'There's no glass ceiling for women'

Patna: From a schoolgirl in Bokaro to a top corporate honcho in the world of finance in Mumbai, this 'beti' of Bihar has come a long way, proving that the concept of a glass ceiling for women - that they can't rise beyond a point - is not true.

Meet Arpita Vinay, executive director of Centrum Wealth Management (CWM), a part of the Centrum group, a financial services organization. The CWM is in the field of private banking and Arpita has been part of the core team that set it up from scratch about five years ago. The work of financial intermediation is very challenging as even the Tata's, Birla's and the Mahindra's haven't fared well in this field, she says "We are doing many innovative things, particularly bringing the best global practices in the field of financial intermediation here."

An electrical engineer from BIT Sindri, Arpita Vinay started from the shop floor as graduate engineer trainee at Tata Steel in Jamshedpur. After doing MBA in finance, she joined

HSBC

Bank in wealth management sales. She rose to become the head of premier banking at the bank. Later, she quit as senior vice-president of HSBC Bank to take up a quasi-entrepreneurial role in CWM, in which employees hold a third of the stake.

Asked where the corporate honcho goes from here, she said she was already in a leadership position and "designations don't matter much now". Her message to career women is, "The environment is very supportive and the concept of glass ceiling for them is overrated."

She loves travelling and wants to visit at least 100 countries, having already visited 33. She is also an avid music buff and a diehard book lover. Her latest read was 'A Palace of Illusion' - a book on the Mahabharata as seen from Draupadi's eyes.

Arpita was recently conferred the World Women Leadership Award for excellence in finance services by an organization which is supported by Hillary Clinton Foundation. "It is nice to be recognized on a broader canvas," she said.

A woman with global recognition, Arpita says she was still attached much to Bihar and "would do something here sooner than later". Centrum group already has a presence in foreign exchange business in Patna.

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