Vaidyan took over India’s only reinsurer in 2016, and under her management GIC has crept—from No. 14—into the ranks of the global top ten reinsurance firms. Revenues for the $6.8 billion state-run company climbed 44% in 2017, a year in which Vaidyan also oversaw the company’s initial public offering, India’s third-largest ever. She has also pushed GIC, which operates in more than 160 countries, to expand more aggressively overseas. A 30-year veteran of the insurance industry, Vaidyan has a graduate degree in English and received training at the Harvard Business School.