Category: Most Influential Women

THE WATER ORACLE

Despite being trained in fashion styling, make-up and photography, Jayanti Chauhan, the only child of Bisleri owner Ramesh Chauhan, decided to follow her father’s footsteps. When she took over as the director of the brand, she faced a humungous task of proving herself to the world as the rightful heir of 1,000 crore iconic bottled water brand. She did not disappoint! She took calculative steps that would not only add to the face value of the brand but also preserve its stature. She started with infusing much-needed energy into the team, ensuring that the brand does not lose out to other players in the market, and also perking up the face value of premium water brands of the company like Vedika and Bisleri.

Bisleri was the first bottled water brand to venture in India, and such is the popularity of the brand that it has become a standard name for the bottled mineral water across the country. An Italian company bought by Parle in 1969, it offers mineral and mountain water in various packs for household and office premises. Jayanti believes in providing an affordable and purified drinking water to people, and also supports eco-friendly initiatives, that helps purify the natural sources of drinking water.

Having learned the finer nuances of the business from her father, Jayanti has scripted a success story that is worth admiration.

GRACEFUL SUPERSTAR

When the gracious and elegant Peng Liyuan tied a knot with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in 1987, she almost immediately became a focal point for being the stylish first lady of China. She is a superstar folk singer, and is often joked about as being more famous than her husband.

She is often being mentioned as China’s centre of soft power for her graceful etiquettes. Having carried herself in panache at various charitable events, her preference for domestic designer brands is a source of encouragement for China’s apparel industry. After graduating, she was head-hunted by one of the most prestigious arts companies of all, the General Political Department of the PLA, which proved to be a stepping stone in her becoming China’s top party line singer. There also came a time when she was singing in as many as 350 shows a year.

Peng Liyuan goes with Xi Jinping on all the economic trips abroad. She also serves as a goodwill ambassador for the World Health Organization, spreading awareness on tuberculosis and HIV/Aids. She also chairs the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control.

THE MAKEOVER QUEEN

Flamboyant and a fashionista, Nisha Jagtiani is busy changing the fashion scene in Dubai. She is the Business Head of Landmark Group’s fashion and lifestyle brand, ICONIC. Landmark Group is a multinational conglomerate based in Dubai that focuses on the MENA region. It also has a large presence in India. Headquartered in Dubai, ICONIC is Middle East’s major fashion retailer.

The lady has her priorities right, and is working hard to strengthen her brand’s position and reach. She is always thorough with her research, and keeps a close track of customers’ changing preferences. Before joining ICONIC, Nisha studied in London and worked there for a while. But fashion, which had been close to her heart, pulled her into retailing business.

Nisha started her career with the Group by assisting in the establishment of Landmark International. She then moved to support Raza Beig on Splash, and they jointly launched ICONIC in 2009, the region’s trendy fashion destination. Nisha is also strategically involved in corporate functions of the Landmark Group.
She is ambitious and witty, and follows her intuition to success!

THE IRON WOMAN

Politics in Bangladesh is not easy with intermittent military coups and rules since Bangladesh’s independence in 1971. Being a woman in such a scenario doesn’t make things easier. Sheikh Hasina Wazed took up the position of Prime Minister of Bangladesh for the third term in 2014, and has more than four decades’ experience in the field of politics. She is the eldest child of the founding father and the first President of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Hasina was born during the violence of partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, and grew up amidst fear owing to her father’s political association. The year 1975 proved to be an unfortunate year for Sheikh Hasina Wazed, as she lost her family (father, mother and three brothers) in an assassination by several military officers at their residence; she and her younger sister survived as they were in West Germany at the time of the attack.

Even after losing her dear ones, this brave soul did not run away from her responsibilities towards the people of Bangladesh. She lived in self-exile in India till 1981, and returned to Bangladesh after the assassination of the then President of Bangladesh, Ziaur Rahman; she was immediately house arrested. However, she resiliently faced the political hostility in her country and eventually emerged a winner.

THE HERMIT POLITICIAN

Politics and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have a thing going on and it’s magical! Each time she enters the limelight, an average Indian can’t help but wonder: will she [join politics] or won’t she? And the way she has handled the Congress party campaigns in the past, there is no doubt that she shows an immense capacity for the power game. Though she has been denying the speculations about her joining politics, people do not seem to be convinced. And why will they be? After all, she is a Nehru–Gandhi scion and a member of India’s first family. The lady’s lineage speaks volumes about the chances of her being a political success. Gandhi–Vadra’s father, grandmother, and great-grandfather – actually almost every single person in her family – have been at the forefront of the Indian politics.

A good orator and a charismatic leader, she has often been compared to her grandmother, Indira Gandhi, an enormously influential Prime Minister, to whom she bears a striking resemblance. And this talent of her was discovered in the Indian General Elections 2004, where she played the role of a main campaign manager for her mother, Sonia Gandhi and outshined everybody.

Despite the hoopla Gandhi–Vadra has been generating, she prefers a quiet life and refuses all kinds of public engagements. She believes in living her life on her own terms and conditions!

THE BRICK AND MORTAR GENIUS

Fondly called as “the woman who built Beijing”, Zhang Xin’s two decades in the real estate business has brought her huge respect and fortune. The CEO and Co-founder of SOHO China, the largest commercial real estate developer in Beijing has long been hailed as one of the highly regarded self-made billionaires.

