Page 38 - Khabar Magazine (February 2020)

People

Chandrika Tandon—

In Search of a

Higher Way

Entrepreneur, trailblazer, philanthropist,
musician. Wife, mother, grandmother. Above
all, a seeker of the light. Chandrika
Krishnamurthy Tandon is that rare blend—a
woman of substance and spiritual
enlightenment. While the Tandons’ $100
million gift to the New York University School
of Engineering is a milestone contribution of
her life, it is the music and spirituality (Photo: Yassine El Mansouri)
that defines and consumes her the most
these days. By LAVINA MELWANI

Success stories from the Indian-American com- of only eight women in her batch at the Indian Institute
munity are par for the course, but Chandrika Tandon, of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A).
with her rich and varied immigrant experience, rede- At 24, Tandon arrived in America to interview for
fines the word “successful” and adds multiple nuances a job at McKinsey & Co. She had no American degree,
to it. Balancing traditional roles of daughter, wife, and no green card, not even a coat or a Western outfit. She
mother with the demands of blazing a trail in the busi- interviewed at McKinsey in a sari and chappals, wearing
ness world, she’s also an ardent spiritual seeker, mu- a borrowed coat. Yet, not only did she land the job, but
sician, and a passionate educational philanthropist. within a few years she went on to become a partner
Above all, her every pursuit has been imbued with the at this prestigious company, the first Indian-American
search for a higher way of living. woman to be selected for the position.
Like many immigrants, Tandon grew up in a mid- But there’s more to life than the next big business
dle-class family where both parents and children were deal. Tandon was the first woman partner at McKinsey
deeply invested in the value of education. Her sister, In- to give birth. She’s come full circle now, as her daughter
dra Nooyi, has been the high-profile President and CEO Lita, also an executive at McKinsey, has given birth to
of PepsiCo and her brother, Nandu Narayanan, heads her first child, making Tandon a recent grandmother.
Trident Investment Management. In the early 1990s, Tandon risked her savings to
Nevertheless, growing up the first girl child in a found Tandon Capital Associates, a financial advisory
traditional Tamil Brahmin family in Chennai, con- company that restructured preeminent financial insti-
servatism ruled. She was told that an early arranged tutions worldwide, creating billions of dollars in market
marriage was her destiny, with her mother collecting value for her clients. About why she left a lucrative posi-
stainless steel utensils for her dowry from birth. She tion with McKinsey to branch out on her own, she says,
went on a hunger strike to be allowed to go to college. “In 1986 I worked with a failing bank in Brazil. It was
Eventually, in 1973, she made it to business school, one a very intensive, holistic restructuring deal involving
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36 • FEBRUARY• 2020 KHABAR MAGAZINE