Women leaders in India are conquering multinational boardrooms

Indian women business leaders are increasingly becoming a part of multinational boardrooms as corporations worldwide are trying to gain a stronger foothold in the country. These women have expertise in banking, financial markets, technology, and legal.

The list includes current and former chief executives at giant companies such as McKinsey & Co’s Ireena Vittal, Britannia’s Vinita Bali, Capgemini’s Aruna Jayanthi, JP Morgan India’s Kalpana Morparia, HPE India’s Neelam Dhawan, and Apollo Hospitals’ Preetha Reddy.

The latest name added to this list is boutique investment bank Moelis’ Manisha Girotra, who has joined Naspers. Last week, Naina Lal Kidwai, who headed HSBC’s India operations, was also welcomed into LafargeHolcim’s board.

As per the recruitment firm, Egon Zehnder, around 11.4% board appointments were made globally last year. Out of which, 27% were women, up from 24.1% in 2016. In India, 21.1% of new board appointments were women, 8.6 percentage points more than the average in Asia (12.5%).

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The data also showed that 17.8% of committee chair positions are held by women globally. In India, 9.1% of the committee chairs were captured by women as compared to 8.3% in Asia.

Naspers, the South African web and media company, which made around $10 billion from a deal in Tencent, considers India to be a top market for capital division. Several women from Africa and Latin America are on global corporate boards as companies have increased business presence in these regions.

Vinita Bali, former head of Britannia said, “There’s an increasing demand for gender diversity, mandated or otherwise, on boards, which provides an opportunity for qualified women, including from India to join global boards.”