Akshata Murty, the Indian wife of UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, is a businesswoman with first-hand experience of investing in women-led initiatives.
To mark International Women’s Day this month, the Stanford University graduate hosted a special mentoring session with female role models and business leaders for girls and young women at 10 Downing Street in London. As the daughter of high achieving engineer parents – father Narayana Murthy being the co-founder of Indian software services major Infosys and mother Sudha Murty being one of India’s first female engineers to be hired at a tech firm and most recently being appointed to the Upper House of the Indian Parliament for her philanthropic work – Akshata Murty celebrated women in business with a shout out to her mother.
She said: “I’m so pleased to be marking this International Women’s Day by celebrating women in business. It is fantastic to host a special mentoring session with female role models and business leaders for girls and young women at Downing Street.
“I know the phenomenal work that goes into running a business. My mother’s endeavours in science, technology, engineering and maths allowed her to push boundaries both academically and professionally and gave her a ringside seat to the technological revolution.
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“I hope other women and girls are inspired by role models around them to pursue their own passions.”
The special mentoring session last week was part of Murty’s “Lessons at 10” programme, which is designed to provide children from across the UK with the unique opportunity see behind the scenes of the famous black door of 10 Downing Street. With the help of special guests, industry experts and charitable organisations, Lessons at 10 hopes to bring education to life, encourage a love of learning and inspire children from across the UK.
The Women’s Day event at Downing Street was organised together with the Girls’ Network, a charity that partners with secondary schools and colleges across England to offer girls, aged 14-19, a year-long mentoring programme to support their ambitions.
Katie Thiselton, Co-Executive Director, the Girls’ Network said: “This is such a great opportunity for our young women to speak with incredible women from a wide range of backgrounds and professions about their careers, the challenges they have faced and what inspires them.
“At the Girls’ Network we often say ‘if you can see it, you can be it’ so giving girls access to women, from so many different walks of life will hopefully show them that anything is possible.
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“We hope that by being invited into No. 10, girls will see that spaces like this are just as much for them as anyone else. It will be a memorable experience for all involved and I’m sure the girls will come away feeling inspired and motivated in their own journeys.”