Priti Paul

Priti Paul
Born	15 November 1967 (Age 49)
Residence	New Delhi and Marrakesh
Nationality	Indian
Alma mater	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Occupation	Director of Apeejay Surrendra Group
Spouse(s)	Jaouad Kadiri
Parent(s)	Late Surrendra Paul and Shirin Paul
Family	Karan Paul (Brother), Late Anand Paul (Brother), Priya Paul (Sister)

Priti Paul is the Director, Apeejay Surrendra Group,^[1][2] one of India’s oldest and largest privately owned family businesses. Established in Jalandhar in 1910, the Apeejay Surrendra Group has more than 43,000 employees across rapidly expanding businesses of Tea, Hospitality, Shipping, Retail, Real Estate, and has diversified into new business initiatives, Marine Cluster, Logistics and Knowledge Parks.

Early life

Born on November 15, 1967, Priti is the granddaughter of Shri Pyare Lal, the founder of Apeejay Surrendra Group and daughter of Late Chairman of the Group, Surrendra Paul. She was born and brought up in Kolkata. She studied at Loreto House, Kolkata. She went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, for her undergraduate studies in architecture and economics and then did a Masters in Design Studies from Harvard University, USA. She also holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Architecture from the Architectural Association School of Architecture, UK.^[3]

Career

Priti Paul joined Apeejay Surrendra Group in 1990 and has been credited with giving an entirely new shape to the Group’s business.^[4] She joined the Group’s Shipping business which she went on to manage as well as set up the London office of the Group’s shipping line. Priti has since been spearheading the retail division of the Group which includes Oxford Bookstore. In 1995, Priti recreated the store, established in 1919,^[5] and since then it has expanded outside Kolkata and become one of India’s leading bookstore chains.^{[6][7][8][9][10]} It has also opened in Marrakesh, Priti’ s home for over a decade, where the bookstore named Kathakali promotes Indian literature.^{[11][12][13][14]}

Priti created Cha Bar, a first-of-its-kind tea boutique in the country. She also spearheads the Group’s Real Estate division ^[15] which develops and manages largely commercial properties ^[16] and owns real estate equity across India. She has conceptualized, designed and launched a range of projects in India and abroad including a chain of shared office spaces known as Apeejay Business Centre in 1998,^[17] with the latest one opening in Gurugram. Priti created India’s first gallery on new media art in 2001 – Apeejay Media Gallery ^[18] in Delhi.

Priti oversees the CSR and Philanthropic activities of Apeejay Surrendra Group and has been at the forefront of education for children coming from economically weaker sections of the society. She set up the Apeejay Anand Children’s Library for the benefit of the street children of Park Street in Kolkata in 1992 and thereafter in Salt Lake. Since then it has opened in many other places including in a shelter home run by Apne Aap in Kidderpore,Kolkata,^[19] in Arushi, a shelter home for girls, DMRC Children’s Home for boys and Udaan Rose, a shelter home for girls run by Salaam Balak Trust in Delhi NCR^[20] and in the shelter home run by Vatsal Chaya Trust in Chandigarh.Apeejay Anand Children's Library, Kolkata has won the Duke of Edinburgh Prize for Social Service.^[21]

Priti has worked with WWF-India towards raising funds, public consciousness and sharing responsibility for conservation of one-horned rhino in Assam in 2013 and has worked with UNICEF to raise funds for their children education programmes in India in 2011.^[22][23][24] In 2006, she was nominated for the Teacher’s Achievement Award in the business category.^[25] She has also been conferred with an honorary degree of 'Doctorate of Business Administration' by Rai University, India.^[26]

In 2017, Priti launched ABC Desi, an alphabet book where English alphabets and Indian imagery are illustrated by film poster artists from Delhi and Bangalore and with her first book she hopes to revive the almost lost Indian craft of bill board painting.^[27][28][29]

Board memberships

Priti Paul is a member of Royal Institute of British Architects; Women in Shipping and Trade Association (WISTA), England;, India Committee of American Bureau of Shipping, USA; FICCI Committee of Art and Business of Art, India; Harvard Club India; MIT Dean’s Advisory Committee ^[30] and MIT Club India.

Personal

Priti is a literary,culture and arts enthusiast. She has created many cultural and literary forums especially those benefitting children.^[31] Priti was one of the first to sponsor Jaipur Literature Festival when it was initially under the umbrella of Jaipur Virasat Foundation.^[32] She has created Kolkata’s first literary festival– Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival in 2010 – co-funded and supported by the Indian Ministry of Culture.^[33] It remains the only festival in India created by a Bookstore. Taking forward her love for books, literature, arts and music, she has created and supported Apeejay Bangla Sahitya Utsob in 2016,^[34] Hindi Mahotsav in 2016^[35] and Bhasha - Language Symposiumin 2013 as well as the Oxford Junior Literary festival.^[36] She has been an advisor to the Crime Writer’s festival/ Noir Literature Festival since 2015 which is hosted in Delhi at Oxford Bookstore and has been supporting Mountain Echoes Festival in Bhutan since 2010 and Mountain Echoes in Abbotsford since 2016.^[37] In 2016, Priti created an award to recognize brilliance in book design and encourage the worksof illustrators, designers and publishers^[38] – Oxford Bookstore Book Cover Prize. The short list for the Book Cover Prize is announced at Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival and the winner is announced at Jaipur Bookmark in the Jaipur Literature Festival. Priti is married to Jaouad Kadiri.^[39]

References