PEORIA MAGAZINE July 2023

S eshadri Guha and Dr. Meenakshy Aiyer have made significant contributions to Peoria’s business and health care landscapes, all while contending with an unfamiliar culture and community. “We had to get guidance in so many different things,” said Guha. “You ask questions and people tell you this is how it works, this is what you do,” whether for a daughter going to prom or for a worthy social service organization extending an invitation.

father was a professor of engineering, her mother a homemaker. She has one sister, who resides in California. As a young girl, Aiyer’s first career choice was “to be a stewardess. I just thought that was a cool job. People were always so well put together and I could travel the world.” Guha, 59, grew up in Chennai, India, as an only child. His father was a professor of electrical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, his mother a homemaker. He grew up on the college campus where his father taught. Unlike his wife, Guha did not have youthful ideas about his future profession. Eventually, his father strongly suggested that Guha apply to the Indian Institute of Technology, where he grew up, and where he then earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering. In the mid-‘80s, the government of India announced an initiative to train 40 people for careers in computer software. “One day my dad says, ‘Hey, I think you should apply for that software training.’ “Why? I’m an engineer,” Guha responded. “I don’t know anything about computers.” His father replied, “This will be good because this is the future.” Guha became one of those 40. After a few years of training, he began applying to programs in India and the U.S. That’s when a college professor in Ames, Iowa called. “My dad picks up the phone and the both of them decide it is a good idea for Guha to go there.” Less than three months later, he was headed to Iowa State University, where he received his master’s degree in engineering science and mechanics. Next stop? Peoria, and a contract job at Caterpillar. RESPECTING TRADITION After high school, Aiyer went to Madurai Kamaraj University, receiving

her medical degree in 1989. She then moved to the United States to do her internal medicine residency at the University of Louisville. Before completing her residency in Kentucky, she met Guha. “We grew up in very traditional families. Tradition in India was arranged marriage,” said Aiyer. “So, our families introduced us. We had the option of saying we agreed to marriage or not. “We met. We said we like each other. So, the parents talked. The wedding was arranged and we got married,” said Aiyer. Today, the couple share a son, Prashant, now 30, who lives in Austin, Texas, and a daughter, Kripa, 26, residing in Peoria. Both are engineers. ‘LIFE HAPPENS’ Aiyer transferred her residency to Peoria and completed it at the University of Illinois College of Medicine here. Along the way, Guha caught “the entrepreneurial bug,” said Aiyer, and along with two partners started a new business that came to be CGN Global, where he remains the chairman and managing partner. She had planned after her residency to move her young family to Kentucky, where she had been invited to do a gastroenterology fellowship. ‘THE WORK THAT I DO BRINGS TOGETHER TWO OF WHAT I CONSIDER THE NOBLEST PROFESSIONS, BEING A PHYSICIAN AND TAKING CARE OF PEOPLE, AND BEING A TEACHER’ — Dr. Meenakshy Aiyer “Life happens, so we had some decisions to make,” said Aiyer. “I had a 3-year-old and a newborn and him (Guha) deciding to start a company. I remember walking into my then-chair’s office saying, ‘I know I have a fellowship, but I think I should probably see if I can stay in Peoria and … find a job.’”

Enjoying a night out

“When you don’t grow up in a place, you don’t know how things work.” None of that stopped Guha from founding two tech companies in Illinois, or Aiyer from becoming the regional dean for the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria (UICOMP). And none of that dissuaded the couple from helping to create a community event that has raised millions for Easterseals. That they accomplished all of that while learning the ins and outs of American culture, which can confound even those born and raised here, is what makes them members of Peoria Magazine’s Legends Class of 2023. FARAWAY ROOTS Aiyer, 58, grew up in Thiruvanantha puram, a city in southern India. Her

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