Radhika Gupta, CEO with Broken Neck, Leaves Wall Street to be Her Own Boss in India; A Story of Reverse Brain Drain

“When the going gets tough, the tough gets going”. Radhika Gupta’s life – a journey of self-acceptance, self-discovery, resilience and perseverance – exemplifies this saying. Born with a broken neck, she left her ‘Wall Street’ career in the United States at the age of 25 when other individuals dream of an American life and moved to make it big in India. She carved a niche for herself in the financial landscape of the world’s second most populous nation as one of the youngest Indian CEOs.

Though born to an Indian foreign diplomat in a privileged family, Radhika Gupta faced hardships and rejections right from the moment she entered this world with a broken neck. Her confidence and self-esteem nosedived to such a level that she once contemplated suicide by jumping off the 19th floor of her hostel. Today, she is the MD and CEO of Edelweiss AMC, a multibillion-dollar mutual fund business. She is not only a most admired business leader, but also a writer, storyteller, and a motivational speaker.

Radhika Gupta was not born with a broken neck. She developed this unconventional condition due to certain birth complications and negligence on part of the nurse who put the overweight baby in an inappropriate titled position in the incubator. It surfaced as a glaring feature as she shed baby fat while growing up. “I think I must be the only woman in the world who regretted losing weight at some point in her life,” she quips very casually now.

It was not easy for young Radhika Gupta to come to terms with bizarre stares and remarks about her unconventional appearance. Conscious as she was of being looked upon as an anomaly, she began losing her self-worth when she was bullied for her Indian accent and middle class lifestyle by her elite friends at an American International School. Despite having sought-after degrees from some prestigious schools in the US, she was subjected to discrimination and turned away by seven companies.

Radhika Gupta finished her Bachelor’s in Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania School. She earned another Bachelor’s degree in Economics from The Wharton School, UPenn. She is a summa cum laude graduate of the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology at UPenn. Despite her academic excellence, she was rejected by seven out of the eight consulting firms she applied to during her final year in college.

What brought a paradigm shift in her attitude life, according to Edelweiss CEO Radhika Gupta, is the simple mantra of accepting herself as a unique individual. She learned how to take people’s comments with a grain of salt. She reflects on the hard road to embracing her flaws in the chapter titled ‘TGIF: Thank God I’m Flawed’ in her book, “Limitless: The Power of Unlocking Your True Potential”. She shares how self-acceptance and self-love turned out to be her transformative keys to conquering vulnerabilities and regaining confidence.

A job offer from McKinsey, USA lent her a new lease of life after seven rejections. After a stint at McKinsey, she worked as a Portfolio Manager with the US-based AQR Capital Management. During this time, Radhika Gupta found herself at the crossroads in her career. She was living her dream life, but her inner calling was something different. She wanted to establish her own capital management company in India. The idea sounded bizarre to others, as she barely had 2-3 years of experience and the financial market was still reeling under the lingering effects of the 2008 economic crisis.

With her American degrees and savings, Radhika Gupta took a flight from USA to Mumbai, reversing brain drain to India. She invested her entire savings in co-founding Forefront Capital Management. She grew the business that she set up with INR 25 lakh capital to INR 2 crore in just one year. When her venture gained a net worth of INR 150 crore, Forefront Capital Management was acquired by Edelweiss, a Fortune 500 Company, and was renamed Edelweiss Multi-Strategy Funds.

Her life started writing a new chapter, with this acquisition. As the business head of the Edelweiss Multi-Strategy Funds Management, she steered the company on the growth path and expanding the business by ten times in just 2.5 years. She rose through ranks and ascended the CEO position at Edelweiss Asset Management Limited in 2017, thus becoming one of India’s youngest CEOs.

Now, she celebrates being different. Now when people look up to her and hail her for all that she has achieved, she humbly states that her biggest accomplishment was accepting herself. For those who doubt themselves for any reason, she has a piece of advice: “Celebrate all your perfections. Celebrate all your imperfections. Celebrate everything in the middle. Because when this comes together, this is your own story.” When she faces strange questions and comments about her appearance, she says confidently, “Yes, I have a squint in the eyes, and a broken neck. What’s unique about you?”