The Consulting Report is pleased to announce The Top 25 Women Leaders in Consulting for 2024. This year’s awardees are accomplished senior consultants and firm leaders who not only excel with their respective specializations, but also serve as role models within their organizations.  They are catalysts for business growth and serve as trusted advisors to their clients.  Each woman leader, ranging from vice presidents to partners and to c-level executives offers something unique to their firm, whether it’s highly specific domain knowledge, the ability to drive a team forward to the right solutions or an expansive industry network. What they share in common is the ability to consistently succeed.  

Among this year's awardees are Toya Asbury of Alvarez & Marsal, who led the execution of a comprehensive transformation program for a $2 billion global consumer goods manufacturer, and Susan Penfield of Booz Allen Hamilton, who led her firm’s billion-dollar digital business spanning the defense, national security, and civilian sectors. Additionally, Shirley Dhewayani Santoso of Kearney who led the development of several national blueprints for Indonesia, including digital economy blueprint, an education sectoral blueprint among others, and many successful large transformations in the Southeast region.

These accomplished leaders demonstrate excellence in their respective fields, rising above and beyond their peers. Please join us in recognizing the accomplishments of The Top 25 Women Leaders in Consulting for 2024.

 

1. Susan Penfield
Firm: Booz Allen Hamilton
Title: Chief Technology Officer

Susan Penfield is an Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Booz Allen Hamilton, a global technology and consulting company and the largest provider of federal AI services. As CTO, Susan oversees a scaled global technology team and is charged with accelerating growth and helping advance the government’s digital future through emerging technologies and AI implementation, scalable innovations, and infrastructures that meet our nation's most critical mission challenges.

Over her 30-year career at Booz Allen, Susan served in various leadership and technology roles driving transformation across the business. Penfield accelerates growth through mission-centric innovation and infrastructure by exploring technology innovation, driving the adoption of reusable solutions and new business models, and enabling enterprise technology. Prior to her current role, she led Booz Allen’s strategic innovation initiatives and the company's billion-dollar digital business spanning the global defense, national security, and civilian sectors.

In addition, Penfield drove the company’s health business, advancing it to become the largest and fastest-growing account and providing transformational consulting and technology to public-and private-sector healthcare clients.

Penfield sits on the board of SPARQ, a US based digital engineering consultancy. She is a dedicated philanthropist, serving as the chair emeritus of The Children’s Inn at the National Institutes of Health and was awarded the 2024 Sharon Katula Champion for Children Award for her steadfast dedication to improving children's health. She is Secretary of the board for the Northern Virginia Technology Council, a group focused on attracting and developing the tech industry in Virginia and the metro area.

Penfield earned a bachelor’s in technology management from Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania and a certificate in management from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Business.

 

2. Kathy Gramling
Firm: EY
Title: EY Americas Consumer Industry Markets Leader

Kathy Gramling is a seasoned leader in the consumer goods and retail industry with over 25 years of experience, currently serving as the Americas Consumer Industry Markets Leader at EY. Gramling brings a wealth of knowledge to her role, with a background in consumer and commercial strategy, brand management, supply chain transformation, digital manufacturing strategy, salesforce execution, and trade funds management. Her international experience includes leadership roles in Paris, London, and Africa.

Gramling’s prior roles include senior consultant at Accenture, several roles at PwC including associate partner, FMCG/retail industry executive at IBM, global vice president of marketing at CAS AG, and principal at Booz & Company. Gramling holds an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and earned her bachelor’s degree from the College of William & Mary.

 

3. Nichole Jordan
Firm: Grant Thornton
Title: National Managing Partner

Nichole Jordan is Grant Thornton's National Managing Partner of Geography and the Managing Partner of the Texoma region, where she plays a role in the firm’s strategy execution and growth, serving as a key figure in the company’s senior leadership team. Grant Thornton is a professional services network of independent accounting and consulting member firms that provide assurance, tax, and advisory services to privately held businesses, public interest entities, and public sector entities. 

