In an recent feature in the February issue of ‘Tatler’ the Britain's first lady has been covered in ‘No. 10’s Chatelaine: Inside the Secret World of Mrs. Sunak’.
A sneak peek into the conversation and one gets to know that the British first lady in her first job sold LED bulbs to Google. According to Murthy's LinkedIn profile, she has joined Tendris USA Inc. in April 2007 and stayed till January 2009.
At Tendris, Murthy headed up the marketing of LED lamps to replace energy-intensive old lightbulbs. “At Tendris I focused on designing marketing strategies for Tendris' portfolio companies. Some of the products I worked on included an innovate LED light bulb as a replacement for CFL bulbs (lemnis Lighting) and a credit card that could offset carbon (Climacount)" reads Murthy's LinkedIn job description.
A post graduate in Business Administration from Stanford University, Murthy had ‘negotiated a breakthrough deal with Google for 60,000 LEDs’, Tetris founder Friedwart Barford informs.
Tetris was founded by two convivial Dutch entrepreneurs, Ruud Koornstra and Friedwart Barfod.
"We were interested in saving the world and Akshata was very much into this vision, too.’ When she arrived for her interview, it was in a modest red Toyota; there was no sign of her underlying wealth" Bradford tells the magazine.
“It did not all go to plan: when the order turned up, they had been made for European Hertz frequency rather than the US standard, rendering the batch unusable. It looked like an expensive setback for a young firm. " Barfod says about the lightbulb order from Google.
“So Akshata set off to Google HQ in Palo Alto, California. She emerged, having convinced them to use the Euro-compliant LEDs in Europe and place another big order for the US version." Barfod adds.
According to LinkedIn, Murthy's latest work is as the director of investment firm Catamaran Ventures UK Limited. Notably, Murthy’s shares in Infosys are worth 430 million sterling pounds – making her richer than the Queen, The Daily Mail reported while quoting the Sunday Times Rich List.
The profile, which pegs millionaire Murthy as striking a balance between thrift and luxury, traces her flair for numbers to her school days at Baldwin Girls’ High School in Bangalore and goes on to highlight her Ivy League education.
In the article, the UK's first lady has also informed that during her tenure, she plans to make 10 Downing Street a more accessible place. "There will be a different vibe now," a friend tells the magazine, with reference to Murthy’s plans to move away from the more closed style of her predecessor – Boris Johnson’s wife Carrie Johnson.
When Britain got its first Indian-origin Prime Minister in October, the family decided to move back into the same flat – in a break from the trend since the 1990s when prime ministers used the larger flat above No. 11 Downing Street as their residence.
(With PTI inputs)
