Uma started her professional life as a diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. An MBA degree in Finance and Marketing from IIM Bangalore paved way for her career in Finance. Having spent most of her time in senior business roles for ANZ Grindlays Bank, HDFC Bank and more recently Royal Bank of Scotland in the UK, Uma joined Barclays in June 2015 as the head of Finance and then became the CEO for Barclays Shared Services, before taking on her current role as Co-CEO of Barclays Global Service Centre (BGSC), India. Barclays in India has been recognised amongst the top 10 companies for women by Working Mother Media and Avtar Group as part of their list of ‘100 Best Companies for Women in India’ two years in a row.
Uma is also a Non-Executive Director of two Public Companies including Chennai Metro Rail Ltd and is also engaged with many industry forums. She is a strong champion of diversity at work, and to support this she has been a speaker at many forums including Working Mother Media, Her Story, BD Foundation, VC Circle, NASSCOM, D&I National Summit, and eWIT – Empowering Women in Technology. She is also an ambassador for Everywoman – a global forum on diversity.
She is interested in entrepreneurship and mentors some startup entrepreneurs. Recently she provided strategic guidance and support to entrepreneurs across Asia Pacific region in partnership with the Unreasonable Group which is a global platform for entrepreneurs to solve key global issues.
She is interested in entrepreneurship and mentors some startup entrepreneurs. Recently she provided strategic guidance and support to entrepreneurs across Asia Pacific region in partnership with the Unreasonable Group which is a global platform for entrepreneurs to solve key global issues. An avid learner, she believes in continual development having done leadership and management programmes at Harvard Business School and Wharton School of Business.
Uma is also an active contributor to various industry forums, and has represented Barclays in Global Investors Meet (GIM), a flagship investment event of the Government of Tamil Nadu.
She has many interests outside work, which she says keeps her ‘Diverse and Whole’, including – her family time with her husband and children, active & experiential travel, as well as Yoga, general fitness and trekking.