With a comprehensive background in client service and growth leadership, Jordan has significantly contributed to Grant Thornton's success across the U.S., particularly with Fortune 500 clients. She has spearheaded the development of key alliances, executive peer advisory boards, and leadership forums nationwide. Earlier in her career, Jordan served as Grant Thornton’s national managing partner of Markets, Clients, and Industry, overseeing the firm’s strategic key client portfolio, industry sectors, regions, sales, market intelligence, and customer analytics. 

Prior to that role, she was a member of the firm’s Partnership Board, while also serving as the national managing partner for Grant Thornton’s Banking and Securities industry practice, as well as the leader of markets and industries in metropolitan New York and New England. Jordan holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Texas in Austin.

 

4. Bianca den Elsen
Firm: Valcon
Title: Managing Partner

Bianca den Elsen is the managing partner at Valcon in the Netherlands and a member of the Valcon Group Board. Valcon is a European consulting, technology, and data company with over 1,750 employees, delivering sustainable transformation. She has more than 25 years of experience in managing large, complex transformation and transition programs. 

Den Elsen has extensive board and leadership experience, having served as a member of the executive committee at Deloitte in the Netherlands, responsible for clients and industries. At Accenture, she was part of the leadership teams in the Philippines and the Netherlands. Den Elsen has led multiple global transformation programs, as well as shared services and outsourcing engagements. Additionally, she headed a delivery center with over 4,000 employees in the Philippines. Passionate about ensuring companies are optimally positioned for the future, Den Elsen takes a pragmatic approach from strategy to implementation across all levels. 

An influential industry leader, she has published articles in Management Scope, Outsource Magazine, and Boardroom IT. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Open Universiteit.

 

5. Shirley Dhewayani Santoso
Firm: Kearney
Title: Partner

Shirley Santoso holds three roles within Kearney, serving as the Asia Pacific leader for the Leadership, Change, and Organization Practice, co-head for Kearney Asia’s Transaction and Transformation Practice, and the President Director of Kearney’s Indonesian office. With over 20 years of consulting experience, she has worked with top companies, family businesses, and government bodies on initiatives like national strategies, organizational transformations, and operational excellence.

Santoso has been with Kearney for over 20 years, with notable achievements that include a Turnaround program for a large insurer in Asia, major cost reduction and operational transformations for leading banks in Southeast Asia, strategic portfolio review and transformation blueprint for a leading Southeast Asia conglomerate, and national sectoral blueprints for Indonesia such as digital roadmaps, automotive roadmap, education roadmap, sector strategies, vaccine distribution strategy, digital economy roadmap. Under her leadership, Kearney's Indonesia office achieved double-digit growth. 

Prior to joining Kearney, Santoso worked at Lippo Group as part of the direct investment and asset management team. Santoso authored "Empowering Women: A Collection of Thoughts from Women Leaders to Advance the Workplace," featuring perspectives from over 200 aspiring leaders. She holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing and international management from Boston University and received her MBA from the Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management.

 

6. Sophie Ross
Firm: FTI Consulting
Title: Global CEO of FTI Technology

Sophie Ross is the Global CEO of FTI Technology, a segment of FTI Consulting. With more than 20 years of experience in company management, strategic leadership, and operations around the globe, Ross helps clients manage their data in the context of compliance and risk and leads global technology segment strategy and execution across information governance, privacy and security, digital forensics, and corporate legal operations, among others. Her consulting expertise includes e-discovery and high-stakes document review through predictable pricing models, applying analytics, and simplifying the complex layers of discovery management.

