THE POWER OF 100 : ADMINISTRATION

ACHIEVERS ACROSS THE DOMAINS OF POLITICS, BUSINESS, SCIENCE, THE ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT, SPORTS, EDUCATION, LAW AND DEFENCE WHO ARE SHOWING US WHAT WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT LOOKS LIKE

- M.G. Arun , Sonali Acharjee , Amarnath K. Menon , Avishek G. Dastidar , Sonal Khetarpal ,Sonal Khetarpal

THE BUCK STOPS HERE

Madhabi Puri Buch, 57 Chairperson, Securities and Exchange Board of India

VERY EARLY IN LIFE, Madhabi Puri Buch got clarity about what mattered to her the most—creating an impact in whichever field of work she chose. Soon

after completing her MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, she worked for a year with an NGO to see if her management skills would make a difference there. But NGOs weren’t as organised then. So, in 1989, she took up an offer from ICICI, then a development institution supporting manufacturing in a big way.

There, she was mentored by top banker K.V. Kamath, for whom, Madhabi recalls, the gender or age of a person did not matter, as long as they delivered the goods.

As ICICI evolved into a bank, Madhabi had new responsibilities coming her way. And her immediate boss handed down a lesson she would never forget. “I was told that unless I made friends with technology,” she says, “I wouldn’t be going anywhere in the firm.” The message struck her deeply and cemented her determination to master technology from then on.

In five months, Kamath consulted the same boss before Madhabi was entrusted with the responsibility of launching icicidirect.com, one of India’s earliest online trading platforms. That marked her entry into the capital markets. She could witness first-hand how technology was changing the way people did their business. “It could democratise and empower the smallest person in the market.”