Dr. Abraham George

George was born in Thiruvananthapuram, the second of four children. At fourteen he was admitted to the National Defence Academy at Khadakwasla, and he was commissioned into the 34th Medium Artillery Regiment. His first posting, in 1966, was to the North-East Frontier Agency on the border with China, where he was stationed at the Sela Pass. After being injured in an explosion there he was reassigned to the border with Pakistan, and he was honourably discharged with the rank of captain.

He then moved to the United States, joining his mother in Alabama. He earned a Master of Business Administration in economics in 1973 and a doctorate in international finance in 1975, both from the Stern School of Business at New York University.

George became a United States citizen and worked as an officer at Chemical Bank. In 1976 he founded Multinational Computer Models Inc., a financial systems company serving multinational corporations and financial institutions, which helped them manage international financial risk. The company partnered with Credit Suisse First Boston, where he was chief consultant and managing director. Multinational Computer Models was acquired by SunGard Data Systems in 1998, after which he served as vice chairman for two years.

In 1995 George returned to India and established The George Foundation, based in Bangalore, which works on poverty, social inequality, education and healthcare. In August 1997 he established Shanti Bhavan, a residential school that takes in children from the poorest families in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka and educates them from early childhood through to college. A second campus, Shanti Bhavan 2, was later opened.

The George Foundation's other work includes the Baldev Medical and Community Centre, which serves 17 villages and more than 16,000 people, community development projects in housing and vocational training, provision of safe drinking water, and farming enterprises employing poor women. He also founded the Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media in Bangalore and served as its president.

The foundation conducted a national study of childhood lead poisoning which found elevated blood lead levels in about half the children tested in Indian cities. The work contributed to India's phasing out of leaded petrol in April 2000 and to the creation of a National Referral Centre for Lead Poisoning.

George has served on the boards of Human Rights Watch, the International Center for Journalists and the Christian Medical College, Vellore. He has written books on international finance and on rural poverty, including India Untouched: The Forgotten Face of Rural Poverty, and a memoir, Mountains to Cross: Finding Life's Purpose in Service, published in 2026.

George received the Lifetime Achievers Award for Philanthropy from The Kerala Center in 2000 and the Hind Rattan award from the NRI Welfare Society of India, presented by the former prime minister I. K. Gujral. He has also received the Stewart Satter Social Entrepreneurship Award from NYU Stern School of Business and a Community Service Award from the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin in 2017.[2][3][4][5]