Her artistic touch speaks for her even in her corporate avatar. And why not? For a student of art from the reputed Kalakshetra in Tamil Nadu, being a homemaker and mother to her two sons was something that kept her busy and happy. But come the year 1989, and things changed rather quickly. Her sister got married and moved to Hyderabad, and Preetha’s father, the legendary Dr Prathap Reddy asked Preetha to step in as deputy managing director, Apollo Hospitals Group. The chemistry graduate from the University of Madras who also has a post graduate degree in Public Administration got down to business. Her level headedness with the ability to multi task and out-of-the-box thinking took the group to the next level.
Five years later, she became its managing director and has been named as the successor to her father. That, of course, hasn’t stopped the lady from working hard.
Ms Reddy was also instrumental in the group’s quality certification process (ISO 14001 and 9001). Under her management, the group got the unique distinction of having 7 JCI accredited hospitals, the largest number in a group outside the US.
Today, Apollo is the biggest and one of the most reputed healthcare groups in Asia. In fact, the lady has led the group into achieving many firsts. The hospital was the first to perform cord blood transplantation in India. It is also is one of the few with the facility to offer bone marrow transplantation.
The lady who works seven days a week also plays a key role in the Group’s corporate social responsibilities including spearheading SACH (Save a Child’s Heart) aimed at providing economic relief to children from the economically under privileged sections of society. SACH has performed over 2,000 free/concessional Cardiac surgeries and screened over 10,000 children from India and several parts of Africa.