Book IWD Speaker: Shantha Maheswari Sekhar

With a strong focus on purposeful value creation, sustainable growth, responsible governance, and a “lift-as-you-rise” people philosophy, Shantha is a seasoned global business and technology
leader with over 25 years of trusted, values-driven leadership. Her work is rooted in innovation that drives collective success and delivers meaningful impact across industries. Shantha brings deep experience as a senior executive, non-profit
board member, industry thought leader, startup advisor, and STEM mentor. She has chaired and served on committees spanning Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI), Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR), and responsible governance forums, contributing to organizational vision, enterprise strategy, capital investment decisions, and integrated value creation for clients, people, firms,
and communities. Her areas of expertise include enterprise and technology
transformation, organizational and growth strategy, client and stakeholder relationships, financial and P&L management, go-to-market expansion, governance, enterprise risk management,
compliance, talent specialization, succession and leadership development, and digital products and platform innovation. She also brings strong experience in building and managing industry alliances and ecosystem partnerships.
Shantha’s leadership spans multiple industry sectors including Consumer, Retail, Life Sciences, and Healthcare, as well as cross-industry convergence across Financial Services, Telecom & Media, Energy & Utilities, and Government.

A recognised industry thought leader, Shantha is a frequent speaker, blogger, podcast guest, and contributor of white papers and industry
perspectives for platforms such as NASSCOM, Zinnov, CII, FICCI, TechGig, and Retail Summits, as well as organizational and partner ecosystems. She is known for shaping conversations around
innovation, governance, inclusion, technology leadership, and responsible business practices.

Her professional journey includes senior leadership roles within large multinational Global Capability / Captive Centers, serving as Global
Clients & Industries Lead and Chief Strategy & Planning Officer. In these roles, she led enterprise strategy and large-scale technology transformations, right-shore organizational design, delivery excellence, talent specialization, succession leadership development, growth operating models, digital transformation
initiatives, and strategic alliance management. She has led globally distributed teams across four delivery locations and ten super
regions, managed budgets exceeding $100M, influenced over $4B in revenues, and supported workforces of more than 1,600 professionals worldwide.

Shantha has also held leadership roles within global Technology System Integrators, where she drove sales growth, P&L performance, and innovation, while also serving as DEI Lead—guiding and steering diversity and inclusion initiatives at scale.Through these experiences, Shantha has partnered closely with CEOs and CXOs across major global markets, building trusted, long- standing relationships and delivering sustained business and society impact.

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