DEI Backlash: What Employees Really Think

Dr. Rohini Anand is Founder and CEO of Rohini Anand LLC providing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) advisory services to clients in the public and private sectors. She is a strategic business leader and trusted board member who has successfully transformed cultures and built an iconic brand with an enduring reputation, resulting in accelerating new business creation. With expertise that spans executive leadership, human capital, global corporate responsibility, wellness and diversity equity and inclusion, Rohini brings a unique perspective on the critical alignment of the business culture and the triple bottom line to drive exceptional performance. Rohini is recognized as a pioneer in the DEI field and is a sought- after expert by leaders around the world. Her global experience, cultural dexterity, extensive network and ability to influence leaders result in a reputation for judgment, integrity, and accountability.

Rohini Anand is a sought after thought leader and a published author. Her upcoming book, Leading Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: A Guide for Systemic Change in Multinational Organizations, is available for pre-order on Amazon here and Bookshop.org and on bookdepository here  for international orders. Her book has been endorsed by luminaries like Indra Nooyi, former Chairman and CEO, PepsiCo, Hamdi Ulukaya, Founder and CEO Chobani and Tent, Michel Landel, Danone S.A Board member and former CEO, Sodexo, amongst others.

Most recently Rohini was SVP Corporate Responsibility and Global Chief Diversity Officer for Sodexo. She reported to the Global CEO and was a member of Sodexo’s North America Executive Committee. Rohini successfully positioned Sodexo as a global thought leader in DEI and CR. Sodexo’s remarkable global culture change, led by diversity and inclusion, is featured in a Harvard Business School case study entitled Shifting the Diversity Climate: the Sodexo Solution .

Rohini has been featured in several articles in CNBC, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, and the Washington Post. Rohini has appeared on CNN, Bloomberg and CNN Money as well on National Public Radio. She is the recipient of many accolades including the Mosaic Woman Leadership Award, the Women’s Foodservice Forum Trailblazer Award, Webster University’s Women of Influence Award and the Who’s Who in Asian American Communities Award (WWAAC), amongst others.

Dr. Anand received her PhD from the University of Michigan. She serves on the boards of several organizations including WomenLift Health a Gates Foundation initiative, Aspen Institute’s Family Prosperity Initiative, Tent Partnership for Refugees and Galt Foundation. She also serves on the Charter Communications External Diversity and Inclusion Council and chaired the Catalyst Board of Advisors. Rohini is a Senior Fellow with the Conference Board.

Web site: https://www.rohinianand.com;

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohinianand

Subha 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.

Barbara Frankel is the Managing Director of the Insights division at Seramount, working on global and US diversity surveys, national thought-leader projects, and groundbreaking research on inclusion and DEI topics and how to create family-friendly workplaces. She was the leader of the recent Pledge to Progress research project, which details corporate America’s progress in combating racism in the year since the murder of George Floyd.

Barbara is a thought leader, editor, writer, manager, and consultant in global and US diversity management, business development and marketing, business journalism, and human- and civil-rights advocacy.

She previously was executive editor and senior vice president at DiversityInc. Barbara has served on the national Board of Directors of GLSEN (Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network) and the global advisory board of WeConnect International, a nonprofit that helps women entrepreneurs be corporate suppliers, as well as Garden State Equality.

As the Chief Diversity Officer, Shane leads the firmwide diversity, inclusion, and belonging strategy and advises executive leadership at Baker Tilly. Prior to joining the top 10 professional services firm based in the United States, he worked at Amazon’s Worldwide Consumer and Global DEI teams. Additionally, he’s held positions at Brown and Yale University, two of the nation’s leading academic institutions. He also worked at Cook Ross, one of the world’s leading diversity and inclusion consulting firms as a consultant. In 2022, Shane was named to the Washington Business Journal’s 40 under 40 List. Shane’s work and insights have been featured in Insider, Thomson Reuters, Bloomberg and a Netflix documentary.

Shane holds a Master of Public Health degree from Brown University and a Bachelor’s in Behavioral Neuroscience from Northeastern University. Outside of work, Shane sits on the Racial Equity and Social Justice Advisory Committee for Montgomery County of Maryland.

Andrew Lewis is the national service line leader of KPMG’s Federal Audit practice, and is based in the Washington, DC office. Andrew has more than 25 years of experience focused on performing financial statement audits, attestation services, reviews, and accounting and advisory services for numerous Federal agencies. Andrew is a frequent speaker on a variety of topics, including leadership, DEI, allyship, government transparency, and using impact reporting to increase citizen engagement.

Laura Sherbin is Managing Director of Consulting at Seramount. She is an economist who specializes in the creation of advantage through inclusion and diversity. Most recently, Laura was co-president at the Center for Talent Innovation (CTI) in New York City, a premier think tank and content provider that studies global workplace diversity.

Laura has co-authored several Harvard Business Review articles, including “How Diversity Can Drive Innovation,” “How Gen Y and Boomers Will Reshape Your Agenda,” and “Off-Ramps and On-Ramps Revisited,” as well as the Harvard Business Review research report titled “The Athena Factor: Reversing the Brain Drain in Science, Engineering, and Technology.” She has also taught a Women and Globalization course at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

Laura built the rigorous data analytics machine and team that have been core to innovative approaches to measuring and tracking employee experiences. She is known as a leading expert in applying diversity and inclusion data to human behavior in organizations and using such data to quantify how workforce sentiments and satisfaction affect company bottom lines.

Laura holds a BS in math and economics from the University of Delaware and earned her PhD in economics from American University. She currently resides in Irvington, New York, with her husband, their four children, and their dog, Gus. Laura has always loved math and numbers, but when not working, she also enjoys baking, traveling, and meditating.