MPW 2022: Namita Thapar, the driver of change and growth

There is a certain passion in Namita Thapar’s voice when she speaks. Be it on her business, mental health, women’s issues, Shark Tank India or just entrepreneurship at large, she really gets into the conversation. Her academic pedigree tells a convincing story. At 21, she was a qualified Chartered Accountant. A year after that, she decided to do an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. After that, she worked at cardiovascular device manufacturer Guidant Corporation in the US for six years across finance and marketing.

While all this was going on, her father Satish Mehta raised money from private equity giant Blackstone in Emcure Pharmaceuticals, the company he had founded.

“I worked outside before moving to join Emcure and that was critical,” says Thapar.

Once she joined as CFO in 2007, from revenues of Rs 500 crore, Emcure today is a Rs 7,000-crore entity, with the primary business being manufacturing formulations and APIs.

On why she decided to get back home, Thapar says she was a mother and it seemed like the right time to do it. There was always keenness to run the P&L and her father gave her that responsibility.

Thapar loves marketing, brands and interacting with people. That is evident on Shark Tank India, which, she says, “is a platform to share stories of India’s entrepreneurs, our job creators and to inspire and impact”.

She likes to use the power of her voice to discuss topics that she is passionate about, “especially those that are taboo where the mindset needs to change”.