Ankita Bhatia, PSPO, PSM, PMP
Future 50 Honoree of 2024
For advocating for women in tech and project management careers in India
Senior Project Manager ǀ New Delhi, India
It was clear from age 16 that Ankita Bhatia was going places. In her tenth year of secondary school, she was the highest-ranked student in all of India in science, English, and math—accomplishments that netted her an invite as a special guest of the prime minister to join him and the nation’s president at Delhi’s annual Republic Day parade. “Success is very gratifying,” says Ankita, who never felt overwhelmed by the expectations that often come with early achievements. “It really brings a lot of happiness, not just to you. The kind of society we live in in India, academics play a very important role here.”
For her Bachelor’s in Computer Science and Engineering, Ankita attended Maharaja Surajmal Institute of Technology, and then, mid-career, completed an executive MBA at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade. As she rose up the ranks in engineering and then project management in the tech sector, Ankita often found herself the lone woman on a team.
“That is where you clearly start to see the ‘leaky pipeline’ problem: fewer women being there, fewer women being given the right roles, and many of them just choosing to change paths because it gets very difficult to proceed” Ankita says. Observing this systemic problem firsthand propelled her into inclusivity advocacy. “We (women) play a pivotal role in terms of nurturing our own lives and nurturing the lives of the people around us,” Ankita says. “Creating that impact for other women facing those kinds of challenges has been very empowering for me, also.”
Already an avid practitioner of volunteer work, Ankita is now especially active with women’s organizations Leap Club and Lean In, the latter co-founded by former Meta Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg. (In her free time, Ankita also trained to become a licensed Zumba instructor, because of her belief in the power of dance as self-expression.)
Ankita’s quest to support women, and be supported as a woman, in tech and project management led her to strike up an online friendship with Sandra Mitchell, chief governance officer and director at large of the PMI San Francisco Bay Area Chapter.
Some of the best roles I've cracked, some of the best problems I've solved, have been correlated with PMI.
Some of the best roles I've cracked, some of the best problems I've solved, have been correlated with PMI.
She says Mitchell was a source of guidance and coaching during preparation for her Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification, and that she thinks of Mitchell on Guru Purnima, a spiritual day for celebration of one’s gurus – teachers or mentors.
Project management knowledge from PMI has enhanced her career exponentially, Ankita says, helping her to master power skills and emotionally intelligent leadership, consider the potentials of ethical AI (artificial intelligence free from biases), and explore organizational transformation and resource retention.
Industry leaders have spotted Ankita as a talent to cultivate. During her years at data integrity company Precisely, Ankita was tapped to join We Lead, a leadership incubator for the top 20 high-performing women employees in India and Poland to move from techno-managerial roles into executive positions.
The honor shouldn’t have been particularly surprising to Ankita, given that early in the Covid pandemic, she had set up a brand-new consulting practice for Precisely. The $10 million consultancy’s first year showed more than 35 percent profitability, and the project ended up ultimately contributing more than 50 percent of Precisely’s total revenue.
These days, Ankita has much on her mind, both personally and professionally. She recently left her senior project manager position at Adobe to take a break from work. She’ll continue to be the primary caregiver for her father, who was badly injured in an accident last year. (Her father has always been her personal guru, sharing his favorite bits of advice like “smooth seas never produce good sailors” and “you cannot discover new oceans without having the courage to lose sight of the shore.”) Ankita will consider her possibilities in consulting and entrepreneurship. And, she says, she will dance.