Pendurkar, 51, holds a graduate degree in pharmaceutical sciences and a management degree n marketing. She has more than 25 years of marketing, sales and general management experience, spanning across sectors of packaged foods, beverages, financial services and pharmaceuticals.
She has been listed in Fortune’s most powerful women in business for four consecutive years from 2011 to 2014. She has been on the list of Impact’s 50 most influential women in media, marketing and advertising for four consecutive years from 2012 to 2015. She was the chairperson of FICCI Food Processing Committee, 2015 and the co-chair in 2013-14.
Pendurkar is the first woman CEO in Aditya Birla Group, which has 160-year history and its annual turnover is around $41 billion.
The position had been vacant since Pantaloons’ previous CEO Shital Mehta resigned in September 2017.
Pantaloons began in 1997 as a Future Group company in the quest to equip the emerging Indian middle-class with an indigenous fashion retail format. Consistent with the times, the model was of a discount fashion retailer. Post-acquisition by Aditya Birla Nuvo Limited in 2013, Pantaloons is today the fastest growing large format retailer in the country. Pantaloons today retails over 200 licensed and international brands, including 24 exclusive brands. (RKS)
Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India