Prior to her current position, Ross led both the Western region for the technology segment and the managed document review business on a global scale. She joined FTI Consulting after its 2008 acquisition of Strategic Discovery, a leading company in the litigation discovery industry where she served as chief operating officer. Before her tenure at Strategic Discovery, Ross was the executive vice president of global delivery and operations at Freeborders Inc., a company specializing in application outsourcing and software. Ross holds a bachelor’s in industrial engineering from Tel Aviv University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

 

7. Aruna Jayanthi
Firm: Capgemini
Title: Managing Director

Jayanthi is the managing director of LatAm and Canada markets at Capgemini, a global leader in transforming and managing businesses through technology. She has been a member of Capgemini's group executive committee since 2021. The firm focuses on three key areas: customer experience, intelligent industry, and enterprise management, through key technologies such as cloud, data, and artificial intelligence, while working to improve clients’ cybersecurity and environmental impact.

Previously, Jayanthi served as managing director of Asia Pacific and Latin America, and head of business services providing BPO and integrated technology platforms. Between 2011 and 2015, she was CEO of Capgemini in India, significantly increasing headcount and capabilities to support growth and innovation. Jayanthi also chaired the country board for Capgemini Sweden. Earlier, as a global delivery officer for outsourcing services, she enhanced operations worldwide. Jayanthi joined Capgemini's core team establishing offshore capabilities in 2000. 

With over 30 years in IT services across multinationals and Indian firms, Jayanthi chaired the board of governors at the National Institute of Technology Calicut from 2014 to 2018. She holds a master's degree in management studies, finance, from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai.

 

8. Dr. Allison Dupuy
Firm: Simon-Kucher
Title: Partner, Co-Managing Director USA, Head of Healthcare & Life Sciences Americas, Member of the Board

Dr. Allison Dupuy is a Partner and Member of the Board at Simon-Kucher. She has been at the firm for more than 16 years and serves as Co-Managing Director of all operations in the USA and Head of Simon-Kucher's Healthcare & Life Sciences practice in the Americas. She is a trusted advisor to leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies across a wide range of therapeutic areas with a specialization in oncology and rare diseases and has extensive experience in the launch and commercialization of cell and gene therapies.

As one of the top executives in global healthcare consulting, Dr. Dupuy supports her clients in strategic pharmaceutical marketing, value-to-customer, product lifecycle strategies, and licensing and valuation. She is also regarded as a global leader in innovative pricing and market access strategies, market forecasting, and value communication.

Simon-Kucher is a global consultancy with more than 2,000 employees in 30 countries. The firm’s globally recognized Healthcare & Life Sciences practice has led the way in the industry for nearly 40 years, helping pharmaceutical, medical technology, and consumer healthcare companies identify, enhance, and realize the true value of their innovations.

Throughout the tenure of Dr. Dupuy’s role as a member of Simon-Kucher’s Healthcare & Life Sciences leadership team, the practice has earned a reputation for its hands-on approach and expertise. From analyzing data to developing the right roadmap to tackle clients’ issues, Dr. Dupuy and her team are passionate about unlocking growth opportunities and helping commercialize innovations that improve patient health and wellbeing.

Dr. Dupuy received her Ph.D. and M.Phil. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University as an Anne M. Briscoe Fellow and a B.A. in Physics with honors from Wellesley College, where she was a Goldwater Scholar and a Schiff Fellow.

 

9. Toya Asbury (tie)
Firm: Alvarez & Marsal
Title: Managing Director

Toya Asbury is the Managing Director of Alvarez & Marsal, where she advises private equity sponsors on pre-acquisition operational due diligence and post-acquisition performance improvement, identifying and executing cost and process optimization initiatives in the process. During her 20 years of industry and consulting experience, she has also led labor and third-party expense reductions through P&L examination, organizational and operational process redesign, procurement-driven solutions, and strategy development and execution.

 

9. Cindy Tran (tie)
Firm: Slalom
Title: Managing Director

Cindy Tran is the Managing Director of Slalom, a business and technology consulting firm. The company, which is a division of Slalom, Inc, employs more than 12,000 people in 45 markets and 16 Build Centers across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Slalom's annual revenue exceeds two billion dollars. Tran brings 21 years of experience to her role, and currently oversees the client account management team at Slalom. She’s also a Certified Scrum Master for Scrum Alliance.

