Rita Kakati-Shah

Rita Kakati-Shah is an award-winning, gender, diversity, inclusion and career strategist, author, speaker, mentor and advisor to Fortune 500 companies. She is the Founder and CEO of Uma, an international platform that empowers confidence, inspires success and builds leadership in women and minorities. Rita began her professional career at Goldman Sachs in London, where she was awarded the prestigious Excellence in Citizenship and Diversity Award. She is also a Distinguished Alumna of King’s College London, triple Stevie Awards for Women in Business winner, judge for the Middle East Awards, and recipient of several international awards in recognition for her significant contributions and leadership in furthering gender equality, diversity and inclusion around the world.

Rita actively coaches and mentors business leaders, veterans, survivors of domestic violence, women in technology/STEM, schoolgirls and students. She also serves as an advisor, ambassador, and diversity and inclusion expert to multiple boards and global organizations. Rita is also a regularly invited speaker and guest lecturer at various academic institutions, multinational corporations and global policy forums such as UNESCO in Paris, European Parliament in Brussels, and many more spanning Assam, Delhi, London, Madrid, Meghalaya, New York, San Francisco, Sochi, Toronto and Zambia. Rita has been featured as an expert on multiple international television and news shows, interviewed and quoted in various podcasts and publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Dell Technology, CBS News, FoxNews and Yahoo Finance, is a bestselling author of books on women in business, diversity and inclusion, and also hosts the popular South Asian television show, The Uma Show, on Mana TV International.