Inspiring Women Leaders - The Journey : Dr. Poonam Gupta

Inspiring Women Leaders - The Journey : Dr. Poonam Gupta OBE

Come join us for an insightful event featuring the incredible journey of Dr. Poonam Gupta, a trailblazing leader in her field. Learn from her experiences, challenges, and triumphs as she shares her story at the Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum. Discover how she navigated through obstacles and emerged as a beacon of inspiration for women everywhere. Don't miss this opportunity to be motivated and empowered by her remarkable journey!

Dr Poonam Gupta OBE is a leading UK entrepreneur and CEO of one of Scotland’s most successful export businesses, PG Paper Company Ltd, which she established from her family home in Kilmacolm, Scotland after arrivng from India. Through her role as Chief Executive Officer, Poonam has developed the business into the hugely successful and globally recognised brand it is regarded as today. Her portfolio of companies now has an annual turnover of circa $100 million, operating in over 60 countries, with offices in India, the US, China, Sweden, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. Poonam’s continuous hard work and determination has assured it is one of the UK’s fastest growing paper companies providing customised paper solutions for customers.

Poonam is also involved in several other business ventures; SAPP Holdings, SAPP International, SAPP Trading, SAPP Property, Punav Property Ltd, Envisage Dentistry, Tribeca Diner Holdings Ltd and PG World.

With a career-long interest in strengthening and enabling greater collaboration between Scotland and India, Poonam led a successful Scottish Chambers Task Force to India in 2019. She has been recognised as one of the ‘100 Most Influential in UK-India Relations’ by India Inc Group. Poonam is currently Vice President of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce and Chair of the Manufacturing Sector Committee of the FICCI UK Council, the largest and oldest apex business organisation in India.

Poonam is a benefactor of a number of local, national and international charities; with a particular focus on woman-centric issues, disadvantaged children, gender equality and animal conservation. Poonam is committed to helping others who are less fortunate and is actively involved in numerous charities. She has raised funds locally, nationally and on an international scale. In 2010, Poonam founded the “Scottish Circle”, an extended arm of the Circle of Women in London founded and supported by Annie Lennox OBE. Through the Scottish Circle, she helped develop specific projects in Rwanda, Pakistan, Scotland and India, supporting women entrepreneurship and women’s rights. Poonam has also been a mentor of Dogs Trust UK and Children 1st amongst other charities, supporting them with their strategic planning. In 2021, Poonam organised the shipping of over 5,000 oxygen concentrators and other essential supplies such as hand sanitizers and face masks to India, responding to the critical shortage of oxygen during the second wave of Covid-19.

Since January 2021, Poonam has been an Ambassador for Young Enterprise Scotland and she was appointed a Lay Member of Court at the University of Stirling in June 2022.

As a confident and ambitious businesswoman, Poonam has used her own professional experiences to help other women and various entrepreneurs both nationally and internationally starting out on their own through various mentoring and support initiatives. She also supports other businesses through investment and mentoring across multiple industries internationally. Her most recent ventures include clean water technology, the Bollywood film industry with promotion of Scotland, and retail businesses and distilleries.

Poonam’s entrepreneurial and business efforts have also been acknowledged by her peer group and the industry at large, for which she has received several business awards, most recently Ernst & Young’s ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ in 2019. In recognition for her service to charity and business, she was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen’s New Year Honours List in 2016.

She continues to strive and improve her business achievements and charitable commitments across the globe.

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