Winner. Business Leader of the Year 2022

Naimeesha Murthy Pulugurtha

Position: Vice President of Product Management
Company: LPL Financial
City: Jersey City, New Jersey
Country: USA
Economic/Business Sector: Financials/Banking & Investment Services

Product Manager, Mentor, Founder and Angel Investor, Naimeesha Murthy holds a Master’s from University of Leeds, UK and currently is a crucial member of LPL’s New Ventures Labs. She is responsible for discovering, testing, and incubating new disruptive ways to help financial advisors grow their book of business and translate them into fully working services.

Naimeesha is responsible for owning the vision and product discovery, in partnership with the Labs service designers and strategists, defining not only what the service would look like but defining the business model, pricing, investment needs, and operations. She also leads the service discovery process and interacts with advisors to receive feedback and uncover insights on what parts of the service work and what and how needs to be improved. The role, that Naimeesha Murthy has stepped into at LPL Financial, includes highly complex and diverse responsibilities that require high qualifications, in-depth expertise, but also a variety of skills.

Through PBW and StrongHer Ventures, a program for startups focused on women engagement and entrepreneurship, which help empower women to re-enter the workforce, start businesses, and refine their skills - Naimeesha advises, and angel invests in early-stage women-owned ventures.

She is also an educator and a tech conference speaker and serves as an advisory board member at Pace University and is a Forbes Council Member.

Naimeesha has consulted for big tech companies like Google and Okta and is currently leading Strategic New Product Development initiatives at the nation’s number one independent broker-dealer and top RIA custodian in the US.

In her free time, you can find her hiking, painting, cooking, or giving back by mentoring via Barclays, ADP and more platforms.

Naimeesha Murthy is an award-winning inclusive Product Leader with over decade-long expertise in managing digital products from concept to completion.

She is also a passionate community builder and the Founder of Products by Women (PBW), a global diverse community-led network for women in tech and business. The community offers women the opportunity to connect and learn from peers from around the world, get matched with recruiters and mentors to accelerate their career. Naimeesha has made it her personal mission to reduce the gender gap and inequality in tech through the creation of jobs, skills-based education, investment, community building and mentorship, and her guidance has been instrumental in supporting and empowering women and women-owned businesses in the tech industry. Founded in 2019, Products by Women has since expanded virtually and now has over 8000+ members in 70+ countries.

Naimeesha’s work has been published in major media outlets like Forbes, Builtin, and even an Amazon bestseller titled F.O.R.G.E.D.: Six Practices of Great Leaders in Volatile Times.

Naimisha's outstanding leadership skills have contributed to the success of her career. Her professional accomplishments in the field of product management have been recognized by multiple organizations. In 2022, Naimeesha Murthy received the University of Washington’s Inclusive Product Management Champion Award 2022. She is recognized for her work launching The Product Management Center's Inclusive Product Management Accelerator. Naimeesha dedicated much time and expertise to broadening access to economic opportunity by developing a program that empowers professionals from historically marginalized communities to land their first product management role.

She is also a Forbes Business Council Board Member and Contributor, which further proves her high position in the industry.