Aneesh Raman

Aneesh Raman is Vice President of Growth at Raise.me, a technology startup focused on expanding access to higher education in America. Raman announced the move in a Fortune (magazine) article published in January, 2016.^[1]

Prior to joining Raise.me, Raman was the Vice President of Marketing and Audience Development at OZY Media,^[2] a new media company backed by a number of high-profile investors including Laurene Powell Jobs, Larry Sonsini, David Drummond (Google), Dan Rosensweig and Ron Conway. Before OZY, Raman was a domestic policy speechwriter to the President of the United States Barack Obama, making him the country's first Indian-American Presidential Speechwriter.^[3][4] Raman came to the White House after working at the United States Department of Defense and at the Treasury Department, where he was speechwriter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner during a historic global financial crisis.^[5] Raman began his career as an award-winning CNN war correspondent and the network's first correspondent based in the Middle East responsible for region-wide coverage.

A graduate of Harvard College and a former Fulbright scholar, Raman is a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations^[6] and a member of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library's New Frontier Award Committee.^[7]

Business career

Raman joined Raise.me in January 2016 saying they are part of a growing number of companies in Silicon Valley whose "definition of success is not just individual return, or even shareholder return. It includes broad social impact."^[8]

At OZY, he started out as a Senior Editor, writing pieces and producing videos, but soon had his role expanded to include all of marketing and audience development. He told MediaBistro, "part of what a new hire does [at a start-up] is figure out where they can help most in order to keep the company growing. I found that was actually in our marketing space."^[9] In an interview with StumbleUpon, he described the company's long-term business strategy and the ambition to build a movement.^[10]

Government career

Raman became the speechwriter to the Treasury Secretary in early 2009, as the Obama Administration was confronting the immediate aftermath of the historic 2008 financial crisis and ensuing recession. After nearly two years at the Treasury Department, Raman went to the Pentagon, where he worked on strategic communications, and later joined the White House staff as a Presidential Speechwriter. ^[11] Raman spoke about presidential communication with MSNBC's Melissa Harris Perry in 2014.^[12] Raman previously worked on the presidential campaign of Barack Obama as part of the communications team set up for vice presidential nominee Joe Biden.

Media career

As CNN's Middle East correspondent, Raman was based in Egypt but was largely responsible for coverage out of Iran. Over the course of a dozen trips, Raman reported extensively on Iran's nuclear ambitions and the growing frustration of the people towards their government.

From 2005 to 2006, Raman was CNN's Baghdad Correspondent, living in Iraq during an exceptionally volatile period in the Iraq War. In addition to embedding with US forces across the country, he provided some of the most comprehensive reporting on Iraq's National Assembly and the efforts to ratify a new constitution. Raman also provided in-depth coverage of the Saddam Hussein trial and was notably the first American television journalist to announce Saddam Hussein's execution.^[13][14] In 2014, Raman appeared on television a number of times to discuss the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's offensive in Iraq.^[15][16]

Raman's initial international posting was in Bangkok, Thailand, where he was the first Western reporter to go live from Phuket, Thailand after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Raman spent weeks covering the aftermath of the resulting tsunami and was part of the CNN team that won a 2005 Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award.

While at CNN, Raman reported from a number of countries including Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, England, Spain, Nicaragua, India, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore, Philippines and Indonesia. In July 2007, he gave a speech at the Clinton School of Public Service about his experiences as a foreign correspondent and the changes taking place in cable news.^[17] Raman first appeared on CNN in 2004, when he profiled the younger generation and their involvement in the American 2004 presidential election. In June 2008, Raman left CNN and later joined the U.S. presidential campaign of Democrat Barack Obama.^[18]

Personal life

Raman graduated from Harvard College magna cum laude and was a Fulbright Scholar. While at Harvard, he was awarded a local Emmy Award as Host of Kids Talk Sports, a weekly sports talk show that aired on New England Cable News. Raman grew up in Wellesley, Massachusetts and went to Wellesley High School.^[19]

Raman married Dr. Haley Naik in 2012 after they were introduced to one another by a mutual friend.^[20]

References