International Tea Importers

ITI founder Devan Shah grew up in comparative privilege in southern India in the city of Coimbatore, acquiring an easy familiarity with many of Indias religious traditions and languages. Summer vacations from school were spent high in the cool Nilgiri mountains near Coonoor on the tea estate managed by his older sisters husband. In college he took a degree in business, and dutifully but swiftly climbed the rungs of the tea profession, starting as an assistant to a south India tea broker. Then, like many another Indian professional in his mid-20s, he emigrated to the USA to start a new life. The American tea trade in 1989 was sleepy, just barely beginning to wake up to its potential. Though Devan thrived in the electronics import-export business, he knew inside himself this was not right livelihood for a born tea man. In 1990--the same year he married Reena Mahesh of Los Angeles-- he started India Tea Importers.