About Hema

Who is Hema Hattangady ?

Hema Hattangady (née Benegal) was born in New Delhi. She was a student of Carmel Convent till the eighth standard after which her family moved to Dharwad, a university town in Karnataka, South India.

She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in commerce, with the tenth rank in Karnataka University. She did her post-graduation in management from the Indian Institute of Management Kolkata in 1987. She also has a post-graduate diploma in French from Karnataka University. She started her career as Client Service Executive at Bangalore advertising firm Adwit India. She became General Manager in two years heading New Delhi and Bangalore branches, adding high profile and long-term clients.

In 1990 she joined the family business set up by her husband Ashok’s family.

Called Enercon Systems it was a pioneer in electronic voltage stabilisers and digital meters. Her first role was as project executive. She then became marketing support executive responsible for promotion, marketing events, exhibitions, design and production of marketing literature etc. to support the selling agency. In 1993, India’s first private venture capital company Indus Venture Pvt. Ltd., set up by late T Thomas (former Chairman of Hindustan Lever Ltd in India) invested in the equity of Enercon which helped to fund design and marketing infrastructure.

In October 1996, Hema was made the Managing Director and CEO. Ashok continued to head R&D and Technology. In November 2004, Enercon was renamed Conzerv Systems. She was responsible for transforming the company and putting it on a new trajectory of growth in sales and profits.

Achievements

As CEO, Hema was responsible for the following
  • Creating a national brand for digital meters which had a market share of 38%.
  • Conzerv was the only metering company to launch energy audit and energy consulting services. Hema changed the business model and the marketing/communication strategy to position Conzerv as a specialist in Consulting, Training and Products for Energy Efficiency.
  • Most extensive sales and distribution network among metering companies.
  • Long term supplier to large OEMs like ABB, Siemens and GE.
  • Creating a strong alignment of people and process around a strict code of values and ethics (company followed a no-bribe policy).
  • A CAGR of 35% in sales and net margins and a continuous dividend track record.
  • In 2007 Hema was invited by the US Government under the International Visitor Leadership Program as one of three experts from South Asia, on an Energy Mission to visit several states in USA.
  • Harvard Business School has written a case study ‘Hema Hattangady and Conzerv’. This was taught at its Advanced Management Program. The case is also taught annually by Professor JB Kassarjian on the last day of the two-year MBA program in entrepreneurship at Babson College, USA. The case describes the innovation, marketing, culture building, strategy, HR, ethics and market leadership of the company. https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=36671
  • Hema is most known for a successful exit from Conzerv to Schneider Electric after aligning other investors in 2009
Top 10 Women in the Power Sector

Hema was selected as one of the 10 women who have contributed meaningfully to the Power Sector. The nomination was by Powerline, a premier Indian publication in the Power Sector. 

Hema has played a leading role in the concept and creation of Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy or AEEE (https://www.aeee.in/). It is an industry-led initiative created for the specific purpose of facilitating collaboration among India’s energy efficiency industries and service providers. Hema was a member of the Board of Directors of Efficiency Valuation Organization or EVO (https://evo-world.org/en/), USA, till April 2011. It is the only non-profit organization in the world solely dedicated to creating measurement and verification (M&V) tools to allow energy efficiency to flourish. 

‘Conserve My Campus’, a unique program to teach energy efficiency to children in middle school was Hema’s brainchild and started in 15 schools in Delhi and Bangalore. The program created 1600 Green Ambassadors and taught children to reduce their home electricity bills by fifteen to fifty per cent. The program has now been expanded by Schneider Electric under the name ‘Conserve My Planet’

Post Exit

Hema has invested in and supported the creation of Swasth Foundation in Mumbai (https://www.swasth.org/) which aims at providing affordable primary health care for slum dwellers  and is an investor in Hippocampus Learning Centers (https://hippocampus.in/) which sets up and manages  kindergartens and schools in rural Karnataka. 

Hema has served on the board of SKF India Ltd. (www.skf.com), until March 2019. She is currently on the board of NELCO (www.nelco.in), a TATA enterprise and of Ace Designers Ltd. (www.acemicromatic.net). She was on the Advisory Board of Schneider Electric India for four years from 2008 to 2012. 

Hema also mentors women entrepreneurs and women leaders and coaches start-up entrepreneurs and leaders of non-profits.