 

10. Marta Zaragoza (tie)
Firm: BTS
Title: Global Partner and Executive Vice President, BTS

Marta Zaragoza has over 17 years of experience in strategic transformation and change management consulting, primarily serving clients in financial services, oil and gas, and professional services sectors. As the global partner and executive vice president at BTS, she leads the Southern European and Latin American markets, managing a business of over $30 million in revenue, 175 professionals, and nine offices. 

Prior to BTS, Zaragoza worked at KPMG, where she started her career, and at General Electric, where she had her first international assignment. Under Zaragoza's leadership, BTS has expanded with new offices in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina, and through acquisitions in Italy and Spain. Zaragoza led BTS's global research on mechanisms for sustainable behavior change. Zaragoza earned an MBA from Instituto de Empresa (Madrid, Spain) and an undergraduate degree in Economics & Business from Universidad La Comercial de Deusto (Bilbao, Spain).

 

10. Maryann Gallivan (tie)
Firm: Tunnell Consulting
Title: President and CEO

Maryann Gallivan boasts a wealth of leadership expertise cultivated over 25 years, encompassing high-profile roles in both consulting companies and the life sciences industry. Currently, as President and CEO of Tunnell Consulting, she has steered the company for the past eight years while also serving as a valued member of Tunnell’s Board of Directors since 2014.

Tunnell provides consulting services and expertise to a variety of Life Sciences clients including biopharma companies, agencies within the U.S. Government and NGO’s. Prior to joining Tunnell, Gallivan split her time between Europe and North America, helping clients with both business strategy and organizational transformation. Her consulting assignments provided her with numerous opportunities to work across businesses in Research and Development, Supply Chain, Sales and Marketing as well as in Support Services.

Gallivan has held a variety of leadership roles with Gemini Consulting, Capgemini and The Monitor Group. Prior to beginning her consulting career, she spent eight years in public accounting with Arthur Andersen & Co. where she earned her CPA. She earned her Graduate Certificate, “Women in Politics and Public Policy,” at the University of Massachusetts, her MBA at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, and her undergraduate degree at Boston College.

 

11. Robin Dufresne
Firm: CSG Government Solutions
Title: Executive Vice President

Robin Dufresne is an executive vice president and senior practice director for child support, child welfare, and healthcare and human services with CSG Government Solutions, a national leader in IT management consulting for complex projects that modernize the technology and business processes of large government programs. Since she joined CSG in 2012, Dufresne has had a significant impact on its growth and culture, supporting its expansion to serve 48 states and territories, while significantly growing its workforce with hundreds of consultants. 

Dufresne has nearly 20 years of IT consulting experience. She is a nationally recognized thought leader in healthcare IT and reform initiatives for government public assistance programs. She has collaborated with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as a member of the Medicaid Technology Alliance to help guide states toward the implementation of modular systems that lower operational costs and improve outcomes. She also served as the board chair for the Private Sector Technology Group and led collaboration activities between CMS and the State Technology Advisory Group. Dufresne previously served as the Medicaid operations director for MaineCare Services and holds a master’s of science in management with a concentration in healthcare administration from New England College.

 

12. Kristie Grinnell
Firm: DXC Technology
Title: Chief Information Officer and SVP

Kristie Grinnell is the Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO) for DXC Technology. She leads business transformation including defining IT strategy for new digital capabilities, streamlining current operations, and improving overall efficiencies and performance of DXC's IT environment. Grinnell brings 25 years of experience working in public and privately-held professional services companies to her current role.

Grinnell previously served as global CIO and vice president for supply chain at General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT). There she led the transformation enterprise IT strategic plan and IT Shared Services center for customers, along with supply chain management. Prior to that, Grinnell was director of planning and governance and director of client delivery enablement for Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), a predecessor of DXC. She has led four major IT transformations while overseeing changes to enterprise-wide technology, cyber and risk management, culture, skills, and behaviors. 

