Div Pillay—Entrepreneur
Div Pillay arrived in Melbourne in December 2002, six months pregnant with her first child. She and her husband had left South Africa for a better life—taking a risk to leave the support of family and a larger Hindu community.
Her first role in Australia was in 2004, as a contract training and workplace assessor at RMIT, evaluating mature-aged students to attain their Business Management and Frontline Leadership course. Pillay says, “It was interesting to watch the first reaction of Anglo Saxon students when they saw that I stood between them and their qualification. Some of them requested another assessor”.
Pillay grew her career over the next 10 years in HR corporate roles specialising in the BPO industry, which exposed her to workforces in developing countries, particularly India and The Philippines. In 2013, she and her husband founded MindTribes, which focuses on diversity and performance. “We saw an opportunity to make diversity, especially cultural diversity a business imperative.” We improve our client’s customer experience and their employee’s productivity by not allowing cultural differences to get in the way—we see culture as a bridge” says Pillay.
She also works with professional and senior multicultural Victorian women through her social enterprise Culturally Diverse Women, as these women represent just 2 per cent of ASX leadership. MindTribes also gives 10 per cent of its revenue to the ‘Because I am a Girl’ campaign—a Plan International initiative.
A different side
I believe: Be yourself, everyone else is taken [Dr Seuss]
What I love about Australia: Personally, the safety and lifestyle. Professionally, I love Australia for the opportunities
What I love about India: Its resilience.
Favourite hang-out in Melbourne: Arbory Bar & Eatery
A must-read: The Hate Race by Maxine Beneba Clarke
My advice to entrepreneurs: Move your Idea from Execution to Commercialisation to Growth
Who’s Who of Melbourne’s Indian Community 2017 magazine now online! Check here.
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