Her Story
About Anu
I started my career in India in 2000, where I was brought up and educated. I began in the sales field at Titan in India and grew up the ranks there to head retail for the south of India. I then moved on to head all of India for an FMCG brand, and after that headed a design firm. I took a break for about two and a half years when I had my son. For the last 14 years, I've been with Target. I moved to the US 7 years ago, coming into the country in my 40s at a senior leadership position, which is not traditionally tech. My career has always been at the intersection of creative, retail, and business. Today, I lead the technology for marketing at Target. This includes everything about data, how content gets produced (the content supply chain), personalization, and all social platforms including the creator social platform. Think about all marketing technology. With generative AI and personalization, there's a transformation that needs to happen with the business, people, and process, including upskilling on how to use generative AI and how agents work in a modern marketing organization. I'm heading the marketing transformation for Target. My typical day involves constant context switching, going from tech, vendors, teams, HR, finance, business, understanding the latest creative. That context switching really helps to develop common language across multiple disciplines and put it together to understand what the big picture outcome needs to look like. I work with multidisciplinary teams across technology, data sciences, UX, creative, marketers, product teams, finance, and HR to bring transformation to life.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Anu
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I want to use my voice to help other women, particularly around the challenges of midlife where your career is at your peak, your children are teenagers, and your parents need you the most. It is such a new experience for women, and it is not easy, and we don't talk about it as much. As women enter the workforce, we are not given the luxury to shed any other responsibility. It is the balancing act of all of that that can take such a toll on us mentally, and sometimes we're so fatigued. There's so much we can do within wherever we are to hold each other up, and many women have done that for me. That's the story I want to keep passing on: the strength of being a woman for another woman. There's just something about it. I want to share with vulnerability, because the journey looks great from the outside, but man, is it tough from the inside. I can bring added color as an immigrant and what that means, particularly coming into the country in my 40s at a senior leadership position. My learning curve was complete 90 degrees, deep. I wouldn't have it any other way, but I want to help other women navigate this.
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