Before joining CSC, she served as CIO, chief of staff, and global IT strategy executive for PwC. Kristie earned her bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and holds an MBA from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management.

 

13. Clare Harris
Firm: Proxima Group
Title: Chief Operating Officer

During her 25-year career, Clare Harris has built a reputation as a leader in the industry, working with and managing complex projects for some of the world’s most recognized brands. Harris has held several leadership roles across procurement and supply chain consultancy with Proxima and has played a key role in steering the company’s growth and operational excellence. With a background in retail, Harris has played an important role in Proxima’s growth in the sector. 

Proxima was recently acquired by global consultancy Bain & Company, and Harris has been instrumental in integrating the two companies’ services to leverage their combined expertise. Harris holds a bachelor of science with honors in German and economics from the University of Surrey.

 

14. Cat Brownlie
Firm: Argon & Co
Title: Partner, Head of Strategy & Transformation

Cat Brownlie is one of the Partners at Argon & Co, a Global operations Strategy and Transformation firm with over 600 consultants. Brownlie leads the Strategy and Transformation practice in the UK and is a collaborative and commercially minder leader, recognised for operationalising strategies and achieving tangible results in dynamic environments. She is also an innovative entrepreneur, and she has been the driving force behind launching Connect, Argon & Co’s Strategy and Transformation community. Connect brings together senior leaders from across industries to share ideas and build meaningful connections. Since launching Connect in August 2022, over 250 members have joined in the UK, and the initiative has been taken up globally within Argon & Co.

Prior to joining Argon & Co, Brownlie was Chief Programme Officer at bp pulse, which was the EV charging subsidiary of bp. Brownlie designed and implemented the PMO function within pulse to support with the integration, as well as the significant innovation across digital and hardware products. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Brownlie worked at Healthtech startup Babylon Health, and was responsible for execution for new market entry for Babylon within aggressive timescales.

Brownlie also worked at McKinsey & Company, where she supported clients on delivering global transformation programmes, specifically within operations and procurement. Prior to McKinsey & Company, Cat worked at AkzoNobel, and was an Engineering Project Manager designing and commissioning equipment for a state of the art manufacturing facility. Brownlie earned a first class degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Sheffield.

 

15. Debbi Belanger
Firm: ClearView Healthcare Partners
Title: Partner

Debbi Belanger is a partner at ClearView Healthcare Partners. She first joined the company in 2009 as managing director. Founded in Boston in 2007, ClearView Healthcare Partners is a global strategy consulting firm serving the life science sector. The firm combines international industry knowledge and scientific expertise across a range of therapeutic areas with an extensive network of external stakeholders to deliver practical and actionable recommendations to its clients. The firm’s projects include cross-functional support at the corporate, franchise, and product levels for pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device, and diagnostics companies worldwide. 

As part of the leadership team at ClearView, Belanger has worked with a range of pharma and biotech clients. While she has extensive experience across all major therapeutic areas and project types, she is an expert in orphan diseases, oncology, workshop facilitation, and pricing and market access. She led early commercial planning for orphan diseases at Agios Pharmaceuticals. She also has prior consulting experience from IMS Health, focused on pricing and market access. Debbi received her bachelor’s in biomedical engineering from Harvard University.

 

16. Julie Gebauer
Firm: Willis Towers Watson
Title: Global Head, Health, Wealth & Career

Julie Gebauer is the Global Head of the Health, Wealth & Career (HWC) business segment for WTW and a member of the company’s Executive Committee. HWC is comprised of more than 20,000 colleagues around the world. HWC helps organizations address critical HR issues, design and administer total reward programs, deliver an enhanced employee experience, and manage the cost and risk of employee benefit programs. 

Gebauer joined the company in 1986. Prior to leading this more than $5.5 billion business segment, Gebauer held several leadership positions including global head of the Human Capital & Benefits segment, global head of the Talent & Rewards business, head of the US East division, leader of the Global Workforce Effectiveness practice and global leader of the Employee Survey Line of Business. Gebauer has consulted with companies on a broad range of HR issues, including total rewards, employee listening and surveys, talent management, inclusion and diversity, and workforce analytics. 

