For those who meet Raghu Vullaganti for the first time, his polite, soft-spoken demeanor is impossible to forget. Get to know him a little more and you will soon notice his vision, passion and determination to stand against all odds.
Family:
Raghu Vullaganti grew up in a middle-class orthodox family with five siblings, one brother and four sisters. He grew up at a famous town, Tenali (also called “Andhra Paris”) of Andhra Pradesh. His father was a Government School Head Master in those days. He married to Vani Sree (hails from Vijayawada) in 1991. He is blessed with a child Harshita who is presently pursuing MBBS in Hyderabad. His extended family is tightly integrated and he serves the role of the family patriarch with dedication.
Education:
He did his education up to Graduation at Tenali and continued his Post Graduation (M.Sc Tech) at Andhra University Campus, Visakhapatnam. To pursue further studies, he left for USA in 1987. He initially went to Ohio University, Athens, Ohio and transferred his credits to another institution, New Jersey Institute of Technology and obtained MS Degree in Computer Science. He said: “Though I came from Geology Background, my hard work and perseverance enabled me to guide my fellow students with a prior B.Tech and/or M.Tech in Computer Science”.
Professional Career: In USA: He lived there for 18 years and worked for so many Fortune 500 companies at various levels. He worked from home for 40% of his time during his professional journey, 35% of time travelling to various client sites, and the rest at workplace. He worked majority of his time with professionals belonging to various cultural backgrounds. He was an interview board member for various organizations. Following is a brief summary of his professional career: He started his first job at AT&T, Piscataway, NJ as a Consultant Programmer and after a period of time he moved to Austin, Texas for Career Growth. He worked for Just-In-Time Technologies Inc as a Senior Software Engineer, worked on ERP Applications and dealt with various clients such as USA Defence Organization Day & Zimmermann, Texarkana; World’s largest Superconducting Super Collider Project in the vicinity of Waxahachie, Texas through Westing House, Austin, Texas; World’s largest Aerospace Company, Boeing Inc, Atlanta, Georgia; USA Aerospace and Automotive company TRW, Los Angeles, California; United States Postal Service, Washington D.C. and Topeka, Kansas; General Electric Medium Transformers, Rome, Georgia; Falcon Computers, Baltimore, Maryland; Gumco, Salt Lake City, Utah; Fourth Shift Corporation Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was with the organization for 5 years as Senior Consultant travelling 100% from East Coast to West Coast. During this time, he solely developed a new product called ABC Costing as part of ERP Applications, making it the second company in USA to develop this product. The milestones achieved by him during this period were Vertex Integration Software with ERP Applications, JIT; EDI Integration with Manufacturing Applications, and more. Some of the projects were recognized and rewarded in the form of royalty. He then shifted to Dallas, Texas and worked for a reputed accounting firm KPMG as a Project Leader and served for various clients such as Kintetsu World Express, a major Japan based Freight Forwarding Company; Southwestern Bell, a major Telecommunications Company in Texas. In 1999, he shifted to Hitachi Data Systems, San Jose, CA and Dallas, Texas worked on Strategy planning, preparation of requirements, etc. with various clients such as NCR Corporation, Cincinnati, Ohio; and others. In 2002, he shifted to Bryan College Station, Texas and worked for Bryan Texas Utilities as a Management Consultant. He worked with Australia and New Zealand based Company- Peace Software during this time. He developed a product called S2T (Source2Target) which migrates the data from one ERP Software to another without any human intervention involving programming coding. This product saved the tax payers money of USD 2.8 million. His efforts were recognized and published in the local Bryan News Paper, Texas. He then moved to ErgoGenesis as IT Director and supported various in-house applications. In addition to his own employment, he run his own consulting company in USA and had almost 25 employees working for him. He achieved various milestones during his professional journey, brought value to the table, became a visible employee, and received various recognitions and rewards. Reminiscing his initial days in Texas, he adds, “Till that point I lived in the shadows of my parents back home and my elder brother when I moved to New Jersey, but the moment I came to Texas, I was a tad bit overwhelmed by the lack of immediate assistance and support which was at my disposal earlier; but the entire situation served as a breeding ground for the unmasking of my true potential, to the point where my self-doubt metamorphosized into confidence. I was this seed trying to germinate under the shadow of a huge tree prior to it, and suddenly I became this sprouting sapling which was exposed to brightest beams of sunlight.”
