Revathi Advaithi: Diagnosed with Cancer, She Didn't Miss a Day as CEO | South Asian Trailblazers

Описание: Simi speaks with Revathi Advaithi, CEO of ‪@Flexintl‬ — a $24 billion global manufacturing company that builds the critical infrastructure behind AI, cloud, healthcare, and automotive. Flex operates in 30 countries with over 140,000 employees, and under Revathi's leadership, the stock has soared from ~$7 to over $60.

Revathi started her career on a factory floor in small town Shawnee, Oklahoma. She is the youngest of five sisters and lost her father at the tender age of 15 in India. After nearly failing out of engineering school, she built her career in the industrials sector in small-town America at companies like Honeywell and Eaton. She ascended to the C-suite at Eaton and was eventually tapped to lead Flex. In 2024, she was diagnosed with breast cancer while traveling — and chose to stay on as CEO, working through treatment without missing a single day. Today, she is one of Fortune's Most Powerful Women in the World, Fast Company's Modern CEO of the Year, and serves on the board of Uber and MIT.

Recorded live in San Francisco in partnership with ‪@pratham-usa‬ this unfiltered conversation covers breaking into the boardroom, immigrant grit, a battle with breast cancer, and what it actually takes to lead at the highest level.

KEY TOPICS:

0:27 Introduction — Live in San Francisco with Pratham USA
0:53 Simi Shah on the Origin Story of South Asian Trailblazers
2:11 Introductions from Pratham USA
7:57 Introducing Revathi Advaithi — CEO of Flex
9:33 Revathi Advaithi on Growing Up in India and Losing Her Father at 15
14:14 Revathi Advaithi at Birla Institute — Mechanical Engineering as the Only Woman
18:23 Revathi Advaithi's First Job on a Factory Floor in Shawnee, Oklahoma
19:46 Square Dancing in Oklahoma — Revathi Advaithi on Small-Town America
23:29 Revathi Advaithi on Choosing Industrials Over IT
24:57 Navigating Corporate America as an Immigrant Woman of Color
29:20 Revathi Advaithi on the Path to the C-Suite at Eaton
33:19 "I've Never Had a Woman Work for Me Who Was Successful"
35:11 Revathi Advaithi on Staying Motivated Through Adversity
36:13 $14 Billion Acquisition Team Refused to Work for a Woman
41:25 Revathi Advaithi on Balancing Career and Family
46:19 Why Revathi Advaithi Said Yes to Flex — "The Stock Was $7"
49:15 Revathi Advaithi on Pivoting Flex to AI and Data Center Infrastructure
54:39 Leading Through COVID, Tariffs, and Geopolitical Volatility
56:49 Revathi Advaithi on Her Cancer Diagnosis and Choosing to Keep Working
1:01:01 How Cancer Changed Her Leadership
1:02:41 Why Revathi Advaithi Wrote the TIME Op-Ed
1:04:54 Audience Q&A: Developing Credibility as a Young Woman
1:07:17 Audience Q&A: Revathi Advaithi's Playbook for Risk
1:09:12 Audience Q&A: How Revathi Advaithi Prioritizes as CEO
1:12:15 Audience Q&A: Ethics in Manufacturing
1:13:14 Audience Q&A: AI and the Future of Manufacturing
1:17:52 Rapid Fire with Revathi Advaithi
1:21:13 What Trailblazing Means to Revathi Advaithi
1:21:36 Revathi Advaithi's Advice to the Next Generation


ABOUT REVATHI ADVAITHI:
Revathi Advaithi is CEO of Flex, the global manufacturing partner helping a diverse customer base design and build products improving the world. Since 2019, she has led Flex's transformation across 30 countries, driving technology innovation and supply chain resilience. Previously, she served as President and COO of Eaton's electrical sector with corporate responsibility for EMEA, and spent six years at Honeywell in manufacturing and supply chain leadership. She has been appointed by the U.S. President to advisory committees on trade policy and supply chain competitiveness, and serves as co-chair of the World Economic Forum's Advanced Manufacturing CEO Community. She holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from BITS Pilani and an MBA from Thunderbird.

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