Poonam GuptaOBE is a Scottish-Indian entrepreneur and philanthropist who emigrated to Scotland from India in 2002. Poonam Gupta was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her services to the business and charity in the 2017 New Year Honours. She completed her early schooling years in Delhi at Lady Irwin School and Delhi Public School where she got admission on merit to complete her high schooling. She went onto complete an Honours Degree in Economics from Shri Ram College of Commerce in Delhi before gaining an MBA in International Business and Marketing at FORE School of Management, Delhi and Maastricht School of Management in Holland. She arrived in the west of Scotland after marrying Puneet, a Belfast-born pharmacist of Indian descent. Together they have two daughters, the first born in 2005 and the second two years later in 2007. During her second pregnancy, Poonam suffered from a rare form of bone tuberculosis which left her in a wheelchair for 18 months.
Charitable
Gupta's charitable contributions are focused on women issues, underprivileged children, animal conservation, cancer, gender equality and helping young girls in India to get an education. She has been actively supporting Action For Children charity as a main sponsor and organizer of annual dinners with hundreds of thousands of pounds raised. In 2009, Gupta founded The Scottish Circle in aid of Oxfam along with Annie Lennox. The charity focuses on providing support for underprivileged women in Scotland and around the world. In 2015 and 2017, Poonam and her husband Puneet Gupta took part in a rickshaw race to raise funds for Elephant Family, a charity that was founded by the conservationist and Duchess of Cornwall's brother, the late Mark Shand to conserve the Asian elephants. In 2017, Poonam formed organization which aim to help Scottish women become successful by providing mentoring schemes across the country. Poonam continued her charitable efforts to help victims of child trafficking and slavery by contributing to the Virat Kohli Foundation when she placed the winning bid on a painting donated to the cause by the artist Sacha Jafri.
Career
Poonam launched her first business - in 2003 from her family house in Kilmacolm, Scotland. The business initially specialised in salvaging and reusing products that were often destined for landfill. PG Paper imports and exports goods from over 53 countries around the world and is considered to be the fastest growing paper companies in the United Kingdom. Since 2015 the official headquarters were moved from the family home to the Custom House in Greenock, Scotland. Gupta is now involved in several other business ventures including PG World, SAPP Holdings, SAPP International, SAPP Property, EnVisage Dental Health, Punav.
