About Me — Shalaka Laxman

Photo of a very happy me taken by my partner on a HOT day in England (those are rare, I promise).

A brief summary of my life so far

Hi there! My name is Shalaka Laxman and I live in London (UK). I’m 28 years old and have lived in a few cities before London. I’m Indian and was born in Delhi but grew up in sunny Dubai for 17 years, before moving to the US for university. After wrapping up my undergraduate degree at the University of Virginia, I moved to New York to begin a career in Corporate Banking, which through a mix of serendipity and haphazard US immigration laws led me to London six years ago (you can lead more about my relationship with visas here if you’re ready for a whirlwind story).

I fell deeply in love with London and decided to stick around since I’d finally found a place I could call home. My career so far has primarily been in the Corporate Banking space and for the past 1.5 years, I’ve been developing sustainable financial products for large companies. This is a neat intersection of the day job and my passion as I’m an avid supporter of incorporating sustainability into our everyday lives. I also write a weekly email newsletter with updates in the space — you can check it out here.

Hobbies, passions, interests and everything else

During the first lockdown last year, I picked up painting as a ‘pandemic hobby’ but it’s since evolved into a passion. I…