Radhika Gupta Age, Husband, Family, Biography & More

Some Lesser Known Facts About Radhika Gupta

• Radhika Gupta is an Indian business executive. She is the Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Edelweiss Asset Management Limited.

• Since Radhika Gupta’s father was an Indian Foreign Services (IFS) official, she completed her schooling at different schools in different countries.

• Radhika Gupta was good at studies. She passed her intermediate from Marymount International School Rome with a gold medal in English, Maths, Physics, Biology, and Economics, and for securing the highest grades in school, she was chosen to be a valedictorian. ^[3]LinkedIn
  

  Radhika Gupta during her school’s graduation speech

• To manage her expenses while studying at Pennsylvania University, Radhika took up a job at the university in 2001. In an interview, she said,
  

  Back then it was very costly to survive without having an income. A book on economics costed roughly around $300. It was a relief that I was studying on educational grant, given to me by the US government.”

• In the 1st year of her graduation, Radhika worked as a computer lab assistant, and in the 2nd year, owing to her good grades, she was appointed as a Teaching Assistant at the university.

• From 2004 to 2005, Radhika Gupta, as an intern, worked with the software company Microsoft.

• After completing her graduation in 2005, Radhika Gupta was presented the university’s highest honour of Summa cum laude; an honour given to a student whose’s grade point is between 3.80 and 4.00.
  

  A photograph of Radhika Gupta holding her graduation degree after graduating from the Wharton School

• After completing her formal education in 2005, Radhika Gupta kickstarted her corporate career with an American firm named McKinsey and Company, where she worked as a Business Analyst and was entrusted with making strategies for the company’s clients, who were dealing in technology, pharmacy, and retail sectors. There, she worked as a Business Analyst till 2006.

• Before being hired by McKinsey, Radhika Gupta, at the age of 22, was rejected by seven companies because of which she began to have suicidal thoughts and had even told a friend of her that she would commit suicide by jumping from the 19th floor of the girls’ dormitor. In an interview, she said,
  

  I was rejected, one by one, by seven companies. This shattered me mentally. I began to have severe doubts about my capabilities as I had no idea where was I going wrong. Sitting in my room on the 19th floor, I said to my friend, that enough is enough, I will commit suicide by jumping right out of the window. My friend immediately rushed to the authorities and I was admitted to the psychiatric ward. I was only released when I pleaded them to let me go as I had an interview with McKinsey, the company in which I was finally hired.”

• From 2006 to 2009, Radhika Gupta worked with AQR Capital Management as a Portfolio Manager.

• In 2009, amidst the Great Recession, she decided to move back to India to start her own business. In 2009, Radhika Gupta, along with her husband, Nalin Moniz, and a friend from AQR Capital Management, founded a capital investment and management company named Forefront Capital Management in Mumbai, Maharashtra. When asked about the reasons for leaving the United States and moving to India, Radhika, in an interview, said,
  

  I love change, in fact, I thrive in chaos. Becoming an entrepreneur, and being on my own, has been the biggest shift. Entrepreneurship not only helps your perspectives change but also teaches you to be more resourceful. It teaches you grit. Also, India for me is a far more exciting market because the degree of impact you can make here is large.”

  

  The founders of Forefront Capital Management

• After working for almost 4 years at Forefront Capital Management, Radhika Gupta and her two business partners decided to sell their company to another financial services company named Edelweiss Group. In 2014, the operations of Forefront Capital Management were acquired and merged with Edelweiss Group, and in 2014, Radhika Gupta was offered the position of business head at Edelweiss.

• From 2014 to 2017, Radhika Gupta worked as a Business Head of the Edelweiss Group. In 2017, she was promoted to the post of Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of the Edelweiss Group. She succeeded Vikaas Sachdeva as the CEO of the company. While giving an interview, Radhika Gupta said,
  

  I began climbing the corporate ladder. I became a saree in a room full of suits, but I didn’t want to let that stop me from raising my hand for opportunities.”

• On 1 October 2017, Radhika Gupta was invited by TEDx to deliver a speech on her life experiences.

• In 2017, Radhika Gupta became a member of the Global Leadership Council affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania.