She is a frequent speaker on global talent trends, employee engagement, and total rewards, and co-author of Closing the Engagement Gap. Julie received a bachelor’s in mathematics from the University of Nebraska, where she was honored as a chancellor’s scholar.

 

17. Tracey Walker
Firm: RSM US
Title: Principal and Chief Culture Diversity and Inclusion Officer

Tracey Walker serves as Chief Culture Diversity and Inclusion (CDI) Officer of RSM US. She designs RSM's national diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, policies, and enterprise-wide strategies across 90 offices in the United States, Canada, and India. She also leads the firms governing C-suite Inclusion and Employee Network Councils, as well as the 12 Employee Network Groups (ENGs) talent program.

Walker began her career as a corporate representative before the Illinois and New York State legislatures on Intellectual Property, Franchise Law, and Education matters. She then served as RSM’s federal financial services sector leader, leading specialized financial advisory teams of experts to address the complex technical needs of federal agency clients in lending, compliance, financial management, reporting, risk, and technology. In total, she has over 20 years of federal and state government solution and legislative affairs experience. Walker is certified in Diversity and Inclusion as an Advanced Practitioner from the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) and completed her graduate work with honors at the Harvard Business School in Organizational Behavior.

 

18. Kathleen Federico
Firm: MITRE
Title: SVP, Chief People and Communications Officer

Kathleen P. Federico is the SVP, Chief People and Communications Officer at MITRE. She spearheads the development and implementation of scalable enterprise-wide programs and strategies to advance MITRE’s people and leaders. MITRE manages federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) supporting various U.S. government agencies in the aviation, defense, healthcare, homeland security, and cybersecurity fields, among others.

Prior to MITRE, she was the president and chief executive officer of The KDF Group, a boutique advisory firm that provided management and leadership consulting. Federico was also the chief human resources officer for Civitas Solutions, a provider of home-based health and human services. She also held the dual role of senior vice president of sales and HR at World Travel Holdings, the world’s largest cruise agency. Federico holds a bachelor’s in psychology from Merrimack College.

 

19. Christelle Salame
Firm: Artefact
Title: Partner

Christelle Salame is a partner at Artefact, a global consulting company dedicated to accelerating the adoption of data and AI. The company offers a broad range of services – from strategy to operations with the deployment of AI solutions per indusrty sector – that help companies capture the competitive edge of data and AI transformation. Salame specializes in large-scale data and AI transformation programs, including data marketing, to drive tangible business results across different sectors. In particular, Salame leads the Real Estate industry for Artefact globally.

Salame has more than 13 years of consulting experience, with previous experience in Strategy& (part of the PwC network), with a focus on digital, data and AI transformation programs, operating model design and implementation, as well as data governance and management. She has worked with government entities, real estate groups, telecom operators, media companies and tourism organizations across MENA and Southeast Asia. Salame’s projects include pioneering data transformation programs for large real estate groups in the MENA region, leading the implementation of AI labs, and supporting investment attraction initiatives through advanced data analytics.

Salame graduated from INSEAD with an MBA and from Universite Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth with a Bachelor of Engineering in telecommunication and networking.

 

20. Maria Gordian
Firm: Bain & Company
Title: Senior Partner

Maria Gordian is the Head of the Global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council at Bain & Company, where also leads the firm’s involvement in OneTen. With more than two decades of consulting experience, Gordian advises clients across a range of healthcare sectors, including hospitals, pharmaceuticals, biotech, and medical device companies.

