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Monisha Kaltenborn

Formula 1 employee

Monisha Kaltenborn
Credit: Sauber AG
Vital statistics for Monisha Kaltenborn
NationalityIND

Monisha Kaltenborn became the first female team principal, as head of the Sauber outfit when the eponymous team owner retired. She gained a high profile during her time at Sauber, particularly through good handling of the media and sensible strategy and driver decisions. Monisha navigated the team through several financial crisis situations but eventually left the team midway through 2017.

Biography

Monisha was born in India, but moved to Vienna when she was young, allowing her to hold dual citizenship in both countries. She studied law, gaining a masters’ degree from the London School of Economics. She worked for several law firms, as well as for several United Nations commissions regarding trade and development.

Monisha worked for the Fritz Kaiser Group just before the millennium, and as co-owners of the Sauber F1 team, Kaiser put her in charge of the legal affairs for the Swiss outfit. She gradually made her way up the order, becoming a member of the Board, and then taking on the CEO role in 2010.

As part of his transition out of Formula One, team owner Peter Sauber transferred one third of the team to Monisha, and installed her as team principal as he retired in 2012. Kaltenborn thus became the first female team principal in the sport, and has been at the helm since then, guiding Sauber through some difficult financial times. In mid-2016, both Peter Sauber and Kaltenborn sold their shares in the team to Longbow Finance for some much needed funding for the squad. However, Kaltenborn remained as CEO and Team Principal under the new owners until 2017.

In June of that year, it was confirmed that Kaltenborn and Sauber had parted ways with immediate effect "by mutual consent and due to diverging views of the future of the company."