Ruchira is a Certified Diversity Professional and a qualified Human Resource specialist with a career spanning two decades, a large part of which has been across organisations such as Thermax, Cummins and Interweave Consulting; and is currently engaged with Breath Beings – a DEIB start-up – in an Advisory and Consulting capacity.

The latter half of her career allowed her to not only listen to her callings, but also respond to those through her work.

Her passion and conviction for workplaces that embrace differences and provide equalopportunity led her to step into the then nascent space of Diversity, Equity , Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB).

Over the last decade, Ruchira has been able to create impact through deep consulting partnerships with clients across the length and breadth of the country, and even outside of it. This includes supporting organisations in crafting their DEI charter, advising DEI Councils, designing and deploying diagnostics that enable targeted interventions, facilitating leadership advocacy, promoting systemic equity through inclusive policies and processes, and so on. To name a few clients – Asian Paints, Bajaj FinServ, ITC Group, PhonePe, Zomato, Multiples Equity, Flipkart, L’Oreal, CGI, Rakuten, SunLife, Pfizer, PwC. Participating in DEI panels as well as being a CDP (Certified Diversity Professional) faculty has allowed her to not only further her own thought leadership on this topic, but also mentor other DEI professionals.

As an Inclusion Ally, Ruchira is committed to enabling inclusion and equity for underestimated groups within her sphere of influence, both professionally and personally.

In a more recently acquired role as a Certified Coach, Ruchira’s intent is to facilitate growth journeys for individuals and teams. Her personal belief guiding her work here is that there is opportunity for each one of us to live in ways that are more aligned to our true and best selves.

Born in Mumbai, Zainab is a transgender person and is one of the petitioners in the National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India case on transgender rights and in the marriage equality case.

She currently works with Pernod Ricard India as the Chief - Inclusion and Diversity; prior to this she worked with KPMG as the Director - Diversity and Inclusion. Zainab holds an MBA in HR and was the National Manager - Health and Human Rights at the UNDP country office in India and was the regional policy analyst on human rights in Asia.

Her areas of interest are health and social development issues and has over 20 years of national and international work experience. She also is a social entrepreneur and employs 18 trans and non-binary folks through her two initiatives in Mumbai - The Trans Cafe and The Transformation Salon. Zainab currently serves as the Western India representative in the National Council for Transgender Persons. She is a Kamalnayan Bajaj Fellow, a part of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.