Seven Indian American women figure among Forbes second annual 50 Over 50 list of 200 entrepreneurs, investors, creators, and entertainers who prove everyday that “success has no age limit.”

Seven Indian American women figure among Forbes second annual 50 Over 50 list of 200 entrepreneurs, investors, creators, and entertainers who prove everyday that “success has no age limit.”

The 2022 50 Over 50 presents 200 women across four broad categories—lifestyle, entrepreneurs, impact and money—and dozens of sub-sectors.

The final list was compiled, Forbes says on the basis of some tough questions: What specifically had they accomplished over the age of 50? Did they step into a new or more powerful role later in life? Did they make a big pivot? Are they achieving at scale?

That meant a minimum of $10 million in revenues for founders of private companies, a $300 million market cap for public firms or $100 million in assets under management for finance types.

Indian Americans on the list are Manjusha Kulkarni, 53, Cofounder, Stop AAPI Hate; Revathi Advaithi, CEO, Flex; Ann Mukherjee, chair and CEO at Pernod Ricard North America; Poornima DeBolle, co-founder, Menlo Security; Anita Gupta, founder, KiwiTech; Padmasree Warrior, founder, Fable; and Jayshree Ullal, CEO, Arista.

While Kulkarni is listed in the Impact section, all the six others figure in the Entrepreneur category.

Manjusha Kulkarni, 53, Cofounder, Stop AAPI Hate

Kulkarni co-founded Stop AAPI Hate, the nation’s leading aggregator of Covid-19-related hate incidents against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, in March 2020.

She is also the Executive Director of AAPI Equity Alliance, a coalition of community-based organizations that advocate for the rights and needs of the Asian American community in Southern California.

Kulkarni was formerly the executive director of the South Asian Network, an organization dedicated to advancing the health and empowerment of people of South Asian origin in Southern California.

It’s one of the oldest South Asian American community-based organizations in the US Her advocacy focuses on effective policies and practices related to health and healthcare, civil rights and violence prevention.

In 2014, Kulkarni received the White House Champions of Change award for her dedication to improving healthcare access for South Asian Americans.

Revathi Advaithi, 54 | CEO, Flex

Advaithi took over as the CEO of global manufacturing and supply-chain company, Flex in 2019.

At Flex, Advaithi oversees 200,000 employees and sets the strategic direction for a company earning $26 billion in annual revenue.

Prior to joining Flex, Advaithi held leadership positions at Eaton and Honeywell.

She serves as a director on the boards of Uber and Catalyst.org and is a member of the MIT Presidential CEO Advisory Board.

Poornima DeBolle, 53 | Cofounder, Menlo Security

DeBolle is the cofounder and chief product officer at Menlo Security, a leading cloud and network security company.

In 2020, Menlo Security announced it raised $100 million in Series E funding, with a company valuation of $800 million.

Before starting Menlo, DeBolle was a product management executive at Juniper Networks, responsible for cloud security, security management, and security analytics.

She joined Juniper via its acquisition of Altor Networks, where she was vice president of product management and business development.

Anita Gupta, 58, Founder, KiwiTech

Gupta has dedicated her fifth decade to creating disruptive innovation through her company KiwiTech’s investment in over 500 startups.

She is a founder and chief portfolio officer at Kiwitech, a company that helps early to growth-stage startups build viable products, raise capital, and scale their businesses.

She is particularly interested in providing training and strategic assistance to female and minority entrepreneurs. Before co-founding Kiwitech, while still in graduate school, she co-founded Aptara, a company focused on digital content production, publishing, editorial services, e-learning and technology services. In 2012, Aptara was sold for $144 million.

Ann Mukherjee, 56, CEO, Pernot Ricard North America

Mukherjee became the first industry outsider and first woman of color to assume the position of chair and CEO at wine and spirits company Pernod Ricard North America in 2019.

Inspired by her own experiences, Mukherjee launched Absolut’s #SexResponsibly campaign to raise awareness of the connection between responsible drinking and consent and to take a stand against perpetrators who use alcohol as a tool or excuse to commit crimes.

