It is said that two types of people rule technology: those who manage what they do not understand, and those who understand what they do not manage. If that be true, Dr Radha Shelat, CTO, Veritas Software, India probably belongs to the third category who understands and manages technology and life with equal dexterity. In love with technology, Radha is one such person, which every professional woman would want to be - a top achiever in office and a homemaker at home. At 45, she has smashed all notions of glass ceilings.

Having gathered a vast experience of 18 years in the tech world, she is heading technology section of one of the 10 largest software companies in the world specialising in software and services to enable utility computing. Veritas Software India (VSIL) came into existence in 1994, office in Pune was started in this year and in 1996 it transitioned to a 100% Veritas Software owned subsidiary. Veritas was one of the early companies to bring challenging product development work to India.

There has been balanced distribution of work between India and US Shelat entered Veritas as a founding engineer with a team of four people and has seen the company grow to over 1,000 now. Before Veritas, Shelat had worked with IIM-A and IIT-Powai. Asked how does it feel for a woman to be at the helm of affairs in a technology company, she once said in an interview, "If you understand and enjoy technology then there is no problem. Growing Veritas from only a two-product company to over 30 products now is my biggest achievement."

Hailing from a business family in Varanasi, she did her doctorate in statistics from IT-BHU. After working her way up the hierarchy at Veritas, the mothering bug bit her. She and her husband, another techie working for Nevis Technologies, then adopted a daughter and are now enjoying raring the kid. There is another part of Shelat, which very few people know. She is a complete outdoor person and has done over 100 treks in the Western Ghats. If nature is close to her heart, technology is the beats, which adds rhythm to her heart.