Geetanjali Kirloskar Wiki, Age, Husband, Family, Biography & More

Geetanjali Kirloskar is an Indian businesswoman. She is the Chairperson and Managing Director of Kirloskar Systems Limited. She is the wife of the Vice Chairperson of Toyota Kirloskar Motor, Vikram Kirloskar.

Wiki/Biography

Geetanjali Kirloskar was born on Thursday, 14 October 1965 (age 58 years; as of 2023) in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. Her zodiac sign is Libra. She did her schooling at Lawrence School, Sanawar. She pursued a bachelor’s degree in commerce at the Savitribai Phule Pune University. According to her, she used to actively participate in sports and dramatics in her school. Playing games and participating in dramas became very helpful for her because she was able to inspect her competitive side.

Physical Appearance

Height (approx.): 5′ 9″

Hair Colour: Black

Eye Colour: Black

Family

She belongs to a bureaucratic-diplomatic background.

Parents & Siblings

Her father was from a royal family of Sangli in Maharashtra, and her mother is a Kashmiri.

She has two sisters.

Husband & Children

Geetanjali was married to Vikram Kirloskar, who was the vice chairperson of Toyota Kirloskar Motor. He died in 2022. Her daughter’s name is Manasi Kirloskar, who is the director at Kirloskar Joint Venture Pvt Ltd.

Geetanjali and Vikram Kirloskar were known as the power couple. In an interview, Geetanjali talked about how she agreed to marry Vikram and said,

A mutual friend had thrown a party. He had invited both of us and our families asked his parents to introduce us to each other. Vikram was from MIT; sober, intelligent and six years older. I was impressed by his charming style. After the party, he offered to drop me home. I was a confident girl, having gone to boarding school at Lawrence, Sanawar. I thought if somebody had to drop me home, why not him? Vikram took me to his home instead; his parents were fast asleep. The next morning, they were amazed I was at their home and wondered whether he had already proposed. But we took our time. What finally worked was the fact that I wanted to study and work after marriage, and Vikram had the same expectations of his partner.”

Career

Businesswoman and Advertising

Before becoming a businesswoman, she used to work in the advertising industry. In 1998, she set up Pratibha Advertising, owned by the Kirloskars. The company was renamed Quadrant Communications after she sold 50 per cent of the stakes to Lintas, who became a major shareholder in Pratibha Advertising. After working in the company for a while, she became the chief executive of Quadrant Communications. In 2002, she became the director of Quadrant Communications. As of 2023, she still serves as the director. While she was working there, she attended seminars at an advertising agency in London to train in brand strategy development and client servicing. After coming back from London, she came out with the concept of ‘Lintertainment.’ The strategy was to focus on creating a story around the brand. She worked for many years for Quadrant Communications and after quitting, she joined the Indo-Japan Initiative as a chairperson. The initiative was started after demand from Indian companies to learn to work with the Japanese companies because at that time, the Kirloskars were the only company working with Japanese. She started the Indo-Japan Initiative after receiving funding from a few companies including Infosys, Bharat Forge, Canon, Mitsui, and Citizen. In 2022, she became the chairperson of Toyota Tsusho Insurance Broker India Ltd and the Director of Kirloskar Systems Limited. She was also the chairperson of Kirloskar Technologies Ltd. She set up Sakra World Hospital in Bangalore and became the chairperson of the hospital.

Acting

Geetanjali made her acting debut in 1992 with the Kannada film Cheluvi.

In 2003, she made a cameo as the victim’s wife in the film Samay.

She hosted 38 episodes of a talk show titled Life’s Like That on Times Now.

 

Honour

In 2022, she received Knight First Class of the Order of the Lion of Finland‎ by the Grand Master of the Order.

Favourites

• Brands: Chanel, Stella McCartney, Balmain

• Fashion Designer(s): Abu Sandeep, Tarun Tahiliani

• Artist: Paritosh Sen

• Business Leader: Akio Toyoda (President and CEO of Toyota Motor Corporation)

• Politician: Margaret Thatcher

Facts/Trivia

• She follows a non-vegetarian diet, but when she got married, she was a vegetarian. Her in-laws used to eat non-vegetarian food regularly. She felt very uncomfortable during the start of the marriage, but after some years, she also started eating non-vegetarian. ^[1]Hello India

• According to her, working in advertising was easier for her than working in her family business. In an interview, she stated that she did not face any gender biases when she was working in advertising and media, but while working in the family business, many male employees were uncomfortable working under a female boss.

• In 2021, the Karnataka government’s Health and Family Welfare and Medical Education Department appointed her as the head of the CSR committee.
  

  Geetanjali Kirloskar being appointed as the head of the CSR committee

• The Government of Karnataka applauded her efforts in providing a unique modular 100-bed centre for COVID-19 patients.

• In December 2022, Geetanjali penned a “eulogy” that was published in The Times Of India as a tribute to her late husband, Vikram Kirloskar, who passed away in November 2022. In the letter, she expressed that she didn’t want to feel sad about his death, but wanted to celebrate her relationship and memories with him.
  

  Geetanjali Kirloskar’s eulogy

• She likes travelling and playing golf.
  

  Geetanjali Kirloskar playing golf

• Geetanjali loves drinking wine and frequently shares pictures of herself and Vikram enjoying wine together on social media.
  

  Geetanjali Kirloskar enjoying wine with her husband

• She and her husband were enthusiastic travellers who travelled around the world after they got married.
  

  Geetanjali Kirloskar travelling with her husband

• In an interview, she said that whenever she visits New York, Singapore, and Europe, she likes shopping there.

• She isn’t fond of cooking. In an interview, she said that her husband used to prepare lunch and dinner for her and their daughter on weekends.