Saundarya Rajesh (born 1968) is an Indian social entrepreneur who is the founder and president of Avtar Group. She is known for introducing the concept of Second Career opportunities for women in corporate India. She runs an initiative, Project Puthri to empower underprivileged girls with employment. She was awarded the ‘100 Women Achievers of India’ in 2016 by the

Minister of Women and Child Development The Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens ( ne, महिला, बालबालिका तथा जेष्ठ नागरिक मन्त्रालय) is a governmental body of Nepal. Its mission is to empower women, chil ...

for her work. She received the Women Transforming India Award from the

NITI Aayog The NITI Aayog (; abbreviation for National Institution for Transforming India) serves as the apex public policy think tank of the Government of India, and the nodal agency tasked with catalyzing economic development, and fostering cooperative ...

and the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

in 2016. Her debut book, ''The 99 Day Diversity Challenge: Creating an Inclusive Workplace'' (2018), was published by

SAGE Publishing SAGE Publishing, formerly SAGE Publications, is an American independent publishing company founded in 1965 in New York by Sara Miller McCune and now based in Newbury Park, California. It publishes more than 1,000 journals, more than 800 books ...

Early life and education

She holds a degree in

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

from

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

and later pursued an MBA at the Pondicherry School of Management. In 2005, she received

Chevening Scholarship The Chevening Scholarship is an international scholarship, funded by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, that lets foreign students with leadership qualities study at universities in the United Kingdom. History The Chevening Scholarship ...

, funded by the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Foreign and Commonwealth Office The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ministries of fore ...

and was also selected by the

US government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

for

International Visitor Leadership Program The International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) is a professional exchange program funded by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The mission of IVLP is to offer current and emerging international leader ...

(IVLP). Later, she completed her PhD in women's workforce participation.

Career

Saundarya started her career with

Citibank Citibank, N. A. (N. A. stands for " National Association") is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of financial services multinational Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, and later became First National City ...

in 1990. She took a break from her career on becoming a mother. She later worked as a producer and compere for

All India Radio All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All a ...

and

Doordarshan Doordarshan (abbreviated as DD; Hindi: , ) is an Indian public service broadcaster founded by the Government of India, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and one of Prasar Bharati's two divisions. One of India's largest bro ...

between 1992–95, after which she was a part-time lecturer at MOP Vaishnav College for Women in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

between 1996-2003. In 2000, she founded her first venture Avtar Career Creators, later relaunched as Bruhat Insights Global, an AI-powered recruitment firm. In 2005, Saundarya launched Avtar I-Win to help women find a second career after a break. In 2008, Saundarya founded Avtar Human Capital Trust, a not-for-profit organization working towards economic empowerment of women. She founded Flexi Careers India in 2011. She runs an initiative called Project Puthri, which aims to create Career Intentionality among underprivileged girl students between the age group 13 to 18. Another initiative she runs is MITR (Men Impacting Trust & Respect), which educates and empowers boys from classes IX to XII to become inclusive and empathetic towards females. In 2019, she gave a

TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

talk on the topic of Second Careers for Women – Re-innervating an important resource, in which she emphasizes the importance of women’s participation in the Indian workforce through a series of anecdotes and research.

Awards and recognition

She was awarded the ‘100 Women Achievers of India’ in 2016 by the

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu ...

. In 2016,

, the public policy think tank and the

gave her a "

Women Transforming India award The Women Transforming India awards are an annual contest supported by the United Nations in India, Indian government website MyGov, and NITI Aayog (the National Institution for Transforming India). They honour "exceptional women entrepreneurs, who ...

". In March 2019, on the occasion of

International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against wom ...

, Saundarya was awarded the WebWonderWomen Award by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in collaboration with Twitter India. The award was presented by

Maneka Gandhi Maneka Sanjay Gandhi (also spelled Menaka; ''née'' Anand) (born 26 August 1956) is an Indian politician, animal rights activist, and environmentalist. She is a member of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament and a member of ...

, the Union

. She has received many other awards such as: * 2019: Winds of Change Award in the individual category conferred by The Forum on Workplace Inclusion,

University of St. Thomas St. Thomas University or University of St. Thomas may refer to: *Saint Thomas Aquinas University, Colombia *Saint Thomas Aquinas University of the North, Tucumán province, Argentina *St. Thomas University (Canada), Fredericton, New Brunswick *St. ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

, USA * 2019: Selected in the list of 35 Chevening Changemakers by the UK-government-funded

* 2019: Chennai Carnatic Women Empowerment Award by the Rotary Club of Chennai Carnatic. * 2014: Naturals Extraordinary Woman Award on the

. * 2012:

FICCI 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 ...

FLO Woman Entrepreneur of the year award for building and creating India’s first women’s careers service. * 2011: TiE Stree Shakti, entrepreneur of the year award. * 2011: ''

India Today ''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' launched a new onl ...

s Business Wizards Award * 2011: The CavinKare Chinnikrishnan Innovation Awards * 2007: The Yuvashakthi Woman Entrepreneur Award * 2006: The

Standard Chartered Standard Chartered plc is a multinational bank with operations in consumer, corporate and institutional banking, and treasury services. Despite being headquartered in the United Kingdom, it does not conduct retail banking in the UK, and around 9 ...

SCOPE Woman Exemplar Award

Personal life

She is married to V. Rajesh, whom she met at business school. They have two children, a son and a daughter. She resides in

, India.

References

External links

An Interview with Saundarya Rajesh
at ''

NDTV New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. The company is considered to be a legacy brand that pioneered independent news broadcasting in India, and is credited for launching t ...

''
How one woman's experience of trying to re-enter the workforce changed the face of the HR industry in India
at ''

Vogue India ''Vogue India'' is the Indian edition of the monthly fashion and lifestyle magazine ''Vogue''. It is the 17th international edition of ''Vogue'' and the first edition in South Asia. ''Vogue India'' is published by Condé Nast India Pvt. Ltd., a ...

''
Where the world is her family
at ''

Deccan Herald ''Deccan Herald'' is an Indian English language daily newspaper published from the Indian state of Karnataka. It was founded by K. N. Guruswamy, a liquor businessman from Ballari and was launched on 17 June 1948. It is published by The Printe ...