Founder of New York-based ULTRA Testing that only employs people on the autism spectrum
There are millions of people around the world who are on the autism spectrum. What they lack in the social skills department, they more than make up for in other skills like very logical reasoning and great pattern recognition. Since they lack the social skills to face interviews at companies that are ill-equipped to encounter their literal-minded ways they often find themselves shut out from the job market. Rajesh Anandan wants to change that. He is the founder of ULTRA Testing, a high quality software testing firm based in New York that only employs people on the autism spectrum. Anandan is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has a B.Sc in Computer Science and Economics and an M.Eng degree in Computer Science, where he worked on a thesis on Systems Dynamics in collaboration with the Sloan School of Management. After starting at Microsoft as a Program Manager, he moved on to Bain & Company as a consultant, and as a Head of Private Sector Partnerships at the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Since 2009, he has also been a Senior Vice President in charge of Strategic Partnerships and ventures at the US Fund for UNICEF. He is also a mentor at The Unreasonable Institute and an advisory board member at the Asperger Syndrome Training & Employment Partnership.