Elena Richards is a Principal and Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer at KPMG LLP. She is an accomplished HR, talent management and diversity professional with deep knowledge of the professional services industry.

As CDEIO, Elena leads the firm’s national Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) team and works closely with KPMG’s management committee and board of directors to advance the firm’s Accelerate 2025 strategy, a commitment for more underrepresented talent to choose KPMG as their employer of choice, experience thriving careers within an inclusive culture, and advance to partnership and leadership levels. Elena further collaborates with KPMG’s functional business leaders on the business integration of the firm’s strategic priorities. The outcome of her leadership has earned the firm recognition as a top workplace by Fortune, DiversityInc, Seramount, Human Rights Campaign, and more.

Elena leads key firmwide initiatives including the ‘people’ section of KPMG’s annual U.S. Impact Plan outlining progress against the commitments set forth by Accelerate 2025, the Business Resource Group (BRG) Leadership Council which oversees 200+ national and local BRG chapters and inclusion councils. She serves on the Talent and Culture Leadership Team, driving the collaboration with people-centric processes to further embed DEI in talent acquisition, people strategy and solutions, learning and development, communications, and total rewards.

As a thought leader, Elena recently published KPMG’s first-ever survey on corporate DEI progress (The Diversity Journey), along with a whitepaper series on embedding DEI into hybrid and return-to-office work strategies and making hybrid work, work with a DEI lens. She has hosted a series of chief diversity officer (CDO) peer exchange, bringing together CDOs across various organizations to discuss DEI strategies and challenges impacting businesses across all industries.

With over 20 years of experience, Elena’s north star is to create psychologically safe workplaces and equitable experiences for underrepresented talent. She is an ambassador of the firm’s DEI commitments, and has been the driving force behind KPMG being a signatory on pledges holding the business community accountable with organizations including Business Roundtable, the Gender and Diversity KPI Alliance, and Disability:IN. In 2021, she was the recipient of the NJCPA Ovation award, recognizing her passion and contributions towards promoting diversity and inclusion across the finance and accounting profession.

Elena earned her BA in criminal justice at the University at Albany, State University of New York, and is a certified executive coach.

She currently serves as a board member for the KPMG U.S. Foundation, Inc. and the Community Foundation of New Jersey. She is on the board of advisors for Catalyst, a member of the Boston College Center for Work & Family advisory board and a member of Seramount’s Diversity Best Practices collective. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ National Diversity & Inclusion Commission and was previously an advisory board member for Howard University’s Center for Accounting Education.

As Vice Chair, Talent and Culture, Sandy is responsible for leading all aspects of KPMG’s talent strategy – positioning the firm to attract, develop, and retain the best people. A member of the firm’s Management Committee, Sandy collaborates closely with KPMG’s leadership team to develop and implement initiatives that advance the firm’s growth strategy by unlocking the power of its more than 35,000 professionals and improving employee and partner experiences. Some of her key areas of focus include fostering a supportive, inclusive and values-based culture and work environment, developing future leaders and championing new ways of working that enable KPMG’s people to succeed and thrive in a hybrid work environment.

Throughout her career, Sandy has consistently demonstrated a keen ability to drive change and make a positive impact on the firm’s business and culture. Prior to leading the Talent and Culture organization, she was the National Managing Partner of Advisory and was responsible for advancing the Advisory strategy, in alignment with the global and U.S. firm strategy and driving growth across the organization. Sandy was also the co-leader of KPMG Advisory’s One Americas initiative, focused on driving growth across the Americas region.

Previously, Sandy led the Risk Advisory Solutions organization, helping clients navigate risk and regulation to ensure stakeholder trust. Earlier in her career, Sandy served as the Service Line Leader for the Risk Assurance practice and led the IT Audit business globally. Sandy’s client-service work has focused on helping organizations in the Financial Services and Technology sectors with their technology, financial and operational risk agendas. This included leading the IT portion of integrated and financial statement audits of public companies, providing outsourced and co-sourced IT Internal Audit and SOX services, and providing third-party assurance.

She has been recognized by the Hispanic Information Technology Executive Council (HITEC) as one of the Top 100 most influential and notable Hispanic professionals in the technology industry in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. In addition, the Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA) has lauded her multiple times, including as a Latina Rising Star and more recently as one of America’s 50 Most Powerful Latinas in 2021 and 2022, under the category of Corporate Trailblazer that celebrates those who are running a major business while providing guidance and leadership to a world that requires new thinking. She was also named to Crain’s New York Notable Women in Accounting & Consulting list in 2019 and Consulting Magazine’s Women Leaders in Consulting list in 2018.

