Global Perspectives: Diversity in Leadership - Winpe Leadership Summit & Awards

Speakers Speak

Nupur Garg

Private Equity Investor & Founder, WinPE

At WinPE, we are constantly pushing the boundaries to look for solutions – for example, Building a diverse board, bringing diversity at the CxO level and encouraging an informed approach towards D&I at portfolio companies is a step forward in integrating diversity into investment portfolios.

Shruti Chandrasekhar

Head, PE & VC, Africa Region, IFC

Shruti on paternity leave policies – “If men are taking equal paternity leave then you've changed the conversation because anyone you hire could have a baby at any point and take time off. So there are things that firms can do that are quite intentional – in that way they can even out the imbalance between the working life of a man and the working life of a woman.”

Eugenie Cesar-Fabian

Partner, Head of ESG & Sustainability, Palladium Equity Partners

You can’t grow up in this society and be a thinking person and not have unconscious associations with women, with people of colour and you know it has to be acknowledged - its beyond doubt that unconscious bias is a thing and we tend to gravitate towards folks that are like us

Carol Kim

Sr. Managing Director, The Blackstone Group

Our industry knows the meritocracy part, it is kind of more natural. I love that panels like this with conversations that intentionality is becoming more and more front of mind, which is great, so there's room for both. Along with the intentionality and the meritocracy, we also need accountability

Shweta Rajpal Kohli

Chief Public Policy Officer, Sequoia India

Let me start by saying, yes, let's acknowledge progress because that’s important. We often sound so pessimistic about this but you know what progress is happening and it may not be showing up in the numbers but its definitely showing up in this panel …. This is indicative of the kind of change that will make a difference

Carol Kim

Sr. Managing Director, The Blackstone Group

For me diversity, it's not just about gender, it's socioeconomic, it's also sexual orientation, it's about a lot of things

Eugenie Cesar-Fabian

Partner, Head of ESG & Sustainability, Palladium Equity Partners

So we were started in 1997 by a Cuban American with the idea and understanding that if you are not doing business in an echo chamber you are going to get to better decisions on behalf your investors and you know we live that principle everyday

Rochelle D’Souza

Managing Director, Lighthouse Advisors

At a global level, women form only 2.4% of founding partners with control of the firm’s investment decisions. 2.3% of PEVC funding goes to women led businesses, these numbers are abysmal!

Nupur Garg

Private Equity Investor & Founder, WinPE

At WinPE, we are constantly thinking about how to be forward leaning and bring in intentionality without giving in to reservations or diluting meritocracy

Rochelle D’Souza

Managing Director, Lighthouse Advisors

This business is however considered one of apprenticeship and the industry, by and large, continues to prefer hiring early and growing from within. Lateral hiring at senior levels has not yet found success

Shweta Rajpal Kohli

Chief Public Policy Officer, Sequoia India

There is always 2 sides to this debate and we have often heard even some women founders in our portfolio often turn around and say you know what we don’t want to be a part of a panel on only women because that’s the only place you always put us in and we want to be seen as a founder, we want to be seen as a leader. We don’t necessarily just want to be always tagged as a woman founder

Carol Kim

Sr. Managing Director, The Blackstone Group

I want to build a team that is diverse and can relate to all the diversity of our clients. Not all of our clients are homogeneous in the way that they all graduated from the same type of school, all grew up in the same parts of the world, all speak the same languages, come from the same socio-economic backgrounds. So we want to be relatable, we want to build great relationships and to connect with our clients and so I want to have a diverse team that can relate to the clients and that's to me is what diversity is and why it's good business (to have a diverse team)

Eugenie Cesar-Fabian

Partner, Head of ESG & Sustainability, Palladium Equity Partners

If you've had decades of intentional exclusion it has to be balanced out now with intentional inclusion.

Shruti Chandrasekhar

Head, PE & VC, Africa Region, IFC

When we think about gender and gender balance in private equity, we're not saying oh we're only going to support women-led funds because that is going to solve the problem around the lack of women in the industry. What we would like to see is that every private equity firm has gender balance within their firm. That is the ultimate goal!

Nupur Garg

Private Equity Investor & Founder, WinPE

Having women in leadership is a critical requirement to having increased diversity across levels and decision-making structures. It is a critical requirement to unblock the flow of capital to women led businesses.

