Mayuri Bhattacharya is Region’s new sales and client manager. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Region’s new sales and client manager, Mayuri (May) Bhattacharya, had many reasons for moving to Australia, and then to Canberra.
Many of them were pragmatic – jobs, juggling family and education, the usual things. But deep inside there was an image of Australia she just couldn’t shake.
“I went to boarding school in India,” the Calcutta-born executive says. “My teacher and mentor Mrs Ramanathan’s daughter lived in Australia and the stories she told made it sound so, so beautiful. The beaches, the sunshine – I used to think, ‘I’m going to live there one day’. And here I am!”
May’s career began in journalism as a student reporter before moving to events, brand management and consulting. She’s also worked as a banker with organisations such as HSBC and JP Morgan, adding a layer of strategic thinking to her skills alongside marketing and public relations. She brings with her a wealth of knowledge in people management, strategy and customer service.
“I grew my own brand management and consulting business from one small room to three cities around the country, from Calcutta, to New Delhi and then to Mumbai,” she says.
“I was picked by the Ministry of Tourism to create a team to organise one of the biggest music festivals for the country. After that we worked with a lot of big corporations as clients, companies like Standard Chartered, HSBC, Coca-Cola, Samsung, Diageo, among some global names.
“We later expanded into managing the marketing aspect of movies, we worked alongside fashion weeks, we did some artist management here and managed distribution and marketing for movies.”
However, while the whole business was expanding rapidly, May felt she needed better business skills and tools.
“I was very young and I didn’t come from a business background, so I knew I needed some more experience and education,” she says.
“I wanted to pursue my MBA degree and was surfing around when I found the Macquarie Graduate School of Management in Sydney and was accepted.
“I’ve supported myself in everything that I’ve done. My parents brought me up to think that nothing will be handed to you, you pay for your own luxuries. So I needed to go to a country with an option for students to work while they’re studying, and Australia did.”
The move to Canberra came about when May’s partner secured “a great job” and said it was payback time as he had moved countries for her.
She has loved it here, working for Coco Republic, the luxury furniture and interiors brand, where she was the sales and operations manager looking after their retail, interior design and trade operations.
Mayuri Bhattacharya has joined the Region team and is keen to help Canberra businesses grow. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
She thinks Region is on the right track and was lured by the company’s big vision about expansion and business network building capabilities.
“I’m always drawn to entrepreneurs who are trying to make a change and fill a gap,” she says. “This company is still at the growth phase, and I want to come on that journey as we build it.
“While I was at business school I started the MGSM entrepreneurship club, and ran it along with my peers. I’ve always been interested in that space and I knew Region combined those business building skills with technology and innovation, so this is exactly where I wanted to be.
“It’s a great work culture and I am very excited to go on this journey.”
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