Avani Davda to deliver keynote at MMS event

The highlight at Mumbai Mudrak Sangh’s (MMS) during its annual Printers’ Day celebrations on 7 April 2016 is the keynote presentation by Tata Starbucks Coffee, CEO, Avani Saglani Davda. At 34, she is one of the youngest leaders in the Tata Group. The function will also see the father-son duo of Arun Mehta and Bimal Mehta be felicitated with the Lifetime Achievement Award by MMS.

08 Mar 2016 | By Samir Lukka

Davda (34), heads one of the most talked at Tata Ventures - the 50/50 joint venture between Starbucks Coffee Company and Tata Global Beverages. She has interacted with some of the sharpest business minds during the course of her career at Tatas. Avani Saglani Davda is the chief executive officer of Tata Starbucks, in this role, Avani will provide overall strategic direction and leadership to the joint venture in India.
 
Her mentor has been Tata loyalist R K Krishna Kumar who picked her to head the Starbucks joint venture.
 
Over the years, Davda has turned into a true blue Tata representative - focused, down to earth and unassuming, with a deep sense of social responsibility  - values which she imbibed from watching Ratan Tata at close quarters. 
 
Davda, who has worked for the Tata companies for more than ten years, joined the Tata Group as a TAS (Tata Administrative Service) probationer in 2002. She has worked in the vice chairman’s office for Tata Global Beverages, where she was responsible for driving and facilitating key strategies and initiatives for the company as well as marketing and business development assignments. She also played a pivotal role in the development of the joint venture relationship between the two companies in preparation for entry into the India market.
 
Davda applied to the Tata Administrative Services in 2002, her first job. Earlier, she briefly interned at ad agency Lowe Lintas after doing her MBA from Mumbai's Narsee Monjee Institute.