The Goddess of Fashion at Liz Claiborne Aru Kulkarni - President, Liz Claiborne Apparel Division
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The goddess of fashion at Liz Claiborne Aru Kulkarni - President, Liz Claiborne Apparel Division After graduating from University of Pitts-burgh in 1984, a career in the fashion industry wasn’t exactly what Aru Kulkarni aspired to. Nevertheless, as president of $5 billion Liz Claiborne’s apparel division, Kulkarni is ecstatic she stumbled upon a career that has brought her so far. “I had no reference points or experience as far as the fashion industry was concerned,” says the Mumbai-born executive reflecting on her job hunt in Pittsburgh. As an economics major, a finance or banking job looked more promising, but an offer from retail chain Joseph Horne’s seemed too good to pass up on. One thing led to another, and after a four-year stint at Horne’s, Kulkarni moved to New York, secure in the belief she was ready to jump into the mecca of global fashion industry. “I was at Maidenform, a women’s lingerie company, from 1989 to 1992 and then moved to Warnaco where I held various sales and marketing executive positions and eventually moved up to senior vice president of sales and marketing for Calvin Klein Underwear,” she says. In November 2000, Kulkarni made another strategic move and joined Liz Claiborne as vice president and general manager for missy casual sales. In 2004, she was appointed to her present position, a coveted title considering her division has a portfolio of 34 brands and is responsible for 40 percent of the company’s bottomline. While there aren’t many top women executives in the American fashion industry, let alone an Indian American, Kulkarni attributes her success to her leadership style. “I have been told that I’m a very direct, yet motivating leader. My inclusive philosophy of leadership has helped me to build strong teams, which ultimately helps the business,” she explains. “I pride myself on not being a micro-manager, but rather empowering my team and being a strategic leader.” As an Indian American, Kulkarni remains bonded to her roots and is closely networked with the community, although socializing is a luxury given her work schedule. Business brings references to India and Kulkarni is rather fascinated by India’s integration into the global fashion industry. A frequent visitor to Mumbai and Pune, she never experienced the concept of “ready-to-wear” clothing growing up in India. “Now there are Benetton and Levi’s stores. The difference may be because, with more and more Indian people employed by multinational corporations, the disposable income of the average person has risen since I left back in the early 80s,” she observes. And with global fashion trends quickly adopted in India now, she is ensuring Liz Claiborne sources extensively from India. “Our executives are really impressed with the work ethic and quality of merchandise in India and we do buy a lot from there,” quips Kulkarni. Leading by example at Newsweek Fareed Zakaria - Editor, Newsweek International Fareed Zakaria’s career reads like some razy American fantasy: Neoconservative policy wonk becomes darling of the ultra-liberal Daily Show. Political columnist and editor of Newsweek International, he is dubbed an “intellectual heartthrob” by Jon Stewart. Zakaria was named editor of Newsweek International in October 2000, overseeing all Newsweek’s editions abroad. The magazine reaches an audience of 24 million worldwide. Zakaria was born in India to a practicing Muslim family. His father, Rafiq Zakaria, was a former government minister, deputy leader of the Congress party and a respected scholar. His mother, Fatima Zakaria, was for a time the Sunday editor of the Times of India. His brother Arshad is a former head of investment banking at Merrill Lynch and is currently the head of New Vernon Capital, the largest hedge fund investing in India. His two other siblings, a brother Mansoor and a sister Tasneem, are from his father’s first marriage. Zakaria attended the Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai where he was School Prefect and House Captain for Palmer, one of the four school Houses. After graduating from the Anglican school, Zakaria attended Yale University where he was a member of Scroll and Key Society, President of the Yale Political Union, and a member of the Party of the Right. Zakaria received a B.A. from Yale and later graduated with a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University, where he studied under Samuel P. Huntington and Stanley Hoffmann. Before his current position with Newsweek, Zakaria was managing editor of the magazine Foreign Affairs, a journal of international politics and economics. Prior to joining Foreign Affairs, Zakaria ran a research project on American foreign policy at Harvard University. He has taught courses in international relations and political philosophy at Harvard, Columbia and Case