Young Achiever

Jessie Paul is the third woman in our power listing who has moved into a new

role at a newer territory only in May this year-the others being Padma

Ravichander from Perot Systems and Ravathy Ashok from Syntel. At 35, she is the

chief marketing officer at Wipro Technologies and the youngest professional to

make it to the list.

An IIM Calcutta alumnus..."I also have a BE in Computer Science from REC

Trichy, which is ranked among the top 10 T-schools in India in your Best

T-Schools study," says Paul with pride. A brief one year stint at Tata

Elxsi was followed by Infosys. At Infy, she helped set up the marketing

infrastructure and processes, something that won her the Chairman's Award in

1998. It is here that she met Phaneesh Murthy. When Murthy joined hands with

Bangalore-based GMR group to set up Quintant, the first start-up in India in the

emerging pure play business services provisioning (BSP) segment to create

virtual enterprises, in 2003, she quit Infosys and followed him. Says Paul,

"I knew Phaneesh since 1998 and it was not difficult to take a

decision." The lure was irresistible-the opportunity to be mentored at

the hands of one of the finest marketing brains in the country (afterall, who

can deny that Phaneesh Murthy single-handedly spearheaded Infosys' global

marketing strategy in the US). And, of course, there is always the possibility

of achieving more in a smaller organization. Quintant and then iGate, after

iGate Global solutions acquired a majority stake in Quintant in July 2003, gave

Paul the opportunity to make a difference and prove her worth. Says Paul,

"The challenges in a startup are far higher. You need to actually establish

an identity for the company through your work." And she did that

successfully and in great style.

As the chief marketing officer at Wipro, she has a new job at hand. Her key

responsibilities: further enhancing Wipro's brand and ensuring a platform to

win and engage customers through its domain-specific, IP-led technology and

business solutions. The challenges are just right at this point in her career.

"The biggest challenge, however, is to live up to expectations," says

Paul.

Most of the marketing heads in the IT services industry have come through the

sales or the delivery route. However, Paul could lay her foot in marketing at

the beginning of her career. "I feel blessed," says Paul. When she is

not working, she loves playing scrabble online. She's also a voracious reader.

Paul has just finished reading Jack Welch And The GE Way, a book on the

leadership secrets of the legendary CEO at GE. She hopes to replicate the same

style of leadership at Wipro and create what she calls "Winning, The Wipro

Way".