 

21. Melissa Zamora
Firm: DATAMARK
Title: VP of Corporate Support Accounting

Melissa Zamora is the Vice President of Corporate Support Accounting at DATAMARK, where she focuses on strategic initiatives, operational excellence, and process improvements. Zamora collaborates closely with senior leadership to develop precise roadmap functions such as accounting and finance, enterprise risk management, client services, and business process management. In this role, Zamora also oversees a diverse portfolio of responsibilities, ranging from optimizing performance management processes to managing the pay and benefits portfolio. 

As a seasoned leader, she has successfully led multimillion-dollar initiatives, including custom software designs, ERP implementations, and process reengineering projects. Zamora’s prior roles include accounts payable manager at AFGlobal Corporation, and multiple roles at U.S. Legal Support including vice president of corporate operations, senior vice president of operations, and senior vice president of business process management. 

 

22. Maha AlQattan
Firm: DP World
Title: Group Chief Sustainability Officer

As the Group Chief Sustainability Officer of DP World, a multinational logistics company based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It specializes in cargo logistics, port terminal operations, maritime services and free trade zones. Formed in 2005 by the merger of Dubai Ports Authority and Dubai Ports International, DP World handles 70 million containers that are brought in by around 70,000 vessels annually. 

 

23. Carrie Steyer
Firm: 66degrees
Title: Chief Customer Officer

Carrie Steyer is the Chief Customer Officer at 66degrees, an AI and Data consulting and professional services company specializing in developing AI-focused, data-led solutions leveraging the latest advancements in AI, data, and cloud technology. 

Previously, Steyer worked as the general manager at Slalom Consulting for over 10 years, where she focused on helping clients achieve their strategic goals. She also served as the director of the Analytics and Market Intelligence Center at Kurt Salmon, a global management consultancy. In this position, she led initiatives on operational analytics, business intelligence, and market research, working with various consumer-centric companies. Before joining Kurt Salmon, Steyer was a director at Ineum Consulting and a practice director at Parson Consulting and CBH, where her expertise in media and entertainment was particularly notable. 

Steyer holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Notre Dame. She pursued graduate work in applied statistics at Texas A&M University and also attended the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy.

 

24. Shobha Meera
Firm: Capgemini Group
Title: Group Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer 

Shobha Meera is the Group Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer for the Capgemini Group, responsible for directing its strategy and actions on social and environmental sustainability. She is also a member of the group executive committee. Meera serves on the boards of Capgemini India, Purpose PBC, and Global Compact Network USA, the USA local network for the United Nations global compact.

Prior to assuming her current position, Meera was the global sales officer for Capgemini’s Financial Services Strategic Business unit, where she was responsible for sales, marketing, alliances, advisor, and analyst relations. She is an established leader in the technology and consulting services industries and has held multiple strategy, transformation, and operational roles in the areas of sales and marketing, business development, and channel management in prior tenures at IGATE between 2011 and 2016 & Infosys between 1995 and 2003. Meera has a degree in electrical engineering from Osmania University and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad.

 

25. Elizabeth Corcoran
Firm: Williams Lea
Title: Business Development Director EMEA

Elizabeth Corcoran is the Business Development Director of EMEA for Williams Lea, a global company that offers tech-enabled business support services to mid to large financial, legal and professional services firms. Founded in 1820, Williams Lea has evolved to provide services including presentations and creative services, business and administrative support, and office services underpinned by advanced workflow and AI-enabled technology.

Corcoran brings 25 years of experience to her role, with experience in financial and professional services. Her expertise includes devising and implementing new business pipelines, white space analysis, and client development programs. She has a proven track record of achieving business growth and delivering on financial targets, including the conversion of seven-figure tenders and proposals. At Williams Lea, Corcoran drives new business growth in the financial and professional services sectors across EMEA. Previously, she spent many years at the global law firm Eversheds Sutherland, where she developed the key account program and managed some of the firm's largest financial services clients. 

Corcoran also led business development and marketing for Konexo, the legal consulting division of Eversheds Sutherland. Corcoran holds an international MBA from ESADE Business School in Barcelona and earned a bachelor of arts in Spanish and Russian (joint honors) from the University of Bristol.