Pranay Bhargava is our Co-Founder, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Soma International as well as Pamplin’s Management School Recent Alumni Board. Virginia Tech Alumnus, Class of 2015.
Pranay and Mohamed met coincidentally when they were both undergraduate students at Virginia Tech in the fall of 2013. At the time, they were the only non-psychology majors who were involved in a student organization called “Actively Caring for People,” which was created by Dr. Scott E. Geller, who has a doctoral degree in experimental psychology. Mohamed pitched his idea for Soma International, and the two immediately began planning additional strategies for the future of the organization. The first step was to get Alpha Tau Omega (Theta Delta Chapter), the fraternity Pranay had founded, involved in helping organize the over 10,000 books collected for shipment to Tanzania.
As of today, Pranay, Mohamed and Cecilia has successfully launched two rural learning centers and supplied them with over 10,000 donated books over the past 7 years.
When Pranay was six years old, his parents moved his family to the United States to have better access to education. He and his family moved from India to Washington, D.C. when his mother received a scholarship to the business school at George Washington University to pursue an M.B.A. Seeing his mother work hard, and gain such an incredible educational opportunity, led Pranay to realize that access to education can change lives forever. Pranay joined Soma International with the
hope that the next generation of young children can have access to the same opportunities he and his family had, regardless of where they grew up.
Pranay’s hobbies include hiking, listening to live music and making people smile. Pranay gets a thrill out of helping others, and he is looking forward to helping even more people in the future through Soma International. Today, with Pranay’s positions as a COO & CFO, he organizes a financial structure and creates new strategies and partnerships to increase Soma International’s presence.
Writers: Sadie Andersen & Emily Keshap
Editors: Kenzie Hyde, M. Cecilia Silva Montoya
For volunteering opportunities or donations, email Soma International at: info@somainternational.org