming, home away from home for those who are new to our cities — it all begins with a smile.
We believe that intentional kindness becomes the hope and light needed to open our communities towards the needs of families relocating across the globe. Kontagious uses unconventional and entrepreneurial approaches to encourage the immigrant to assimilate into the multicultural mosaic of lives found in our communities. We are developing technologies, incubating new startup opportunities, creating space for art and music, as well as enriching marriage and family life in our cities. We strive to impact those around us with love and simple acts of kindness to lead our communities to new waves of inclusion. This is Kontagious.
We believe that intentional kindness becomes the hope and light needed to open our communities towards the needs of families relocating across the globe. Kontagious uses unconventional and entrepreneurial approaches to encourage the immigrant to assimilate into the multicultural mosaic of lives found in our communities. We are developing technologies, incubating new startup opportunities, creating space for art and music, as well as enriching marriage and family life in our cities. We strive to impact those around us with love and simple acts of kindness to lead our communities to new waves of inclusion. This is Kontagious.
our team:
John Christian
Executive Director John@kontagious.org John Christian is a Social Entrepreneur who has lead innovative community transformation over the past two decades in India. He has now moved back to the Bay Area with his wife Carol. John is the founder of the music icon, Unwind Center in Chennai, and also Acts of Mercy, which empowers marginalized children and women. He also paved the way for organic farming and organic dairy practices to be considered a viable economic alternative to the standard farming methodology. John modeled these types of successful techniques on his own farm in the Chennai area. Before moving to India in 1997, he owned a successful business in San Jose. As an Indian university student three people impacted his life, the kindness of Mother Theresa, the compassion of Mahatma Gandhi, and the ruthless love of Christ. John is gifted at building grass root movements, where hope and vision become the epicenter for change. He builds community through engaging relationships with people from a broad background. His Kontagious love and passion for touching lives, especially the south Asian community, is unique and remarkable. We are energized by his leadership style and drive to be a Kindness freak. Come and join the ride with us… |
Carol Christian
Woman and Family Connections info@Kontagious.org Carol Christian is an American born New Jersey Desi, who made air history, by being the first infant to travel alone between continents. (North America to Asia) After completing undergraduate studies in Biology in India, she followed in her mother’s passion by serving the local community in Chennai. Her contributions in developing the Unwind School of Music, Acts of Mercy and as acting administrator for Achievers Academy is commendable. Carol’s engaging smile and compassion for others inspires community wherever she may be. |
Ken Raasch
Board Member Ken brings 30 years of art, entertainment, consumer branding, retail, and licensing experience to Kontagious. He is the founder and Chairman of Immersive Artistry, an Immersive entertainment company focused on engaging family entertainment. He also serves as the CEO and Chairman of Creative Brands Group, Inc., a Silicon Valley brand management, and licensing agency. Under his leadership, the art company he founded with artist, Thomas Kinkade, Media Arts Group, Inc. went public on NASDAQ in 1994 and transitioned to the NYSE in 1998. Ken is the Founder of Mercy Ventures, a nonprofit foundation, and is on the Board of Directors for Acts of Mercy. Ken Raasch began connecting with India years ago, first through his own visit, followed by bringing his children and wife to share the wonder of this land. He loves India, the food, the people, the sites... and so it was an easy decision for Mr. Raasch to become a member of the Kontagious board. His Kontagious love for the Indian people and artistic creativity, provide Ken with a distinct perspective on beauty in the Indian culture. |
Cathy Smith
Board Member Cathy Smith, has a sense for adventure, as cross cultural communication and commerce is part and parcel of being the CEO/President of ELREPCO. They represent some of the best companies in the areas of Semiconductor, Storage and Power Solutions, to clients like Alphabet/Google, Facebook, Cisco, HP, and many others. In the midst of leading this fast paced company, Cathy has shaped her highly successful business towards excellence in technology, integrity, and community. Her passion for people and relationships is reflected in her participation with a variety of foundations helping people in the Bay Area like YoungLife and the San jose Family Shelter to name a few. It is hard to keep up with Cathy and her Kontagious passion for running, golf, fun, and health. |
Blessy Thomas-Jacob
Board Member Born in New York, yet living the culture of India, expressed in New York, Blessy recognizes the gap between the American and Indian Cultures in our various communities of work and play. Networking between people and culture is something she learned at a young age to fit in both the American world at school and the Indian traditions at home. She received her BS in Business Administration with a concentration in Management Information Systems at New York Institute of Technology, Old Westbury. A few years later, Blessy had the opportunity to live in Hyderabad, India, to obtain her own first hand cultural experience of living in India vs America. After moving to the Bay Area, Blessy worked as a Business Development Manager and Senior Business Analyst. In the end her job experience has brought her to the place of being an IT professional, making use of all her various networking experiences. Currently, she and her entrepreneurial husband reside in San Jose, with their two children. We are excited to have Blessy working with us as her Kontagious ability to connect with millennials makes what we do relevant in today’s cross cultural world. |
