Monte Ahuja & Family Provide Ongoing Support for University Hospitals
– Monte Ahuja
UH Ahuja Medical Center is named for its generous benefactor, Monte Ahuja and his family, who donated a transformational gift of $30 million to UH’s five-year, $1.2 billion construction program, Vision 2010: The UH Difference, which began in 2005.
In addition to constructing the brand new, $298 million UH Ahuja Medical Center in Beachwood, the initiative included UH Seidman Cancer Center, a new, freestanding cancer hospital on UH’s main campus; multiple outpatient facilities in the community; and an expanded emergency department at UH Cleveland Medical Center.
The Ahuja family was inspired to support University Hospitals Vision 2010 because they understood the powerful impact it would have on healthcare delivery in the region and beyond. As a UH director and Chairman of the Board (2007–2011), Monte Ahuja was intimately aware of the vital role Vision 2010 would serve as the healthcare needs of the community changed and expanded over the next several decades. And, as a member of the UH Development Committee, Monte’s wife, Usha Ahuja, was an active participant with UH leadership throughout the Vision 2010 initiative.
The Ahuja family continued to support UH with a gift of over $10 million to help build the UH Rainbow Ahuja Center for Women & Children in Cleveland’s MidTown neighborhood. The center opened in 2018 and provides close-to-home, high-quality healthcare and social services for women and children in that community. The center is named in honor of the Ahuja family’s generosity.
The Ahuja Family Story
Monte Ahuja came to the United States in 1969 from India to attend graduate school at Ohio State University, where he earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. He then came to Cleveland where he completed his MBA at Cleveland State University (CSU), while working various jobs to support himself and his education. As part of his coursework at CSU, he developed the business plan for Transtar, which was profitable after the first year in 1975. Today, Transtar Industries is the leading worldwide distributor of quality transmission parts to the motor vehicle repair industry, with annual revenues of more than $550 million.
While in graduate school, Monte met Usha, a gold medalist for mathematics in India who came to the U.S. to complete her PhD in mathematics. They were married in 1979 and, in the decades that followed, Monte focused on building Transtar Industries and Usha taught math at the college level. Throughout their marriage, they have remained business partners and personal confidantes.
The Ahujas reside in the Cleveland area and remain active in ongoing business and philanthropic pursuits, balanced with time spent with their two daughters and four grandchildren.