Pearl Tiwari

Pearl Tiwari, Vice President (CSR), Ambuja Cements Limited (ACL) and Director, Ambuja Cement Foundation received her Masters degree in Social Work from the prestigious Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India (now known as School of Social Work), in 1986 and completed her Executive Education in CSR from the Harvard Business School, US, in 2008. Prior to completing her degree in social work, she studied Psychology and Sociology from St. Xavier’s College, Bombay University.

In her professional career spanning twenty five years, she has worked in the not-for-profit, educational as well as corporate sectors. She kick-started her career as a development professional, by working in the field of disability for the first decade. Subsequently, she joined academics and worked in the Tata Institute of Social Sciences where she was a part of the faculty for the MA programme in Family and Child Welfare. While working in the department, she was involved in developing the Certificate Course in Rehabilitation Counselling. Later she led an NGO, MelJol, actively involved on issues of child rights.

Mrs.Tiwari has been working with Ambuja Cements Ltd. since 2000. Working at ACL has given her the opportunity to apply many lessons in social/developmental science that she absorbed through her experience in the not-for-profit and the academic sectors. She has been responsible for developing need-based community stakeholder initiatives of the company across its locations. She has taken ACF from being a one-site organisation to one that is pan-India, covering all of the Ambuja’s factory sites. Ambuja Cement Ltd. has been carrying out its community initiatives through its Foundation which is today active in 19 locations in 10 states across India. The Company has strategically planned its CSR, to fulfill aspirations of community and other stakeholders, while being relevant to business. She has led her team at different locations to replicate successful initiatives and experiences, and avoid shortcomings and pitfalls. She has propelled the company to adopt a formal policy on HIV/AIDS. These efforts have won the company several awards for CSR – the FICCI award in December 2003, the Asian Award for CSR for responsibility in poverty alleviation conferred by Asian Institute of Management at Kuala Lumpur, in September 2004, another Asian Award for CSR for showing a concern for community health, in September 2007 and a more recent CII Award for Excellence in Water Management, in Dec 2008.