WE Local India Advisory Board

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Meet the 2023 Advisory Board

The WE Local India Advisory Board is made up of SWE leaders from across the country who guide the strategic development of the conference. Meet the leaders who make WE Local a success!

charulatha varadarajan, president

Charulatha Varadarajan, President

Charulatha Varadarajan has a rich Technical and Leadership experience in Embedded Systems and Products. She leads a team at Intel Technologies India that delivers Intel SoC based Chromebooks. She has extensive experience in Program and Project management & development. She is a post graduate certified in AIML, training employees in her organization in this field.

Charulatha is an executive advisory board member for WE local Bengaluru for 2022 and 2023. Her SWE journey started when she chaired a SWE roundtable local event @Intel India in 2017. She is a SWE member since then & has chaired the WE Local Bengaluru Conference Poster track from 2018.

Charulatha has driven many Women @ Intel India site activities and has done impactful contribution in Diversity & Inclusion. Her initiative in STEM, touched about 700 college girls in the year 2021. She has driving many mentoring sessions within and outside her organisation. She Breastfeeding support for moms of multiples group and has lead the Bangalore chapter of Breastfeeding support for Indian Moms with 40,000+ mothers at the local chapter. She has conducted many on the road activities in Bangalore city to create awareness about importance of breastfeeding such as Big Latch on, Flashmob dances, new parents supports meetups, walkathon, etc.

Charulatha is a Silambattam practitioner, a South Indian martial arts from Tamilnadu and she is also a certified Yoga trainer from Svyasa University. She leads & also is active in a few Single Parents support groups at India extending her support for single women, who are parenting their kids single handedly.

She is a busy single parent of 10yr old twinkling twins, a boy and girl. She loves networking with people, and spreading motivation and positivity with her ever charming smile.

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Anshuma (Dogra) Singh, Vice President

Anshuma is a technology-driven & positive leader with 18+ years of work experience in Site Strategy, Digital technology enablement, IT Operational leadership, Customer experience, Product Development, Program/Portfolio management.

In her current role, Anshuma is leading IT for Applied material India having an overall responsibility for strategic partnership between IT and India business units. Anshuma leads a large team and is responsible for driving Applied India’s IT strategic roadmap, operations and support while aligning with global processes, strategies and supporting the IT needs of the global organization. She is part of the India leadership team and also part of Applied Material’s Asia council focusing on Digital transformation.

Having worked in the semi-conductor manufacturing industry, she brings a wealth of experience from that domain. Singh is an active member and speaker at various Technology forums (UBS Forums, Frost & Sullivan , 3AI, GHCI, WITI, IWN),) both at a national and international level.

She has a passion for diversity and organization development and is a strong advocate for the growth of women in STEM. She is the advisory board member and Vice President of Society for Women Engineers India . When off work, Anshuma likes to indulge in travel, creative writing, coaching, fitness and be the doting mom of her little ones.

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jahnavi chennupati, technical track and chennai chair

Jahnavi Chennupati, Secretary

Jahnavi Chennupati is an energetic leader with 15 years of experience in Engineering. She started her career as a Software Engineer with Caterpillar in 2005 in the US. She leads the Digital & Technology Solutions (D&TS) division which collaborates globally and transforms the latest technologies to develop products and solutions for end users that would add value to the respective business.

With her diverse experience in working with teams across the globe and never-say-die attitude, she has seen as a role model within her organization. She is responsible for guiding on managerial and all aspect of technical leadership support to software team that develop and deliver digital solutions on Connectivity, Telematics and Site level solutions. The solutions include Internet of Things (IoT), Mobile Technologies, Cloud Technologies, CRM Applications, Web Applications, Analytics and Big Data Technologies. The projects inclusive of research, design, development, test, document and deliver the product that builds spectacular digital experiences for customers.

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bindhu a., program director

Bindhu A., Program Director

Bindhu is a multi-faceted strategic Leader with close to two decades of experience, spanning from software/firmware development to managing new product development. Worked in healthcare, automotive and telecom domains. Being part of the highly regulated industry, ensuring timely deliverables with appropriate quality is her strength. She currently leads the product development of an electromechanical healthcare subsystem, She also leads the Firmware development and electrical teams and is part of the “Women in Science and Engineering”  employee resource group in Medtronic.

Bindhu has been part of SWE since 2021, Speed mentoring chair for 2021 -2022. The journey with SWE has been rewarding.  Collaborating and learning with industry specialists and likeminded individuals. The journey from the entry level professional to senior management is not a straight forward path and is not achievable by just one recipe. SWE conference as a platform provides access to industry leaders and their learnings, this will absolutely help every participant to craft their career path as they progress in their journey of engineering excellence.

