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A legacy of social and environmental respect
Akshay Kumar Parija (AMP 172, 2007) was already a successful international banker when he arrived at HBS in 2006. Today, however, he credits the AMP with helping him develop his courage and creativity—two character traits that set his life on a new course to preserve his cultural heritage through film.
Both seemed in short supply when Parija was growing up poor in a tiny rural village in the eastern Indian state of Odisha. Still, there was a spark. “I knew I could not change my destiny to be born there,” he says, “but I also knew that with hard work I could change my future.”
That thinking ultimately brought him to Cambridge for a transformational experience. “It gave me the courage to become an entrepreneur,” he says.
In 2010, Parija founded Blue Lines Shipping Group, a highly successful venture that enables him to finance films, mostly with social and environmental themes, that also preserve his native Odishan culture. “Through my films, I hope to create an awareness in the world about the threat of climate change, the need for environmental protection, the legacy we leave for future generations, and the importance of having respect for all human beings,” he says.
Parija’s next project is a book he hopes will help other people from humble beginnings achieve extraordinary lives.
(Published October 2014)
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