Harinder Singh Soin is currently the Chief Data Officer at Cambridge Associates, LLC, an Investment Management Firm in the Greater Boston Area. In his current role, he is responsible for leading the Enterprise Data Strategy for the firm and is also currently managing many large IT initiatives. He is a member of the IT Leadership team that is responsible for overseeing all technology initiatives in the firm. As Chief Data Officer, he also oversees the Data and Reporting Operations Groups.
Prior to joining Cambridge, he was the Vice President at Wellington Management, LLP. During his tenure at Wellington, he led many enterprise-level IT initiatives focused on major business transformations in the firm. He was the Chair of the Enterprise Data Steering Group that was responsible for setting strategic data priorities for the firm. He was also a member of the Enterprise Architecture Review Board, that was responsible for leading the technology strategy the company.
Harinder has been an active member of the New England Sikh Study Circle diaspora fo the past 19 years. During this time he has held several leadership positions in the organization. He has been managing the Khalsa School in the community for the past 18 years, which has a current enrollment of 145 students.
Q: What is the overall mission of the New England Khalsa School?
A: New England Khalsa School was established with a mission to help our children connect with Sikhi by learning to read and understand the Gurus’ Baani, singing and reciting Kirtan and getting a solid understanding of our history and our culture. From the very inception, we strongly believed that this cannot be achieved through a one-dimensional view of class instruction. We believe that this mission will be achieved by creating an ecosystem of class instruction, reinforcing learning through interactive dialog and creating a solid support structure through comradery and mentor-ship.
Q: How do the students apply what they have learned in Khalsa School?
A: On a continual basis, we are looking for ways to get the students involved in various activities to help them explore Sikhi from many different perspectives. We also strive to look for creative ways for our students to express their thoughts about Sikhi. In the past, this was done through events such as speech competitions and having an interactive dialog where students were encouraged to express their questions, ideas, and opinions.
Q: What is the story behind the Film School in relation to the Khalsa School?
A: The Khalsa Film School was established 2 years ago to give our students an opportunity to express their ideas through the creative outlets of short films that talked about principles of Sikhi as they apply in our lives today. This successful venture with Film Neev led by Harbaldeep Singh has resulted in the creation of some fantastic content by the students. Thanks to the mentor-ship from Harbaldeep, the program continues to grow and thrive and has engaged the kids in a manner that we have never seen before. Harbaldeep is the force that is driving this project forward, but there are many volunteers that are working very hard to get this project off the ground.
Q: Can you tell us how the New England Khalsa School became involved with Nishkam TV?
A: We were missing a critical component of having an audio-visual medium to continue towards the journey of learning and exploring the Sikh History they were learning in the Khalsa School classes. The creation of Nishkam TV is a continuation of the same principles of creating Sikhi related content led by the students of New England Khalsa School.
Q: In your own words, what is the mission of Nishkam TV?
A: The mission of this TV network will be to bring content around how the principles of Sikhi are relevant in our lives today, how to live a life as part of the Guru’s Khalsa panth and how we can continue to become an active and productive member of the society.
Q: What are your hopes for the future of Nishkam TV?
A: With the grace of Waheguru, we are excited to see the continued growth in our efforts to engage the children. We offer our sincere Ardaas to provide the strength and motivation to all our volunteers who are working hard in this initiative. This is a community project that will benefit not only our children, but all our Sangat members and global community. It will not only give the children critical skills to engage in the topics of Sikhi like it has never been done before, but it will benefit the Sangat at-large. We hope that the creative content engages everyone and if we can provide motivation for even one Sangat member to be a better Sikh – all our efforts will be well worth it.
