Global Member Conference: Driving Belonging: Globalize Your Inclusion Strategy  

Sathya Bala (she/her) is a leader, board member, entrepreneur, speaker and community organizer. She spent most of her career working at large organizations like Sainsburys, Deloitte, HSBC and Barclays. Before starting her business, her last role was Global Head of Data at Chanel, during which time she also launched the cross-company Data Meets DEI forum, which she still runs today. In 2021, she launched her own business, True Change, which works to make organizations more inclusive using data and storytelling to drive change. Sathya is also founder of My Skin My Story, a global community that empowers women of color. Sathya embraces her cross-cultural lived experience in her work, as a Sri Lankan Tamil woman, born in Singapore, who grew up in Sydney, and moved to London as a young adult.

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.

Sharon C. Brooks is the Founder & CEO of Enlighten Leadership. For over two decades, she has provided strategic advice across industries and supported leaders in the private, public, and government sectors in Africa, Asia, Europe, UK, and US. She is an experienced consultant who fosters inclusive communities by successfully enhancing resource accessibility and promoting equitable professional opportunities for members of underrepresented demographics. In addition, she assists organizations with crisis management and serves on advisory boards, helping
to craft institutional strategic objectives.

She holds a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School and a B.A., summa cum laude, in History and Politics from New York University.

She is currently based in London and Spain.

Jenny Champlin is an innovative DEI strategist with over 20 years of extensive experience in employment law, litigation, HR and diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging. She previously led a DEI innovation capability at Edward Jones, a US-based financial services firm with over 40,000 financial advisors and branch team support members. Prior to this role, Jenny was an Associate General Counsel on the employment legal team at Edward Jones where she served as the primary legal partner helping to solve business problems, support associates and mitigate employment-related risk. Before Edward Jones, Jenny spent nearly 10 years at Walmart Stores, Inc. in Bentonville, AR serving in a variety of legal and HR roles. Just prior to leaving Walmart, Jenny was an HR Director supporting Walmart’s Merchandising & Health & Wellness businesses leading a team of 12 associates and serving over 600 home office associates and 85,000 pharmacists, optometrists, pharmacy technicians and opticians. Jenny is a Past President of the National Association of Women Lawyers and continues to serve on NAWL’s Leadership Advisory Council as well as on several NAWL committees.

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. 

Karthik is a Diversity and Inclusion specialist having completed several seminal projects successfully for various organizations. In his 25 years of experience in business analysis, talent strategy and workforce diversity consulting, Karthik has devised flexible working policies and diversity-ready workplaces for several Fortune 500 organizations.
As one of India’s pioneering workers in the field of career comeback programs for women, Karthik has been a key architect in the re-entry of women into the workplace. He has worked on many research studies on Diversity & Inclusion and has conducted Diversity & Inclusion audits and assessments for several organisations.
Karthik has also co-authored several papers that have been published in Journals of national and international repute. He has been conferred on the DIVERSITY LEADERSHIP AWARD by the World HRD Congress.

Diana Forster is a Senior Director of Qualitative Research at Seramount. She is a survey researcher, statistician, and writer with experience delivering actionable research to government, corporate, and academic clients.

In this role, she has helped lead several of Seramount’s recent projects: “Keeping DEI Strong in Volatile Times,” “Gen Z Decoded: New Data on How Your Youngest Employees Want to Experience Work,” “Understanding Global DEI Success: Corporate and Local Implications,” and “DEI Backlash: What Employees Really Think.” She joined Seramount in 2022 as an Associate Director on the Consulting team.

Previously, Diana was a researcher with the American Institutes for Research (AIR). There, she worked with the Department of Education on projects related to K-12 education. Diana was also a founder and vice-chair of Women in Support of Equity (WISE), AIR’s first employee resource group for women.

 Prior to her time at AIR, Diana worked for eight years with the Center for Talent Innovation (now Coqual). 

Diana holds a BA in political science and history from the College of Charleston, an MA in political science from the University of Arizona, and a PhD in political science from the University of Florida, where she used cutting-edge survey research techniques to study the intersections of religion and political behavior in the United States. A lifelong learner, she is currently pursuing her MBA at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business as a Forté fellow. Diana lives in Bethesda, Maryland, and in her spare time, she enjoys reading and writing fiction, riding her Peloton, and going to the movies. She also volunteers as a dramaturg with local theatres.

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.

