Today we’d like to introduce you to Vidya Moorthy.
Hi Vidya, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was twenty-something, newly married, and standing in an airport with a suitcase and a one-way ticket to a country I had never lived in — next to a man I barely knew. That’s how arranged marriages work. You say yes. You pack your life. You go.
Growing up in India, most women around me were expected to follow a set path. I knew early on I wanted a different one, and moving to America is what cracked that open for me. I already had an MBA in Finance from Osmania University when I arrived, but my dream was public relations. I earned a Master’s in Public Relations from Michigan State and entered the industry in Michigan as the first woman of Indian descent in my field, managing strategic campaigns for clients as different as a Native American tribe fighting for gaming rights and a major hospital network. That range taught me something I would rely on for the next three decades: communication only works when you understand exactly who you are speaking to.
I rose to Vice President of Client Services, North America, and led the international PR response to the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion. That work earned me a global promotion to run the Asia Pacific region, managing teams across cultures, time zones, and markets most leaders never get to work across.
In 2021, my family and I relocated to Austin. I arrived with no network and no title, and everything I understood about who I was professionally existed somewhere else. I rebuilt the way I always had: one relationship at a time. By 2022, I had joined the Advisory Board of Austin Business Woman. In May 2024, I was elected President, and we have since grown from 750 members to 1,500+, with a newsletter that now reaches 18,000 inboxes every other week.
Be & Become is not a slogan I chose after the fact. It is the pattern of my entire life, restated every time I have had to start again.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road has been anything but smooth. Still, I would not trade those difficulties for a simpler path — they built the resilience and resolve I rely on today.
The first lesson was that credibility doesn’t travel with you. Moving from India to the U.S., and later from client services into Asia Pacific leadership, meant rebuilding my professional standing from scratch each time, regardless of what I had already accomplished elsewhere. Communication styles change. Workplace norms change. The unwritten rules of who gets taken seriously change. I had to relearn all of it, every time.
That lesson followed me to Austin. I arrived in 2021 with no network and no title, so I networked relentlessly, served on boards, and made myself present in every room that would have me. By 2022, I had joined the Advisory Board of Austin Business Woman. In May 2024, I was elected President, and since then we have grown from 750 members to nearly 1,500, with a newsletter that now reaches 18,000 inboxes every other week.
What got me through both chapters was the same conviction: if the standing or the relationships didn’t exist yet, I would build them myself. That conviction is what has allowed me to grow Austin Business Woman into what it is today.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Mine has been a four-quadrant story. My path has moved much like a river takes its course, flowing, moving, and pushing, following instinct as much as strategy.
After years in PR across the U.S., I moved back to India in 2009, where companies turned to me to understand multicultural communication and how to expand into western markets. Life brought me to Austin in 2021, where I founded my training and development company, and where I later became President of Austin Business Woman, a community now 1,600 women strong.
Today, I specialize in translating complexity. Whether that’s global power shifts and geopolitics for business leaders, or communication across cultures, my job is to make the intimidating feel approachable, without ever telling a room what to think politically.
What sets me apart is how I build trust. I listen actively, before a program, during it, and after. In my sessions, I often open with Q&A instead of closing with it, so participants help shape the content instead of just receiving it. I take that same philosophy into community building. I show up in a wide variety of rooms, across different segments, rather than staying in one lane.
What I’m most proud of is the way my work cross-pollinates lessons between the eastern and western worlds. I’m humbled by how much I still have to learn. But I’m grateful for a global perspective that reminds me every day how different we all are in our methods, and how similar in what we’re actually pursuing. My greatest reward is delivering clarity and hope.
What matters most to you?
What matters most to me is community, and the belonging it creates.
I’ve come to believe community isn’t just nice to have. It’s the strategy. Reputation and trust aren’t built in a single moment. They’re a daily, cumulative result of every action and interaction. What’s carried me is a genuineness of intention that isn’t limited to the bottom line, real relationship building, and doing what I say I’ll do, even when it’s inconvenient.
Community is also where I find my own belonging. Every woman I connect, every relationship I maintain rather than just make, every room where collaboration wins over competition, that’s where I feel most myself.
I also care about being a bridge. Across cultures, generations, and value systems. I’ve lived on three continents, straddled an arranged marriage and an American life, and raised a daughter navigating her own identity between worlds. That’s given me a gift I don’t take for granted, the ability to sit with people who see things differently and find common ground instead of division. In an environment of love and respect, we can talk about anything.
Be & Become isn’t a slogan for me. It’s the belief that none of us are finished becoming, and community is what makes sure none of us have to become alone.
Pricing:
- Keynote speaking engagements — pricing varies by event type, audience size, and scope; available upon request
- 1:1 business consultations — catered to a variety of budgets, with flexible packages designed around each client’s goals
- Workshop and panel participation — custom pricing based on format and time commitment
- For rates or to discuss a specific engagement, please reach out directly at erin@vidyamoorthy.com
Contact Info:
- Website: https://vidyamoorthy.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsvidyamoorthy/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vidyamoorthy
- Other: https://www.austinbusinesswoman.com
