Roshni Nadar Malhotra, the country’s richest woman, became the first woman to head a listed Indian IT (information technology) company on Friday. She took over as chairperson of HCL Technologies, a $ 8.9 billion company from her father and billionaire entrepreneur Shiv Nadar. Roshni is also a trained classical musician. She joined the board of directors of HCL Technologies in 2013 and was the Vice Chairperson. She will continue as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of HCL Corporation, the holding company of all the entities of the group.

Shiv Nadar, founder and president of HCL Technologies, announced his resignation on Friday. The company said that its board of directors has appointed their daughter Roshni as the new chairman with immediate effect.

However, Shiv Nadar will continue to be the Managing Director of the company with the post of Chief Strategy Officer. HCL Technologies CEO C Vijayakumar said it was part of the company’s succession plan.

Roshni studied at Vasant Valley School in Delhi and graduated in Communications from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. She also did MBA from Kellogg School of Management.

She worked with Sky News UK and CNN America as a news producer before joining HCL Corp in 2009.

Roshni married HCL Healthcare Vice Chairman Shikhar Malhotra in 2010 and has two sons – Armaan and Jahan. According to the latest Hurun Rich List, Roshni is the richest woman in India with a net worth of Rs 36,800.

In the year 2019, she was ranked 54 in the Forbes World’s 100 Most Powerful Women list. She has also been awarded many prestigious honors for outstanding work in the field of business and social service. She was consistently included in Forbes’ list of the ‘100 Most Powerful Women in the World’ in 2017, 2018 and 2019.