Meet Manisha Girotra: Her Journey From Delivering Pizzas To Chairperson For Swiss Bank In India

When she started her career in investment banking some 17 years ago, she reminded the days when businessmen she met would hesitate to shake hands with her. Traditionally, men who kept up their etiquette would rather do a ‘namaste’ and wonder what they are supposed to do with a women entrepreneur like Manisha Girotra.

She now stands tall taking up roles as the Managing Director and Chairperson for Swiss bank UBS in India. In a country like India, where there still exists some gender inequality, Manisha Girotra managed to be on the list ‘The most powerful women in business in India.’

After graduating from the Delhi School Of Economics, she was one among those freshly hired 50 employees of Grindlays Bank. She was then absorbed into their investment banking division. Manisha then occasionally doubled up as a pizza delivery girl in the same office.

Like any other women in India, she too got married at the age of 24. Her husband Sanjay Agarwal today heads the finance department at Deutsche Bank in India. Manisha’s tough times started as her husband was posted in Delhi while she had to leave for Mumbai.
After a year more in Mumbai in the same Grindlays Bank, she was then welcomed by UBS bank in investment banking.

When she was just 33 years old, she became the CEO at UBS. As this was her first step towards growth, another major change in her life happened after her birth of her daughter Tara. However, Manisha welcomed this delightful storm. Working for 20 hours with a baby was becoming tougher for her. Yet, she feels, in her entire 25 years of her professional life, this was the toughest task for her. She still remembers, after four months of her delivery, she along with her daughter would pack the bags and go to work with her. She would keep her in a hotel beside the office and would juggle her work and nurse the baby.

After 20 years of service at UBS, she quit the job to help her ex-boss set up at Moelis. And now, she is the country head CEO of India for Moelis and Company.

She bagged many titles to her kitty which included “Young Global Leader” in 2010 by the World Economic Forum, she was one of the “15 Women To Watch In Asia” by Forbes in 2008, one of the “50 Women To Watch” in the annual Wall Street Journal survey in 2007. Manisha Girotra also appeared in Business Today’s “25 Most Powerful Women in Business” in India for the past five years and was also honored with “50 Most Powerful Women In Business” by Fortune India in 2014.

Well, by this we can say time is indeed changing for India’s women executives.