Albert Einstein once mentioned, “The woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has ever been before.”

This has come true, more than ever before, as women around the world are shining through as outstanding leaders. It is heartening to see how women in global organisations are making decisions, implementing processes, creating positive impacts, and taking organisations to new heights. Even in HR, women leaders are playing a game-changing role in shaping HR’s evolution from being a primarily administrative function to becoming a more strategic function. They are also improving employee engagement and acting as a powerful change agent and advisor to each one in the organisation.

Thus, celebrating the power of several women leaders, let’s look at five women in C-suite human resources positions who are leading the way.

1) Vrushali Mundhwa, Head of HR & Customer Care at Vistaprint India

Vrushali is a magnificent team leader and an inspiration for young professionals. She has more than 20 years of experience in Strategic HR, Coaching, Leadership Development, Employee Engagement, and Organizational Capability Enhancement. In her present role at Vistaprint India, a global leader in mass customised printing, Vrushali is responsible for providing the overall strategic and operational human resource leadership to the organisation. Besides, she swiftly executes a customer-facing role at Vistaprint India. Vrushali also has experience in setting up an HR department in a start-up. Vrushali earned her B Com degree from Sydenham College of Commerce & Economics, Mumbai, MBA from Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai and has also specialized in Training & Development from Indian Society of Training & Development (ISTD).

2) Ira Gupta, HR Head, Microsoft India

Ira joined Microsoft in 2012 as Director and became Head in 2017. Today, she leads HR for Microsoft across India. In her current role, she is at the helm of aligning the organisation’s people strategy with business objectives, implementing effective HR processes and policies across multiple Microsoft entities in India. Further, her aim is to build a transformational and diverse organisation as well as talent development. Ira earned an MBA degree from XLRI, Jamshedpur.

3) Ritu Tushir, Director- Human Resources, American Express

Recognised as a strong HR leader who stands out for her thought leadership, Ritu joined American Express in 2010.  In her current role, she is leading HR for World Service & Global Credit Administration India Market. She further provides HR Business support in Greater China and South East Asia. With a strong experience in talent planning and management as well as leadership development/training, Ritu has implemented significant HR initiatives. Prior to American Express, she has worked with Genpact and eGurucool.

4) Leena Nair, Chief HR Officer, Unilever

She is the first female CHRO at Unilever and believes in creating an inclusive working environment. Her motto in life is to ignite the human spark to build a better business and better world. At Unilever, she is responsible for the human capital needs of the organisation as well as is passionate about leading the global people agenda that spreads across thousands of employees in over 100 countries.