When COVID cases spiked in India last fall and vaccinations were administered only haltingly, Wendy McGuire, a longtime Coronado resident with a family legacy of activism, knew what she had to do. As co-president of Indevia, a local accounting firm with three Coronado employees and 70 employees living and working in densely-populated city of Mumbai, McGuire felt a responsibility to her young staff, a group of accomplished Indian men and women who were often the sole financial providers for themselves and extended family.
She was going to get them vaccinated, no matter what it took.
“You do what you have to do,” says McGuire, who runs the company with her husband Dev Purkayastha, a former venture capitalist and Baker Scholar at Harvard University. “I don’t feel there is a choice. You do what you have to do to help people.”
Thanks to the avid planning of her HR staff, the assistance of Indevia’s insurance company, donations from the company’s U.S. based clients, the help of Surana Hospital in India and two local Coronado medical professionals, the company hosted a successful COVID vaccination clinic on June 13, effectively administering vaccinations to more than 420 people–free of charge. The clinic, which was hosted by the Mirage Hotel in Mumbai, not only vaccinated the entire Indevia staff and many of their immediate and extended family, but also contract workers, a nonprofit café run by former street children, as well as the Mirage Hotel staff.
“I would like to say thank you to Indevia’s HR Team and everyone out there for organizing the vaccination drive,” wrote Komal Dalvi, an Indevia employee. “In tough times when there is a shortage of vaccines, thank you for arranging this for me and my family.”
Mumbai, located on India’s west coast, is the country’s largest city at over 20 million residents. With the total case tally of more than 30 million, India is now only behind the United States in reporting more than 33 million COVID cases. The country is also only the third in the world to record more than 300,000 deaths – behind the US and Brazil, according to the BBC. To make matters worse, experts caution the reported cases and deaths in India mark only a fraction of the real number.
The vaccine, which was available only haltingly to older patients in late January, wasn’t available to everyone from ages 18-45 until May. But then, the country shut down vaccination clinics and went back to a full-on lockdown, according to McGuire.
“They said no vaccines, nothing for anyone, period,” said McGuire. Unfortunately, she said the Indevia extended family did suffer COVID infections and deaths, which was “devastating.” By the time the vaccination program resumed and Indevia organized its clinic for June 13, the employees knew just how much it meant.
“I’m profoundly grateful,” said Dipesh Borade. “Let’s all get vaccinated and get back to a normal life as soon as possible.”
A Legacy of Advocacy and Birth of a Company
Helping others has been a way of life for McGuire’s family. Her grandmother assisted with the “Kindertransport” in Germany in World War II, which effectively smuggled thousands of refugee Jewish children from Nazi Germany to England between 1938 and 1940, while her other grandmother was a medical historian and sculptor, focusing on great figures in medical history. A 1973 Coronado High School graduate and daughter of two physicians,–Dad delivered roughly “10,000 babies” in Coronado and mom was the hotel doctor at the Hotel del Coronado and later the first anesthesia resident at County Hospital in San Diego-she attended Whitman College with the intention of becoming a doctor herself. But after she melted a thermometer and “almost blew up a lab,” her focus changed.
“I thought maybe I would have been a good doctor, but maybe I would be a good something else,” McGuire laughs.
McGuire shifted her major to German, joined the Army, and after being the first female honor graduate of Officer Candidate School at Ft. Benning, became one of the first four females to be commissioned in air defense artillery, a combat arms branch, in 1979.
When she met her husband Dev, he already had a successful career as a venture capitalist. A “math genius,” according to McGuire, Dev had, as a young man, previously earned the Gold Medal on his Chartered Accounting test in India, beating out more than three million people. He earned a spot in Harvard’s MBA program, but with no scholarship, so cobbled together enough tuition money to attend, later earning the Baker Scholarship.
“Even when we go back to the reunions, his whole cohort says he was the smartest guy,” beams McGuire. “He’s just very, very good at analysis and concepts.”
When it looked like the war in Iraq was heating up and McGuire knew she would be deployed, leaving Dev behind with nothing to do, their new accounting company was born.
“He said, ‘you know, I’ve always wanted to do something in India, but I’ve always had partners who have said no,’” remembers McGuire. “I told him, ‘Well, now you have a partner now that says yes.’”
