Namita Thapar (born 21 March 1977) is an Indian businesswoman and the executive director of Emcure Pharmaceuticals, a Pune-based drug maker founded by her father. She heads the company’s India business. She became a household name as an investor-judge on Shark Tank India, where she is known for backing health-care start-ups and women founders. She also runs programmes that teach entrepreneurship to young people and speaks openly about women’s health.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Namita Thapar |
| Born | 21 March 1977, Pune, Maharashtra, India |
| Age | 49 |
| Occupation | Businesswoman |
| Position | Executive Director, Emcure Pharmaceuticals |
| Education | Chartered accountant (ICAI); Duke University, Fuqua School of Business (MBA) |
| Father | Satish Mehta (founder of Emcure) |
| Spouse | Vikas Thapar |
| Children | 2 (Vir and Jai) |
Early Life
Namita was born into a Gujarati family in Pune. Her father, Satish Mehta, founded Emcure in 1981. She qualified as a chartered accountant at 21 and then took an MBA at Duke University in the United States.
Career
After her MBA she worked for about six years at Guidant Corporation, a medical device company in California, in finance and marketing roles.
She returned to India and joined Emcure as chief financial officer in 2007, later taking charge of the domestic business. Emcure makes medicines for gynaecology, cardiology, HIV and cancer, among other fields, and sells in many countries. The company listed on the Indian stock exchanges in July 2024.
Thapar has been a judge on Shark Tank India since the first season in 2021, alongside Peyush Bansal and others. Her line “I’m out”, often used when a business was outside her expertise, became a popular meme. She has invested in dozens of start-ups from the show.
She founded Incredible Ventures, which runs entrepreneurship courses for children and teenagers, and hosts Uncondition Yourself with Namita, a YouTube talk show on women’s health topics such as menopause, infertility and mental health. Her book The Dolphin and the Shark (2022) is about balancing empathy with toughness in leadership.
Personal Life
She is married to Vikas Thapar, who also works at Emcure, and they have two sons. She has spoken about her own experiences with fertility treatment and with body-image problems as a teenager.
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Namita Thapar born?
Namita Thapar was born on 21 March 1977 in Pune, Maharashtra, India and is 49 years old.
What is Namita Thapar’s occupation?
Occupation: Businesswoman.
Featured image: Namita Thapar, executive director of Emcure Pharmaceuticals, December 2019. Photo by Shalav3190, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
