This year’s Overall Winner of Woman of the Year APAC is Shilpa Kedia, a highly experienced treasury and finance professional with a longstanding commitment to equity and opportunity.

Shilpa was the first woman in her family to pursue a professional career. Right from her early days, Shilpa had strong career aspirations and recognised that her career was central to her life goals and has worked relentlessly to chart her own course.

Since then, she has built an impressive career in finance and treasury over the last 20 years, delivering strong results, and pinpointing the right solutions to meet business needs. In addition, Shilpa remains committed to driving a culture of equality and fairness, while shaping the environment to enable other women to succeed.

Charting a course

With a value conscious upbringing, Shilpa recognised the importance of financial independence at an early age. She pursued her degree and professional qualification in tandem, graduating from university with distinction, and qualifying as a chartered accountant with an All-India rank of 46 at the age of 22.

Her first role was through campus placement in an Indian conglomerate Tata, where she joined as a management trainee. At Tata, Shilpa learnt the importance of an organisation’s corporate governance and value system – a vital lesson that stayed with her.

From Tata, Shilpa moved to Nokia India Pvt Ltd, where she worked in various finance segments and locations in India, carrying out roles that ranged from Regional Finance Analyst to Finance Controller. After six years, she moved to Johnson and Johnson Pvt Ltd, where she began her journey of leading large professional teams. She also started championing management trainee programmes and driving diversity and inclusivity, nurturing new trainees coming into the corporate world. In 2020, she was promoted to a senior management role while on maternity leave.

Then, in mid-2021, Shilpa became the Head of Treasury and M&A at Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL). Taking on a new role with HUL at a time when Covid was having an unprecedented impact globally, Shilpa was tasked with delivering transformation results for both treasury and M&A.

Leading the way

Since joining HUL, Shilpa has digitised and optimised end-to-end treasury operations, acquired two health and wellbeing companies and divested two non-core brands.

At the same time, Shilpa has taken on the responsibility of being the finance lead for the HUL’s flagship Future Leaders Programme known for developing CFO’s of the future. This role requires her to act as the voice of trainees with senior management, and vice versa. Starting her career as a management trainee herself, Shilpa understands the value of early guidance. Strongly believing in the philosophy of paying it forward, this role helps her do just that. “Working at various organisations, I have championed the management trainee programme for over a decade now to acknowledge the mentors who helped me shape my own journey as a professional, to thank them for always being invested in me,” she explains.

Shilpa strongly believes that Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are table stakes for any organisation today. Shilpa has personally mentored many women through her career. She believes that explicitly asking for what you want is what many women find difficult. Receiving the best employee satisfaction scores from her team comprising of all women in managerial positions is a testament to her mentorship effectiveness.

Striking a balance

Like many women, Shilpa balances her career with her family work, firmly believing that the two must work together. She has continued to develop her career while making sure that she is an involved mother to her young son – an attestation of her fearlessness, effectiveness and ability to prioritise.

As Shilpa comments, “My purpose is to bring the best version of myself in all roles in my life and inspire the people across my sphere of influence to grow and achieve their own aspirations. For me, being fair is more important than being popular. All individuals have equal rights.”

It is not then surprising that Shilpa is a winning negotiator. She is known for ensuring that all parties have an equal opportunity to participate in the negotiation process and that outcomes are just and equitable for everyone involved. Her success in landing the two acquisitions on the same day, even with no prior M&A experience demonstrates this.

Awarding Shilpa with the Overall Winner of Woman of the Year APAC speaks not only of all her achievements so far, it also symbolises our confidence in her future and we look forward to her next wins.