Meet Sharita
Sharita is a purpose-driven Innovator and a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advocate, Coach and Advisor. She is passionate about leveraging the power of technology to drive social change and to create an equitable and inclusive society for all. Sharita is also a D&I and social change writer, speaker and mentor.
Career
Sharita was born in South Africa and is based in Johannesburg. She and has lived and worked across a number of continents, having been based in New York and Milan and has worked across Europe, North America, Asia, Middle East and Africa.
Sharita has previously held various senior executive roles at global Communications and Management Consulting firms, in the areas of Strategy, Business Transformation, Sales Growth and Digital Transformation.
In her various leadership roles, Sharita has held executive sponsorship mandate for steering execution of organization and geographic wide DEI programs, as well as chairing global DEI committees, across South Africa, East and West Africa, Middle East and North America. Sharita has served as a C-Suite advisor to a number of international organizations and has established herself as a trusted advisor and partner to organizations and leaders, helping steer them through complex transformation and business disruption.
Education
Sharita holds postgraduate degrees in Commerce and International Business. She has obtained qualifications at Harvard Business School in Disruptive Strategy and completed courses in Inclusive Leadership and Unconscious Bias through Catalyst, a global nonprofit which works with some of the world’s most powerful CEOs and leading companies to build workplaces that work for women.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Sharita is committed to inclusive leadership development and creating environments which enable individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences to thrive. She conceptualized and implemented leadership development programs focused on developing emerging leaders who operate at the intersection of race and gender. She also pioneered a DEI program, piloted in North America, and subsequently adopted across geographies which offered a model for supporting parents reintegrating back into the workplace post maternity leave and/or parenting sabbaticals. These initiatives were motivated and informed by her own lived experiences as a woman of color navigating her leadership journey in global organizations and as a parent who took a long-term sabbatical to focus on her young family.
In 2020, Sharita followed her calling to invest her time intentionally to focus on DEI and social change advocacy, which she believes allows her to operate at the intersection of her purpose and her impact. Sharita is committed to actively pursuing work that is close to her heart and her purpose, which is to contribute towards building an inclusive and equitable world for everyone.
Innovating with Purpose
Sharita believes that business and technology is a powerful tool for breaking the cycle of poverty, systemic inequalities and enabling previously systemically disadvantaged communities to create generational wealth. She also currently serves as a business advisor and consultant on Stanford University’s SEED Innovation Program which allows her to bring her vast business expertise to bear on the shared vision of breaking the cycle of poverty in emerging economies and to support entrepreneurs in emerging markets to scale their purpose driven businesses.
Charity
Sharita is passionate about providing access to STEM training to women and communities who can least afford it and to challenging the gender stereotypes which prevent women and girls from choosing careers in STEM fields. She is also a strong believer in education as a driver for social and economic change in underserved communities. As such Sharita has been actively involved in mentorship and fundraising for a number of local STEM education, female empowerment, skills building and education NGO’s.