It takes a special type of courage to quit a career that most individuals dedicate decades to pursue. In the case of Rajal C, it was not a crisis that brought her to the reckoning. Her pivot that would change her identity, her purpose and her impact came after working as a Vice President and Global Head at ATOS, a French multinational information technology corporation that operates in 75+ countries and employs more than 110,000 people.
She left the corporate world without leaving behind. She brings with her decades of wisdom in leading the world, an extremely polished tactic and above all, an unwavering conviction that the following act could be greater than anything that she could have established.
Today, she is the head of CUROWISE, a nutraceutical brand that she started with her son with a mission of democratising holistic wellness to people of all walks of life. And the way to get here, she says, was by no means a straight one.
The Corporate Trailblazer
Long before she became an entrepreneur, Rajal C was making history in the corridors of global corporate power. In 2009, she became the first Indian and first woman to be inducted into the Global Leadership Team at ATOS, a distinction that placed her among the company’s top 100 global executives. She steered and influenced across a VUCA, volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous, global matrix environment, reporting to a French CEO and a German CTO, while managing multinational, multicultural, and multigenerational teams distributed across more than 75 countries.
It was during one of her visits to the ATOS global CEO at her office in Paris that a pivotal conversation took place. The CEO looked at her and said something that stayed with her long after she left that room: “You should seek to have more gravitas to sit at the global table.”
At first, the remark stung. But Rajal did not let it diminish her. She let it define her. She began peeling back what gravitas truly meant, ultimately understanding it as the intersection of poise, confidence, authenticity, dignity, and strategic thinking. Over time, she cultivated and radiated a gravitas so genuine that it influenced how she persuaded, led, and added value across an enormously complex global organisation. She did not just sit at the table. She shaped the conversations that happened around it.
“Gravitas is a powerful asset that significantly enhances leadership effectiveness by balancing outside appearance with inside solidity,” she reflects. “It develops high-value traits leading to personal and professional growth, meaningful relationships, and an overall positive impact.”
During her tenure, she pioneered and shaped two global functions, Portfolio Management and Knowledge Management, that directly impacted the company’s top line in alignment with its broader business strategy. For over a decade, she consistently exceeded joint global targets. These were not small wins. They were institutional contributions that left a lasting imprint on a Fortune 500 organisation.
The Leap of Faith
Walking away from that kind of prestige is not something most people do voluntarily. Rajal did it with intention.
The seeds of entrepreneurship were sown during her time as a jury member, advisor, and mentor at IIM-A VENTURES, the entrepreneurship cell of the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Sitting across the table from young founders pitching ideas, grooming them for their startup journeys, and helping them scale to the next level, she felt something stir within her. The same strategic instincts and leadership muscle she had honed in the corporate world were now asking her a different question: What if you built something of your own?
She answered that question by founding HALLMARK INTERNATIONAL, her firm focused on building brand equity from scratch. It was an act of self-belief, a decision to bet on herself in a way that corporate life, for all its rewards, had never quite demanded.
“Starting the entrepreneurship journey pushed me to rediscover confidence in ways my corporate career never quite demanded,” she says. “Learning, unlearning, and re-learning skills, habits, and attitudes, that is how I navigate the highs and lows of building something from nothing.”
That spirit of continuous reinvention became the bedrock on which she would build her most ambitious venture yet. And through every stumble and recalibration, she held fast to a belief she now shares freely with every aspiring entrepreneur she meets resilience is not the absence of difficulty. It is the decision to keep moving despite it.
CUROWISE: Wellness With a Purpose
CUROWISE is not just a brand. It is a belief system translated into product form. The brand’s core vision centres on improving the quality of life for people of all ages and backgrounds, anchored in what Rajal calls “Curated Efficacy and Targeted Everyday Wellness.”
The nutraceutical space is crowded, often confusing, and frequently driven more by marketing than by science. CUROWISE positions itself differently. It sensibly bridges the gap between what consumers need and what the current market offers them.
“Our vision is to be a pioneering, respected nutraceutical brand providing scientifically backed, cost-effective natural products to amplify holistic wellbeing,” Rajal explains. “We aim to leverage cutting-edge innovative solutions approved by best-in-class global regulatory accreditations.”
What makes CUROWISE especially personal is who she built it with. Her co-founder is her own son, a partnership she calls one of the most significant privileges of her entrepreneurial journey. “Having the privilege of working with an amazing co-founder, my son, who truly has his heart in the right place,” she says, her voice carrying the warmth of both pride and partnership. “We both invest heavily in the philosophy of wellness.”
The Architecture of Her Leadership
Ask Rajal about her leadership philosophy and she does not hand you a corporate buzzword. She offers you something far more considered.
