Madhumitha Venkataraman

Madhumitha Venkataraman is a Diversity & Inclusion Evangelist with extensive experience in working with multiple diversity groups including gender, disability, LGBTIQA and generational diversity. An HR professional with around 10 years of experience, she has worked across multiple organizations She has worked in multiple areas of human resources including business partnering, leadership development, talent management, employee engagement in addition to diversity and inclusion. Her dream and vision is to see a more inclusive and compassionate world.

Work on Diversity and Inclusion: Madhumitha played a pivotal role in building focus on disability as a part of the GE India diversity and inclusion charter, and was instrumental in conceptualizing and leading the diversity and inclusion charter at Snapdeal called Advitya (focused on all areas of diversity including gender, disability, LGBTIQ, generational diversity and beyond).

Advitya was recognized as one of the best diversity and inclusion initiatives by People Matters, and was also awarded as one amongst the top 5 initiatives on diversity and inclusion by Biz Divas Foundation in the year 2015.

She has been an advisor, consultant and volunteer with multiple NGOs, corporates and social enterprises in the space of diversity and inclusion. Her specific focus is in areas of employment and empowerment for woman returnees, persons with disability, transgender persons and building second careers for senior citizens. She was one of the key members, instrumental in conceptualization and execution of India’s first accessible PRIDE march in November 2016.

Publications/Writing assignments: Published a guide on building of an LGBTIQA inclusive workspace in partnership with NASSCOM. She partnered with CII and Interweave on a research publication focused on best practices in gender diversity in the manufacturing and FMCG sector in 2016.

Madhumitha is one of the lead members of “diversity diaries/dialogues”, a blog/ platform to capture the voice and perspective of different diversity groups. Diversity dialogues has recently published a set of educational videos on LGBTIQA inclusion. She has also been a columnist with Know Your Star and writes ‘very short stories’ with focus on human relationships and compassion.

Education: Madhumitha is an MBA in HR from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies and a graduate degree in finance from Narsee Monjee College. She is a certified assessor of the FIRO-B instrument. She has completed a certification in the area of sexuality and disability by CREA and Enfold. She is certified in American Sign Language from Chandrashekhar Institute of Speech and Hearing Impairment. Madhumitha was recently certified in life skills training from Parivartan Centre for Counselling and Training services in Bangalore

Recognitions: Madhumitha was recognized as a young woman achiever across all walks of life by Wonders of Women, Bangalore in 2015. She was identified amongst top 17 diversity professionals across South Asia by Biz Divas Foundation in 2017. She has been recognized by the World HRD congress for her work in diversity and inclusion two years in a row – in 2017 and 2018.

A regular speaker at multiple conferences and corporates, Madhumitha has been featured in several media such as The Hindu, The New Indian Express, Times of India, Eenadu, Your Story, The News Minute, Woman at Work and others for her work on diversity and inclusion and her personal journey.