Bob Thomas
Board Member Born in Dallas, Texas, Bob found his roots in Southern California. As a boy, sports were his passion. He attended college on a wrestling scholarship where he achieved All-American status and became a national champion in 1978. During this time Bob’s passions changed. He began to notice those around him who were disconnected and alone. He found these needs to be so compelling, he enrolled in seminary where he received his Master of Divinity degree from Talbot Seminary in 1982. Since then Bob has found himself working with youth, college students, and adults helping them develop meaningful connections with each other and with their purpose for life. He has spoken publicly to groups of thousands and often meets with individual business leaders to coach them in their growth. Bob adds a refreshing perspective to connect leaders of top companies in the Bay Area with our new Indian immigrants. Bob is Kontagious with his simple lifestyle and passion for the new immigrant finding a place in our community. |
Virendra Vase
Board Member Virendra was born and raised in India. He graduated from Pune University with a BS, in Electrical Engineering. He earned his MS in Computer Engineering at Clemson University, which led the way to the Bay Area where he worked for large companies like Yahoo, Experian and Salesforce, as well as a handful of successful startups in the Bay Area. Most recently Virendra was the COO of Life 360. His leadership experience around technology lends itself to product development and scaling businesses/ventures. We are excited Virendra is a part of the Kontagious Board, providing us with his insight into the Indian mindset and their business edge. He is married to his wife Kim and enjoys the lives of his three children and very large extended family (he is the youngest of 10). Virendra is known for his Kontagious love for fun and tech, you will never miss out on his sense of humor. We appreciate the talents he brings to our board as we go through the growing pains of being a startup here in Silicon Valley. |
volunteer leaders:
Maxine Chicoine-Bagoye
Director of Communications Maxine@Kontagious.org Born in California to French Canadian parents, their language-French, and their culture extremely Quebecois, birthed Maxine’s desire for travel in different cultures. Maxine was able to hone her cross cultural communication skills while living and working in Japan, creating a successful ESL business in Yokohama, Japan. She has an innate love for science and technology as a graduate from UC Santa Cruz in Chemistry. Her work experience includes startups and instrumentation companies, establishing user groups, marketing and creatively communicating with her customers. Keeping in line with ‘the lab’ Maxine has a Kontagious love for coffee, she roasts it herself and brews it the Eritrean way. She is passionate about everyone, and every culture being welcome in her neighborhood and home. Maxine sees Kontagious as a ‘kindness company’, building community across the hearts of many. |
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Li Sun
Entrepreneurship Lead info@kontagious.org Li Sun joined Bessemer Venture Partners in Oct 2016 as a senior associate at the Menlo Park office. She comes from a global background spanning 4 countries with diverse experiences across engineering, science, technology and entrepreneurship. Born in China, she holds a B.Eng in EE and business with highest honors from NTU in Singapore, an M.Eng in materials technologies from MIT, and a PhD in Applied Physics from Harvard University. Her thesis at MIT involved working closely with the founders of A123 Systems, by evaluating the commercialization potential of various clean technologies through the integration of solar, energy storage, and electric vehicles in an urban setting. Li’s PhD thesis defines her invention of a single-cell platform to identify and select individual effective T cell - tumor cell pairs. This technology allows the precise determination of the T-cell receptor – antigen pair, which has the potential to greatly improve TCR and CAR-T technology. Currently a new startup is incubating from this lab to commercialize this new and exciting technology. As an entrepreneur turned VC, Li looks at three important aspects to evaluating any involvement with a startup or new and novel technology. Will her abilities create a positive effect upon the startup team/project, does there exist an exacting resourcefulness, and is there a relentless determination in the founder/founding team to move the technology forward. We see this exemplified in her co-founding and running of two startups on the side while working on her PhD in nanophotonics and immunotherapy. These include, Raynovi Tech, a VR company that commercializes a transparent glass display she co-invented, and NEMO Central, an internet startup that helps better connect isolated communities. As a scientist and engineer, Li has a Kontagious passion about inventing technologies that transform human life and develop these technologies into products that have a lasting positive impact on the world. At the same time, her passion for the transformation of communities is expressed through her simple acts of Kontagious kindness. We welcome Li Sun to lead the Kontagious Entrepreneurship team |