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archana

Archana Kalyansundar, Speed Mentoring Chair

Archana is a driven individual and a leader with over 18 years of work experience in Engineering companies like Siemens and Ingersoll Rand. She is currently the Senior Engineering Manager, Application Software and Controls Engineering at the Engineering and Technology Centre,Trane Technologies. Archana has a passion for innovation and technology and her area of work involves managing and leading her team in their growth and development, application of latest technologies for designing software solutions and best practices to ensure engineering excellence. Her rich experience includes filed patents and publications in prestigious conferences. Her areas of interest include embedded software and image processing.

Archana is an active member of the Employee Resource Group for Diversity and Inclusion and has also led the initiative for the Technology Centre in India in the past. She is a strong advocate for women in Engineering and in leadership roles and plays an active role as a sponsor and mentor in her organization.

Archana loves to travel, experiment with new cuisines and is a performing Bharatanatyam dancer.

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dipti bapat, career fair chair

Dipti Bapat, Keynote Chair

Dipti is working with Cummins for over 16 years in the Electronics and Controls organization. After 12-year long stint in North America, she moved back to her hometown, Pune in India, 4 years ago. She has proven record of managing projects from concept to completion, building cross-functional and regional teams. Currently, she's working with Cummins India Technical Centre as Technical Leader for Electronics Functional Excellence, Shared Services, Product Cybersecurity & Functional Safety organizations.

Dipti joined SWE in 2021 as a global ambassador. She is passionate about working with people from varied experience, functional and regional backgrounds. As an inclusion champion at Cummins, Dipti facilitated several focused group discussion to increase awareness of unconscious bias, diversity and inclusion, to create an inclusive environment.

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garima yadav, pune chair

Garima Yadav, Pune Chair

Garima is a Program Manager with over 14 years of experience in various technology domains like product design, manufacturing, and digital engineering. She wears multiple hats within and outside organization being a mother, a wife , a daughter,  a DEI champion, and SWE Pune Affiliate President. Associated with SWE since 2015 and have  taken up multiple position in SWE including Global Ambassador in the past. She is a keen learner, technology enthusiast, strong DEI advocate and loves to work in a group.

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Geetu Garg, Leadership Track & Entrepreneurship Chair

Geetu Garg is a Senior Advisory Application Architect with over 17 years of experience in technology and working with top notch clients in cross industry domains. Apart from her day job, she loves to mentor, impart trainings and present at external conferences. She is a SWE member since 2019 and is a SWE Global Ambassador since 3 consecutive years. She is a technology evangelist and loves to take part in technical and leadership initiatives. She also spreads SWE's mission and vision in her organisation.

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preetika hingorani, communications and pune chair

Preetika Hingorani, Communications Chair

Preetika Hingorani is a HR Professional with 8 years expertise in Talent Acquisition and Talent Management. She has experience in Talent Acquisition, Onboarding & Orientation, Training, Performance Management, Succession Management, Diversity & Inclusion, Employee Engagement, Rewards & Recognition, Wellness and Employee Relations management. She currently works as the HR Business Partner for Black & Veatch’s Power & Telecom Businesses in India.

Preetika leads Diversity & Inclusion initiative at Black & Veatch, India office and is also part of the D&I Partner network. Her efforts towards D&I are highly appreciated by Black & Veatch Leadership and she has been instrumental in expanding the reach of several programs of SWE Pune Affiliate such as SWEet Milan, Wow! That’s Engineering and Mentoring in the Engineering Industry. Hingorani’s efforts towards D&I encouraged the Management at Black & Veatch to launch SWE, Mumbai Affiliate! Preetika serves as Vice President for the SWE Pune Affiliate. Preetika is passionate about Interior Designing, watching Bollywood movie and singing!

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Rejeena Yarramala, Poster Competition Chair

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sadhana priya vashisht, chennai chair

Sadhana Priya Vashisht, Chennai Chair

Sadhana is a passionate professional with 7+ years of experience in AIML Software & Product Development. She started her career with Caterpillar as college graduate intern in 2014. Her team contributes to provide ML- Analytics solutions for end users in their businesses. She is equipped with a record of success in innovation. Some of her innovations are registered as patents with USPTO. One of her inventions is registered as “Copy Right & Trade Secret“ with Caterpillar Inc.

