Big Bets for 2026: Seramount’s Predictions for the Future of Inclusion

Subha V. Barry is a C-suite leader and an advisor who brings a unique perspective on the alignment of corporate culture to talent strategy and business results. As a transformational change agent, she has a proven record of identifying and accelerating new business creation, driving sales, and increasing profitability.

Subha is president of Seramount where she drives the firm’s vision, strategy, and business development. Subha joined Working Mother Media (WMM) in 2015 and during her tenure she dramatically improved margins, expanded its portfolio through growth in high-value consulting and learning and development, exponentially grew their client roster, and recruited talented executive leaders to amplify subject matter and functional expertise. In 2021, Subha oversaw the brand’s transformation from WMM to Seramount, a leading strategic professional services and research firm dedicated to building high-performing, inclusive workplaces. Today, Seramount works with 450+ organizations globally, including half of the Fortune 500, to help our partners navigate today’s talent and DEI landscape.

Previously, Subha was senior vice president and chief diversity officer at Freddie Mac, where she served on the firm’s management committee and led their foundation. Prior to her time at Freddie Mac, Subha spent 20+ years at Merrill Lynch as managing director and their first global head of diversity & inclusion where she built their D&I strategy, infrastructure and execution plans from the ground up. She also created a highly successful Multicultural Business Development Group to focus their wealth management business on diverse and multicultural communities bringing in over $8 billion in new assets and $50+ million in annual revenues in just three years. She began her career at the firm as a financial advisor where she was a top 100 advisor among 16,000 in the firm.

Subha is a former adjunct professor at Columbia University’s SIPA, and currently serves on the Boards of SHRM Foundation, Rice 360, Rutgers Cancer Center and the Rutgers Institute of Women’s Leadership. She is also a Board Advisor at PE-owned Snowden Lane Partners. In the past, Subha has served on a variety of Boards as Board Chair, Head of Nominating & Governance, Finance, and HR and DEI Committees.
A native of India, Subha holds a BA from Bombay University and an MBA and MS in Accounting from Rice University. She enjoys golfing, reading poetry and rallying for social change. She has two grown children and lives in Naples, Florida and New Hope, PA with her husband.

Nancy J. Di Dia is a celebrated leadership advisor, executive coach, and certified DEI practitioner. As the former Chief Diversity Officer at Boehringer Ingelheim USA, she reimagined diversity and inclusion strategies that shaped the company’s culture and elevated diverse talent representation at all levels. A PCC-certified executive coach with more than two decades of experience, Nancy has developed and facilitated leadership programs that empower leaders to connect authentically, foster innovation, and build resilient teams. 

Nancy’s career spans global organizations in pharmaceuticals, financial services, and technology, where she has been instrumental in crafting leadership pipelines and advancing inclusion initiatives. Among her accomplishments, she designed the Women in Leadership Pipeline and multicultural integration frameworks that have been adopted as best practices. Her efforts have garnered national recognition, including honors from the Human Rights Campaign and DiversityInc. Magazine. 

As founder and CEO of Di Dia Executive Coaching Group, Nancy continues to champion inclusive leadership, partnering with executives to create cultures of belonging and achieve measurable impact in global organizations.  She is currently a global advisor for Seramount. 

Ripa Rashid (she/her) is the Managing Director of Seramount’s Chief Diversity Officer Collaborative and a member of Seramount’s leadership team.  In this role, she oversees the CDOC research agenda, driving innovation, and collaborates with Seramount’s partners to foster inclusive cultures and systems where all talent can thrive and business outcomes are maximized. Ripa is a senior executive with over 20 years of experience in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and has held C-suite roles across talent, DEI, and culture, with deep expertise in the media and financial services sectors. Most recently, she served as Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer (CDIO) at Consumer Reports and previously held leadership roles at Cowen (a Wall Street investment bank acquired by TD Bank), Time Warner, and MetLife.

In 2018, Ripa co-founded and co-led Seramount’s consulting division, advising Fortune 500 companies and professional services firms on innovative DEI practices to shape inclusive, high-performing cultures. Earlier, she served as Co-President of the Center for Talent Innovation (CTI, now CoQual), a renowned think tank in the DEI space, and founded Hewlett Consulting Partners, CTI’s advisory arm. Her early career includes global consulting roles at Booz & Company (now Strategy&), PwC, and Mitchell Madison Group, where she advised financial services and media clients on strategic growth, risk management, and operational excellence.

Ripa is an adjunct professor of management at NYU Stern School of Business, where she teaches an MBA course on inclusive leadership. She is the author of three books on DEI: Winning the War for Talent in Emerging Markets: Why Women are the Solution (Harvard Business Review, 2011), Growing Global Executives (Rarebird, 2015), and Disrupt Bias, Drive Value (Rarebird, 2017). Her thought leadership also extends to over two dozen articles and insights papers featured in publications like Harvard Business Review and Strategy & Business.

A sought-after speaker and panelist, Ripa has addressed audiences at the UN, OECD, International Women’s Forum, Diversity Woman, ADCOLOR, ASCEND, and the National Diversity Council, among others. She has been invited by companies such as Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Aetna, Infosys, and Standard Chartered Bank to share her expertise on DEI.

Ripa holds an AB cum laude in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Harvard University, an MA in Cultural Anthropology from NYU, and an MBA in Finance and Management from INSEAD. She has been named one of the “Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business” by the Asian American Business Development Council Ripa is an active member of the Harvard and INSEAD alumni communities, the INSEAD Global Women in Business Club, and the South Asian Executive Women’s Network. She serves on the Board of One To World, a nonprofit dedicated to global education, and advises Monumental Me, a professional development platform. Ripa has lived and worked in over a dozen countries and currently resides in New York City with her husband and their two sons.

Bridgette Scales is Managing Director of DBP and Seramount’s Advisory team. She is a diversity, equity, and inclusion expert with experience in sales and human resources. Bridgette joined Seramount from American Airlines in 2020, where she was the human resources business partner for customer experience. There, Bridgette was responsible for collaborating on people policies, talent management, career development, succession planning, departmental training initiatives, and aligning employee strategies with American Airline business goals.

Prior to her time at American Airlines, Bridgette spent 27 years at Proctor & Gamble. During her tenure at P&G, she was instrumental in developing and implementing strategies, programs, and processes across a complex and matrix organization. As a DEI practice leader for North America, Bridgette guided and counseled senior leaders on the integration of strategies that included awareness, cultural competency, leadership development, accountability and employee engagement. This led to better processes in the identification of high-potential employees, reduction in attrition rates of minorities, and increased DEI scores on the corporate employee survey.

Bridgette currently serves on the Global Advisory Board for the Women’s Leadership Forum within the P&G alumni network. She also sits on the She Runs It Foundation board’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Advisory Council and is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.

She has a BA from the University of Oklahoma, an MBA from the University of Phoenix, and a Senior HR Professional certification from HRCI.