Prior to joining Pernod, she held the roles of global CMO and global chief commercial officer at SC Johnson and was responsible for its $12 billion consumer global business division.

Mukherjee has also held leadership positions at Kraft Foods and PepsiCo.

Jayshree Ullal, 61, CEO, Arista

Ullal has been president and CEO of Arista Networks, a computer networking firm, since 2008. She joined the board of directors of Snowflake, a cloud computing company that went public in September 2020.

The publicly-traded company recorded revenue of $2.3 billion in 2020, a decrease of nearly 4% compared to fiscal year 2019. Ullal owns about 5% of Arista’s stock, some of which is earmarked for her two children, niece and nephew.

In August 2018, Arista settled a multi-year patent infringement battle with Cisco, Ullal’s former employer, agreeing to pay Cisco $400 million. Born in London and raised in India, she is one of America’s wealthiest female executives.
Padmasree Warrior, 61, Founder, Fable

The innovation pro has served as CTO of Cisco and Motorola and is currently the founder-CEO of Fable, a platform for social reading and book clubs. It raised over $28 million in 2021.

Warrior previously served as US CEO and chief development officer of NIO, a Chinese electric autonomous vehicle company, where she transitioned the company from start-up to IPO on the New York Stock Exchange in three years.

She’s also been busy on the boards of Microsoft and Spotify, mentoring other women in the tech industry and staying in touch with her 1.3 million Twitter followers.

A Cornell-trained engineer, she believes a STEM education informs creativity: “Increasingly it’s not about knowing all the answers but asking the right questions and figuring out how to get the right answer.”

US Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday (local time) administered the swearing-in of India-American Shefali Razdan Duggal, who was appointed as America’s next envoy to the Netherlands.

“I had the privilege of swearing in Shefali Razdan Duggal to be our next Ambassador to the Netherlands. We wish you well in this new role and thank you for your leadership,” the Vice President tweeted.

Shefali Razdan Duggal, an Indian-American political activist, had been confirmed by US Senate as the country’s next envoy to the Netherlands.

“Shefali Razdan Duggal, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of the Netherlands,” the White House said in a statement on March 11.

Duggal is a Kashmiri. She graduated from Miami University and earned her master’s from New York University.

She served as a member of the National Finance Committee of Joe Biden for President 2020, National Co-Chair of Women for Biden and as a Deputy National Finance Chair at the Democratic National Committee.

Her political activism led her to serve as Vice-Chair of the Credentials Standing Committee at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, a member of the Rules Committee at the 2016 Democratic National Convention and as a member of the Credentials Committee at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, as per the official statement.

Earlier this summer, as the Covid isolations finally seemed to become a scary memory, California based, digital analyst Sunita Sabharwala had a brilliant idea. She planned on bringing some of her American friends on a culture trip to India, beginning with her favorite city Amritsar in Punjab.

“While we were zeroing on usual tourist sports such as the Golden Temple or Jallianwala Bagh site, the locals kept suggesting me to check out a popular local restaurant called Rang Punjab that has perhaps in a first, brought on the unique concept of introducing a lassi and a sharbat bar” she says. “While my American colleagues have seen some of North America’s best bars and eateries, the idea of a lassi and sharbat bar had them sold!”

Gehdu along with chef Kiran Dhillon after having worked across the globe, decided to run a restaurant in India that captures the essence of their hometowns and opens up doors for foreigners to come and experience the regional hospitality and food of India.

Aptly titled, Rang Punjab – a Farmers’ Restaurant and Sweet Shop, it’s located in a beautiful heritage building in the heart of Amritsar. Only a few minutes away from the Golden Temple, Rang Punjab offers visitors a slice of Punjab, showcasing the very best of it.

From traditional Punjabi recipes to the most authentic papad, wadi and aam papad as well as homemade sweets, street food and desserts served in an ambience redolent with old-world charm and nostalgia, the place is fast becoming a tourist hot spot.

