For the first time in the history of any public sector enterprise, a full-time, woman director has made it to the board of a Navratna company, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL).
Nishi Vasudeva, 54, has been appointed the director marketing of HPCL. The post fell vacant last August after Subir Roy Chowdhry took over as the Chairman and Managing Director of the company
Vasudeva, an Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta graduate, began her career in the oil industry with Engineers India Limited.
She has a wide body experience, spanning over 34 years in various streams like marketing, corporate, strategy and planning and information systems.
Her colleagues remember her as a 'cool' boss. "She is very gentle and respects everyone. It is easy to work with her. She takes ideas from all team members and is extremely hardworking," says one of Vasudeva's colleagues.
Her ex-colleagues also remember her as someone who doesn’t mind burning the mid-night oil irrespective of the harsh locations that her team happens to be working out of. "We have together worked on a number of ERP projects. But we’ve never heard Vasudeva complain. She is not an armchair boss. If she is convinced of an idea, she will support it no matter what," reminisces another colleague.
As Vasudeva assumes her new assignment, her company officials have full confidence that she will steer the firm in the right direction especially considering the difficult times that this industry is facing.