Sandy is known as an impactful leader both inside and outside KPMG and is active in non-profit and community outreach efforts. She currently serves on the Audit Committee for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, which works with a network of local partner agencies to help combat hunger and stabilize lives and confront issues of chronic hunger, poor nutrition and health. She also sat on the Board of the KPMG U.S. Foundation, the nonprofit organization that functions as the charitable arm of KPMG U.S. and focuses on areas where the firm can have the greatest impact on society, mobilizing the unique strengths of its business, people, knowledge, and experience to address some of the largest social challenges and drive systemic change. In addition, she was the Philadelphia Advisory Board Chair and served on the New York Advisory Board of Back on My Feet, a nonprofit organization that promotes self-sufficiency of homeless individuals through running.

As the firm’s Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer, Amanda supports the development of an inclusive culture so that attorneys and staff are best equipped to meet client needs.

The granddaughter of migrant workers, Amanda has a lifelong passion for diversity and inclusion. Her enthusiasm for civil rights matters led her to begin her legal career in labor and employment, helping clients create more inclusive environments. She soon joined Michigan State University’s Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives, where she led Title IX investigations and delivered educational programs across the campus on inclusion, anti-harassment and implicit bias. Amanda later took a role with Jackson National Life Insurance, serving in the General Counsel’s office while simultaneously building the company’s first diversity and inclusion working group and developing an initial diversity and inclusion strategy.

Amanda is especially passionate about the diversity, equity and inclusion work she does today at Husch Blackwell: law firms, she believes, are uniquely positioned to affect their communities for good and to encourage the spread of best practices. Law firms have the opportunity to connect clients with talented teams of diverse individuals. Many Husch Blackwell clients already identify diversity as an important issue, and Amanda loves supporting a diverse pipeline of talented professionals who can assist with their legal needs.

However, Amanda sees her most significant role as ensuring that the firm acts on its goals of equity and inclusion. Diversity is a matter of representation, of working to recruit and retain a diverse group of professionals. Inclusion, on the other hand, means creating a culture where individuals of all backgrounds feel that they belong and are valued. At Husch Blackwell, we don’t merely hire diverse professionals; we make it a high priority to support the equitable and inclusive environment that will allow our diverse teams to function at their best. An important part of our commitment to employee engagement, Amanda ensures that diverse team members have a supportive environment where they can thrive.

At the end of the day, Amanda’s efforts support the firm’s clients as well: attorneys and staff who perform at their best deliver excellent client service.

As Global Director of DEI, Muhsinah leads the implementation of the DEI strategy in our Global Wealth and Asset Management (GWAM) segment, develops the framework for DEI community partnerships that deepen our community ties, enhance our brand, and the overall colleague experience. Muhsinah also works in partnership with the sustainability team to tell the story of DEI efforts in our annual ESG report.

Prior to joining the DEI team, Muhsinah Nuriddin became the first employee to represent Manulife/John Hancock in the CEO Action for Racial Equity fellowship in August of 2020. Muhsinah was selected for this incredible opportunity by John Hancock’s CEO, Marianne Harrison for her commitment to transform the workplace through equitable policies, practices, and targeted professional development. As a CEO Action for Racial Equity fellow, she joined forces with 240 leaders from 100 of the 2,000+ companies committed to advancing diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Her work focused on the implementation of scalable public policy at the state, local, and federal level with the goal ending racial disparities in the United States.

Muhsinah’s commitment to development and advancement of racially and ethnically diverse employees, pushed her to launch the US chapter of Valuing the Inclusion of Black Experiences (VIBE) in April of 2020, an Employee Resource Group (ERG) that builds equity for black professionals, models inclusion as a value at our company, and amplifies the power of diverse perspectives. In her role as Director of DEI and Corporate Responsibility, Muhsinah worked closely with leaders across the organization to drive impact on our DEI initiatives and strategic goals. Prior to working in the DEI space, Muhsinah was a Training and Development Specialist on the Shared Services Training and Development team in our Tempe, AZ. One of the first employees onboarded in August of 2016, she trained customer service representatives that support our customers holding Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and other investments. In 2019, Muhsinah transitioned to the Retail Sales Team as a Training and Development Consultant, where she managed multiple projects and co-developed the training strategy for John Hancock Investment Management’s national salesforce.

Prior to her work in the financial services industry, she spent 13 years in the field of education as an English teacher, Leadership and Development coach, and Assistant Principal.

Rodney T. Marshall is a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion professional, currently serving as Engagement Director at the American Red Cross National Headquarters in Washington DC. With expertise in corporate communication, project management, program development, and strategic planning, Rodney leads a team in various DEI initiatives, including learning, team member engagement, analytics, and DEI communication.

Prior to joining the Red Cross, Rodney served as Assistant Director of D&I at Hilton Worldwide, where he co-managed diversity programming, forged key diverse partnerships, and promoted inclusive practices across the organization’s vast network of owned, managed, and franchised hotels.

Residing in Miami, Florida, Rodney holds dual Bachelor’s Degrees in Mass Communication and Public & Interpersonal Communication as well as certifications as a Partnership Broker and Inclusive Leadership Facilitator and Coach.