Lucky Nagarajan, General Manager of Giken America Receives DFI President’s Award

Lucky Nagarajan, General Manager– engineering and business development of Giken America Corporation (president: Anthony Bertrams, Head Office: New York), won the President’s Award of the Deep Foundation Institute (DFI)＊, an international organization of the deep foundation industry. The award is to recognize the efforts and service of DFI members to advance the work of DFI.

Lucky was commended for her activities as Co-chair of the DFI of India Regional Chapter Support Committee, Chair of the Women in Deep Foundations Committee, and Founder of the Women in Deep Foundations chapters in India and the New York Metro area.

Her recognition is expected to demonstrate to the world the presence of Giken America through DFI's network. In addition, her future energetic work itself will lead to the promotion of the Giken Group in each country.

After winning this award, Lucky was elected to DFI Board of Trustees, and is expected to play an increasingly active role.

※ An international organization composed of project owners, contractors, engineers, manufacturers, and experts in deep foundation industry. It aims to develop the industry through research in deep foundation, their practical application, networking, dissemination, education, etc. Currently, more than 4000 members from 75 countries worldwide are members.

■DFI President’s Award
The award was established in 2016. The president elects DFI members who have provided efforts and service to advance the work of DFI. In 2018, our chairman, Akio Kitamura, was the first Japanese to win the Ben C. Garwick Award.

For more information on this award, please refer to the news release: https://www.giken.com/en/release/the-ceremony-of-the-2018-ben-c-gerwick-award-in-orlando-florida-usa/

■Lucky's achievements
DFI of India Regional Chapter Support Committee
The Indian Chapter was established in 2013. India is also Lucky's home country. She was appointed as Co-Chair in 2017, and since than as part of the support committee, she has committed to promoting new technologies and supporting deep foundation industry in India, providing technical assistance in the country's subway project, reviewing and providing guidance on contractual issues, and supporting the technical and personal development of students in local geotechnical engineering fields.

Chair of the Women in Deep Foundations Committee
The Committee is an organization that promotes the active participation of women in deep foundation industries. Lucky joined the committee in 2017 and actively contributed to various events and programs. She was elected Chair in 2020 and has worked with the committee that comprises of both men and women to provide support, foster, mentor and retain other women in the deep foundation industry.

Founder of the Women in Deep Foundations subgroups in India and the New York Metro area
　In 2018, she co-founded DFI Regional Women's Committees in India and New York, respectively, with the aim of promoting civil engineering, creating a support group for young and experienced engineers, mentoring opportunities, provide resources on non-technical topics such as negotiation, leadership etc. and active participation of women in local communities working in deep foundation industries. She is contributing to industry development by holding two events per year to refine leadership and presentation technologies, and supporting network building in the region. During the challenging COVID-19-time, group also launched a webinar series called “Converting Crisis into Opportunity-Different Perspective which has been extremely successful series.

■Career
With Bachelors of Civil Engineering from India and Masters in Civil Engineering from University of Texas at Arlington, U.S.A., her professional journey coursed her through gaining valuable experience with consulting engineering firms around the country. With design and engineering knowledge, she decided to explore steel industry as a business development manager. Her introduction to Giken happened during IFCEE 2018 conference in Orlando, Florida where she met Giken President, Mr. Akio Kitamura. Mr. Kitamura’s exceptional and inspiring story of Giken and unique business philosophy “to leave one’s mark” stole her heart. Her journey with Giken America started in 2019 and she plays an important role in promoting the adoption of press-in technologies by leveraging her strong network, such as consulting engineers, contractors, and governmental agencies.

■Future expectations
　Lucky has a broad pipeline with industry participants around the world, particularly in the United States, and has constant cutting-edge information on market trends. As we excel in inter-industry exchange, which is essential for the popularization of construction methods in the United States, Giken expects in Lucky to continue to be one of the key players promoting Construction Revolution overseas.

■Comment from Lucky Nagarajan

This award is an excellent chance to highlight Giken America Corporation. I thank DFI for giving me the opportunity to learn about the industry as an engineer and build networks that are useful to Giken.

As a member of Giken's North American team, we will work towards the goal of disseminating press-in technologies around the country and the globe where Giken methodologies will be seen as an engineering excellence, innovative and benefiting variety of projects. Eventually, I would like to introduce the technology to my home country India.