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Tarana Nina Gupta, President & CEO, Greenlite Lighting Corporation

 

They say that the apple does not fall far from the tree, so perhaps the budding of Tarana Nina Gupta’s entrepreneurial instincts at a young age should have come as no surprise. Her father is a self-made maverick at heart and the epitome of a true entrepreneur – finding a need and then creating the product to satisfy the need. With him as her mentor and tutor, Gupta traveled extensively as a child and was exposed to great diversity, instilling in her a sense of social justice.

Before the age of 20, Gupta was working in the Montreal fashion industry. Within 6 years, she opened a retail boutique chain and quickly discovered that fashion is more than a look — it is cut-throat business masquerading in the finery of couture. In the early 1990s, she took a sabbatical to start a family, but Gupta never lost sight of the business battlefield. She knew that she wanted a business with principles.

Gupta’s opportunity arrived in 1993 when she founded Greenlite Lighting Corporation, an energy efficient lighting company, with one employee and revenues of $300 000. With experience in her family’s automotive lighting business, she ventured into the industry when the market told her America was going green. Her instincts paid off and within 14 years, Greenlite became a $30M international business. Now, Greenlite has become a calling as much as a business — to encourage North Americans to switch to energy-efficient lighting in an effort to combat climate change. The old school approach to growing the company is a success based on running the business the way Gupta was taught: with values, morals and fair practices, allowing Greenlite to grow many times over almost 20 years.

A previous winner of the RBC Trailblazer and Momentum Awards, as well as being awarded Ernst & Young Social Entrepreneur of the Year, Ernst & Young Judge, placing 4th in the Women’s Profit 100 and being named Female Entrepreneur of the Year by the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce, Gupta is also a member of the Women’s Presidents Organization, the West Island Chamber of Commerce, and on the Board of the West Island Cancer Awareness Centre.

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