Padmaja Vrudhula
When Padmaja isn’t doing SAL Board things, she’s busy making education and tech more democratic because creating opportunities for underrepresented populations in tech is a goal that she has been pursuing for many years. Whether it is looking to bring interns from community colleges, adjust curriculum to be more job relevant, mentoring students, changing how we hire, or investing in mission driven VC companies, Padmaja works in each aspect of the life-cycle to ensure that more people participate. It’s especially critical work at this juncture given the nature of AI to impact every aspect of our lives, and an educated public and civic mindset are two key factors to holding in check the outsized impact of tech today.
As a kid, Padmaja’s favorite book was Sherlock Holmes—her Dad had purchased the complete Sherlock Holmes collection with the original Sidney Paget illustrations and they had a reading contest to see who could read all of them first. Padmaja won (probably due to the fact that she was on summer vacation in between 5th and 6th grade, while he was devoted to researching cures for cancers). Nonetheless, it was a personal milestone. Holmes’ analytical skills, drive, and the creation of a profession for himself appealed to her budding non-conformist self. His statement, “when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth” stays with in her mind. In fact, Padmaja and her father will continue to speak of this when it comes to scientific discovery as well as with regard to critical thinking in any aspect of life. Reading Sherlock Holmes developed my life-long devotion to mysteries (Agatha Christie, PD James, Alexander McCall Smith, Richard Osman, Tana French, Louise Penny et al.) to list a few of her favorite authors. When Padmaja took her first trip to London in 2006, she wandered in Paddington Station, walked on the Strand, took the tube to 221B Baker street, visualizing in her mind’s eye the hansom cabs and pea soup fogs with the indescribable thrill of seeing childhood’s imagination made real.
An ideal Sunday is simple for Padmaja: newspapers, magazines, and coffee without distractions. She used to read physical copies of the Seattle Times, NYT, and Wall Street Journal for many years, but with traveling more for work it was easier to switch to digital. This year, Padmaja went back to physical copies including my magazines (The Economist, New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Wired and being a morning person, she starts early at 5am or so and will read till lunchtime, at least. In winter, she will stop briefly to attend a mid-morning hot yoga class, only to come back and pick up with the reading where she left off. It is a sybaritic pleasure for the mind.
On Padmaja’s desk you can find a Dell 38” curved monitor, docking station for 2 laptops (personal PC and work Mac), web cam, Jabra speaker, silver holder for pens/pencils, a Moleskine notebook, and her weekly task list written down on a purple Post-it for the pure pleasure of crossing things off when complete.
What’s Padmaja’s personal motto? “Filling the unforgiving minute with 60 seconds of distance run”. It is from Kipling’s poem “If” which she has long considered to be encapsulating of her life’s philosophy and aspirations.