Picking up from a poor childhood and living in the outskirts of Beijing to forming the face of the city, she has definitely come a long way. Zhang Xin formed SOHO China with her husband, and she took that company from the grassroots level to huge projects directly influencing the economy of the country.
A simple elegant woman who likes to spend weekends carrying out her parental duties looking after her boys refuses to live like a billionaire. The cutting-edge skyscraper buildings depict a great sense of style as Zhang Xin personally pays special attention to the designs.

Her buildings are an expression of China’s emergence into the modern world, as china is now becoming the country that has produced more self-made billionaires than any other country in the world. She uses her Wall Street know-how to raise money abroad, and hires the world’s top architects.

Her buildings are said to be fluid and futuristic, and she is proud to have helped Beijing create an attractive skyline.

THE GAMING LORDESS

The deftness with which Pansy Ho handles responsibilities and various projects is admirable. She is the co-chair of MGM China and Managing Director of property-and-transport outfit Shun Tak. Ho has successfully got herself included in the list of Hong Kong’s richest women when the casino outfit went public in Hong Kong a few years ago. MGM’s property, the MGM Macau casino, is a five-star integrated casino and luxury hotel resort located on prime waterfront property.

The daughter of Macau casino magnate, Stanley Ho, she succeeded in becoming the Chairman of Jetstar too after Qantas Group and China Eastern Airlines sold their one-third stake in the budget airline to her family’s conglomerate, Shun Tak Holdings. Ho studied marketing and business at Santa Clara University in California and also had a brief stint as an actor in TV in Hong Kong before opening her own PR firm. The lady has a winning streak and has paved her way to success through persistence and hard work.

It is no surprise that one of the 17 children of gaming marvel, Stanely Ho, is amassing wealth at such a commendable pace. After all, she learnt the art of multitasking and managing projects right in her school, the Catholic Secondary School, Hong Kong, where she was encouraged to participate in ECAs. In the process, she developed a competitive streak and was driven by the desire to win, which she exhibits in her business decisions now.

THE ARDENT DREAMER

Solina Chau knows how to dream big and manifest it. She has left a success trail for every woman to follow. This Cofounder of Horizon Ventures aspired for stars even as a child. Born in 1961, Chau attended Diocesan Girls’ school where she had an impressive record as a student. Later, she went to study in Sydney and moved to London in search of work. It was here that in 1980s her dream to be a business woman was realised when she struck up a friendship with Debbie Chang, a cousin of the former Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, becoming her flatmate and a business partner.

In 1993, Chau created quite a stir in Hong Kong business circles by winning a project on behalf of one of Tung’s firms to build the Oriental Square in downtown Beijing. After that, there was no looking back. Today, she sits over a heap of successful endeavours. She continues to invest in tech ventures, including companies that address innovations in the global environment and food, tackle infectious diseases and tap artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

Some of her notable ventures are Hampton Creek, Impossible Foods, BlueDot, and AI software provider Sentinel Technology. She is also the director of the Li Ka Shing Foundation, which stands at $9 billion fortune.

TENNIS TRAILBLAZER

Last autumn, in September 2014, she stunned the world with her unexpected retirement at the age of 32 from the world of Tennis. The two-time grand slam winner was the first-ever Chinese player to be ranked amongst the top 30 players in the world. Bringing laurels to the country, Li has become a household name as she introduced tennis to the masses in China.

Her father died when she was 14, but her mother supported her, and in 1999 at the age of 16 she became a professional tennis player. As she won tournaments one after the other, she became the most successful and popular Asian tennis player ever. In China, following her success, tennis just exploded! Today, there are about 15 million tennis players in China.

Li Na became the first Asian to win a Grand Slam singles tennis major after winning the French Open in 2011; she later won Australian Open in 2014 too. She is famous for her smiley, funny and witty demeanour on court.
Li Na’s worth is estimated at around $40 million after her win, is known as something of a rebel in China. She was selected by government coaches at the age of nine and training in the state program for years, she first left the national tennis team in 2002 to hone her technique on her own. Her decision for marriage took the entire country for a shock as Chinese state athletes are banned from even dating. She’s even turned down (link in Chinese) being on China’s grand Spring Festival television special in favour of going home to ring in the Lunar New Year with her mother.

She stated in the open letter posted online that most people in the tennis world know that my career has been marked by my troubled right knee, After four knee surgeries and hundreds of shots injected into my knee weekly to alleviate swelling and pain, my body is begging me to stop the pounding.
She is not only an icon, but also represents freedom of thought in China.

A LEADING LIGHT

A leading light of the venture business, Jenny Lee and her company GGV Capital are going from strength to strength. A self-professed investor, Jenny figures out the best technology-based companies, and joins hands with them to create a new user base in the market.

Jenny Lee is the Managing Partner at GGV Capital, a company that aims at dealing with realistic businesses such as Xiaomi and YY. She strongly believes that one negative aspect of the venture capital business is its male dominance, and feels conceited to be a leading woman in a man’s world.

Not only is she capable of investing in the most profitable businesses, but she also has faith in the young startups. Her early years were spent in aerospace, teaching her how the commercialization of technology can alter lives. GGV Capital was one of the early sponsors of Alibaba Group. Jenny is one of those who regularly meet the families of CEOs she has invested with, as she considers it to be a part of her working culture.