BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Indiana University O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs will present its Distinguished Alumni Award to Srikant K. Sastry on Saturday, May 4, as part of the school’s spring Commencement ceremonies. The honor is the highest award the O’Neill School can bestow on an alumnus.
Sastry earned his Master of Public Affairs in 1988, and has since led a distinguished career in both the public and private sectors. He is currently the national managing principal of advisory services for Grant Thornton LLP, a leading professional services firm.
Though his career has led him all around the world, Sastry has remained a dedicated alumnus of the O’Neill School, serving as an extraordinary example to current and future students. Sastry has been a tireless advocate for the school and its programs, mentoring students, championing faculty scholarship, and initiating an innovative interdisciplinary institute on the Bloomington campus.
“The O’Neill School alumni network is more than 34,000 strong, and we are fortunate to have the dedicated support of passionate graduates who want to make the school even stronger,” said Dean John D. Graham. “Mr. Sastry is an incredible example of an engaged alumnus, in his professional and personal lives. His selfless service to IU and the O’Neill School truly demonstrates what it means to lead for the greater good.”
Sastry is the 56th O’Neill alumnus to earn the Distinguished Alumni Award.
In more than 25 years in professional services, Sastry has led performance improvement and transformation engagements for several commercial and public sector entities, including the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, U.S. Postal Service, International Monetary Fund, and Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield. And, in 2017, Sastry was named a “Top 25 Consultant” by Consulting magazine.
He is also the board chair for the Consortium of Advanced Management-International and serves on the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts Foundation Board of Directors. Sastry is a member of the O’Neill School’s Distinguished Alumni Council, serving as chair from 2016-18 and serves on the O’Neill School’s Manufacturing Advisory Initiative Board.
In 2018, Sastry led the creation of the Grant Thornton Institute for Data Exploration for Risk Assessment and Management (GT-IDEA) that spans the O’Neill School, the School of Informatics, Computing & Engineering, and the Kelley School of Business, at Indiana University.
Through GT-IDEA, students from the participating schools are working together to solve problems, explore data-driven approaches to risk assessment, and devise new solutions to better manage risk in the age of artificial intelligence. Their work, as well as the participation of IU faculty and Grant Thornton practitioners, is expected to lead to the creation of better services to navigate strategic challenges, and meet governance demands and compliance obligations. The multidisciplinary nature of this institute is ground-breaking and the synergies that it will create are the key factors in meetings the policy, technological, and business needs of today's society.