Ruchita Sharma heads the Marketing, Operations and Communications divisions at Swarovski India since November 2010. In her role, she manages all marketing, visual merchandising, product assortment, new collection launch, strategic marketing, digital and media communications. Her expertise lies in product strategies, brand positioning and budget management in line with global brand vision and guidelines. Her initiatives have led the brand to develop India specific product lines and forthcoming products suited to the market.

Prior to Swarovski India, Ruchita established Bird Retail for The Bird Group in India and launched Porsche Design, men’s accessories brand in India in February 2010. Earlier on, she led practice for Luxury & Lifestyle-Fashion & design, a nascent luxury goods platform at FICCI. The role aimed at decoding luxury market within the Indian framework. She went ahead to form the FICCI Luxury Lifestyle Forum in India and initiated roundtables in Milan, India and Paris with industry leaders to open dialogue and explore partnerships. Hon. Minister Kamal Nath with Christine Lagarde, released the reports executed by Ruchita with YES bank and FICCI on the Business of Luxury Goods in India in Paris in 2008. Ruchita has also been instrumental in the successful launch of Salvatore Ferragamo in India in 2006. As the Brand Director and one of the first hire, she set up the operational and communication roadmap for Ferragamo in India and structured the competition analysis and marketing strategies.

Ruchita has worked closely with Walpole in UK, Altagamma in Italy and Comite Colbert in France. She also set up Globaluxuria in association with Walford Wilkie UK to establish business platform for international investors. Her tryst with hospitality industry includes Taj Group of Hotels and The Oberoi Group in India, Hyatt International in Hongkong and Amadeus Global Distribution in Madrid.

Ruchita was recently named among ‘50 most talented Retail professionals of India’by CMO Council. She has represented India at various international luxury conferences including Luxury Marketing Summit in Phuket 2012. In April 2011, she was one of panelist for the second time at the India Business Forum held in London Business School moderated by Professor Nirmalaya Kumar. She is key note speaker at several conferences and spoke on India Luxury at Altagamma Milan (2006), International Herald Tribune Istanbul (2006) and FT Business of Luxury Venice (2007).

EDUCATION: An IIM, Ahmedabad-Essec Paris Luxury Management Graduate, an MBA in Marketing from Amity, Noida, a literature Graduate from Lady Sri Ram College, Delhi. An avid traveler, her other areas of interest include writing. Her book ‘Ultimate Luxury’ in association with American Express was released in November 2008. She also researched and wrote key chapters on a book ‘India by Design, the Pursuit of Luxury and Fashion’ with first time authors Michael Boroian and Alix de Poix. The book was released at Essec – Paris in 2008 while Ruchita was based in Europe.