• After being appointed as the MD and CEO of Edelweiss Group, Radhika Gupta, at the age of 33, became India’s youngest CEO. ^[4]Hindustan Times

• In 2019, under the leadership of Radhika Gupta, Eidelweiss Financial Services and the Government of India signed a contract, allowing Eidelweiss to jointly manage the government’s Corporate Debt ETF accounts. Eidelweiss was chosen by the Indian government after beating larger players such as HDFC Asset Management Co. and ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co. ^[5]The Print

• In 2021, an article on Radhika Gupta was featured in Business Today Magazine.
  

  An article on Radhika Gupta published in the Business Today magazine

• In 2021, Radhika Gupta gave a presentation on mutual funds investments at the Naval War College in Goa.
  

  Radhika Gupta during a presentation at Naval War College, Goa

• Radhika Gupta, in the same year, was invited by LinkedIn to give a speech at its Influencer Program.
  

  Radhika Gupta during the LinkedIn Influencer Program

• In 2021, Radhika Gupta was honoured by the State Bank of India (SBI) for addressing more than 60,000 women employees of the bank and educating them for increasing their income and savings.
  

  Radhika Gupta being honoured by SBI

• In 2022, another article on Radhika Gupta was published in the India Today magazine.
  

  An article on Radhika Gupta published in the India Today magazine

• In the same year, Rahdikha Gupta published her first book titled Limitless: The Power of Unlocking Your True Potential.
  

  Radhika Gupta’s book titled Limitless: The Power of Unlocking Your True Potential

• As a child, Radhika Gupta was extensively bullied by her schoolmates for her tilted neck and heavy Indian accent. In an interview, Radhika talked about this and said,
  

  I was born with a twisted neck, and If that was not enough, I was constantly the new kid, shifting nations in every three years. In seventh grade, I was the awkward new kid, surrounded by peers who mocked my heavy Indian accent. They called me ‘Apu,’ after the Simpsons character. They even gave me derogatory names such as Torticollis, or crooked neck.”

• Radhika Gupta once told that she was born with several complications. Since she was severely overweight, when she was in her mother’s womb, her weight put a lot of pressure on her neck due to which her neck became crooked. She further said that when she was in school, her classmates used to make fun of her by calling her “the girl with a crooked neck.” In an interview, Radhika said,
  

  I was grossly overweight. My excessive weight put a lot of pressure on my neck when I was in my mother’s womb. So, I was born with a crooked neck. Till the time I was a chubby little kid, my neck’s tilt was barely visible, but as I began losing the excess baby fat while growing up, it became more and more prominent to me and everyone else. So, yeah, you can say that I am one of those people, who actually regretted losing weight. I shared my childhood insecurities about my looks, my struggles with rejection, and my subsequent attempt to commit suicide. I let go of all the baggage I’d held on to. And my talk travelled far and wide – I became known as ‘the girl with the broken neck.”

  

  Radhika Gupta with her parents as a child

• Radhika Gupta once revealed in an interview that while she was studying in school, she used to feel very low when she was compared with the beauty of her mother by her classmates. Radhika said,
  

  They compared me to my mom, who worked as a teacher in my school. She’s a stunning woman, and people always told me how ugly I looked in comparison; my confidence plummeted.”

• Radhika Gupta is a polyglot. Apart from speaking Hindi and English, she also knows how to speak Italian.

• Radhika Gupta is a professional tournament-level bridge player. ^[6]The Print

• Radhika Gupta once revealed that she was too demoralized to apply for the post of CEO as she thought that her application might get rejected, but it was her husband, Nalin Moniz, who motivated her to apply for the post of the CEO. In an interview, she talked about this and said,
  

  When the post of CEO got vacated, I was in a dilemma, whether I should apply for the post or not. I was running very low on morale as I thought that out of all the applications, that too from those who were far more experienced than me, why would they even select me? It was Nalin who asked me to apply for it, as he believed that I ceartainly was the best person, suitable for this job.”

• In November 2023, she appeared as one of the judges of a business reality television series ‘Shark Tank India 3,’ which aired on Sony Entertainment Television and streamed on SonyLIV.
  

  Radhika Gupta (centre), along with other judges, in the show ‘Shark Tank India’ (Season 3) (2023)