Kaushik Gopalan is a seasoned business leader with 20+ years of experience in driving growth, change and transformation across various industries. He’s currently the Chief HR Officer at Transunion for Europe. Kaushik’s expertise spans HR strategy development, leadership development across various cultures. He has a proven track record of delivering results, driving cultural change, and building high-performing teams across various geographies. Kaushik is also a passionate advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion and currently chairs the Inclusion council at TU. He holds an MBA in Human Resources and is a sought-after speaker, mentor, and advisor, known for his thought leadership, strategic insights, and collaborative approach. 

With nearly 20 years of experience in promoting inclusive workplace cultures across various roles, including talent leader, HR strategy leader, and HR business partner, Bertrand Kimper currently serves as the Vice President, Global Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, and Global Head of People R&D at Kenvue. In this capacity, he spearheads strategies and implements initiatives that foster a culture of belonging and leverage the cognitive diversity of Kenvue’s workforce to enhance the reach of the company’s renowned brands. Additionally, he formulates and executes the global people strategy for Kenvue’s Research & Development function, driving innovation and bolstering the product pipeline to maintain the company’s leadership in the consumer health industry. 

Prior to his tenure at Kenvue, Bertrand held several pivotal roles at Johnson & Johnson, where he significantly enhanced the HR function with a focus on talent management, human capital strategy, and organizational culture within the MedTech division. His professional journey also includes notable positions in executive search and recruitment within the life sciences sector, where he successfully managed searches for C-suite and VP-level candidates at leading firms. 

Bertrand earned his Master’s degree in Work and Organizational Psychology from Université Paris 5. Having lived and worked in five countries, he is deeply committed to fostering an inclusive environment that accelerates company success in the marketplace while positively impacting the lives of billions. 

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.

Mark is a Manager in the Inclusion, Diversity and Equity (IDE) team at KPMG in the in the UK. He works collaboratively across the organisation to ensure that IDE is embedded throughout all policies, processes and systems that impact the employee life cycle.

Mark has worked in the team for 8 years and has led on firm-wide initiatives and projects including thought leadership, benchmarks, advocacy, Policies, events and campaigns. He has worked across all characteristics within the IDE landscape and brings his passion and desire for fairness, accessibility and inclusion to everything he does. He leads on their work to embed socio-economic diversity as a core part of the IDE agenda for their 17000 colleagues.

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.

I am a global People & Culture leader with 18+ years of experience driving Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI), ESG, Culture Transformation, Change Management, and Learning & Development (L&D) across multinational organizations. Passionate about shaping sustainable, inclusive workplaces, I specialize in embedding HR strategies into business success, ensuring people-first cultures that drive engagement, innovation, and long-term impact.

I’m the Global Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for Stepstone Group and most recently I’ve led DEI Globally at Hays and People Experience and Culture at KPMG, with the aim to create the best employee value proposition and experience to everyone in an inclusive and human centric manner. Previously I led DEI for Visa, JP AIG, and American Express across Asia.

I’m certified facilitator in cultural awareness, change management and cultural transformation. I&D and wellbeing thought leader speaker on various conferences and Mental Health First Aider.

I’m myself an example of diverse experiences, originally from Brazil, I have lived and worked in Asia, Europe, and South America .My background is in trade and international affairs and my passion continues to be in global sustainable and inclusive growth.

Rodrigo Caetano Teixeira is a global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion leader from Brazil who has lived and worked in Budapest, Brussels, and Mexico City and is now based in Amsterdam. As a Senior Global DEI Expert at ING Bank, Rodrigo oversees DEI for the Wholesale Banking and Tech domains. Prior to ING, he held multiple roles at Uber, leading DEI efforts across Latin America, EMEA, and APAC. His work included product equity initiatives, launching global sponsorship programs, scaling inclusive hiring frameworks, and implementing self-identification strategies in over 60 countries. With a background in psychology, Rodrigo brings a data-driven and culturally nuanced approach to building inclusive workplaces worldwide.

With spirit and passion for responsible business, Margaret has leveraged partnerships and strategic initiatives to drive collective impact across Lenovo for almost 6 years. Serving as the internal consultant and senior project manager for global D&I strategy in the U.S, China, AP, LATAM & EMEA markets, Margaret specializes in advancing critical partnerships with HR and employee communities to strategically design and activate various D&I interventions worldwide. These partnerships fuel the evolution of Lenovo’s D&I roadmap, creating a more diverse and inclusive environment and employee experience, and enabling the company to fulfill its vision of Smarter Technology for All.

