Natasha Poonawalla On Fashion, Family And Philanthropy

A bright light in the world of philanthropy and high society, Natasha Poonawalla is ready to strip her public image of a fashionable socialite and emerge as a high-impact woman who can handle grit as well as glamour. The LSE graduate, who has been on the front lines of the vaccine crusade, sits with Radhika Seth to give us a rare peek behind the curtain

- Radhika Seth

This year, people have realised what I do,” says Natasha Poonawalla with a wry smile. We’re sitting in the cavernous library of her home in London’s Mayfair, which is piled high with coffee-table books and contempo-rary art, and the 40-year-old looks more amused than contemplative. As the executive director of the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest vaccine maker, she—alongside her husband, the company’s CEO Adar Poonawalla and his father, the chairman and managing director Cyrus Poonawalla—has been at the forefront of the global fight against COVID-19. She’s also the chair of the Villoo Poonawalla Charitable Foundation (named after her late mother-in-law), is active in the family’s horse racing and breeding business, and is a mother of two. But over the last decade, she’s been labelled a socialite almost as often as a businesswoman. “I think I was misjudged a little bit,” she adds. “People saw me dressing up and said, ‘She’s that fashion person on the racecourse.’ But I didn’t feel the need to expose the serious part of my life to everyone.”

CALLING THE SHOTS