Who Is Natasha Poonawalla? Know About The Executive Director Of Serum Institute Of India

Natasha Poonawalla, the director of Serum Institute of India, took the COVID-19 vaccine jibe on Tuesday. The Covidshield vaccine has been developed by her own company and the collaboration between AstraZeneca and Oxford University.

Poonawalla took to Instagram to share the news and wrote, "Proud to take the jab. Only after thorough rounds of local and international clinical trials, #Covishield vaccines were deemed safe and effective".

The Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) has been in the news for its feat of developing Covidshield in partnership with AstraZeneca. Founded by Cyrus Poonawalla in 1966, SII is the world's largest vaccine producer by number of doses produced, as of 2020. Many people might not know that the popular socialite and fashionista Natasha Poonawalla is also the executive director of SII. She is the wife of Adar Poonawalla, the CEO of the same company.

Here are 10 things to know about the socialite and businesswoman Natasha Poonawalla:

1. Natasha Poonawalla is a businesswoman who holds a number of important positions in the Poonawalla industries. She is the chairperson of the Villoo Poonawalla Foundation and the executive director of Serum Institute of India. Natasha serves as the director of Poonawalla Science Park in the Netherlands and Villoo Poonawalla Racing and Breeding Pvt Ltd.
2. She is also a fashionista, socialite and philanthropist having close ties with Bollywood.
3. Natasha Poonawalla (née Aurora) was born on 26 November, 1981 to Pramesh Aurora and his wife Minnie Aurora. She grew up in Pune, India and did her basic schooling at St. Mary's School, Pune. Afterwards, she pursued her bachelors from Pune University.
4. She attended a number of summer programs in USA at Cornell, Stanford and Harvard University. Moreover, Natasha pursued her master's degree in Organisational Behaviour from the prestigious London School of Economics in Organisational Behavior. She completed the degree in 2004.
5.  Natasha met her husband Adar Poonawalla at a new year's party in Goa, hosted former business tycoon Vijay Mallya. Adar is the son of Cyrus Poonawalla, the founder of Poonawalla industries.
6. She married Adar in 2006 and they have two sons, Cyrus and Darius.
7. The 39-year old businesswoman also counts herself as a philanthropist. She and her husband have also taken the onus of corporate responsibility. In an interview with Vogue, she stated that her inspiration comes from personalities like Melinda Gates and people she is related to, i.e. her mother-in-law. Natasha said, "When my mother-in-law passed away, we started a foundation in her name, with the 'Adar Poonawalla Clean City' as one of their first initiatives. You walk out of our sterile, world-class facilities where we’ve had everyone from Prince Charles and Bill Gates to the teams of UNICEF, and there are piles of garbage. Both Adar and I are quite impatient and we were not willing to wait for someone else to get this done.”
8. Their family’s projects include converting garbage to recycle energy, providing clean drinking water, negotiations to turn Pune into a model city, their non-profit hospital in Pune and much more. Natasha is also the chairperson of the charity organisation of the family.
9. She is also known as the 'Queen of Derby' in her social circles. As observed by media, Natasha and her husband have extravagant lifestyles which include horse racing, private jets, their luxury fast cars. Furthermore, Natasha is popular for her impeccable fashion style. She mostly wears luxury brands like Antonia Berardi, Birkins, Chanel and Stella McCartney. 
10. Although her official residence is in Pune, she also has a bungalow in Mumbai where she often hosts parties for her close friends from Bollywood. She can often be seen partying and hanging around with popular celebrities like Aishwarya Rai, Kareena Kapoor, Gauri Khan and many others.