Indian Family Business Awards 2022: Roshni Nadar Malhotra dons more hats than one

Malhotra replaced her father Shiv Nadar in July 2020

Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Chairperson of HCL Technologies, won 'Emerging Women Business Leader' award in the second edition of Moneycontrol’s Indian Family Business Awards (IFBA), 2022. Union minister Piyush Goyal presented her the award at New Delhi, on August 19.

Moneycontrol’s IFBA in association with Waterfield Advisors and Grant Thornton aims to celebrate the role of family-owned enterprises in shaping and transforming the Indian economy and society.

Holding the title of the first woman to lead a listed IT company in India, Roshni Nadar Malhotra has been ranked as the richest woman in both the national capital and across the nation, according to the recent Kotak Private Banking Hurun Leading Wealthy Women List. The list pegged her net worth at Rs 84,330 crore.

Malhotra, who pursued MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, replaced her father Shiv Nadar in July 2020 as the chairperson of the $12 billion tech giant. But this is not all. She also is a trustee of the Shiv Nadar Foundation which is committed to promoting education. She is also a driving force behind the establishment of schools and colleges for underprivileged and meritorious rural students across India.

She is also a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at the MIT School of Engineering, USA and the Kellogg School of Management Executive Board for Asia. She serves on the board of directors of US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) and is an independent director on the board of HDFC Asset Management Company. Malhotra has received several awards as an entrepreneur and philanthropist.

Some of these accolades include being featured for the sixth consecutive year in ‘The World's 100 Most Powerful Women’ list, compiled and released by Forbes in 2022. In 2020, Forbes also featured her among the ‘25 Most Powerful Businesswomen in Asia’. Roshni was honoured with the ‘Most Powerful Women in Business 2023’ by Business Today. She has been recognised by Horasis, an internationally renowned think tank, as the ‘Indian Business Leader of the Year 2019.

While it may be a surprise to many, Malhotra also holds a degree in Communication (Radio/TV/Film/Journalism) from Northwestern University. She is also said to have interned with some news channels in London. In an interview with Business Today, she said she was quite passionate about the media industry but her father convinced her to be well-versed with business as well. “He said that even if your dream is to have a media empire, you would still need to know the ins and outs of the business. So, please go and attend business school,” she said.

But Malhotra never left her passion. She has been producing a TV series called 'On The Brink' for the Animal Planet/Discovery since 2019 . In 2022, On The Brink episode on bats received the Best Indian National Film Award in the category of science & technology. In 2018, Roshni also produced a children’s film, ‘Halkaa’, directed by the National Awardee Nila Madhab Panda. It chronicles the unique journey of a slum child battling the issue of open defecation.

She is also passionate about wildlife and conservation. She established The Habitats Trust in 2018. It aims to work towards protecting India’s natural habitats and its indigenous species.

Currently, Malhotra who is married to HCL Healthcare CEO, Shikhar Malhotra, lives in New Delhi.