A brigade of Indian women CEOs and MDs have been inspiring generations of women to dream big and believe in themselves.
From Capgemini to Tinder, a long list of Indian women are today leading global companies as CEOs, MDs etc and showing the entire world that women are equally capable of calling the shots and taking companies to newer heights under their leadership.
After serving as the first female, first Asian, youngest ever CHRO at Unilever for nearly six years, Leena Nair recently occupied the top seat as Global CEO at French luxury fashion house Chanel in January 2022. A true visionary, Nair has always been a champion for change and also a firm believer in equality and inclusivity. In 2021, she was honoured with the Great British Business Woman Role Model of the year award.
Another immensely inspiring woman on this list is Kiran Mazumdar Shaw. She is a first-generation entrepreneur and global business leader with over forty years of experience in biotechnology.?
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw founded India's largest biopharma company Biocon in 1978 from her garage in India. Kiran has been a proud recipient of a long list of awards, the biggest being the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awards. She even received the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2020 and the EY Entrepreneur of the Year India Award in 2019.?
One woman who has been responsible for revolutionizing the dating world in the millennial generation is Sharmistha Dubey. She is the CEO of Match Group, which owns online dating platforms like Tinder, Match, OkCupid, Hinge and other online dating platforms.?
Her journey with the Match Group began in 2006, where she handled multiple roles. She was made the Chief Operating Officer of Tinder in 2017. Dubey currently serves as the CEO of the Match Group. Unsurprisingly, she was chosen as the Tech Leader of the Year at Vogue Women of The Year 2021.
Born in India and raised in the US and Canada, Sonia Syngal has been taking American clothing and accessories retailer GAP Inc to greater heights as its CEO. She has been one of the few female CEOs to be included in the Fortune 500 list.?
Amongst her long list of contributions, Sonia is credited for using graphic tees by Gap Inc as a platform for young women to raise their voices.
Since joining Gap Inc. in 2004, she has served in key leadership and general management roles including Managing Director for the company's Europe business, Senior VP for Gap Inc.ĄŻs International Division as well as International Outlet division.???????
One of the youngest on the list is 38-years-old Anjali Sud.?
Before getting promoted to her current role of CEO in 2017, Anjali Sud worked as the general manager and head of marketing at online video platform Vimeo since joining the company in 2014.?
Born in Michigan to Indian immigrant parents, Sud had previously worked in companies like Amazon, Time Warner, and Sagent Advisors. She is also a designated Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum since 2019.
In 2019, Padmasree founded Fable, a curated reading platform focused on mental wellness, in 2019. Previously she had also worked as the CTO of Cisco and Motorola, besides being the CEO of NIO USA, an electric car company, till 2018. As per her Linkedin profile, she is also a member of the board of directors at Microsoft and Spotify.?
After being born and raised in Vijayawada, she studied chemical engineering from IIT Delhi and did her masterĄŻs from Cornell University.? Warrior even featured in ForbesĄŻ list of? 100 most powerful women in the world.
Currently the head of French IT company CapgeminiĄŻs business in Canada and Latin America, Aruna Jayanthi has also served as the CEO of Capgemini India amongst several other leadership positions in the company.?
She has been with Capgemini since early 2000 and has also served various prestigious positions like the Chairperson of the Board of Governors of the National Institute of Technology Calicut, Independent Director of SBI Capital Markets, and member of the Executive Council of Nasscom.?
Aruna Jayanthi had also recently been included in Fortune IndiaĄŻs list of 50 most powerful Indian women, on the 43rd position.
Vanitha Narayanan is largely credited for making India one of the fastest-growing markets for IBM. Prior to her current role as MD of the IBM-Verizon relationship, she had also served as the Chairperson of IBM from 2017 to 2018.?
Narayanan even reportedly works closely with the NITI Aayog on formulating policies for making students industry-ready. She has also served as the Chairperson of the American Chamber of Commerce in India and an executive council member of NASSCOM. Vanitha was named as one of the most powerful women by Fortune India and Business Today,
As the MD of Hewlett-Packard (HP) India, Neelam Dhawan has been handling countrywide responsibility for revenues and profitability and ensuring the greatest leverage from HPĄŻs Services, Personal Systems and Imaging & Printing businesses.
After studying economics at St StephenĄŻs College in Delhi, she had pursued an MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), University of Delhi. Moreover, she also served as the MD of Microsoft India from 2005 to 2008.?
At HP, Neelam DhawanĄŻs portfolio extends to offshore activities, BPO, Software Engineering, Research and IT Services, with her aim being to shape the companyĄŻs overall business agenda and leading its strategy and corporate development efforts to make HP the most admired company in India.
Roshni Nadar Malhotra is the first woman to lead a listed IT company in India. Besides being the Chairperson of HCL Technologies (which was founded by her father Shiv Nadar in 1976), and is also the CEO of HCL Corporation, a Trustee of the Shiv Nadar Foundation, and the Founder and Trustee of The Habitats Trust, Roshni also serves as the Chairperson of VidyaGyan, a leadership academy for the economically underprivileged, meritorious, rural students.?
And that's not all. Roshni Nadar is also passionate about wildlife and conservation and hence set up The Habitats Trust in 2018.
She was recognized by Horasis, an internationally renowned think tank, as the Indian Business Leader of the Year 2019.?Recently, in ForbesĄŻs Power Women List of 2021, she was ranked at the 52nd position.
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