The Other 25

Punita Lal, Executive Director (Marketing), PepsiCo India

Once responsible for PepsiCo’s beverage branding across India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan, Punita Lal now heads the company’s joint venture with Tata Tea, announced in April last year. A St Stephen’s, Delhi, and IIM Calcutta alumna, she started her career in advertising with Lintas. She has been with PepsiCo since 2003.

Kaku Nakhate, Country Head and President, Bank of America

Kaku Nakhate worked at DSP Merrill Lynch for 18 years before quitting as Head of Global Markets to join JP Morgan as Vice President in July 2009. It was a homecoming of sorts when she joined Bank of America in June 2010 as Country Head, because by then Bank of America had taken over Merrill Lynch.

Schauna Chauhan, CEO, Parlé Agro

Schauna Chauhan, the oldest of Prakash Chauhan’s three daughters, is CEO of Parle Agro, which successfully marketed the drinks Frooti and Appy Fizz overseas. Under her leadership, the brand also used Twitter to manage its inventory and replenish stocks of its Hippo snacks, launched in 2009.

Tanya Dubash, Executive

Director and President(Marketing), Godrej Group A Harvard Business School alumna, Dubash has been Executive Director and President of Marketing at Godrej Industries since 1996. She is also a Non Executive Director of Godrej Consumer Products.

Harshbeena Sahney Zaveri, Managing Director and President, NRB Bearings

She joined NRB Bearings in 1987 as a trainee. Since 2001, she has been its President. A graduate of Wellesley College, USA, Zaveri won an award for her contribution to total productive maintenance and quality movement by the Quality Circle Forum in 2005.

Vibha Paul Rishi, Executive Director(Consumer Strategy), Future Group

The marketing whiz, responsible for building Brand Pepsi in India during the 1990s, returned to the country in 2010 after an extended stay overseas, to join Kishore Biyani’s Future Group. An alumna of the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi, she has been spearheading the group’s shift from low-cost positioning to premium products and luxury items. She is also associated with Pratham, which works with underprivileged children.

Deepika Warrier, Marketing Director, Frito-Lay

Deepika Warrier is marketing head of Frito-Lay, which holds the top position in the branded snacks segment. An alumna of Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi, and IIM Bangalore, Warrier has spent over a decade with PepsiCo – which owns Frito-Lay. Earlier, she handled brand management and advertising at Britannia, Ogilvy & Mather and Gillette.

Pallavi S. Shroff, Senior Partner, Amarchand Mangaldas

As a senior partner at Amarchand Mangaldas, among India’s biggest law firms, Pallavi S. Shroff has spent nearly 30 years advising high-profile clients. Under her leadership, the firm has won several national and international awards.

Frenny Bawa, Managing Director, RIM India

Despite the 2010 security standoff between Research in Motion – the maker of BlackBerry phones – and the Indian government on corporate email access and encryption codes, Bawa has been successful in building the brand in India and keeping customers hungry for its new products.

Vijaya Sampath, Group General Counsel, Bharti Enterprises

With over 25 years experience, Sampat is considered one of the best general counsels in India. She has also served as in-house counsel and company secretary in Indian Aluminium Company.

Sangeeta Pendurkar, Managing Director, Kellogg India

She started her career with Hindustan Ciba-Geigy – now Novartis – in 1988. Having worked across sectors as diverse as financial services, FMCG and pharmaceuticals, with stints at HSBC Bank, Hindustan Unilever and Coca-Cola, She became Managing Director of Kellogg India last October.

Akila Krishnakumar,

CEO and Country Head, SunGard Offshore Services Having joined SunGard in 2004, Krishnakumar, a Masters in Management Studies from BITS Pilani, today manages the company’s global product delivery model, working with more than 60 SunGard business units.