Western universities. He has written for such publications as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker and The New Republic, and has also worked as a wine columnist for the webzine Slate. His 2002 essay for The New Yorker on America’s global role has been widely quoted, as have several of his Newsweek cover-essays. He is the author of the 1998 book From Wealth to Power: The Unusual Origins of America’s World Role (Princeton University Press), his PhD thesis, and co-editor of The American Encounter: The United States and the Making of the Modern World (Basic Books). His most recent book, The Future of Freedom, was published in the spring of 2003 and became a New York Times bestseller as well as a bestseller in several other countries. It has been translated into more than eighteen languages. In April 2005, Zakaria premiered as host of a new foreign affairs program on PBS, Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria. Zakaria has won several awards for his Newsweek columns, including for his October 2001 Newsweek cover story, “Why They Hate Us.” In 1999, he was named “one of the 21 most important people of the 21st Century” by Esquire. In 2005, he won the World Affairs Councils of America’s International Jour-nalist Award. In 2006, he was named one of the 100 most influential graduates of Harvard University. He currently serves on the boards of Yale University, the Trilateral Commission, and the Council on Foreign Relations, New America Foundation and Columbia University’s Inter-national House. Zakaria is a recipient of The International Center’s Award of Excellence. Passion for philanthropy Robin Raina - Founder, Robin Raina Foundation Robin Raina, a successful businessman and voted amongst the top 100 Most Powerful people in insurance in North America by Insurance magazine is passionate about his foundation and community work. Atlanta-based Raina is the founder of Robin Raina Foundation, a philanthropic organization that has pledged $15 million to build houses for slum-dwellers in India. The youngest of four children and named Raina because he chattered like the bird as a kid did his schooling and college in Punjab, holds an Industrial Engineering degree from Thapar University in Punjab and an MBA from IIM Calcutta. He is presently president and CEO at Ebix, a 28-year old publicly traded American company and has lead the transformation of this company into a profitable Global Group with offices in Australia, NZ, Singapore, London, Chicago, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Park City, Walnut Creek, India & Toronto. Raina is credited with leading the insurance industry’s march into the 21st century in terms of redefining the technology arena and has been credited with introducing many novel concepts to the insurance industry: Raina likes to play a role in improving Indo-US trade, while generating increased employment both in India and United States. Today, he has made India into the nucleus for this American company, with approximately 250 employees presently in India. He dreams to have close to 3000 employees by December 2008 in India. The Indian company, a wholly owned subsidiary of the American company, runs an advertising campaign with a slogan – “American Company with an Indian Heart.” That sums up Robin’s desire to bring the two countries together. Today, the company owns two large buildings in Noida, India and has built a name for itself as one of the key American multinational BPO operations in India. The ‘pundit’ at Citigroup Vikram Pandit - CEO, Citigroup A brilliant student throughout his academic life and a go-getter by nature, 51-year-old Indian American Vikram Pandit hogged the media limelight worldwide when he was declared as the youngest CEO of the world’s largest conglomerate, the Citigroup in 2008. The group operates as Citi and happens to be the largest financial institution in the world. Pandit was born in Nagpur to a reasonably prosperous Marathi Brahmin family. His schooling happened at Dadar Parsee Youths Assembly High School at Dadar in Mumbai. After this, he shifted to United States at the age of 16 and took admission in Columbia University. He received B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering in 1976 and 1977 respectively and a Ph.D. in finance in 1986. Pandit happens to be a trustee at the Columbia University. Pundit also has had a stint as a professor at Indiana University in Bloomington and thereafter, joined Morgan Stanley. For the next two decades, Pandit worked for Morgan Stanley. He was appointed the president and Chief Operating Officer (CEO) of the Institutional Securities and Investment Banking Group at Morgan Stanley and was in charge of the total operation of the group. Pandit looked after aspects like the trading, sales and infrastructure of the business from the year 2000 to 2005. Pandit was the managing director and head of the US Equity Syndicate for Morgan Stanley from 1990 to 1994.