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Event Speakers

Carol Kim

Sr. Managing Director,
The Blackstone Group

Carol Kim

Sr. Managing Director,
The Blackstone Group

Carol Kim is a Senior Managing Director and Head of the Institutional Client Solutions Group in Asia and is based in Hong Kong. Since joining Blackstone, Ms. Kim has been involved with investor relations and new business development in Asia. Before joining Blackstone in 2008, Ms. Kim was based in New York as a Vice President in the Absolute Return Strategies Group at Lehman Brothers, where she was responsible for client communications and reporting to its hedge fund and fund of hedge funds clients. Prior to joining Lehman, she was Director of Marketing at Continuity Capital, LLC and a Marketing Associate at P. Schoenfeld Asset Management. Ms. Kim began her career in investor relations at LG Electronics in Korea and Allied Properties in Toronto. Ms. Kim received a BA in Urban and Economic Studies from the University of Toronto. She is a Co-Founder and Board member of 100 Women in Finance.

Eugenie Cesar-Fabian

Partner, Head of ESG & Sustainability,
Palladium Equity Partners

Eugenie Cesar-Fabian

Partner, Head of ESG & Sustainability,
Palladium Equity Partners

Ms. Cesar-Fabian joined Palladium in 2011. She serves as Head of ESG & Sustainability and is a Partner of the Firm. Previously, Ms. Cesar-Fabian served as Palladium’s first General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer. Prior to that, she served as counsel in the broker-dealer defense and securities litigation group at Bingham McCutchen LLP, and began her career at Hughes Hubbard & Reed, LLP. She previously served as an Adjunct Professor at St. John's University School of Law, and sits on the board of the St John’s University School of Law Alumni Association. She is a member of the Financial Women’s Association and the Association for Corporate Growth. In 2020, Ms. Cesar-Fabian was recognized as a Notable LGBTQ Leader & Executive by Crain’s NY Business, and received the National Organization for Women’s ‘Women of Power and Influence’ Award. In 2021, Ms. Cesar-Fabian was recognized as a Leader in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Private Equity by Mergers & Acquisitions. Ms. Cesar-Fabian received a B.A. from New York University and a J.D. from St. John’s University School of Law.

Shruti Chandrasekhar

Head, PE & VC, Africa Region,
IFC

Shruti Chandrasekhar

Head, PE & VC, Africa Region,
IFC

Shruti Chandrasekhar leads IFC’s PE and VC business in Africa. She also is the regional representative for IFC’s disruptive technology and funds business at the Regional Management and is a member of the Funds Investment Committee. Prior to this, she was the head of Startup Catalyst, an early-stage venture capital program focused on pre-seed, seed and early-stage investing and head of SME Ventures, a private equity investment program focused on providing access to capital for SMEs across frontier markets. Shruti also led IFC’s gender-focused initiatives across private equity and venture capital.

Shruti also serves on the boards and advisory committees of several private equity and venture capital funds and VC invested companies. Since 2006, Shruti built a successful track record investing equity—leading venture capital deals in Silicon Valley, private equity transactions in India and fund investments across the world. Prior to the IFC, Shruti was based in California and focused on late-stage venture capital with PremjiInvest, a multi-billion dollar investment office with multiple investments in Silicon Valley & emerging market unicorns such as Coupa, Anaplan, ServiceMax, Flipkart, etc. Prior to her investment career, Shruti was a management consultant at Oliver Wyman. She has an MBA from the Wharton School and a Bachelor of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is a frequent speaker on the topics of private equity and venture capital investment and emerging markets.

Shweta Rajpal Kohli

Chief Public Policy Officer,
Sequoia India

Shweta Rajpal Kohli

Chief Public Policy Officer,
Sequoia India

As the Head of Public Policy for India and Southeast Asia, I’m passionate about educating policymakers on the transformational impact of technology; and sharing stories of how startups are changing the world around us.

I advise portfolio companies on how to manage regulatory risks and unlock new levers of growth - and enjoy working with government stakeholders to craft sensible and progressive policies that help accelerate the growth momentum of the startup ecosystem.

I love connecting the dots to create partnerships that align the vision of the founders and governments.