Apart from the Kalpana Chawlas and Sunitha Williams of the world, there are other Indian women too who are making an equally big splash across the world with their work and achievements. Making a headway in the male-dominated techie world of Silicon Valley has still been difficult for most women, not just Indians. So it is a big deal, when some women manage to carve their name in the wood at Silicon Valley. Here’s a list of six Indian women who made it big in the techie world and continue to grow.
Vanitha Narayanan, MD, IBM India
Vanitha Narayanan is the Managing Director of IBM India Private Limited, and the Regional General Manager for India/ South Asia (ISA). Appointed to this leadership position in January 2013, she is responsible for all of IBM’s sales, marketing, services and global delivery operations in the India/South Asia region. Having joined IBM in the US in 1987, Vanitha has over 26 years of experience working with multiple client sets and in several countries.
Vanitha is a member of the National Council of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for 2013-14, Co-Chair of National Committee for MNCs of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for 2013-14 and also the Chairperson of the board of governors for National Institutes of Technology (NIT) heading NIT-Suratkal. She is definitely a woman to watch out for.
Vanitha has a Masters in Business Administration in Marketing from the University of Madras and a Masters in Business Administration in Information Systems from University of Houston – Magna Cum Laude.
Neelam Dhawan, MD, Hewlett Packard
Neelam Dhawan is the Managing Director of Hewlett-Packard India. She has countrywide responsibility for revenues and profitability and ensuring the greatest leverage from HP’s Services, Personal Systems and Imaging & Printing businesses.
Previously, Neelam was the Managing Director of Microsoft India, a position she held from 2005 to 2008. During her tenure, she sharpened Microsoft’s strategic focus and improved its operating efficiency and execution, as well as its financial performance and customer focus.
Prior to this assignment, Neelam held a variety of successful leadership positions in leading Indian IT companies, including HCL and IBM. Neelam 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.
Kirthiga Reddy, MD, Facebook India
Kirthiga holds the dual distinction of not only being the head of Facebook in India, but she was also the first employee of Facebook in India in 2010. She set up the India operations in Hyderabad, supporting the company’s growing number of users, advertisers and developers worldwide. Today Kirthiga leads the Global Marketing Solutions teams in India.
Prior to Facebook, Kirthiga was VP and GM of SaaS-based Consumer Security business unit and India operations at Phoenix Technologies. Kirthiga has also held the position of Director of Product Management at Motorola, Director of Engineering at Silicon Graphics and Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, with most of her professional career based in Silicon Valley, California.
She holds an MBA from Stanford University, where she graduated with top honors as an Arjay Miller Scholar, an M.S. in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University and a B.E. in Computer Science from Ambedkar University, India. Kirthiga has been featured in Fortune India’s Top 50 Most Powerful Women in India. Hers surely is one widely coveted job!
Avni Shah, VP, Product Management, Google Chrome
Avni Shah is a rapidly rising executive in Google. Shah heads up heads up Chrome development at Google. She was one of two women to give presentations at Google’s recent developer’s conference I/O. This was notable because Google is really trying to up the profile of women in tech and it needed it to begin by showing some of its own women engineers in leadership positions.
She showcased Chrome working with Google’s newest version of Android, L.
Shah, an MIT graduate, has been at Google since 2003 and previously worked on the Google Toolbar and Google Notebook. Big things are expected from her.
Aruna Jayanti, CEO, Cap Gemini
Aruna Jayanthi is the Chief Executive Officer of Capgemini India, one of the biggest business units of Capgemini group. Aruna is responsible for operations across all the business units – Consulting, Technology and Outsourcing services in India overlooking an employee base of over 40,000.Aruna has over 2 decades experience in the IT services industry and has worked in both multinationals and pure-play companies.
She has worked out of Europe and North America and continues to travel extensively meeting customers, analysts and Capgemini staff, getting a pulse of customer expectations and market direction. Within a short period of being appointed CEO, Aruna has quickly made her mark in the world of Indian business. She has been ranked 3rd in Fortune India’s list of 50 Most Powerful Women in Business 2012 and has also featured prominently in Business Today’s list of Most Powerful Women 2012 for two consecutive years. We are in awe of her, for sure.
Padmasree Warrior, Chief Technology and Strategy Officer, Cisco
Padmasree Warrior is the Chief Technology & Strategy Officer of Cisco Systems, and the former CTO of Motorola. Warrior has been honoured with numerous prestigious awards such as the United States Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce’s Excellence Award and YWCA Metropolitan Chicago’s Outstanding Woman of Achievement Award.
She was inducted into the Women in Information Technology International Hall of Fame in the year 2007. Warrior holds a degree in chemical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and masters in chemical engineering from Cornell University. Padmasree holds her own in the male bastion of Silicon Valley and we surely admire her for that!
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