Saundarya Rajesh Social Entrepreneur, Founder & President, AVTAR Group
Dr. Saundarya Rajesh is one of India’s most respected thought leaders on Diversity & Inclusion. An award-winning social entrepreneur, she is best known as the pioneer of Second Career opportunities for women in Corporate India. She has been recognised as a “#100Women Achiever” by India’s Ministry of Women and Child Development as also listed in the United Nation’s “Women Transforming India”. As part of the UK Government’s initiative to recognize leaders from all over the world who are making transformational changes in their home countries, Dr. Rajesh was recognized as one of the Top 35 Global Changemakers and was featured in a specially-commissioned exhibition of portraits at a London Art Gallery. In early 2019, she won Twitter India’s #Web Wonder Women Award for disseminating positive energy via the web. She is also, the only Indian to receive the “Winds of Change 2019” award by The Forum on Workplace Inclusion, Minnesota, USA.
A relentless advocate of the potential of women in the workplace, Dr. Saundarya is the advisor of choice for an impressive list of organizations and leaders on the benefits of Inclusion and Diversity. One of the earliest voices in India to speak about the need for gender balance in the workplace, her diversity immersion sessions have benefited varied audiences, ranging from industry bodies to the police force, from entrepreneurs to college goers, from organizations like Accenture, Deloitte, IBM, Mahindra Group and Tata Group to small and medium businesses. Inspirational in her approach to tackling systemic issues faced by women, Dr. Saundarya has irrevocably changed the game for the Indian Woman Professional, by introducing the concept of “Career Intentionality” and “Career Re-entry” to Corporate India.
An entrepreneur who has created successful, growing enterprises such as AVTAR Career Creators, FLEXI Careers India and AVTAR Human Capital Trust, Dr. Saundarya is also counted among India’s early stage innovators in the space of Artificial Intelligence in HR. Bruhat Insights Global, founded by Dr. Saundarya provides cutting edge predictive and prescriptive analytics for hiring solutions. Bruhat was recently featured at the World Artificial Intelligence Show at Dubai.
Widely quoted on women’s careers, entrepreneurship and inclusive leadership, Dr. Saundarya is a highly sought-after speaker at conferences -- both national and international -- and a firm believer in integrating work and life. In her pursuit to develop and inspire people to grow to their full potential, she has made her debut in through the book – “The 99 Day Diversity Challenge™” published by SAGE that hit the stands on October 30, 2018. The book, in its pre-order window on Amazon, broke records by selling out within hours of its launch. The 99DDC™ has won several acclaims from industry leaders and has been designed to develop diversity and inclusion mindset in any organization or even individual within the proverbial 99 days.