Super Woman

Sangeeta Venkatesan’s career has taken her all over the world, but the co-founder of Fairvine Super has finally found her true calling in Australia, helping women improve their financial strength. Here, she talks to Susan Armstrong about leadership, life-changing moments and never looking back.

- Susan Armstrong

Sangeeta Venkatesan is driven and focused. She doesn’t want to sleepwalk into the abyss. She’s a collaborative leader who is deeply passionate about sustainability and diversity. The FairVine Super Chair wants to make a lasting difference. She’s whip-smart and adventurous, and her refusal to be ‘boxed in’ traces back to her rural upbringing in central India.

“I grew up in a little town, so small you knew everyone by name and face,” she says as we sit in an exclusive members-only club in the middle of Sydney, the city she now calls home. “I was the black sheep of the family back then, always questioning the rules, always challenging the status quo. I used to regularly run away from home to avoid studying, but my mum would find me, stick in hand, and I’d be locked in my bedroom for a couple of hours every night, so I could focus on my studies.”

However, Sangeeta’s aversion to academics did an about-face when she started high school. “Finally, I was able to choose my subjects and I began to love what I was doing,” she recalls. “I was an all-rounder – I did a lot of different cultural activities, I was part of my school band, I used to dance and do drama.”

But it wasn’t all play – Sangeeta excelled at her studies, so much so she came top in her school for her HSC, breaking records and ranking a very impressive sixth in all of India. “It’s what led me to Mumbai – I got into one of the best schools in the country for economics, commerce and accounting, on a scholarship for my undergraduate studies.”

A FEARLESS JOURNEY