Sonali Ranga | Barclays
Sonali is working as an Assistant Manager at Barclays. Recruited from campus as a part of the Graduate Program that Barclays offers, she has worked across diverse fields in analytics like Marketing, Fraud and Model Monitoring over the last three years. Her inputs to the organization have been instrumental in strategic business decisions and have been recognized under the Global Values Recognition Program in 2015.
Born and raised in Faridabad, she completed her dual degree in Electrical engineering with specialization in Information and Communication Technology from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD). She has been awarded MHRD Research scholarship and Dr Ambedkar National Merit Award by the Government of India for academic excellence.
She considers her journey until now has been fulfilling. From studying biology in high school to engineering in under-graduation to working in banking, her constant zeal to know more has helped her to grow as an individual.
A photographer by passion, she is an enthusiastic traveler and currently stays in New Delhi.
Sonali Chandola | Ernst & Young
My journey so far has been an interesting mix of personal, professional and spiritual experiences that have shaped me my ‘Never give up’ attitude in life. I feel that in order to be successful one needs to possess and practise some positive character traits. In this light, my strengths lie in the fact that I am a confident, ambitious and well organised person, who likes to lead by example and make a difference by touching the lives of people around me in a positive way. I believe in being perseverant towards reaching my goals by using the power and spirit of teamwork in order to bring out the best-in class output: this is something I like to apply in every sphere of my life. Every person likes to talk of their successes but I firmly believe that failure is a bitter yet better teacher than success because it saves one from being complacent which is why I hold all my failures and the learnings they taught me very close to me and apply them whenever I’m stuck in a similar situation. If I were to write my biography in a sentence it would be summarised in this beautiful quote by Patrick Overton, ‘When you come to the edge of all the light you know and are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing one of two things will happen: either there will be something solid to stand on or you will be taught to fly.’
Sivapriya Ramakrishnan | Capgemini
I was born and raised in the conservative and fondly familiar city of Chennai. I completed my education right upto my MBA in my hometown barely exposed to anything beyond my city. However, I kickstarted my career in the mergers and acquisitions division in HCL Technologies, which eventually opened up my horizons to people from different cultures and different backgrounds. I then moved on to Frost & Sullivan to pursue my career in the Business and Financial services team. Work eventually took me to Deloitte in Mumbai – the melting pot of the country. I have explored so much of my professional and personal abilities in this city thanks to the opportunities, the people and exploratory environment here. During my two and a half year stint in Deloitte and eventually Capgemini, I took to travelling with a personal aim to fill the pages in my passport with stamps and pages in my life with stories. As I am exploring a different role in Corporate Strategy in Capgemini, I have also brought back an old love – my love for writing as I contribute to Storified.me which celebrates the lives of women entrepreneurs in India. I married Nitesh Ranvah, a naval architect and entrepreneur in 2013 after a typical “Two States” story to our credit.
Shweta Chawla | Barclays
Shweta Chawla is an explorer, adventure travel freak, a software developer and ethereum/blockchain enthusiast who loves to connect and coordinate.
As a software developer for ten years in IT industry and having lived in multiple cities and countries, I have grown and evolved as a person. However, true satisfaction comes from giving back to society. Outside work, I can be found gardening or participating in events like Hackathons or even hosting events and spreading some smiles. I strongly believe in the potential of women and am really passionate to bring about a positive change in the lives of women around me, personally as well as professionally.
Shruti Chaturvedi | Chaaipani
I am 22-year-old, graduate in psychology from St. Xavier’s College, after dropping out of engineering course. I have worked in the media and digital advertising industry during the three years of my college. A year ago I also initiated Chaaipani.
Shraddha Patil | The Mentropreneurs Inc
Ms. Shraddha Patil is the Co-Founder and Chief Mentor of TheMentorpreneurs. She is also the founder and CEO of The Success Route Consultancy Services.
With a Master’s in Business Administration, she has more than 12 years of experience in various business roles, including cycle functions like Sales, Marketing, Business Development, Training and Business Consultancy. Realizing the importance and growth of social media, marketing and content development, she has diversified her firm “The Success Route” towards content writing, content marketing and social media marketing much earlier than social media marketing gained importance. She has hands-on experience in training, learning and development and has successfully conducted many seminars and workshops. Shraddha is a voracious reader and likes to introduce new and radical concepts in social media marketing, content development, training and business consultancy. She is actively involved in mentoring some of the start-ups and mid-sized organizations helping them strategize their growth plans to expand their business. Shraddha has to her credit “Saturday Biz” – a weekly series in Learning and Development Forum, articles like – 3 I’s: Identify, Interact and Invest, Re-Think to E-Think and Data Collectors to Data Scientists, to name a few.
TheMentorpreneurs Inc., is a global platform aggregating start-ups to catapult growth and thereby ensuring effective collaboration in the start-up ecosystem. Our objective is to bring together the entire ecosystem under one roof so as to add value to the community at large. TheMentorpreneurs runs varies initiative like TheMentorpreneurs Clinic, TheMentorpreneurs Nurture Series, TheMentorpreneurs Ecosystem Builders, and Mentoring startups for building sustainable businesses.
