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Savan’s a martial artist and antifascist with a family history of rebellion. His Great-Grand Uncle, Kishanchand Bhatia, was a member of Gandhi’s Quit-India movement, and son of the prior Police Superintendent of the Northwestern Territories. When his mother utilized family connections to free him, Kishanchand argued his way back into prison, in zealous solidarity with the cause. Savan himself has fought for his life against white-supremacists several times, from Illinois Nazis, to the Klan cell 45 minutes from his home. He’s whistle-blown on misuse of corporate funds, ousted predators in the ‘Con scene, generally suffering no fools, pedants, nor hypocrisy. He reserves a vitriolic black-spot on his soul, for non-intersectional feminism and other forms of white supremacy. Secondly, he drags entropy-of-standards in event-production and modern media as loudly as his considerable voice can reach. This dovetails with the third ‘tine’ of his personal crusades, against the infestation of blunted and deeply unexamined groupthink, that leads to cultish behavior in the Left, just as much as the Right (albeit far less weaponized). “The Regressive Left,” with all its ghoulish corporate complicity and rage-profiteering, rife with disingenuous shills, represents as significant a threat, albeit a far subtler one.
Savan Gupta
Editor-In-Chief. Founder. Public Speaker.
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” – George Bernard Shaw
A vetted recruiter, cross-trainer and project manager with more than a decade of experience in financial services and information technologies, Savan has cut his teeth at such storied institutions as UBS Investment Bank, Alliance Bernstein, G.E. Commercial Finance and Charles Schwab. Supplementing this with consulting for a number of pharmaceutical, event management and media production firms since 1999, Savan’s had a robust career, addressing each role with his focus on operational efficiency, team building and process management. Despite a focus on career and business, he continues to pursue his higher education, most recently through a joint degree program at the Harvard Extension school.
Born in Boston, but raised in Mumbai until ‘85, Savan was enrolled in “Bombay Scottish” elementary, adding, subtracting, multiplying and partially bilingual by age five. Adjusting to American standards upon returning to the states, Savan’s early years consisted of scholastic camps, and a private school in Greenwich before matriculating to public schools in Stamford, CT. Extracurricular activities and exacting standards curated his existence and he graduated Stamford High School’s class of ’99, with the maximum allowed Honors and AP courses, and National Merit Scholar’s “Commended Student” status. His education took a decidedly irregular path since, as reflected by his prodigious work history, culminating in his current enrollment, while running a nation-spanning firm.
Regarding fandom, Savan attributes most of his blessings, to engagement with all things geeky. From his first five years in Mumbai, India, Savan learned the context for American English from Ralph Bakshi’s Spider-Man cartoons, and watching Star Trek reruns with his father. Years spent playing trading card games built his acumen for finance and resource management. Theater, roleplaying, and martial arts helped guide an awkward, introverted youth into an accomplished and commanding public speaker, a leader, and a mentor. Combine that with over a decade of experience in the live-events scene assisting over two-hundred shows spanning the continental United States, and his acumen is self-evident. Having blended his love of fandom and his professional expertise to excel in an array of projects, across geographic arenas, industries and demographics, his portfolio is considerable, from LARPs in Utah to New Jersey, to assisting as the Director of Marketing for a Medical-First response non-profit, to producing videos assets and branding for gaming kickstarters.
Today, Savan wears many hats, including Professional Emcee, Author, and Game Developer. As President & CEO of Steam-Funk Studios and director of The Living Multiverse’s six related performance troupes, he has mentored generations of gamers and improvisational actors, as well as RPG and speculative fiction content contributors. Working hand-in-hand with game designers, event producers, and non-profit organizations, he has created and implemented an array of nationwide marketing campaigns. Other projects have ranged from standup comedy, LARP and tabletop RPG production, presenting as a keynote speaker at countless events across the country, and even shepherding the launch of this very publication as Editor-in-Chief of The Unconventional.
When not portraying a swarthy Bollywood “cover” of a certain armored “Genius, Billionaire, Philanthropist, Playboy”, an obstinate Dwarven heir to a mountain kingdom, or a beleaguered space station commander getting different delegations to play nice, Savan’s known for picking fights with long odds, unpacking inept and corrupt business practices, and otherwise causing a ruckus. A scathing, unapologetic raspberry that speaks truth to power, he looks forward to industrial-grade feather-ruffling in larger markets.
“The thing about being short, brown and marginalized is one gains a reputation as a Giant-slayer, for constantly punching upward. Shoryuken!”