Fireside Conversation with Dr Saundarya Rajesh: Can Coaching deliver impact in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion?

Circa mid-1990’s, it was the post-liberalization era, and Dr Saundarya Rajesh, an Indian Woman Professional, who after a career break, was seeking to return to the workplace. Despite burgeoning career opportunities in a globalized economy, Dr. Saundarya noticed that women returning from career breaks were receiving a raw deal. Observing the loaded inequities in the workplace for all underrepresented talent pools, she set up Avtar focusing on creating diverse, equitable, and

inclusive organizations. Today, she is recognized not only as having created several thousand careers for women on breaks, but also for pioneering the discipline of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) in Indian workplaces.

Dr Saundarya’s work began in 2000, when she set up Avtar – a social entrepreneurship venture, self-funded as a first-generation businesswoman. She built the case for Diversity, which today lends itself to the “Social” aspect of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance). With multilevel stakeholder engagement and support, Avtar with Dr Saundarya at the helm of it has been the sole source of creating employment opportunities for over one lakh second career women and has influenced the continued careers of over 2 lakh women via Intentional Career Pathing. The socially responsible approach has enabled Avtar to liaison with organizations as stakeholders in ushering in transformation through policies and programs that support Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.

Fondly and aptly so, referred to as the ‘Career Doctor’ by companies and career-seeking women, Dr Saundarya has influenced the creation of safe and secure workplaces for over 10 lakh women, via the advisory services provided by Avtar.

Dr Saundarya has won accolades such as the Ministry of Women & Child Development’s #100Women Achiever Award, Twitter’s #Web Wonder Women Award, the Chevening Global Changemaker Award, The Winds of Change 2019 Award by the Minnesota Forum on Workplace Inclusion, NiTi-Aayog’s Women Transforming India Award, Golden Aviator Award, Asia’s most Innovative Diversity & Inclusive Leaders Award, the “Winds of Change Award” – in the individual category by The Forum on Workplace Inclusion, University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA in April 2019, among many others.

An irrepressible advocate of the potential of women’s workforce participation, Dr Saundarya is an inspiring speaker and the most sought-after DEI Strategist in Corporate India. In the last two decades, she has personally trained and mentored over 10,000 leaders in the Indian corporate sector. Through Avtar, which is India’s first DEI solutions company she has helped diversity champions create a strong Business, Talent, and Culture Case for their organizations to espouse diversity talent in their workplaces.