She comes to Lenovo from spending nearly half a decade managing corporate social responsibility (ESG) and diversity equity inclusion (DEI) at one of the world’s most diversified casino-entertainment company, Caesars Entertainment. Her work aligned thousands of team members, guests, communities and non-profit partners towards a shared goal of leveraging business to create positive change. This work includes facilitating $1M in corporate philanthropy and over 400,000 in volunteer hours, incorporating DEI strategies to evolve policies and business innovation while building 25 national employee resource groups and creating alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Margaret holds an International MBA from Politecnico di Milano, a Masters in Journalism and Media Studies from University of Nevada Las Vegas, and a BA in Communication with a Public Relations Certificate from Boise State University. With an emphasis on media and consumer behavior change, Margaret’s experience is fueled by her years in broadcast journalism where she focused on community responsibility.

Dr. Shyama Venkateswar is currently the Senior Director, Learning, at Seramount, where she heads up the development and design of tailored DEI curriculum and workshops based on client needs to tackle complex workplace culture and talent challenges.

In 2021, she was appointed to the NYC Commission on Gender Equity by the Mayor of New York. She has more than 20 years of experience in addressing social and policy issues, and has built her career in the higher-education and nonprofit space.

Most recently, Shyama served as director of the Public Policy Program at Roosevelt House and as a faculty member at Hunter College, City University of New York, a position that she held for eight years. There, she led the expansion and governance of the program, crafted new and innovative curriculum, taught the Capstone curriculum, and played an instrumental role in implementing initiatives for student and faculty development, with a focus on providing opportunities for first-generation learners, immigrants, undocumented and other underrepresented students through comprehensive mentoring programs.

Before arriving at Hunter College Public Policy Program, Shyama was director of Research and Programs at the National Council for Research on Women (now merged with the International Center for Research on Women). In this role, she helped provide the vision and strategic direction of the council’s policy agenda on economic security and women’s leadership, and received grants from foundations and corporate philanthropy. Shyama has also served as the founding director of Mercy Corps’ Action Center to End World Hunger, and as director of the Asian Social Issues Program at the Asia Society.

Shyama is a graduate of Smith College and received her Ph.D. from Columbia University in political science.

Blanca Villela is a business strategist, corporate governance expert, certified executive coach, and lawyer with an MBA, bringing over 28 years of global and regional leadership experience. She has driven growth and sustainable innovation in sectors including agribusiness, consumer goods, and manufacturing, across mature and emerging markets. At Cargill, Blanca held senior positions such as Protein Business Manager, overseeing legal, sustainability, corporate communications, and crisis management. She successfully led Cargill’s Global Women’s Network, launching diversity and inclusion strategies worldwide, including in Latin America and APAC. Recognized for her work in women’s empowerment by Forbes and the U.S. Embassy in Honduras, Blanca serves on the boards of Ternova Group, ALZU Group, and GRUPO SEARCHiN, specializing in human capital, innovation, and sustainability. She actively mentors leaders through Vital Voices and Telethon, fostering inclusive workplaces and strategic growth. Blanca holds certifications in Strategic Workforce Planning and Co-Active Professional Coaching (CPCC).

Nichelle Wash is a Director on the Advisory team at Seramount. She is a results-focused DEI leader who specializes in supporting key areas of DEI strategy. She has been the chair of DEI councils and quasi-government boards, building support for the senior leadership team to integrate DEI throughout their lines of business. This work resulted in culture and change management for employees across the enterprise that was focused on sustainability and scale. She has also overseen diversity recruitment and outreach efforts for organizations, providing real solutions to attract and retain employees with a focus on diverse hiring strategies. Nichelle is a sought-after facilitator who has delivered workshops around DEI for over a decade. She was recently recognized as Woman of the Year for her role in designing and delivering DEI education; hosting a precollege camp to increase the number of girls interested in coding and entrepreneurship; and she sourced projects to address homelessness and support pathways to housing security across her home state of Indiana.

Nichelle is an alumna of Indiana University Bloomington, where she started her career in health care and biomedical research before pivoting to a career in higher education. In her self-healing time, Nichelle enjoys listening to audiobooks, playing basketball, dancing to live music, and traveling.

Gareth Whalley is the Founder and CEO of Big Bang People Solutions, an HR consultancy specialized in diversity, equity and inclusion, reward and recognition, and change management and communications. Big Bang helps organizations worldwide to build holistic solutions to complex people issues, in service of enhancing both employee and customer experiences.

Before launching Big Bang, Gareth spent over 20 years in generalist and specialist HR leadership roles in multinational organizations including Procter & Gamble, IBM, The Coca-Cola Company, and Levi Strauss & Co. In recent years, he focused his efforts on driving meaningful culture change in diversity, equity, and inclusion, first leading the global inclusion practice at Coca-Cola, and later serving as the Head of DEI for Europe at Levi’s. He now consults with clients across industry sectors to help increase DEI maturity and impact.