Sulajja Firodia Motwani Height, Age, Boyfriend, Husband, Children, Family, Biography & More
Bio/Wiki | |
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Real Name | Sulajja Firodia [1]Sulajja's Twitter Account |
Profession | Businesswoman |
Famous For | Being the founder & CEO of Kinetic Green Energy & Power Solutions Limited |
Physical Stats & More | |
Height (approx.) | in centimeters- 165 cm in meters- 1.65 m in feet & inches- 5’ 5″ |
Eye Colour | Black |
Hair Colour | Black |
Career | |
Awards, Honours, Achievements | • 2002: World Economic Forum selected her as a “Young Global Leader." • 2002: Sulajja was honoured with the Society Young Achiever’s Award for Business, Young Super Achiever Award by Business Today. • 2003: She earned MTV’s coveted Style-icon Award, India’s Most Powerful Women award, and Top Management Consortium’s Award of Excellence. • Later, she was also featured by India Today as a business “Face of the Millennium.” She was voted among the top 25 Business Leaders of the Next Century in a poll of industrialists done by Fortune. Around the same time, IESA honoured her among the Women at the forefront of the EV ecosystem and Energy Storage around the globe. • 2019: She is the recipient of Outlook’s Women of Worth (WOW) Award, Zee’s Dare to Dream Award, Rotary International’s Vocational Excellence Award, Pride of BMCC award, Nari Shakti Award. |
Personal Life | |
Date of Birth | 26 August 1970 (Wednesday) |
Age (as of 2021) | 51 Years |
Birthplace | Pune, Maharashtra |
Zodiac sign | Virgo |
Nationality | Indian |
School | Garware School in Pune |
College/University | • Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce, Pune University • Carnegie Mellon University at Pittsburgh |
Educational Qualification(s) | • She completed her schooling at Garware School in Pune. [2]Telegraph India • 1990: Sulajja attained a bachelor in Commerce degree from Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce, Pune University. • At the age of 21, she went to Carnegie Mellon University at Pittsburgh to pursue an MBA degree. [3]Outlook Business |
Ethnicity | Marwari [4]OutLook |
Hobbies | Mountain biking, scuba diving, skiing, rollerblading, and swimming underwater |
Relationships & More | |
Marriage Date | 26 December 1993 |
Marital Status | Married |
Family | |
Husband | Manish Motwani (Works at Kinetic Group, India) |
Parents | Father- Arun Firodia (founder and Chairman of the Firodia Group and a Padmashree awardee) Mother- Jayashree Firodia (Doctor) Grandfather- (Late) H. K. Firodia (founder of Kinetic Engineering) Grandmother- (Late) Pankuwar Firodia |
Children | Son- Sidhant |
Siblings | Brother- Ajinkya (Industrialist) Sisters- Vismaya (Works at Infiniti Liveaboard and The Infiniti - Andaman) and Kimaya (Made her own niche as a design professional abroad) |
Some Lesser Known Facts About Sulajja Firodia Motwani
- Sulajja Firodia Motwani is an Indian woman entrprenure. She is the founder of Kinetic Green Energy & Power Solutions Limited that manufactures three-wheelers like electric autos, buggies and small electric taxis. She is also the managing person and director of Kinetic Engineering Limited that manufactures two-wheeler mopeds, scooters and motorcycles.
- Soon after completing her MBA, she worked for four years in the sales and finance department of an investment consultancy firm in California, Barra International. During these four years, she met her husband Manish Motwani and got married to him. They were both green cardholders in the USA.
- In 1996, they both left the USA and came back to India soon after the death of Sulajja’s grandfather. In India, Sulajja Motwani joined Kinetic and began managing the company’s policies, strategies, sales, marketing and finance departments. As per Sulajja Motwani, she kept travelling to different countries in the initial years of her working at Kinetic to explore dealer meetings. She stated,
I kept travelling, meeting dealers across the country during the first few years.”
- During the 1980s, Kinetic Engineering faced a lot of competition from its competitors in India including Hero Honda and TVS Suzuki. The total turnover of Kinetic during the 1980s was 55%.
- In the 1990s, the turnover percentage fell down to 22% and 5% later on. In a conversation with a media house, Sulajja revealed that Honda was manufacturing motorcycles on a joint venture with Hero, and honda stopped providing technology to Kinetic. She said,
We were depending on Honda for technology. But once they knew they are coming on their own, they stopped providing us new technology. It hit our rollouts.”
- The joint venture of Kinetic-Honda came to an end in 1998. Sulajja Motwani tried to make partnerships with other companies to launch its motorcycles and scooters from 1998 to 2008, but, these partnerships did not last. A Taiwan-based Sanyang Motor Company held an 11% stake in Kinetic India engineering in 2004, and soon, a scooter named Flyte was launched by this partnership. In an interview, Sulajja revealed the new partnership and launch of the scooter. Sulajja said,
The venture with Sanyang was doing well and we had successfully launched a model called Flyte.”
