Dr Lakshmi Jagannathan wins BCIC Outstanding Women Leadership 2021 Award
Dr Lakshmi Jagannathan, CEO of DERBI Foundation, won the Outstanding Women Leadership 2021 Award, instituted by BCIC – Bangalore Chambers of Industry and Commerce to recognise and felicitate the achievements of women in leadership roles. Dr Jagannathan won the award for promoting innovation, empowering young entrepreneurs and making a significant impact in the startup ecosystem.
Outstanding women leadership 2021 award acknowledged the achievements, experience and inspiring works of Dr Jagannathan, as a business leader. Her intrapreneur efforts are laudable, having seeded DERBI Foundation, she has been instrumental in exponentially growing it from strength to strength to become a recognised Technology Business Incubator in the country.
Journey of Dr Lakshmi Jagannathan
Dr Jagannathan is an academician who gave up her stable and comfortable academic job to become a full-time CEO of a company. With unwavering grit and determination, Dr Jagannathan strived to build an incubation ecosystem for innovators, established her own territory, reigned and prospered as a hardcore startup evangelist within a span of a decade.
Under the leadership of Dr Jagannathan, what started as an entrepreneurship cell in Dayananda Sagar Institutions in 2009 grew into DERBI Foundation, an independent section 8 company, with the funding and revenue to the tune of 30 crores. DERBI Foundation is now being supported by various schemes of the Department of Science and Technology and MeiTY, Government of India.
Some of the key achievements of Dr Jagannathan include being a Super mentor for AiM iCRESt, Mentor of Change for Atal Tinkering Labs, Charter Member of TiE, Bangalore, Principal Investigator for projects from Govt of India to the tune of Rs 23 crores. She has also supported 140+ entrepreneurs, mentored 800+ hours, enabled the creation of 135+ jobs through the DERBI Foundation. She has been awarded the Best Entrepreneurship Educator Award from Wadhwani Foundation.
Dr Jagannathan’s phenomenal achievements and bold leadership motivated countless professionals and encouraged them to step out of their comfort zone, think radically, and be pioneers of the unbeaten paths.
Dr Jagannathan is certainly a strong female voice in the field of leadership and the BCIC Outstanding Women Leadership 2021 Award is a well-deserved recognition of the passion and perseverance Dr Jagannathan upholds.