Akhila Srinivasan named Asia’s Power Businesswomen 2015 by Forbes

Akhila Srinivasan, Managing Director, Shriram Lie Insurance Company Limited was named ‘Asia’s Power Businesswomen 2015 by Forbes Magazine in its 50 from Asia.

According to a company statement, Forbes recognises 50 powerful businesswomen in Asia who are driving change across diverse industries.

The other five women in the list are Arundhati Bhattacharya, CMD of State Bank of India; Chanda Kochar, Managing Director and CEO of ICICI Bank; Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Founder of Biocon; Shiksha Sharma, MD and CEO of Axis Bank and Usha Sangwan, Managing Director of LIC of India.

In less than ten years, Akhila has catapulted Shriram Life Insurance into one of the top five private players in its industry in country in terms of profitability. SLIC went on a hiring spree last year, increasing the number of employees to 9,000 from 5,500. Total premiums collected have surged almost 17-fold in seven years to $695 million. What is more, Akhila has been with the $13.3 billion assets under management Shriram Group—parent of Shriram Life and India’s largest financial conglomerate—for 29 years. She started in truck financing, working her way up until in 2005 she launched Shriram Life. She is the only woman on the board of Shriram Capital, holding company for Shriram Group.

Akhila holds a Ph.D. in Economics, focusing on microcredit for women entrepreneurs. Under her leadership, the Shriram Group set up the Shriram Foundation in 1993. Shriram Life was conferred as ‘Best Life Insurance Company – Insurance Sector’ by Asia Banking, Financial Services and Insurance Excellence Awards in August 2014 at Singapore and ABP BFSI Awards for the “Best Life Insurance Company” in the insurance sector in February 2015.