Powerful, groundbreaking, ambitious – Indian women are having a moment right now. On the occasion of International Women’s Day, ReputationToday celebrates India’s leading women in corporate communications. Here’s a look at the shining role models for the aspiring communicators of India.
Gayatri Rath
Director, Corporate Communications & Citizenship at Microsoft
In the long span of more than two decades that Gayatri has devoted to PR and corporate communications, she built strategies, provided strategic counsel to senior management and has led employee engagement. She also has significant experience in media relations. Over the years, Gayatri has worked with and for over 20 different companies from diverse industries.
Meenu Handa
Director Corporate Communications at Google India
Meenu has been a part of the PR and communication industry in India for the over 25 years. She has well played the role of a trusted adviser, business leader and an industry thought leader. A regular speaker at both local and global industry forums on crisis communications, public affairs and measurement, Meenu’s bag is full of various prestigious awards that she has won in all these years. Prior to Google, Meenu was leading the corporate communications wing for Amazon in India. Not many people know that Meenu has also been a national level basketball player.
Minari Shah
Head – Corporate Communications at Tata Motors Limited
Minari is one of those few communicators who come with a varied experience. In more than 20 years of her experience Minari has juggled between the roles of a business journalist, corporate communication and film-writing. Minari has been one of those few voices who emphasis on the need to mentor right talent for the rapidly growing industry as well as the importance of understanding communications as a core business and working towards a cohesive strategy rather than working in silos of PR, social and internal communication. Before joining Tata Motors Minari was Sr. VP and Head of Corp. Comm. for HSBC.
Paroma Roy Chowdhury
Vice President, Public Affairs at SoftBank International
Journalist turned communications professional; Paroma has worked as a business journalist and has been involved in management education, financial services, telecom and technology. Her area of expertise includes reputation management, executive branding, crisis communication and advocacy. She is known for love for good conversation, contemporary art, literature, music and films. Keen observer of politics, Paroma is an ardent champion of free expression.
Pragnya Ram
Executive President, Aditya Birla Group Corporate Communications
Dr. Pragnya Ram has been associated with the CSR Centre of Aditya Birla Group since its inception and played an instrumental role in guiding the CSR Centre. Prior to joining AB Group, Pragnya was associated with various companies and also taught briefly at the Bombay and Madras Universities between 1966 until 1975. She has a strong academic background, with a Ph.D from Bombay University. Pragnya is an avid writer and has contributed more than 50 articles including poems to leading publications.
Rachana Panda
Chief Communications Officer, GE South Asia
Rachana’s impressive profile includes her vast experience in media relations, CEO/CXO level engagements, industry & community relations, marketing communications, brand building and crisis communications. A creative and innovative professional, Rachana is also the Citizenship Leader for GE South Asia. She leads all internal and external communications including brand and media initiatives for the company across all businesses and entities in this region. Prior to GE, Rachana held the position of Director, Communications at Alstom South Asia.
Roma Balwani
President, Group Communications, Sustainability & CSR, Vedanta – Sesa Sterlite
Recipient of the ABCI, ‘Business Communicator of the Year’ award and several international accolades, Roma is one of those evangelists of the fraternity who keep on reminding and reinstating that Communications Strategy is a significant contributor to the business goals of an organisation and is credited for raising the bar to include it as a strategic function at the executive board level.
Roma is known for her expertise in leveraging on effective and innovative internal communication tools to manage and motivate the human capital in a knowledge economy. Her focus on brand building by communicating the relevance of sustainability and CSR activities to promote the image of a caring organisation is an inspiration for the young professionals aspiring for leadership roles.
Seema Ahuja
Vice President & Global Head-Corporate Communications at Biocon
A versatile corporate communications and brand management professional playing a leadership role since a decade, Seema has a rich experience of more than two decades with majority of time devoted to Pharma, Life sciences and Biotech. Seema is extremely passionate about building corporate brands and employee engagement. Prior to Biocon, Seema was Vice President- Corporate Marketing & Commn at Jubilant Life Sciences.
Shravani Dang
Head Communications and Vice President, Corporate Communications and Public Relations at the Avantha Group
Shravani is a communications leader with over two decades of quantifiable achievements. She is known to focus on building integrated high performing teams, leadership communications, reputation and issues management, M&A communications, change management and corporate social responsibility. She has served as spokesperson for Fortune 500 companies.
Her experience has been in multinational companies across Technology, Financial, Not-for-profit and Industrial sectors, in both complex and large organizations with staff strength ranging from 10,000 to 100,000. Prior to joining Avantha Group, Shravani was Head & Associate Director Corporate Communications at Fidelity in India.
Varsha Chainani
Sr. VP, Group Communications at Mahindra & Mahindra
Varsha has rich and insightful experience in helping organisations across multi-locations, multi-state and global environments, work through change and achieve growth. She is known for her skills as a leader and a coach. She has the ability to foster culture change, apply and translate business strategies to target audiences; strategic thinking and problem solving. She has worked with IBM, Indian Hotels Company Ltd and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, in the past.
CLICK TO READ: TOP 10 Women in Public Relations
* Names in alphabetical order.
Alex is also the executive editor for Reputation Today – India’s only magazine for PR & Corporate Communications professionals.
I think this article will make for better reading if it informs readers why they are the top 10 i.e. what are their achievements in their roles? Currently, they have big titles in MNC’s and a few of them only seem to have an India remit.