ETPWLA 2023: Meet the trailblazing winners of ETPrime Women Leadership Awards

The Economic Times unveiled the distinguished list of 19 winners of the ETPrime Women Leadership Awards 2023 (ETPWLA), India's most prestigious awards programme honouring excellence in women leadership across various fields in business, entrepreneurship, governance, services, innovation, social advocacy, and philanthropy.

At the invite-only Grand Felicitation Ceremony in Mumbai on August 4, prominent leaders, changemakers, and artistes gathered to felicitate the 19 women leaders selected as the winners of the fourth edition of the ETPWLA programme, shortlisted from a pool of 76 profiles, across 15 award categories.

The grand finale, which was streamed LIVE on the EconomicTimes.com, saw the participation of notable leaders such as Mithali Raj, former captain of the Indian women’s cricket team, Rekha Menon, Former Chairperson & Senior MD, Accenture, India, Anuradha Pal, World’s first female Tabla Maestro, and Arunachalam Muruganantham, the Pad Man of India, among many others.

Watch the highlights here

Meet the ETPWLA 2023 winners:
Lifetime Achievement Award: Shyamala Gopinath, Ex-Chairperson, HDFC
CEO of the Year:

• Hina Nagarajan, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Diageo India
• Soma Mondal, Member, PESB (Public Enterprise Selection Board)

Business Leader of the Year: Vinati Saraf Mutreja, MD and CEO, Vinati Organics
Beyond Business Leader of the Year: Dr. Anjlee Prakash, Chairperson, Learning Links Foundation
Global Indian of the Year: Revathi Advaithi, Chief Executive Officer, Flex
DEI Ally of the Year: Geetika Mehta, Managing Director, Hershey India
Woman Pioneer of the Year: Dr. Tessy Thomas, Former Director General, Aeronautical Systems, DRDO
Woman Leader of the Year - Governance: Ashwini Bhide, IAS, Additional Municipal Commissioner, BMC and Managing Director, Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation
Woman Leader of the Year - Services:

• Charu Sinha, IGP - Southern Sector, Central Reserve Police Force
• Flight Lieutenant Shivangi Singh, Indian Air Force
• Sanjukta Parasor, IPS, Deputy Inspector General (DIG), National Investigation Agency (NIA)

Finance Leader of the Year:

• Jayashree Satagopan, President Corporate & CFO, Coromandel International Limited
• Parminder Chopra, Finance Director, Power Finance Corporation

Marketing Leader of the Year: Ranjani Krishnaswamy, General Manager, Tanishq Marketing, Titan Company Limited
HR Leader of the Year: Pratibha Priyadarshini, VP and Head of HR, Shell India
Technology Leader of the Year: Priya Kanduri, CTO & Vice President, Cyber Security Services, Happiest Minds Technologies
Sales Leader of the Year: Varij Pujara, Chief Distribution Officer, Aditya Birla Health Insurance
Operations Leader of the Year: Kusum Sharma, Head of Supply Chain and Digital Transformation, Mercedes Benz R&D India

In its fourth edition, the ETPWLA programme received an overwhelming number of over 5,000 applications, surpassing its past records, making this year's awards all the more special. Over the past three editions, the ETPrime Women Leadership Awards have been instrumental in shining the spotlight on exceptional women leaders who have achieved historic firsts, broken barriers by storming into male-dominated bastions, shattered stereotypes, questioned the status quo and, in turn, played an instrumental role in inspiring a whole generation of girls and women in India to tide over societal and sectoral challenges. Such precedents in leadership creates a virtuous chain of aspiration for women to aspire for, assert themselves and rise up to leadership roles.

Shanti Ekambaram, Whole-time Director, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd, delivered an inaugural keynote address on behalf of the nine-member jury panel chaired by Naina Lal Kidwai - Chairperson, India Sanitation Coalition & Chairperson, Rothschild & Co, India. Jury members Amit Chandra - Chairperson, Bain Capital Advisors; Karthik Reddy - Managing Partner, Blume Ventures; Abha Singh - Advocate and Women’s Rights Activist; and Vaishali Nigam Sinha - Co-Founder & Chairperson, Sustainability, ReNew; Founding Chair, ReNew Foundation, were present at the event to honour the winners. Other members of the jury include Devina Mehra - Chairperson and Managing Director, First Global; Dr (Prof) Vikram Singh - Former Director General of Police, Uttar Pradesh; and Puneet Gupt - Chief Operating Officer, Times Internet.

The ETPWLA 2023 edition: New benchmarks, fresh perspectives
The 2023 edition takes the multifaceted diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace forward but also expands the initiative's scope beyond India Inc – into the realms of entrepreneurship for social impact, services and governance – in line with the ETPWLA’s commitment to celebrating women trailblazers, changemakers and pioneers redefining the glass ceiling and setting new benchmarks in leadership.

The newly introduced categories include DEI Ally of the Year; Woman Pioneer of the Year; Woman Leader of the Year - Services; Woman Leader of the Year - Governance. These additions were made based on the feedback and recommendations from past jury members, participants of previous editions, and industry leaders.

The list of shortlisted nominees and the winners for ETPWLA 2023 represent exceptional women leaders, who have made a significant impact and achieved critical milestones in their respective fields over the past year. The ETPWLA 2023 shortlisted profiles are the result of an extensive evaluation process that included detailed research, deliberations, and shortlisting by ET Editors and the Knowledge Partner, Accord India, following which the shortlisted profiles were presented to the jury for a rigorous jury evaluation and selection process.

With Accord India as Knowledge Partner, the latest edition of the ETPrime Women Leadership Awards 2023 initiative is powered by Peak XV Partners - Spark and has Accrete Executive Search as Associate Partner; Hero MotoCorp as Mobility Partner; GAIL and Siemens as Bronze Partners.

To know more about the ETPrime Women Leadership Awards 2023, click here.