Akhila Srinivasan is the Managing Director of the

Shriram Group Shriram Group is an Indian conglomerate headquartered in Chennai. It was founded on 5 April 1974 by R. Thyagarajan, AVS Raja and T. Jayaraman. The group had its beginning in chit funds business and later on entered the lending and insurance b ...

Shriram Life Insurance Company. She is also the founder of the Shriram Foundation, a philanthropic organization with a focus on education, micro-credit, and anti-poverty initiatives, and the founder and Managing Trustee of GiveLife, a related NGO focused on humanitarian projects.

Early life and education

Srinivasan graduated from RSK Higher Secondary School in

Tiruchirappalli Tiruchirappalli () ( formerly Trichinopoly in English), also called Tiruchi or Trichy, is a major tier II city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Tiruchirappalli district. The city is credited with bein ...

, and completed her undergraduate and post-graduate education at

Seethalakshmi Ramaswami College Seethalakshmi Ramaswami College (SRC) is an autonomous Arts and Science college, located in Tiruchirappalli district of Tamil Nadu, India. This premier women’s institution affiliated to Bharathidasan University., Tiruchirappalli was conferre ...

. Her career plan at first was to join the

Indian Administrative Service The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India. Considered the premier civil service of India, the IAS is one of the three arms of the All India Services along with the Indian ...

, and then after marrying and having her first child, she changed her career goal to completing her PhD and becoming a teacher. While she was working on her MPhil in Economics at

University of Madras The University of Madras (informally known as Madras University) is a public university, public State university (India), state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and among the most prestigiou ...

, she applied to become an executive trainee at the Shriram Group, completed the entrance exams and was selected for the program. She holds an MPhil in economics and a PhD in Economics with a focus on micro-credit for women entrepreneurs.

Career

Srinivasan joined Shriram Investments in 1986 as an executive trainee. Her first role in the company included public relations and marketing, and she became the marketing manager after a year as a trainee. She was promoted to general manager of Marketing in 1993 and then President of Shriram Investment Ltd. in 1994. She became the company's managing director in 2000. She became the managing director of Shriram Life Insurance in 2005. From September 2005 to November 2006, she was on the Board of Shriram Transport Finance Co. In addition to the corporate roles, she served as the Honorary Consul for the Netherlands between 2005 and 2012.

Social Welfare

Shriram Foundation, a social welfare arm of the

, was founded under her leadership in 1993. The work of the foundation includes a free Montesorri school and a community college. The foundation also focuses on micro-credit finance for rural women, care for orphans and destitute people, and establishing multiple schools and scholarship programs. She is also the founder and Managing Trustee of GiveLife, established within the Shriram Foundation as an

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

working to provide education to the financially underprivileged children in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. She has served as the president of the Art of Living Foundation, a humanitarian organization, for seven years. She also served as the honorary President of the Shri Shri Ravishankar University in Orissa, to assist with establishing the university.

Personal life

Srinivasan is married to H. Srinivasan, a chartered accountant, and they have two children. She is a trained classical singer.

Awards and recognition

* 1999, ''Social Responsiveness Award'',

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) is a non-governmental trade association and advocacy group based in India. History Established in 1927, on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi by Indian businessman G.D. Birla and ...

* 2000-01, ''Outstanding Woman Professional Award'',

* 2007 and 2010, ''30 Most Powerful Women'', Business Today * 2015, ''Asia's 50 'Power Businesswomen,

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

, including for her role in making Shriram Life Insurance "one of top five players in its industry in India in terms of profitability".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Srinivaan, Akhila Living people Businesswomen from Tamil Nadu Year of birth missing (living people) Businesspeople from Chennai