“Be calmly active and be actively calm. Be still. Be mindful. Be intentional. Lead valuably, with a focus on growth mindset,” she articulates, with the precision of someone who has lived these words rather than merely studied them.
For her, a growth mindset within an organisation’s DNA is the most reliable predictor of long-term success. It encourages continuous learning, shifts the focus from proving oneself to improving oneself, and builds cultures that adapt and innovate rather than stagnate and defend. Under her leadership, CUROWISE reflects exactly this culture, one where curiosity is encouraged, challenges become catalysts, and change is treated as opportunity rather than threat.
She also speaks passionately about the art of delegation. In a world where many leaders hoard decision-making authority, Rajal advocates for what she calls “organic empowerment,” delegating in a way that builds genuine autonomy, especially critical when teams operate remotely.
“The key lies in delegating in a way that creates an organic sense of empowerment,” she says. “This strengthens the team’s autonomy and builds real ownership.”
Staying Sharp at the Frontier
Rajal has never been the kind of leader who coasts on what she already knows. She has been an active member of the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council since 2018, consistently deploying HBR’s strategy framework, centred on objective, scope, customer value proposition, and differential capability, as her north star for competitive positioning.
Since 2020, she has also been an active member of the Forbes Council, where she keeps herself updated on the best and most current management thinking from around the world. She draws from both councils deliberately, leveraging the complementary intelligence each offers to sharpen her strategic edge.
“I leverage the best from both councils of smart management thinking to maintain my competitive edge,” she says. It is not idle name-dropping. It is evidence of a leader who treats learning as a strategic investment, not a passive activity.
She also carries the credentials to back up her commitment to developing others. A certified coach by the International Coach Federation and by management legend Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, she holds a certification in mentoring from Virginia Tech. These are not decorative additions to a resume. They are tools she actively deploys in nurturing the people around her.
The Power of Gravitas and Why She Teaches It
If there is one concept that runs like a golden thread through Rajal’s journey, it is gravitas. The word has followed her from Paris boardrooms to entrepreneurial ventures, from mentoring sessions at IIM-A to conversations with young founders trying to find their footing.
She defines it not as a fixed trait, but as a cultivated capacity, a compound of executive presence, strategic clarity, emotional intelligence, and authentic confidence. And she has made it central to the advice she offers aspiring women leaders.
“Leadership begins with leading yourself,” she says, her message direct and unapologetic. “Learn to delink emotion from business. Focus on developing gravitas by investing in mastering the inner game of personal growth. Before you chop wood, sharpen your axe. Master financial literacy and financial independence. Have a coach, a mentor, an advisor.”
It is advice born from experience, not theory. She has walked this path herself, from being the only Indian woman in a room full of global executives to building a brand from zero. And she brings that hard-won wisdom to every mentoring conversation she has.
The Philosophy of Balance
Beyond the boardroom and the brand, Rajal C describes herself as a serial learner and a philomath, someone who loves learning for the sake of learning. This quality, she believes, is what allows her to maintain equilibrium between the relentless demands of entrepreneurship and the quieter needs of personal wellbeing.
“I learned to be a mindful, strategic leader, to find that equilibrium point where professional aspirations intersect with personal wellbeing,” she says. “By cultivating gravitas, I built the capacity to amplify leadership impact and agility, creating a positive balance in both my personal and professional relationships.”
She does not subscribe to the myth of the superhuman leader who never rests, never doubts, and never needs to pause. Instead, she balances internal readiness with external reality, a practice she describes as creating momentum for decision-making by leveraging professional wisdom compounded over time.
Her mantra says it all: “Curiosity, Courage, Resilience, and Relevance do not retire.”
Looking Ahead
The road ahead for CUROWISE is ambitious. Rajal envisions the brand becoming a pioneering name in the global nutraceutical space, not just known, but trusted. Not just visible but validated. The goal is a portfolio of scientifically backed, cost-effective natural products that earn international regulatory credibility and genuinely improve lives.
She is equally deliberate about her role as a thought leader and mentor beyond the boundaries of her own company. Through her coaching work, her presence on global advisory councils, and her willingness to share hard-earned lessons with the next generation of women in leadership, she actively invests in a future where more women occupy decision-making seats, not as exceptions, but as the norm.
But beyond the brand, Rajal C herself is a force in motion, a woman who transitioned from a globally influential corporate career into entrepreneurship without losing an ounce of her edge, and who carries the rare ability to be both strategist and mentor, founder and coach, mother and business partner.
She does not lead loudly. She leads valuably. She leads with intention, with empathy, and with the kind of quiet conviction that does not need a spotlight to be felt.
And in a world that often mistakes noise for vision, that distinction matters more than ever.
