Patti Tripathi Saris to Suits

REAL
M A G A Z I N E
Patti Tripathi
Saris to Suits
Patti Tripathi Saris to Suits
Setting Anchor in Paradise
By Lalaena Gonzalez-Figueroa | Photography by Giovanni Lunardi
It’s not an easy existence, one lived
successfully within the chasm of two
uniquely different cultures. Boundaries
are defined and broken, traditions
challenged and history re-written in
the course of life’s journeys. For Patti
Tripathi, the experience has been one
marked by grace, determination, and a
commitment to success.
She was born in a rural village near the
Nepalese border in India, delivered by a
midwife at her maternal grandmother’s
home and carefully named Pratibha,
which in Hindi means “Talent.”
Her father, who in his early years
studied in a roofless school, became a
Commonwealth Senior Academic Staff
Fellow and was invited to the United
Kingdom as a visiting professor at
different universities.
On the way to Manhattan
to organize a business
conference of executives
and thought leaders of
Indian diaspora.
The transition was not easy; the
Fellowship wouldn’t cover the
cost of transporting three children
overseas, so 10 year-old Patti and her
brother were tapped to stay behind
with relatives in North Indian city
of Varanasi. “My Mother must’ve
been heartbroken after leaving us
there because at the eleventh hour I
remember being at the train station
in Gorakhpur with a lot of people
waving goodbye and we were on
our way to New Delhi,” she recalls.
“My parents had to borrow money.
The last minute change created
a lot of logistical problems with
paperwork and housing abroad.”
Two years after relocating to the
UK where the children were mostly
home schooled, the family arrived
in the United States, settling in
Indiana. Midwest living soon
became the norm for the young girl
who hadn’t seen a television set for
the first decade of her life and could
not speak English.
woman, Patti was expected to enter
into an arranged marriage and take
her place within a highly patriarchal
society. “It was bad enough that
I challenged my father’s plans,”
she recalls the frustrating process
of being introduced to dozens and
dozens of Brahmin MDs after college
graduation. “I wanted to marry for
love and stand on my own two feet.
But pursuing a career in broadcast
news appeared to be a bizarre career
choice for my physicist father.”
They were her biggest well-wishers,
she acknowledges, but she felt
tugged with a foot in two cultures.
Patti enrolled at the University of
Notre Dame as a pre-med major,
seeking to fulfill her parents’
expectations their sacrifices would
lead to her choosing what they
deemed a secure career. But she
longed for something different.
Writing for the University’s
newspaper “The Observer,” she
says, was “more appealing than
dissection, organic chemistry and
biology.” Running for class President
and active in volunteerism, she was
chosen one of 12 most admired
women on a predominantly Catholic
campus. Eventually Patti garnered
internships with local media outlets
and upon graduation, accepted a
position with a major metropolitan
newspaper, The Arizona Republic.
Her tenacity propelled her to knock
when doors simply wouldn’t open.
Patti’s talent was undeniable; as a
writer, she found work at an ABC
affiliate in Phoenix before joining
a radio station as an anchor. Her
heart, though, was to work on air for
television news. It took persistence:
after being rejected by a South
Bend-Elkhart ABC affiliate five
times in two years, Patti was finally
given the chance to prove her mettle
as a reporter and fill-in anchor. After
18 months she moved to RaleighDurham, North Carolina, where
her exotic appeal was called into
question. “I was asked to Anglicize
my name (to Patti) and cut my hair,”
she recalls. There were more subtle
changes, as well. “I had worked very
hard to speak with a Midwestern flat
accent, but it was challenging to lose
the formality that comes from being
of Indian heritage and the daughter
of an esteemed senior scientist and
Notre Dame faculty,” she says.
“Because there was nobody on air
like me at the time, I had to mask
my ethnicity to earn the approval of
station managers.”
The decision to chart her own
professional course wasn’t without
its consequences. As an Indian
The sacrifice paid off. After a year in
NC, Patti was accepted for an on-air
position with the CNN News Group.
Fiercely independent and motivated
by an unwavering drive, she later
began anchoring for CNN Headline
News becoming the network’s first
(and still perhaps the only) IndianAmerican anchor. Her avid viewers
started a “Patti Tripathi Fan Club”
which is still online. After more than
seven years there, her talent caught
the attention of other networks, and
Patti eventually capitalized on the
opportunity to go into management
in Atlanta as the news director and
main anchor of a national news
startup called the American News
Network. Within six months Patti’s
newscast was appearing on over 300
independent stations nationwide
and in Canada, but she relinquished
her position wanting to help her
dear mother who was hospitalized
in late 2004. “She was only fifty
six years old when she died three
weeks later,” Patti reveals. “It was
incredibly difficult to lose her. She
was the one who always said, ‘You
can do it!’ She believed in me and
inspired me to be my best.”
It was a life-changing event that
would once again alter the course of
Patti’s professional destiny. When
the time was right, she reinvented
herself, moving to Washington, D.C.
to work as the Executive Director
of the U.S-India Political Action
Committee, a non-partisan lobbying
group that allowed her to connect
with
high-profile
individuals
including future Louisiana Governor
Bobby Jindal. She left that position
to explore entrepreneurial pursuits
after she became one of 11 applicants
accepted into the inaugural TiESmith Entrepreneur Mentorship
Fellows program at the Smith
School of Business at the University
of Maryland, and the only female in
her class. As part of that program
she incorporated TriPath Media in
2006, a boutique international
Wi-Fi, cell phone and Skype, Patti
connects to her clients virtually from
the deck of her bayside condo (What’s
missing she jokes is a local friend with
a yacht, but this is not too bad!).
marketing consulting firm with
mostly tech companies as clients
offering services in media relations
and training, marketing and event
planning. Her goal is to assist clients
in raising positive awareness of their
organizations, on local, national or
international scales. Her business
won “Best of PR” in Arlington
County, VA while she continued to
freelance as a journalist.