Shobhna Juneja | Yoga Teacher
My name, Shobhna, means beauty and Godliness and I feel my profession as a yoga teacher is allowing me to be beautiful, spread love and beauty, as well as feature Godliness, in the form of happiness. It’s been five years since I began working in the field of health and happiness through yoga and before that I worked for a short while as a PR and CSR executive in one of the leading corporates. Soon, I realised that only by becoming a yoga student and a yoga teacher, could I justify my life to me and the society around. Nothing could be more important than health and nothing could be more beautiful than connecting with nature…and yoga answered my life’s questions. The way I could conquer the problem of PCOS through yoga, ayurveda and modern healing therapies, I wished to spread the same among girls like me. I further wish to make my happiness so deep and infectious that I can rightfully become a healer for myself and the universe around me.
Shilpi Sharma | Barclays
I was always keen to be a part of citizenship events so that I could contribute towards the society. Any citizenship event gives us a chance to interact with the under-privileged children, who are the bright future of India. They are always full of zest and eager to learn new things. They are a source of inspiration as they teach us that our financial background and situations should not be a hurdle in our carrier.
Being a part of the Information Technology stream makes us realize the value of the basic IT skills that we possess. This thought motivated me to share my knowledge with those who do not have enough knowledge about this stream. We conducted various sessions on Introduction to Computers, Operating Systems, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Internet and Email with an NGO called Magic Bus. The response that we got from the children was so overwhelming that it gave me a new spark in life. I decided to take this forward and conduct similar sessions across Pune.
Being a part of an investment bank also makes me realize each day the value of money and how it grows in the financial market. Thus, we planned events on Money Management and Financial Skills to make the children aware of the banking domain and the financial jargons.
Also, being an artist, I tried to use my art and skills for the benefit of society. I donated my paintings and other handmade stuff in various fundraising events across Barclays, which fetched huge amount of money. That amount was matched by BTCI and donated to various charities.
Shaina Ahluwalia | Student
I’m in my final year of pursuing a BA Journalism (Honours) from Lady Shri Ram College for Women. Born and raised in Delhi and being the only child, I’ve always been working hard to achieve in any field I’ve been in, whilst gaining maturity at a young age through all hardships. From winning competitions in my hobbies as a child to winning awards for Community Service and Academics in school, I faced many struggles to change. My journey from being timid, depressed and discriminated to being outspoken, embracing leadership and living positive life is still in its pursuit. I learned to develop and effectively proliferate ideas to positively impact community through my understanding of media, policies and corporate structures. I’m a firm believer in educational reforms, sensitizing youth about gender diversity and harnessing the power of media to impact the community.
After getting through a college like LSR based on merit, I decided to keep striving to grow and learn. I pursued many internships which I got through college placement cell or through my own application strength with startups as well as brilliant organizations such as Teach for India, NDTV, Hindustan Times, Amazon, RIS (Ministry of External Affairs), HCL etc. I also took on leadership challenges such as being in the Placement Cell Union where the statistics soared under my tenure. Though I’m studying media, I’ve worked in many fields such as HR Recruitment, Editorial, Marketing, Research, Strategy, etc.
Presently, I’m interning with the global team of AMD Inc under supply chain management, as well as being in my final year of college. I’m also a columnist with The Logical Indian where I write about issues like social injustice. I also write for DU Beat, the largest student campus print. I’ve had over 70 articles published over various mediums. I believe in taking the path everyone is scared to choose. I did competitive dance when my health was down, I studied hard and became a merit student in 12th where few years ago I was among the low-scorers in my school. I started from scratch to build a network without using family relations to get internships. I was chosen for various leadership positions in college where I once shied away from people. I even gained positions in various departments where journalism students aren’t preferred but someone studying Bcom is.
Leading happens through setting examples, and I’ve always been up for the challenge. I feel lucky in so far to have met some wonderful people and have the will and strength to continue despite all odds. Inspired by woman leaders, I too wish to be the impact changing the minds of our community to see and believe in women, to let us set examples and be on the forefront, and to let us be the change.
Sandhya Rithe | Barclays
I started my career as a developer in various technologies and rose through the ranks to become Vice President. I believe that nothing can replace the hard work, dedication, integrity, passion and humility to make you successful. My ‘never give up’ attitude has always been instrumental in turning any situation into positive. I work at Barclays as a Command Centre Manager, where nearly 300 colleagues work and provide support to thousands of production services and servers of various technologies. I need to deal with crucial situations every day and what helps through it are the efforts spent to build the relations through collaborations, innovative & different thinking. The most important thing for me is my teams and the career for each of them. I ensure to dedicate my time to mentor the teams, encourage and support them and raise the concerns on their behalf. Along with my day job I dedicate my time on various community and organization wide objectives. I was working for the Rachana Hostel, Pune with underprivileged students to raise funds for their education, lodging and boarding. This year I am working to support the farmers from the drought hit areas on Maharashtra. I am leading the Colleague Experience Council for Barclays through which we are introducing initiatives to incorporate best practices in Barclays resulting better colleague engagements.