The Entrepreneur Who Broke The Glass Ceiling
Bureaucracy Today|May 01 - 31, 2017

In the male-dominated communications industry of the United Kingdom, it needs iron will for a woman, that too of an Indian origin, to make a mark. And Natasha Mudhar has done just that. At a young age of 33, she is heading the globally renowned, multi-awardwinning business and communications consultancy, Sterling Media, as its Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director. In an interaction with Bureaucracy Today, Mudhar shares her life’s mantra, the projects she is handling, her most challenging assignments as well as how she has coped with gender issues.

Soma Chakraborty
The Entrepreneur Who Broke The Glass Ceiling

Even though London is a multi-cultural and cosmopolitan city, it was not a smooth ride for Natasha Mudhar to attain success. The CEO and MD of Sterling Media had to cope with gender issues to be treated on a par with her male contemporaries.

“When I started my career it was not very common to see highly successful Indian females in the communications sector. Also the media sector was and still is quite male-dominated. So I guess it was a case of double discrimination. These factors may seem intimidating for a starter but they were also my drivers,” Natasha tells Bureaucracy Today.

Like her mother Teji Singh who founded the company in London in Natasha Mudhar, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Sterling Media 1995, Natasha went ahead to convert the challenges into opportunities.

“These factors may seem intimidating for a starter but they were also my drivers. The same went for my mother – she always converted challenges into opportunities,” she says.

INSPIRATION

For Natasha, who joined the family business in 2004 soon after completing her graduation from City University with a BSc degree in Sociology and Media Studies, her mother is her greatest inspiration.

She shares, “I admire my mother. She started the business 25 years ago. I would say it is to do with the struggles my mother as a single lady of Ethnic origin had to face. I know I am now highlighting the single, the lady and the ethnicity part of her, but my mother is one person in this world who will not let any form of discrimination impact her ability to do well. And that is a value I continue to imbibe in my daily life.”

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