Debbie Westcott, an enterprising educationist and entrepreneur was born to Edward Walter Westcott who was employed as a Manager at Shree Meenakshi Mills and Teresa Westcott who worked as Headmistress at the Dominic Savio School in Madurai. Her parents hailed from Kerala but shifted base to the temple town of Madurai. Debbie grew up in Paravai Colony in Madurai.
Debbie has two younger sisters- Junaitha Diana Westcott who lives abroad and Judy Dalreen Westcott who is settled in Coimbatore. She schooled at the Railway Mixed Higher Secondary School in Madurai and graduated in BBA from S. Vellaichamy Nadar College in Madurai. She followed it up with an MBA at the Madurai Kamaraj University and later on completed B.Ed from ICFAI University in Hyderabad.
She started her career as an English teacher for class 10 at NH Jains Higher Secondary School in Madurai. However her passion was to become an entrepreneur, so she quit teaching and started a garment unit. She moved to Chennai and later to Kuwait where she gained a little experience in the food industry as her husband was in the field of catering.
After returning to India, Debbie lost her mother and was inspired to foray into the education field as she wanted to carry forward her mother’s legacy. She followed her dream and in 2005, THE IMMACULATE Training and Overseas Education took shape. Students preparing for all foreign entrance exams like IELTS, TOEFL, PTE, GRE, GMAT etc get trained here. Her students have gone all over the globe to the UK, USA, Australia, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and Singapore. Besides this, corporate training for IT companies is also provided. Due to good results, foreign universities approached Debbie for tie-ups and within a year, THE IMMACULATE became a Study Abroad Consultancy.
Debbie also conducts Entrepreneurship Development Programs for all age groups of people. The Institute is located in Adyar and is open from 8 am to 8 pm. She organizes events for entrepreneurs at regular intervals and helps them to scale up their business.
Career guidance is also provided to students from schools and colleges. Her Institute goes a step further and assists candidates who wish to go abroad with the migration procedure, tour packages and visit visas too.
Debbie’s husband Murale is a businessman who runs Jemgems, a wholesale unit that deals with precious stones. She helps him out with marketing for the business. Her only son Saajan Murale is a financial consultant.
Being an outgoing personality, she is part of many organizations like Rotary Club, Lions Club, the Inner Wheel Club of Daffodils, the Theosophical Society and the Madras Management Association. She served as President of Rotary Club of Madras Silver Beach for the period 2020 to 2021 and is a Past President of the Lioness Club of Mylapore. Debbie is currently an office bearer at the Catholic Women’s Fellowship. She works with many NGOs and has a firm belief that service to mankind is service to God.
She has delivered numerous lectures on empowerment of women and on career options at various forums and has done more than 400 presentations on various topics in reputed schools, colleges and universities.
Charity is something close to her heart and she has organized many charity programs for school and college students and for the children from the slums in Besant Nagar. A free Spoken English camp for 6 months was held for 150 students from poor families as part of a Lioness Club project in Labour Colony in Guindy.
Her institution, THE IMMACULATE for Training & Consultancy won the Award for the best coaching and overseas education provider from Times of India Education Brand Icons in 2018 and 2019. Debbie is the winner of the women entrepreneurship award for education and social leadership from Mayan Vista in Malaysia.
Business has taken her across many countries and she enjoys these trips as she loves to travel. Reading, listening to music and dancing are some of her other hobbies.
Her favourite movie is the all time famous ‘’Sound of Music’’ and favourite actor and actress are Arvind Swamy and Sridevi. When it comes to food choices, she prefers sea food any day. She likes watching cricket and admires cricketer MS Dhoni for his cricketing talent and sportsmanship.
Debbie strongly believes that all women should be financially independent and that networking is one’s net worth. She opines that one should aim high and reach for the stars.
As Serena Williams puts it “Every woman’s success should be an inspiration to another. We’re strongest when we cheer each other on.’’
Juliana Sridhar is a lawyer and columnist.