Reasons to move to India:
He felt it was his moral responsibility to take care of his parents and decided to shift to India in 2005. He also felt his child should be brought up in Indian value-based system. He had no regrets after coming back to India.
In India:
After his move to India in 2005, he worked for the same ErgoGenesis Company, Texas from India for 2 years. The company supported him by recognizing the noble cause behind his move. In 2007, he got an offer from NCR Corporation, Mumbai as Country Head reporting to Australia with a decent package of 3.5 Lakhs per month. But this job required to do intense travel in Asian Pacific region. He felt it would defeat his purpose of moving back to India for taking care of his parents and declined the offer. He then decided to become a job creator rather than a job seeker. Overall, he has been able to create jobs for more than 650 people so far. He felt it was the time for him to give something back to the society. He wanted to enter into Education sector with like-minded people. He planned to setup an Engineering College in Hyderabad along with his NRI friends, but later decided against it. After few brainstorming sessions, he and his team decided to setup a School that provides education integrated with values. He felt the atmosphere of a value-based education system is rather beneficial to school going children than young adults. He started The Springdale School in the southeast part of Hyderabad in 2007. After careful analysis of the education system of the city, he introduced new initiatives in 2008 such as Language Lab with multiple accents such as those of USA, UK and Australia; Life Skills, German as a Foreign Language for school children and many more for the very first time in Hyderabad. His School was recognised by India Today in 2013 as one of the TOP 20 BEST Schools in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. In 2015, Delhi based Digital Learning Magazine identified The Springdale school as one of the TOP 20 technology-based schools in India. His motive behind running the schools transcends commercial profitability. Since the inception of the school, 20% of school strength, i.e, more than 1000 students had access to education of international standards at FREE of cost. So far, Total number of students being imparted education in our institutions are more than 5000. He feels no child should be left ignored. He was able to prove every year by taking children with learning difficulties under his umbrella and motivating them to excel in SSC board exams with 100% success rate in every year. Other than Education Sector, he forayed into Real Estate and Project Consulting (IT and Non-IT related) in and outside of India. He quoted: “I went through both ups and downs in business but perseverance consistent hustle and focus coupled with financial discipline eventually led me to fruition of my efforts.”
As a Writer:
He contributed as an author and technical editor for various books in USA and India. He also penned multiple articles in various magazines. He was given royalty for his contributions. They can be found on Google or Amazon.
In USA:
1. Ace Technical Interview, published in 2000 by World renowned Publications McGraw-Hill Publications, New York. He contributed few chapters in this book.
2. Oracle Financials 101 published in 2002 by Oracle Press and McGraw-Hill Publications, San Francisco, California. He was the sole author of this book.
3. Oracle Forms and Reports 101 published in 2003 by Oracle Press and McGraw-Hill Publications, San Francisco, California. He was the lead author of this book.
4. Oracle Manufacturing Applications published in 2001 by Oracle Press and McGraw-Hill Publications, San Francisco, California. He was a Technical Editor for this Book.
5. Oracle Applications DBA published in 2001 by Oracle Press and McGraw-Hill Publications, San Francisco, California. He was a Technical Editor for this Book.
In India:
6. What Next? – This book speaks about educational and job opportunities for students who completed their 10th Class and Intermediate. He was the sole author for this book and it was published by HM TV in 2011. The book was launched by Sri D. Sridhar Babu, combined AP Educational Minister, Sri Dokka Manikya Vara Prasad, combined AP Technical Education Minister, and Sri Ramachandra Murthy, HMTV Spokesperson.
7. Language Lab for Beginners (for School Children)
8. Language Lab for Advanced (for School Children)
9. Life Skills for Beginners (for School Children)
10. Life Skills for Advanced (for School Children)
11. German 101 (for School Children)
My Wife Vani Sree, My daughter Harshita and Me – All of us are writers and contributed so many articles. My wife’s contributed articles were published in Swathi and other Weekly Magazines, TANA, & TANTEX magazines. She is a seasoned German Teacher. Among us My daughter’s writing abilities are extraordinary and good in five different languages - English, Telugu, Hindi, Sanskrit and German. she achieved more than 50 Awards including Genius Book of World Records and nominated for International Children Peace Prize in Netherlands.