- Till the launch of Flyte, the Kinetic was under the debt of Rs. 5 billion. In 2011, she got familiar with the Electronic Vehicles’ concept through the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). She visited California for the research and development process of electronic three-wheelers in 2012. Around the same time, Sulajja Motwani founded the Kinetic Green Energy and Power Solution in India that focused on manufacturing electrical three-wheelers in India.
- In 2014, the golf carts were manufactured and sold by Kinetic Green. In an interview with a media house, she stated,
Since, three-wheelers (3Ws) would have taken some years, we said let’s look at our product acceptance, technology and get to understand the market better.”
- After the launch of electronic three-wheelers, Sulajja Motwani successfully earned Rs. 50 million of sales in the first year. Around the same time, she also launched an e-rickshaw priced at Rs. 100,000 plus battery charges. At the end of the 2016 financial year, the turnover of Kinetic company raised to the amount of Rs. 150 million.
- In 2017, the UP government ordered 27,000 e-rickshaws that was approved by the then Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav of Samajwadi Party (SP) and received Rs. 4 billion as an order amount.
- Kinetic earned Rs. 1 billion of revenue at the end of the financial year 2017. Soon, new technology was introduced by Kinetic in terms of lithium-ion batteries to manufacture three-wheelers. Sulajja Motwani joint ventured with the Italian auto luxury brand, Lamborghini, to manufacture e-golf carts and campus vehicles to sell them in the countries like the US, North America, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. Kinetic Green and 75:25 JV started working in partnership. In a conversation with a media house, Motwani explained her experience while working with 75:25 JV. She said,
We have a 10-year brand licensing agreement and the golf cart market is expected to become a $5-billion market by 2024 from the current $3 billion.”
- Sulajja Motwani is a board member of AIESEC in Pune, which is a youth-run organisation.
- Automobile Manufacturing, Powertrain Systems, Green Energy, Multilevel parking solutions, Elevators & Escalators’ research and development strategies are governed by Sulajja.
- Kinetic is in partnership with Hyundai, Lamborghini, Taigene Electrical, Magna.
- Sulajja Motwani also serves as the chairperson of FICCI Maharashtra, a member of the National Steering Committee of FICCI, and co-chairperson of the Electric Vehicle Task Force at FICCI.
- She is the managing person of the Electric Three-Wheeler mobility of SMEV (Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles).
- An initiative by Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi named iCreate – International Centre for Entrepreneurship & Technology is also advised by Sulajja Motwani.
- Sulajja Motwani is also appointed as the Industry nominee on the Development Council for Electrical Mobility of India by the Ministry of Heavy Industries.
- Sulajja Motwani is also a member of the prestigious Governing Body of CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India), a member of the National Executive Committee of CII, and a National Chairperson of the FICCI Young Leaders Forum.
- The Board of Invest India, apex Investment Promotion Agency for the Government of India is also directed by Sulajja Motwani.
- Sulajja is the Brand Ambassador for Plan International initiative – “Save the Girl Child.”
- She was the topper in her HSC and SSC examinations, and during her college time, she was elected as the vice-president of AIESEC, a youth-run non-profit organization in Pune.
- Sulajja is a fitness enthusiast, and she often participates in marathons. She likes to play badminton in her free time. Skiing, sky diving and scuba diving are her hobbies. In an interview with First Post, a media house, Sulajja Motwani disclosed her passion for marathons. She stated,
I like working out as it the best stress buster. When you don’t care about your weight, it reflects on your attitude to life. I challenge myself on the fitness front five days a week with different things like yoga, going to the gym and also running. For your own sake you need to address your nutrition and fitness levels.”
- Marathi, Hindi, Rajasthani, French and English are the languages fluently spoken by Sulajja Motwani with a Sindhi tone.
- As per Sulajja, failure motivates one to try hard in life. In a conversation with Ficci Flo, an online website, Motwani advised honesty, integrity, excellence and compassion to the budding entrepreneurs. She said,
Failures have bought in the greater learnings to succeed. Corporate Governance is all about core values that imbibes honesty, integrity, excellence and compassion in our products and delivery of our products in our company. wake up, dress up, show up and never ever give up.”
- According to Sulajja, she adores doing yoga or gym daily. In a conversation with Firstpost, she narrated,
My one hour at the gym or yoga is probably the best hour of my day. I have run half marathons and it is an unbelievably joyous feeling to have done it repeatedly.”
- Sulajja Motwani was a basketball, volleyball, and dot-ball player in her school days, and she was also a national level badminton player. In her college days, she used to play basketball at the national level.
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