Courage Isn't the Absence of Fear
Published March 16, 2026 by pgalums in
Mansi Tripathy on conviction, authentic leadership, and building a $2.5B career on her own terms.
At 15, Mansi Tripathy changed her own name. Her parents had named her “Monu,” but when she asked what it meant, they couldn’t tell her. So she researched, found “Mansi,” and announced the change herself. That same conviction has shaped every major decision since.
Today, Mansi is Chairperson of Shell Group of Companies in India and Senior Vice President for Shell Lubricants Asia Pacific, overseeing a $2.5 billion P&L across 22 countries and 9 manufacturing plants. She is one of the few women at the leadership table in India’s energy sector, and was named among Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Asia in 2025.
But her path here was anything but conventional.
Before Shell, Mansi spent 15 years at Procter and Gamble, including as Global Director for Gillette and Asia-Pacific Head for Consumer and Market Knowledge. She led the post-acquisition transformation of Gillette’s business model and held assignments across India, Singapore, Australia, Geneva, and the US. When an opportunity at Shell came calling, nearly everyone in her network told her not to take it. She took it anyway.
That willingness to move against the grain, grounded not in recklessness but in deep self-trust, is the thread running through this entire conversation.
What you’ll take away from this episode:
- Conviction over confidence: Mansi draws a clear distinction: conviction is not the absence of fear. It is what overrides it. She shares how that belief has guided her through career pivots, high-stakes decisions, and moments where she had to hold her ground without raising her voice.
- Authentic leadership in practice: When told to “bang the table” to get results, Mansi pushed back. Her approach: focus on the outcome, not the performance of authority. “I don’t need to talk tough. There is an alternate way in solving for things.”
- The Gillette transformation lesson: Data alone does not bring people along. Mansi reflects on what it actually takes to shift culture and build alignment across a global organization.
- B2C to B2B: Moving from consumer brands to Shell reshaped how Mansi thinks about business impact, stakeholder complexity, and what it means to lead at scale.
- Boundaries after crisis: A family health emergency forced Mansi to reconsider how she was operating. She talks openly about what changed, and why.
About the guest
Mansi holds board positions at Hankook Shell (South Korea), JOSLOC (Saudi Arabia), and MRPL Aviation. She has been recognized among Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Asia (2025), Business World’s Most Influential Leaders (2025), and received the Woman of the Decade Award from the Women Economic Forum. A trained classical dancer and marathoner with 59 half marathons completed, she holds degrees from NIT Kurukshetra, SPJIMR, and Kellogg. She lives in India with her husband and two children.
About the host
This conversation is hosted by P&G Alum Sudha Ranganathan, who spent over 19 years in marketing leadership at P&G, PayPal, and LinkedIn, where she developed a passion for customer-centric marketing and talent development.