Neelam Dhawan is the Managing Director of Hewlett-Packard India and a force to reckon with. An alumna of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, she pursued her MBA from Faculty of Management Studies in Delhi University.
Career
- Her career kicked off with HCL Technologies, where she worked for 14 years, learning the nuances of sales and marketing.
- Thereafter, she joined IBM as Vice-President and was a member of the company board of directors.
- Dhawan then joined HP as Vice-President of the customer solutions group and was entrusted with the responsibility of strategic growth of alliances and partnerships.
- She joined Microsoft Corporation India Pvt Ltd in 2005 as as head of Sales & Marketing Operations. Under her responsibility, Microsoft was recognized as Subsidiary of the Years In APAC by Microsoft Corporation in 2005-2006.
- She has been the Managing Director at Hewlett-Packard India Pvt Ltd. since July 1, 2008.
"The desire to have a career was very strong in me"- Dhawan
Secret of success
Dhawan says that the credit of her success largely goes to her parents who didn't bring her up any differently from her brother and her mother-in-law who quit her job when Dhawan's elder daughter was born. Her husband Atul Dhawan, who is a partner at Deloitte Haskins, has also been a strong pillar of support.
She juggles the responsibilities of being a mother, a wife and her profession with equal panache.
"I always enjoy what I do. Even when I tried to go to rural parts of India and working with clients and customers, I enjoyed it because it is more exciting to be executing a vision than to just working on the vision. I feel vision and execution go together. I really enjoy leading from the front, rather than saying ‘No, no, no, you guys do it and I will support it."
She is one of the most powerful and influential figures in the computing sector and an inspiration for thousands of women aspiring to lead from the front.
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