Anu Aga is an Indian billionaire businesswoman and social worker who led Thermax, an energy and environment engineering business, as its chairperson from 1996 to 2004. She was among the eight richest Indian women, and in 2007 was part of 40 Richest Indians by net worth according to Forbes magazine.
She was awarded with the Mumbai Women of the Decade Achievers Award by ALL Ladies League, the all ladies wing of ASSOCHAM.After retiring from Thermax, she took to social work, and in 2010 she was awarded the Padma Shri for Social Work by the Government of India.She is currently Chairperson of Teach For India.
Anu Aga was born to a Parsi Zoroastrian family on 3 August1942 in Bombay.
She graduated with a B.A. in Economics from St Xavier’s College, Mumbai, and with a post graduation in medical and psychiatric social work from the prestigious Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. She had also been a Fulbright Scholar and graduated from the Harvard Business School. Anu was married to Rohinton Aga. Anu started her career in Thermax in 1985 and later headed its human resources division from 1991 to 1996. Rohinton Aga suddenly passed away in 1996, and Aga succeeded him as the new chairperson of Thermax Global. In the interview, Aga relates the factors that went into her selection for the role, as well as some of the biggest challenges she faced assuming leadership of a large-scale, highly-diversified engineering firm. At that time, the Indian economy was in the midst of a severe downturn. Despite the fact that she had little background in either business or engineering, she immediately recognized that the company was out of depth and needed major re-structuring.
However, the key to her success, she explains, was her willingness to ask for help—most notably, from the consulting firm Boston Consulting Group. In the first few years of her leadership, Aga took the decision to remove family members from executive positions and instead place them on the Thermax board.
In addition to her leadership within Thermax, Aga also became an outspoken advocate of corporate responsibility, both independently and as a member of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Her commitment to responsibility was one major factor that led Aga to take a hardline stance against corruption within Thermax. In her interview, Aga explains some of the factors that helped her convince Thermax board members to institutionalize a no-corruption policy.
In 2004, Aga took the decision to step down as chairperson. In the interview, she describes the unusual way in which she approached this transition and the reasons that she selected her daughter, Meher Pudumjee, as her successor. Since that time, Aga continues to serve as Chairperson of Thermax Global Initiatives. She has also become personally involved in philanthropic activities, specifically NGOs like Akanksha and Teach for India.