Alexandria Chamber Names Business Leader of the Year

PHOTO: Srikant K. Sastry, national managing principal of Advisory Services at Grant Thornton LLP; photo courtesy of Alexandria Chamber of Commerce

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Srikant K. Sastry, national managing principal of Advisory Services at Grant Thornton LLP will be honored on Oct. 21 as the 2015 Alexandria Chamber of Commerce Business Leader of the Year during the Chamber’s annual Business Awards Reception.

This year’s event, commencing at 6 p.m. at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial, will also honor Alexandria businesses in the following categories: Large Business, Medium Business, Small Business, Association/Non-Profit and overall Business of the Year.

“The Alexandria Chamber is deeply proud to honor Mr. Srikant Sastry and have him join an exceptional list of business leaders as a recipient of our Business Leader of the Year Award. We appreciate his dedication of time and resources given back to the community that have been proven immeasurable. His considerable contributions in the areas of strategic cost management, program management, and government accountability are a testament to his leadership qualifications and make him a superb candidate for this year’s award,” stated Walter C. Clarke, 2015 Chamber Board Chairman.

Sastry began his career working in budget formulation and strategic cost management for various government offices and agencies. In his 25 years serving the public sector, he has led activity-based costing, budget, and performance and project management engagements for major Federal agencies, including the Departments of Energy, Commerce, Labor, Interior, and Transportation.

At Grant Thornton, Sastry is managing partner of Grant Thornton’s Advisory Services. Here he leads all of the segments of consulting services, including Business Advisory Services, Corporate Advisory and Restructuring Services, Forensic and Valuation Services, and Transaction Advisory Services. Prior to his advisory role and since 2012, he led the Global Public Sector (GPS) practice which has seen tremendous growth in the past 10 years from 230 people to more than 800 people today and growing.

Within the firm, Sastry has invested much energy and passion enhancing the Grant Thornton experience for its people, serving as the sponsor for many years of the GPS staff and community service committee. It’s this committee that provides meaningful opportunities for GPS employees to invest in and contribute to the local community, especially by supporting participation in philanthropic and not-for-profit organizations in Alexandria. For example, the group organizes monthly lunches and special holiday events at Alexandria’s Carpenter’s Shelter. Employees volunteer at the Wesley House in Alexandria throughout the entire school year, meeting with children for an hour each week to assist with their studies.

Sastry currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Consortium for Advanced Management-International (CAM-I) and the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology Partnership Board. In 2015, he was honored with the Washington Business Journal’s Minority Business Leader Award. Clearly, Mr. Sastry is a proponent of involvement in the Alexandria community by his senior executives. Principal Robert Shea is a board member of the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce. Principal Dan Rogers sits on the ACT for Alexandria Board. Grant Thornton Principal Wendy Morton-Huddleston will be a chapter president of the Association of Government Accountants (AGA), which calls Alexandria its home, as will Senior Manager Bhakti Patel and Manager Jamila Webb.

Upon hearing he won the award, Sastry said, “I couldn’t be prouder to receive this award and to call Alexandria the headquarters of our growing public sector business. It’s a great honor to be among the illustrious past recipients of this honor.”

Mr. Sastry joins a distinguished list of previous nominees including:

1994 Taylor Burke, Jr. of Burke and Herbert Bank

1995 Gant Redmon of Redmon, Peyton and Braswell

1996 WJD Associates – Donnie Wintermute, Cindy Jackson and Becki Donatelli

1997 Randy Kell of The Mark Winkler Company

1998 Jim Wilding of Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority

1999 Mike Anderson of Mango Mike’s Cool Caribbean Café

2000 Lou Scanlan of Outbounder, Inc.

2001 Bill Euille of Wm. D. Euille & Associates

2002 Roger Machanic of MRE Properties

2003 Jack Taylor of Alexandria Toyota, Inc.

2004 Kerry Donley, Virginia Commerce Bank

2005 Shawn McLaughlin, McLaughlin Investments, LLC

2006 John McEnearney - McEnearney Associates

2007 Lynn Hampton – Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority

2008 Mayor’s Economic Sustainability Workgroup

2009 Charles Collum, Burke & Herbert Bank

2010 Charlotte Hall, Potomac Riverboat Company

2011 Peter Converse, Virginia Commerce Bank

2012 Cathal Armstrong, Eat Good Food Group

2013 David Speck, Speck-Caudron Investment Group of Wells Fargo Advisors

2014 Lonnie Rich, Rich Rosenthal Brincefield Manitta Dzubin & Kroeger , LLP

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