Not just foreign tourists, for many Indian immigrants, bringing their first and second generation kids here to get a taste of real Punjab is often on the list.

Gehdu and Dhillon realized the true potential of the region and a need for a concept where food from all the regions of Punjab could be under one roof.

Additionally, they shared a mutual vision of using local ingredients to create seasonal and sustainable dishes. This led the duo to start Rang Punjab and do true justice to Punjabi cuisine.

“All ingredients are sustainably sourced from our farm-to-table restaurant projects, ‘Friends of Farmers,’ and ‘Daughters of Farmers,’” shares Gehdu. “Through these initiatives, we hope to bring fair trade, women empowerment and sustainability to local farmers.”

Interestingly, Punjabi cuisine – read butter chicken and tikka masala are among one the first dishes from India to gain a food following in the West beginning with England and then traveling to the US. So, what do the duo think about Punjabi cuisine currently?

“We found that a lot had influenced Punjabi cuisine; from Partition, to modern lifestyles and smaller nuclear families. We feel it has taken a toll on Punjabi culture and cuisine,” says Gehdu.

“As Indian chefs, we wanted to preserve the dishes which are slowly dying out and try and revive others,” he says. “With nostalgia being one of the biggest driving factors, Rang Punjab aims to take one back in time, through Kiran’s carefully designed ode to Punjabi history.”

Drawing from her own roots in rural Punjab, Kiran set out to recreate the by lanes of old Amritsar with their stained-glass panels, color palettes, and warm ambience.

Amritsar was the best place for Gehdu and Dhillon to set this up, partly for its role as a hub of culture, food and tourism and for the air, water and freshness they felt was unavailable elsewhere. To be able to set this up right next to the Golden Temple wrapped everything up beautifully.

With a culinary career spanning two decades, working at the iconic Fire restaurant at the Park Hotel, opening and helming the kitchen as chef de cuisine at the celebrated Indian Accent in New Delhi for three years along with chef Mehrotra post his stint as sous chef at Asha’s Restaurants in Dubai, working at Punjab Grill, Daryaganj and Gup Shup NYC, co-owner and chef, Gurpreet Gehdu wanted to go back to his roots.

The menu is simple and not too complicated, reminiscent of the true flavors of the Pind of Punjab (Punjab village). As a result, the menu consists of heirloom Punjabi recipes, from rustic homemade meals to bikes with hot and spicy street food, cold and creamy kulfi as well as a sharbat bar with a host of traditional beverages like the Badaam Brahmi and Bazoori.

The restaurant also includes a traditional marketplace (food souk) selling Amritsari specialities like aam papad, laddoos and wadi.

Sustainability is something they both see a need for and hold close to their hearts, prompting them to start a farm resort project based on agri-tourism along side the restaurant.

This was the concept behind ‘Friends of Farmers’ and ‘Daughters of Farmers.’ Both are initiatives designed to help local farmers economically, socially and culturally.

Through ‘Daughters of Farmers,’ they run a women’s empowerment program, training local women to work in the restaurant industry – with one of their own restaurant shifts run by an all-women crew- and through the ‘Friends of Farmers’ initiative, all ingredients are sourced directly from the farmers, from the best produce to the freshest dairy.

While Gehdu set out to ensure that visitors could taste the best of Punjab, co-owner Kiran Dhillon wanted to make sure they could feel the best of Punjab.

After designing collections for Zara, Mango, Hugo Boss, Calvin Klein and many more and pursuing an MBA in luxury brand management from Paris and China, Dhillon had a successful career in India before she ventured to design her current project.

“The idea was to keep the place rustic, true to the roots and yet upmarket and stylish,” said Dhillon. “My roots in rural Punjab and our international exposure helped us create the balance between old-world charm and modern comfort.

“We didn’t want anything to overpower, instead it had to be in sync with the name, British architecture of the building as well as Punjabi elements of that era.”

Rang Punjab hopes to show visitors to the city a detailed cross section of Punjabi food and culture, a one-stop-shop for all things Punjab.