This Avtar helps women play multiple roles

Time of India

04-05-2025

Can a job interview trigger an
entrepreneurial journey
? Ask
Dr Saundarya Rajesh
, founder-president,
. About 25 years ago, Saundarya attended a interview for a leading telecom firm.
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"The interviewer (GM marketing) told me the ideal candidate should be able to put in long hours, de-prioritize the home, and should not have had any breaks in resume," she remembers. "They preferred career-primary men. The interviewer offered me the job, but made it look like a favour, and the salary was below what my experience merited."
It was "the breaking point". Saundarya was keen on rejoining after a child-rearing break.
"When I was ready, I realized workplaces were not built for women, much less the Indian woman professional (IWP)," she says. "Firms offered little or no flexibility or empathy. Remote work was unheard of. Career breaks were seen as the end of the road." Avtar, an HR services firm focussed on enabling IWPs re-enter the corporate world, was "born out of my struggle to find a suitable role post motherhood," she says.
The telecom stint highlighted this was a much larger issue, and a silent one.
"Thousands like me quit because workplaces weren't supportive. I decided to change this, and that's how Avtar was born in 2000," she says. Today, Avtar helps organizations focus on talent strategies to make workplaces more inclusive. Saundarya's C-Suite journey has been about understanding the "unique" career path that the IWP follows. "Her need to take on many 'avatars' is far more accentuated," she explains.
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"We are referring to her ability to hold multiple personas at the same time. Is this strenuous? Of course. Does this create a lot of interpersonal conflict? For sure. And I learnt this by experiencing it firsthand."
Her interest in bringing about this revolution is partly rooted in story-telling of her girlhood days in a large joint family in Puducherry. "My dad would gather all the children around and tell us stories from the Mahabharata, Ramayana and Puranas.
I would retell the stories with plot twists to turn wronged characters into empowered heroes." Championing the underdog was at the heart of the journey. "When I needed an ally who could create systemic changes, I harkened back to the time when my story had a different, happy ending," she says. Given how many portfolios she has juggled – from a stint in Citibank to creating content for Doordarshan and AIR, and even teaching in a college – the company name sits right with her.
Today she balances her work as a CEO with meeting deadlines as a published author.
She has seen her contributions change dramatically in the last 25 years. Initially, Avtar was "like a startup, and together with my small team, I handled it all," she remembers. But now, with a 100-plus team, her job has evolved. "My focus has shifted to strategy, supervision and subject-matter expertise," she says. However, her leadership style has remained the same – one of assertive empathy.
Experience has guided her to better "anticipate change" and "set boundaries. I now have the confidence to say no."
As a CEO in Tamil Nadu, which has the highest number of working women and the highest number of women entrepreneurs in India, she has a perspective of what needs to be done. She says. "The companies must create a supportive work culture where women can thrive, while the govt could provide tax incentives/grants to enterprises that prioritize gender inclusivity."