After “a couple” whiskeys in Edinburgh, Scotland, McGuire’s brother came up with a company name. He combined “India” with “Dev” to create “Indevia.” The idea, according to McGuire, was to standardize accounting to make it as efficient as possible, to overlay the concepts of Toyota, Lean principles, Six Sigma, process improvement and automation, and apply those concepts to accounting.
“By the time we found our niche, it made perfect sense. Our specialty is multi unit franchises, specifically quick-service restaurants, which you and I know as fast food,” she says. “What we do with accounting is what they do with food.”
The company, which is headquartered in Coronado in the building at 1001 B Avenue, has three Coronado employees, with the other 70 living in and working out of the office in Mumbai.
The office that was quickly shut down when COVID hit in spring of 2020.
COVID Makes its Mark
“I had been to India in February and March of 2020,” remembers McGuire. “I told my employees you need a plan if the trains stop. They said, ‘We will give you a plan next week.’ I said, ‘No, I need a plan tomorrow.’”
To their credit, says McGuire, they put everything in place to allow the 70 employees—most of whom lived at least a two-hour train ride away—to work successfully from home.
Sure enough, on one Friday there was a lockdown, and by Monday, everyone was working from their home office, according to McGuire. Everything was bubble-wrapped and shipped in vans, including new computers, surge protectors, chairs, etc.
“In the case of the pandemic, many of their brothers and their sisters, parents and grandparents, all lost their jobs. But our people were able to keep working.”
And they are still working, from home. McGuire doesn’t think they will be back in an office until January of 2022. The entire experience reminds her of the feeling of being a brigade commander during the last Gulf War, when her units were deployed without her higher HQ.
“The feeling was similar, since I was unable to get to India. The problems they had were not solvable by money,” she remembers. “Nothing remote could help them.”
But McGuire knew that one thing could really help her Indian employees: a COVID vaccine.
A Shot at Saving Lives
McGuire says in October of 2020 when they learned there was going to be a vaccine, the company started setting aside money to vaccinate their staff and family members. But the vaccine was slow to arrive, and only available to the older population. And most people in India weren’t that worried about it anyway.
“They were starting to close down clinics and they thought they had the virus under control,” said McGuire.
But the opposite happened. Soon, the area had some of the worst numbers of anywhere in India. McGuire knew they had to secure the vaccine, and fast. But the pricing was extraordinarily expensive. For a 500-person minimum, the quotes were $24,000, according to McGuire.
Still, they forged ahead with the plan.
The Mirage Hotel in Mumbai, which was sitting mostly empty, offered to host the space for the clinic for free, even providing snacks and drinks. So Indevia offered to vaccinate the Mirage staff at no cost. This also meant that when Wendy eventually returned to her “home away from home” at the Mirage, she knew that the staff, who were like her second family, would be vaccinated.
“We are in the lifeboat business, and we are not throwing anybody out of the lifeboat,” says McGuire. “That’s the deal.”
Bringing the Clinic to Life
By early June, McGuire learned that the date was scheduled for Saturday, June 13. However, there were still concerns about getting the vaccination, especially with the older family members. McGuire enlisted the help of Coronado physician Dr. Asha Devereaux, and Cathy McJannet, RN, who helped run the Coronado Community vaccination clinic, which gave more than 50,000 shots.
“These two medical professionals, both also former military officers themselves, did a Q&A on Zoom for all of our employees, and that alone got so many people to join the clinic,” says McGuire. “This information session did wonders for our employees and their families to provide facts and honestly answer direct concerns that they expressed.
McGuire says they wanted to get as many people vaccinated as possible.
“We asked them, do you have anyone on your floor or apartment? Any neighbors or friends? The more the merrier. Just bring them,” remembers McGuire.
The best part? Not only was Indevia able to fund the first vaccination shots free of charge, but they are slated to offer the second in the weeks ahead.
“We were just handed this gift and this opportunity to bring people together, people who wanted help, and people who needed help,” says McGuire. “And I think for the young people to be able to help their parents, and their grandparents, that was really one of the blessings.”
For more information on Indevia Accounting, job openings, Indevia scholarships at Southwestern College or other information, see www.indevia.com.