Patti’s unplanned stay in Sarasota
she hopes is “by some auspicious
universal design. What better place
to anchor than in paradise for a
mostly life-lone nomad,” she smiles.
“Looking out at the Bay, the beautiful
sailboats, and the glorious sunsets as
I work virtually gives me tranquility.
Simply WOW.” Preferring a largely
vegetarian diet she enjoys being able
to bike to the farmers market and
to downtown coffee/pastry houses.
It’s an ideal place to set her anchor;
with its vibrant arts and cultural
community, proximity to major East
Coast cities with a non-stop flights,
and worldwide appeal, Sarasota
offers a wealth of amenities and
conveniences. And this year she’s
thrilled to be in Florida to root for
the Fighting Irish for the National
Championship in Miami as she did
in Tempe, AZ in 1988.
Her international savvy is tempered
by a down-to-earth appeal. Patti
connects well with a range of
clients, from award-winning French
chef Jose Martinez of Maison
Blanche, to organizing workshops
with nationally known journalists,
to a Maryland-based MD, PhD
who has developed a blood DNA
test to determine paternity, to a
range of clients seeking crisis
communications consulting to pro
bono PR support for charitable
causes promoting education for girls
in India. Patti’s approach to PR is
unique; as a journalist, she’s acutely
aware of the elements involved in
gaining media exposure. “I search
for interesting story angles, media
‘pitches’, and write press releases
that will capture reporters’ attention
and be deemed newsworthy,”
she explains. “I love putting the
spotlight on others now by training
them ‘how to walk the walk, talk
the talk, and look the part’ very
much like I had to do for myself.”
Whether a client is facing a frontline
media crisis with a 20/20 interview
or is launching a new product on the
Today Show, or is terrified to address
a large audience, TriPath Media’s
insight into the world of media
paves the path to their success.
In addition to providing media
relations and media training, TriPath
Media also offers a comprehensive
Brahmin Vegetarian’s Bounty: Biking
to the farmers market to choose fresh
fruits/vegetables (and occasionally
shoots down wheat grass with ginger)
then Patti stops for coffee and pastry
— one of her favorite Sarasota
Saturday activities.
With tiara, Mom’s purse and Kajal to ward off the
“evil eye” -- Patti is poised to be an American
news anchor. Her brother, in their mothers arms
has become a respected serial entraprenuer and
inventor.
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2
3
5
1- Learning how she can balance a bottle without
holding it on Isle Elephanta off Mumbai Harbour
on a return visit to India to see relatives in 1997.
2- Patti talks to client and award-winning Chef
Jose Martinez of Maison Blanche about an
upcoming international culinary event and his
seven-course New Year’s menu.
3- Biking through parts of Europe, Patti stops in
Amsterdam on her way to Anne Frank’s House
and Van Gogh Museum. Reading the Diaries
as a young girl and then seeing it in person
4
put the Holocaust into perspective beyond her
imagination.
4- “American Dream Come True”: Persistence
paid off. Her first anchor photo in Indiana used for
promotional purposes.
5- TV host Mario Lopez and Patti at a black-tie
Queen Latifah and Tony Bennett concert in Miami,
a gala affair that was partly sponsored by nonprofit “Poonam Tripathi Foundation” founded by
Patti’s brother in their Mother’s memory to benefit
children and education.
“Touchdown Jesus”
Irish Patti on Game Days:
A devout fan of alma mater
Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish
she’s rooting for a National
Championship in Miami as she
did at the Fiesta Bowl in 1988
in Tempe, Arizona (At Irish
Pub & Grille on Main).
array of services designed to contributor to REAL Magazine.
promote and improve business She’ll cover an array of events,
performance such as event planning, offering insight into the luxury
awards and speaking engagement lifestyles throughout the region.
programs, video production and “What a fantastic way to get better
voiceover support. Patti taps into rooted in the community and to make
her extensive network of contacts some good friends,” she says. “And
to secure interviews on national and I may now have fancy occasions
international platforms, ensuring to wear my Mother’s beautifully
that her clients achieve maximum bejeweled and elegant saris.”
exposure. With Wi-Fi connection
and cell phone, her technical prowess An enigmatic presence, Patti is as
allows her to work efficiently and comfortable in a traditional sari
to maintain communications with as she is in a tailored suit. It wasn’t
clients around the world. She hopes always this way, though. “I used to
to get her business (8a) certified as be embarrassed when my mom went
a minority-owned, woman-owned out in her sari,” she recalls. “There
venture to facilitate bidding for was a time when I just wanted to fit
government contracts down the in.” Today she revels in her diverse
heritage,
acknowledging
that
road.
embracing her rich culture is “part of
Locally, Patti looks forward to growing up and accepting who you
building her presence as a regular are.” And now, New York to New
Delhi, Boston to Bangalore, Chicago
to Chennai, Indian-Americans
and India are on the radar unlike
two decades ago when this “Talent”
entered the world of television news.
Patti Tripathi
TriPath Media
888 Boulevard of the Arts, Suite 907
Sarasota, FL 34236
(703) 371.2007
[email protected]
www.TriPathMedia.com