As a Philanthropist: His concern for human welfare drives him to serve the underprivileged of the society. He adopted his native village, Uppalapadu in Prakasam District and was able to get the below listed projects to his village and neighbouring villages with the support of his college classmates.
On Social Service Lines: 1. Irrigation project – The sanctioned Lift irrigation project makes Gundlakamma river the water source and caters for 1200 acres sprawled over Uppalapadu and Mylavaram. The budget allocated for the project being 18.5 Cr, with 60% completion so far.
2. Village Roads – the construction of a semi ring road was sanctioned on Narketpally- Addanki Highway from Kopperapadu to Vemparala across 12 villages including Uppalapadu. The budget for this project sanctioned being 5.3 Cr and was transferred to Pradhana Mantri Grameena Sadak Yogana Program and it is under process.
3. Electricity Transformer Installation – A portion of the village was suffering with frequent power failures and causing damaged to their home appliances. He was instrumental proper transformer installation and correction to rectify their problems.
4. Temples – As the Chairman (Dharmakarta) of Shiva Keshava temples at the village, he has been responsible for their maintenance in good condition and is planning to hand over the responsibilities to a reputed peetham/spiritual organization.
5. He organized health camps at Village.
6. He is planning to setup skill development center and create rural employment for the village youth.
7. Also planning to arrange Crop Awareness Programs, Free Soil Testings for Farmers with the support of ICRISAT team.
On Spiritual Lines: 8. He has his own Family Trust which has been donating to Vedic Students every year since the last 20 years.
9. He has immense interest in promoting Vedas and has been organizing the Vedic events every year in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Tenali.
10. He has been associated with more than a dozen peethams/spiritual organizations.
11. He led Vishnu Sahrasanama chanting Group in Dallas, Texas and College Station, Texas. Also did volunteering at Hindu Temple of Texas at Navasota, Texas for 2 years.
12. He is planning to create a documentary series on Vedas which is under conception.
He believes in “Yadbhavam, Tadbhavati”. It means if your sankalpa/intention is good, it will be executed automatically with the blessings of the almighty and was able to achieve endeavours which he thought were beyond his capacity, purely by his spirit of faith in God.
He quoted: “Volunteering your time to support a cause you are passionate about is something you will never regret. It will enrich your life, familiarize you with your community, and connect you to people and ideas that will positively impact your perspective for the rest of your life. Helping your community is an opportunity for you to grow as a person, to better understand how you fit into the world around you”. Dharmo Rakshati Rakshitah: The above quotation says if you protect Dharma, Dharma will in turn protect you. Back in USA, upon facing adversity, he remained unfazed in spite of having opportunities to escape, which if pursued would lead to great peril to others involved. His unwavering faith in Dharma helped him to get out of the situation with minimal damage.
Countries Visited: Other than USA, He visited as a tourist to Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, England, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Canada and Mexico. He flew around 80% of the USA and visited almost all the cities in USA. He is acquainted with Geography of USA very well.
Experienced Geological Locations: 1. Earth Quake: In 1994, he experienced North-ridge earthquake in the San Fernando valley region of Los Angeles with a magnitude of 6.7.
2. Visited Hawaii Islands and experienced various climatic conditions within close proximity of the occurance.
3. Volcanic Eruption: Kilauea is a living, breathing volcano with a mind of its own. With the Hawaii Volcano National Park being open 24 hours a day, he was able to witness glowing lava up close when the volcano was actively erupting.
4. Grand Canyon, Arizona – He visited the Grand Canyon which has two billion years of geological history with fault zones and many more.
5. Smoky Blue Mountains – The great smoky mountains are a mountain range rising on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and form part of the Blue Ridge Physiographic Province.
6. Sulphur Springs – It is located in Hopkins County, Texas. He was able to visit this place multiple times while living in Dallas.