Ameera Shah, MD and CEO, Metropolis Healthcare

From just one diagnostic centre in Mumbai in 2003, Metropolis Healthcare now has 65 laboratories across South Asia, Mauritius, South Africa, Bangladesh, Nepal, and West Asia. Metropolis clients include more than 10,000 small labs, nursing homes and hospitals, and over 20,000 consultants.

Swati Ramanathan, Founder, Janaagraha

She started Janaagraha, an NGO working to increase citizen participation in public governance, in 2001, and has been involved in its anti-corruption campaigns. She also heads the Indian Urban Space Foundation, a partner programme of Janaagraha that emphasises spatial planning to bring about change.

Trishla Jain, Artist

Stanford graduate Trishla Jain is a rising artist whose painting exhibitions have drawn much praise. She is also the daughter of Samir Jain, Vice Chairman of the Times Group. The portfolio includes newspapers The Times of India and The Economic Times, TV channels Times Now, Zoom and ET Now; FM radio network Radio Mirchi, as well as Times Private Treaties – the private equity arm of the group, which barters ad space for equity, and has stakes in over 135 companies.

Minal Vazirani, Co-founder, Saffronart

She gave up her job as management consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton about a decade ago to venture into the Indian art market. Today she is the director of India’s largest online art auction house, which she co-founded. At its first auction in 2003, Saffronart sold works worth `60 lakh. Its current revenues are about `230 crore annually.

Leena Srivastava, Executive Director, Operations, TERI

In more than 28 years at TERI, Leena Srivastava has worked on a range of subjects from energy and energy economics to environment policy and climate change. Srivastava is also a member of the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Group on Energy and Climate. In 2008, she was awarded the Knight of the Order of Academic Palms (Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Academiquess) by the French government.

Lynn de Souza, Chairman and CEO, Lintas Media Group

Lynn de Souza has spent over 25 years in media planning, buying, research and management. She is also a qualified veterinary nurse, who started and now chairs the Goa Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Meenakshi Saraogi, Joint MD, Balrampur Chini Mills

Meenakshi Saraogi has been the driving force behind Balrampur Chini Mills, transforming it from a single factory to a sugar conglomerate. A Padma Shri awardee, she has already spent 25 years in the business.

Ranjani Ranganath, Senior MD, Global Development Centre, Cisco

She never studied engineering. Yet Ranjani Ranganath has made a mark in the IT sector. Currently with CISCO, she earlier ran her own consultancy and has also spent several years in banking and financial services.

Arathi Krishna, Joint MD, Sundram Fasteners

A gold medallist in Economics from Madras University, Arathi Krishna joined the family business in 2006 and is now Joint Managing Director. Sundram Fasteners, part of the $5 billion TVS Group.

Anisha Motwani, Director and Chief Marketing Officer, Max New York Life Insurance

Anisha Motwani was responsible for several memorable and effective advertising campaigns in her 19-year career. She has worked with agencies such as Leo Burnett, Mudra Communications and McCann Erickson.

Bala Deshpande, Senior MD, New Enterprise Associates

In 2008, Bala Deshpande left ICICI Venture to join New Enterprise Associates, or NEA, a US-based venture capital fund. A Masters in Economics and an MBA,she has worked with FMCG companies such as Bestfoods and Cadburys. NEA, which had raised a $2.5-billion global fund in January 2010, plans to allocate 15 per cent of it to investments in India.

Sminu Jindal, MD, Jindal SAW

She started her career in the family business as a trainee, Today she heads the fourth-largest industrial house in India. Jindal has been wheelchair-bound since the age of 11 when a car accident left her paralysed from the waist below. She has also set up Svayam, an NGO which seeks to help mobility-impaired people. One of its important campaigns seeks to improve access to public places for the disabled.

Deepa Misra Harris, Vice President, Marketing, Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces

Deepa Misra Harris has been with the Taj Hotels for 25 years. Starting off as a Sales Executive, she now heads Marketing across all four brands –Taj, Vivanta by Taj, Gateway and Ginger.