L-R: Padma Rajgopalan, Sangita Reddy & Margaret Keane (President & CEO Synchrony Financial)
Synchrony Financial President & CEO Margaret Keane interacts with FICCI members on Women in Leadership Opportunities and Challenges
Hyderabad, 27th April 2016, Wednesday: Ms. Margaret Keane, President and Chief Executive Officer of Synchrony Financial, a premier consumer financial services company, today interacted with key members of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and other industry bodies while speaking on the subject of Women in Leadership Opportunities and Challenges. The event, which was held at Hotel Trident, also featured Ms. Sangita Reddy, who presided over the session.
Ms. Keane, who is an advocate for women’s empowerment, was named by Fortune magazine as one of the "Most Powerful Women" in 2015. As President and Chief Executive Officer of Synchrony Financial, she is passionate about emerging technology and employee development, and she has been a guiding force behind Synchrony’s success.
The delegates engaged in an insightful interaction with Ms. Keane and shared their experiences around opportunities presented to women leaders in India. The program also emphasized the need for empowerment of women in their respective areas to enable them to be better leaders. The interactive session looked at understanding opportunities and challenges in women’s leadership and creating a congenial social, cultural & economic environment to nurture women in leadership positions.
“I am deeply honoured to be a part of this session on Women in Leadership Opportunities and Challenges organised in association with FICCI,” Ms. Keane said. “The objective of the session is to explore and to discuss how women leaders can engage and expand their horizon. This meeting with women leaders and entrepreneurs has helped me better understand the business dynamics in India. At Synchrony Financial, we believe that women employees bring tremendous value to our business. As an organisation, we strongly promote employment of women; this is evident by the fact that more than 44% of our team in India is female. We are committed to, and investing in, the empowerment of women and providing environments to facilitate women in leadership.”
Commenting on opportunities and challenges for women leaders, Ms. Sangita Reddy, Jt. Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals and Chairperson, FICCI Telangana & AP State Council said, “India is witnessing positive change, women are leading several sectors in the country and the banking sector is a shining example. Nevertheless, to nurture women leaders, India needs to start focusing on creating an environment and a culture that encourages them. Aspects critical to creating an enabling environment would be flexibility at the workplace, transparency & equal opportunity, amenities for child care and many such, that recognize the challenges and offer solutions to women. Above all, businesses today need to bear in mind that women as leaders bring diversity of perspective to the table and that is almost essential to sustainability. Also, there is ample research which proves that organizations will thrive when men and women hold leadership roles. Consumers too in the present day are demanding inclusivity from the brands that they choose. Apollo Hospitals has been cognizant of this reality and has always persevered to maintain a high diversity in its leadership positions”
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