Outstanding woman in business

Rupali Chowdhury took Berger Paints Bangladesh to new heights after taking the helm of the paint manufacturing company in 2008.

Since then, the corporate leader led from the front and made Berger the number one company in Bangladesh's paint industry. Its net sales grew nearly six times to Tk 1,882 crore in 2020 from Tk 352 crore in 2007.

Obtaining an MBA from University of Dhaka's Institute of Business Administration, Chowdhury started her career in 1984 with Ciba Geigy (Bangladesh), a multinational pharmaceutical and chemical company.

In 1990, she joined Berger Paints Bangladesh as a planning manager and later served in different capacities at various departments, including marketing, sales, distribution and planning.

Also the chairman and managing director of Jenson & Nicholson (Bangladesh), a subsidiary of Berger Paints Bangladesh, Chowdhury worked relentlessly to build an organisational structure where meritocracy reigns supreme.

During her tenure, the company diversified to a number of business segments, including adhesives, textile emulsions and printing ink, brought new technologies to the industry and launched environment-friendly, lead-free and odourless paints.

She emerged as a great leader when the coronavirus pandemic slashed the company's sales by almost 50 percent in the April-June quarter to Tk 228.5 crore from that in the previous quarter.

Despite the huge fall in business, the company provided its painters with over Tk 1.75 crore to help them recover fast.

The passionate businesswoman also made it possible for Berger Paints Bangladesh to achieve 81 percent of last year's sales in the April-September period of 2020.