Vinita Bali is the first woman trailblazer to hold a key position in the Wadia Group of business as the Managing Director of the Britannia Industries from 2006 to 2014. She has held principal positions in other international brands like Coca- Cola and Cadbury and is now a global business leader. In this male- dominated business community, Vinita Bali has made her mark and now she inspires other female professionals to become young leaders and achievers in the field.
Early Life of Vinita Bali
Born on 11th November 1955 in the city of Bengaluru, Vinita Bali received a Bachelor"s Degree in Economics from Lady Shri Ram College for Women in Delhi in the year 1975. She also secured and MBA from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies in Mumbai. For her Master"s Degree she received a scholarship to the Michigan State University in the United States and served as an intern at United Nations Headquarters in New York.
Career of Vinita Bali
For her first job, Vinita Bali worked at Voltas, where she worked on the launch of the soft drink brand Rasna. In 1980, she joined Cadbury India and later worked as worldwide Marketing Director at Coca-Cola from 1994 to "97, where she was responsible for the worldwide strategy for Coke. In 1997, Vinita Bali took over as Vice President of Marketing for Latin America, and in 1999 relocated to Chile as President of the Andean Division with sales in excess of over 1 billion dollar. In 2001, she was made a corporate officer of The Coca- Cola Company and appointed Vice President of Corporate Strategy reporting to the Chairman. After a 9 year association with Coke, in July 2003, Vinita joined her mentor at Coke, Sergio Zyman at the Zyman Group as a Managing Principal and Head of the Business Strategy practice in the company`s Atlanta office.
Vinita Bali is on several business panels, she is a Non-Executive Director on the global Boards of Syngenta International AG and Smith & Nephew PLC. She is also Chairman of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and on the Advisory Board of Cornell University"s Department of Nutritional Science. Vinita also serves as a Non-Executive Director on the Boards of several companies in India like CRISIL Ltd, Titan Industries Ltd and Kasturi & Sons Ltd. She is also a member of the Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore.
Currently, she is among the 27 global UN leaders to be appointed to help improve maternal and child health as part of its Scaling up Nutrition or SUN initiative.
Awards of Vinita Bali
In the 2009 Economics Times Awards, Vinita Bali was awarded the "Businesswoman of the Year" award. Later in 2011, Vinita Bali made it to the list of "Asia"s 50 Power Businesswomen" on Forbes magazine.
