Mompreneurship: The Hustle

Sandhya Mukkamala is a Partner and Co-Founder at ASTUTE and an accomplished CPA in the State of California. She advises clients on R&D tax incentives, technical accounting, forensic audits, as well as works closely with clients’ CFOs/Controllers to develop stronger processes and controls within the business. She has more than 15 years of experience in audit and review engagements, and complex Merger & Acquisition due diligence audits for private and public accounting sectors.

Prior to founding Astute, Sandhya has served as M&A due diligence auditor for several years in a reputed public accounting firm in Silicon Valley. She has led the audit team in planning, structuring, and performed M&A due diligence activities across all functional areas such as financial, products, operations, and technology etc. She has also served as an external Auditor for various high-tech, automotive, retail, manufacturing, and service industries nationally and globally. As an acumen auditor, she helped companies uncover millions of dollars lost due to fraudulent activities or lack of control over processes, addressed complex accounting and financial reporting challenges.

Besides Auditing and Corporate finance, Sandhya has extensive experience in R&D tax credit consulting projects, performed numerous financial and M&A due diligence audits, resolved complex Accounting for Income tax provisions, SEC Reporting, internal controls testing and fraud testing over financial reporting for a multitude of industries from early startups to Pre-IPO to public companies nationally and globally.

Her unique understanding, problem-solving skills and providing reliable solutions have benefited clients in various industry sectors.

Sheetal Desai is an accomplished attorney and partner at The Trusted Lawyers, a Desai Law Group, PC. Her areas of practice include commercial transactions, real estate, corporate law and commercial litigation. A product of the University of Wisconsin Law School in Madison, Wisconsin, Sheetal began her professional career in Chicago. Two years later, she married Ritesh ("Rick") Desai and moved to the Atlanta area where she has been practicing law ever since.

Sheetal Desai has worked closely with many business and community leaders through her service as a public relations lead for BAPS Atlanta. She is the current President of the Southeast Chapter of the US Pan-Asian American Chamber of Commerce (USPAACC-SE). Sheetal has held various leadership position such as an advisory board member for United Way – Gwinnett and a member of the Community Outreach Board for Gwinnett County. Mrs. Desai has also volunteered her legal services for such causes as Asian Pacific American Council (APAC) and Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA).

Sheetal and her husband are the proud parents of three beautiful daughters. She enjoys cooking, exploring local and state parks, travelling and spending time with her family.

Christine Nuessle co-founded Bravium Consulting Inc in the summer of 2010 as she aimed to transform the way organizations provide enterprise services. Over the last eleven years she's grown Bravium into a mainstay in the field of Enterprise Service Management, boasting an Elite Tier ServiceNow partnership and a slew of awards from USPAACC, SECAF, Washington Business Journal, and Inc Magazine.

Ying McGuire is the Global Vice President at Technology Integration Group (TIG), a San Diego based Technology Solution Provider with 25 offices in US, China, Canada, and a global partner network covering 4 continents. She also serves as a board advisor to Empower Billion Women 2020. Ms. McGuire came to TIG from Dell Technologies. As a Corporate Leader in a Fortune 500 company, she built and sustained high impact global initiatives across many functions and mentored numerous entrepreneurs and CEOs.

Ms. McGuire holds a variety of leadership roles in the community. She was appointed by the United States Secretary of Commerce to the United States Investment Advisory Council. She serves as the first woman chair of an advisory board of the International Trade Center, a joint agency of United Nation and WTO based in Switzerland, and is currently a board member of the Southern California Minority Supplier Development Council, and a founding board member of the Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce (GAACC). She also co-founded the Texas-China Investment Summit.

MEA Magazine named Ms. McGuire Twenty-Five Influential Woman in Business. DiversityBusiness.com named Ying as an “America’s Top Diversity Advocate. Minority Business USA recognized Ying as one of its “Best of The Decade”. Ms. McGuire was a featured speaker at many regional, national and international conferences including the World Export Forum.

Born and raised in China. Ms. McGuire received a Bachelor’s degree from Nankai University in Tianjin, China. She immigrated to the U.S. and received a Masters’ degree in Business Administration of International Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management in Phoenix, Arizona.