India Inc’s top women leaders
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) recently appointed Satyawati Berera as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the professional services firm, making her the first woman to head one of the Big Four accounting firms in India. Her appointment has proven once again that Indian women are breaking the age old adage that it’s a man’s world up there. With their commitment, ability to juggle a number of responsibilities and natural leadership traits, more women are breaking the glass ceiling and occupying the top spots in their respective fields.
Here, we salute the women leaders of India Inc:
Chanda Kochhar: Ranked as the 43rd most powerful woman in the world, by Forbes, the CEO-Managing Director of ICICI, Chanda Kochhar holds an MBA from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies. After joining ICICI in 1984 as a management trainee, Kochhar worked her way up the ladder, and has been instrumental in turning around the bank post the recession of 2008, and shaping the Indian retail banking sector. She was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2010 for her services to the banking sector.
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw: Entrepreneur and the Chairman and Managing Director of the biotechnology company, Biocon, based in Bangalore, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw has been ranked as the 85th most powerful woman in the world, and is amongst the most powerful women in India. She received the Padmashri in 1989 and Padma Bhushan in 2005. Post completing her bachelors in Zoology from Mount Carmel College in Bangalore, Shaw studied fermentation science and trained to be a brewmaster, way back in 1974 in Melbourne – she was the only woman in her class. Shaw set up Biocon, which is known to make low cost medicines for various chronic diseases, in 1978, in the garage of her home in Bangalore, with a seed capital of Rs. 10,000. Today, she is one of the wealthiest self made women in India, earning around Rs 1.6 crores, as of Fiscal year 2015.
Arundhati Bhattacharya: The first woman to be the chairperson of the State Bank of India, and to lead an India based Fortune 500 company, Arundhati Bhattacharya has been listed as the 30th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes in 2015. She joined SBI in 1977 at the age of 22, as a probationary officer and, through her years with the bank, has been involved in the setting up of several new companies and initiatives, such as SBI General Insurance, SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Fund and SBI SG Global Securities Services, as well as launching their IT platforms such as mobile banking.
Aruna Jayanthi: The Chief Executive Officer of Capgemini India, Jayanthi is an alumnus of Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies in Mumbai. She has been ranked the third most powerful business woman in India in 2012 and has recently been promoted as the Global BPO head of the company, overseeing a business that brings around USD 700 million in revenue for the French IT major. Jayanthi has over two decades of experience in the IT services industry.
Preetha Reddy: The Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals chain, the largest healthcare conglomerate in India, Dr Preetha Reddy is considered as one of the pioneering women in the healthcare sector. She headed the Hospital’s efforts to be accredited by the Joint Commission International (JCI), the global gold standard for quality and patient safety, and has helped introduce the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare providers (NABH), with the Government of India.
Naina Lal Kidwai: Previously the Chairperson of HSBC India, Nainal Lal Kidwai retired on December 31st to pursue her interest in the field of women’s empowerment and sanitation. She was also previously the first woman President of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), till December 2013. Kidwai holds a bachelors degree in Economics from the Delhi University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. The chartered accountant was the first woman to head the functioning of a foreign bank in India.
Neelam Dhawan: The Managing Director of Hewlett-Packard India, Dhawan is one of the most powerful women in the IT field, and among the first to head an IT major in the country. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi and a Masters in Business Administration from the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University. When HP had lost its leadership in the Indian market in 2012, Dhawan helped bring the company back into the top position when it won a contract to supply notebooks to school students in UP.
Indu Jain: The chairperson of the media conglomerate, Bennet, Coleman & Co, Indu Jain has been ranked as one of the most richest and powerful women in the country, by Forbes. She is also the founder president of the Ladies wing of the FICCI and has been spearheading various developmental programmes. Age is not a factor for this 75 year old philanthropist as she passionately takes up various social causes under the Times Foundation, an organisation that she has founded.
