Raj Shingadia has a rule: He only does projects that are “cool, fun, and sexy.” Otherwise, he says, what’s the point?
His projects include designing and installing breathtaking water worlds through Southeast Aquariums & MRC and set design for movies through a company he co-founded, Alchemy, which has been involved in several movies, including the Oscar-nominated Black Panther.
“The biggest lesson I can take away is that you can’t be too rigid in your journey,” Shingadia AB ’01, BS ’03 says. “When we’re laser-focused on the destination, we often miss the journey to it.”
Shingadia moved from the United Kingdom to Atlanta at the age of 11 and jokes that he was encouraged to pursue one of two career options: doctor or lawyer. But the art that he used as a creative outlet slowly became a focus.
In high school, Shingadia spent a weekend at the University of Georgia through an art program. He even had his artwork in the governor’s mansion. In college, he graduated with degrees in philosophy and psychology.
“I didn’t become a psychologist or doctor, but I had to look outside of the boxes of my degrees and say, ‘What can I really use these skills for? How can I apply them to the world?’”
For Shingadia, those worlds are underwater or in front of a camera.
He began creating aquariums simply because he wanted one in his home. After researching the best ways to install and maintain an aquarium, he believed the companies he was considering were doing it wrong.
Companies were trying to “apply small aquarium methodology to large aquariums, which doesn’t work,” Shingadia explains.
The technology to do so didn’t exist until Shingadia and his long-time business partner created it.
Since then, they’ve designed aquariums for clients ranging from former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg to rapper and actor Ice-T and his TV personality wife, Coco Austin. They’ve also partnered with hospitals, businesses, zoos, and public aquariums like the Georgia Aquarium, and their work has even been seen in the movie Venom.
Shingadia approaches the industry from a variety of creative angles. His company MRC manufactures aquariums for businesses and private customers, and then Southeast Aquariums installs the tanks and underwater scenes. Shingadia’s also the chief executive officer of Reef Builders, a news hub that covers the aquatics industry.
Along his journey, he’s partnered with the California Academy of Sciences, a research institution and natural history museum in San Francisco, to create a device that allows fish from depths of 400 feet to be brought to the surface alive, which has allowed for more research opportunities for the institute.
It’s also an opportunity for people to understand and appreciate ocean creatures. When visitors can see and experience an animal, they’re more likely to care about the health, safety, and protection of that animal, Shingadia believes.
Of the highlights of his career thus far, Shingadia says the excitement he gets from his three sons sits at the top.
They “geeked out” when they learned about Shingadia’s involvement in their favorite movies, and they express the same enthusiasm when he points out aquariums he’s designed.
“Everyone wants their kids to think their parents are the greatest and coolest, but past a certain age, we’re hardly cool to them any longer,” he says. “Seeing their eyes beaming with joy and hearing them brag to their friends about the aquariums and films I worked on has kept me in the cool category.”
