Maneesh Goyal
President Barack Obama has appointed Maneesh K. Goyal to the board of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. Goyal is an out gay men who grew up and went to high school in Plano, where his parents, Madan and Sneh Goyal, still live.
The 12-member J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board oversees the U.S. State Department’s Fulbright Scholarship program. The board members also select students, scholars, teachers and others to participate in the Fulbright exchange program.
Goyal is founder and president of MKG, an event marketing agency with headquarters in New York City. Started in 2001, the company now has offices in Los Angeles and Chicago. His clients include Delta Airlines, Evian, Chase Bank, JCPenney, Neiman Marcus and Levis. MKG was named as one of Crain’s New York’s “Fast 50” companies in 2013, honoring companies that have found “unique methods for powering phenomenal growth.”
Also in 2013, Goyal co-founded “Live in Grey,” a resource and consultancy effort focused on workplace culture. And from 1999 to 2001, he was a program officer at Dyson Foundation where he built a national program to train pediatricians.
Goyal helped found and lead Duke University’s gay alumni network was a board member for Empire State Pride Agenda, a New York state LGBT rights organization. He has also established a gay entrepreneurs breakfast group in New York City and he requires all his employees to spend five paid volunteer days and an annual fund on their favorite non-profit. He is on the U.S. Advisory Council for the American India Foundation, and has served on boards for LifeBeat, South Asian American Forum and Stonewall Community Foundation.
Goyal has a bachelor’s degree from Duke University and a master’s degree in public health from Yale.
