Renuka spearheads the SIMULIA business in India, bringing a wealth of expertise to the forefront. Prior to this, she held the position of Worldwide Services Director for SIMULIA, showcasing her global perspective and leadership.
With an impressive career spanning over twenty-five years in the simulation, or computer-aided engineering business, Renuka played a pivotal role in establishing the Abaqus business in India. Her experience cuts across diverse industries, including automotive, aerospace and defense, industrial equipment manufacturing, civil engineering, and engineering services providers, among others.
Her professional journey led her to Hibbitt, Karlsson and Sorensen Inc in the USA before she returned to India to set up Abaqus India. In this capacity, she took charge of pre-sales and post-sales technical activities, along with driving business development initiatives for India.
Her family owns a construction business, and growing up, she spent time on construction sites and have been around civil engineers. She worked for over a year at Engineers India and she understood the impact of Finite Element Analysis and get exposure to understand how engineering is applied in the real world. Today, there are a lot more women in different industrial segments, but it was certainly not the case when she began her career.
When he boss told her that she is paid to take decisions, and this, to her was a very powerful statement. It empowered her and she tried to pass it on to her team eventually becoming a culture in the organisation.
According to her, one of the key things for empowering women is to help them gain self-confidence. Studies show that men volunteer to take up new roles even if they have 40% of the skills required. However, women wanted to have 100% of the skills required before they apply for a role. Therefore, it is necessary to encourage women to take up the challenges. Besides, support systems and mentoring are important to encourage women. She opines that organisations should not become barriers preventing women from moving up in leadership roles. It is necessary to encourage women right from the junior role as it will help create a pipeline ready to take up leadership roles.
