AAPI Heritage Month Spotlight: Archana Ragothaman

In celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we are shining a spotlight on Check Point’s AAPI employees. We sat down with Archana Ragothaman, Head of Sales Engineering, US Global Accounts, to learn about how she honors her heritage and what AAPI Heritage Month means to her.

How do you honor your heritage?

It is very important to be authentic to be a good leader – and to be authentic, you need to embrace your heritage. I honor my heritage by observing various Indian holidays like Diwali, cooking Indian food for my non-Indian friends, and by encouraging people to visit India. I also train in Indian classical dance and have performed for social causes, as I believe every form of dance is a gateway to expression.

Why is it important to celebrate AAPI Heritage Month and what does it mean to you?

For me, celebrating AAPI Heritage Month means celebrating the diversity of cultures. The world is a lot more polarized than it used to be, and I believe we can all understand each other better if we acknowledge and appreciate other cultures. It’s remarkable how much similarity we can find despite our diversity. AAPI Heritage Month is about celebrating our hyphenated identity of being Indian-American, Korean-American, Japanese-American, and so on.

What is something special about your culture?
One of the life lessons I got from one of my favorite professors at university was to “live your life by picking the good aspects of each culture.” What’s special about Indian culture is the ideology of karma (Taylor Swift song, anyone?). It’s the idea that we are defined by our actions and every action, good or bad, has consequences. In the balance sheet of life, we should strive to have good karma.

What accomplishments are you most proud of?

I’m passionate about encouraging girls to pursue careers in STEM. I’m proud of some of the efforts I have dedicated towards this goal, including hiring the first female Associate Sales Engineer at a previous company, serving on the board of an ERG created to further women’s careers, giving a company-wide presentation on the topic of equal pay, and advocating for better maternity benefits, to name a few.