She always stresses upon the importance STEM careers for every female in the country. She organizes various STEM outreach events for school & college students throughout India. She is a SWE Global Ambassador for FY23. Sadhana has been part of various initiatives to empower and educate women engineers. Currently, she is serving as “Vice President–Professional Development” for the SWE Chennai Affiliate. She is also “Core Member” of the Women Initiative Network (WIN) at Caterpillar.

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sageetha satheesan

Sageetha Satheesan

Sageetha Satheesan is a result-focused effectual leader with over 19 years of experience in the Oil & Gas and Financial Services industry. She has held various roles in Software Development, IT Infrastructure projects, Identity & Access Management, Application support, Agile, Recruiting, Career Development and Planning and Product Management. In her current role as Product and Staff Development Manager, she is responsible for establishing product vision, roadmap and identifying new markets for IT solutions for Surface Engineering. She actively seeks opportunities to leverage collective capability of software developers and engineers to deliver modern solutions that drive operating cost reductions, enable competitive advantage and deliver at scale. The solutions include Cloud technologies, Web applications, Data Analytics and Visualization. She is also responsible for developing the right people with the right skills at the right time and strongly believes that it increases job satisfaction and inspires commitment. Sageetha is passionate about mentoring, motivating people to reach their potential and strategy planning. When off work, she loves to cook, travel to new places and spend quality time with her family and pets.

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sasi rekha rajendrababu, leadership track chair

Sasi Rekha Rajendrababu, Career Fair Chair

Sasi Rekha has 20+ years of experience in the area of Technical Talent Development across industry and academia. She specializes in creating technology leadership pipeline across the organization, role-based competency development plans, driving industry and university alliances, facilitating programs and Agile consulting. Her role in building technology pipeline through technical learning offerings, early career technology leadership programs and learning road-maps. Her responsibility also includes nurturing strategic partnerships with universities to leverage the regional ecosystem. She has an engineering degree in Computer science from the University of Madras. She is a Certified Scrum Master and has worked as an Agile Coach in her previous roles. Being passionate about learning, she has also taught in universities in China and India. An avid reader, her hobbies include trying out new recipes and blogging about social norms which she strongly feels about.

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sayantika saha, poster competition chair

Sayantika Saha

Sayantika Saha is an automotive engineer with 16 + years of experience currently working at General Motors. She is experienced in managing efficient, innovative & goal-focused teams. Sayantika is an SWE global ambassador and one of the founding members of SWE Bangalore affiliate.

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sharanya sachin menon

Sharanya Sachin Menon

Sharanya Sachin is a Mechanical Engineer from the University of Warwick. She graduated in 2015 and began working in her family business. There, Sharanya handled projects on process optimization in the manufacturing process. She is also the leader of the SWE Kolhapur Affiliate. In her free time, Sharanya is a Bharatanatyam dancer and yoga enthusiast.

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suchita kapoor

Suchita Kapoor, College Outreach Chair

Suchita Kapoor is a dedicated leader at Keysight Technologies. She has 22 years of experience in Component Engineering, R&D, Product Development, Project Management and Quality improvement. She holds bachelors in engineering and masters in operations management and is Six Sigma Black Belt certified. She is connected to SWE for many years. She is SWE Global ambassador for last two years and a part of Keysight DE&I team. She has been recently selected for International Women day Jewel Award 2022. She is leading ‘Support Global Affiliates Work Group’ and involved in many outreach activities.

She is a mother of two sons and enjoys spending time with family. Yoga and music are part of her hobbies.

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swati arya, delhi chair

Swati Arya, Delhi and Leadership Track Chair

An engineering specialist by profession, Swati supports the execution of numerous grassroot and brown field/expansion projects in the field of Oil & Gas, Mining & Metals and Infrastructure works. She also has comprehensive experience in working on various types of execution strategies and stages of projects ranging from DFR, FEED, EPCM and PMC from the initial planning phase to close out reports.

Swati is an advocate of sustainability and strongly believes it is our obligation to give back to society in whatever big or small capacity we can. Long walks and bike ride with friends are what she enjoys.

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vandana pandey, special consultant

Vandana Pandey, Technical Track Chair

Vandana Pandey is Associate Director, Site Reliability Engineer in Kyndryl’s SRE Center of Excellence Team (CoE). She is IBM Certified Technical Specialist as well as IBM/Kyndryl certified SRE. She is the first certified female SRE in IBM/Kyndryl. She has a total of 17+ years of experience.

Vandana is a Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Global Ambassador since 2016. She co-founded the SWE Chennai Affiliate and served as Affiliate President for 3 years and, currently, Vandana is one of the affiliate Board Members. She is a Joint-focused Global Coach as a part of SWE Leadership Coaching Committee (LCC).

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