Deepa Purushothaman

Deepa Purushothaman was a “first” senior partner at Deloitte, where she spent more than 20 years focusing on women’s leadership and inclusion strategies to help women of color navigate corporate structures. She was the first Indian-American woman and one of the youngest people to make Partner in the firm's history.

After leaving Deloitte in 2020, Deepa co-founded nFormation, a membership-based community for professional women of color, offering brave, safe, new space and helping place women of color in C-suite positions and on Boards.

Deepa’s book The First, The Few, The Only: How Women of Color Can Redefine Power in Corporate America, published by HarperCollins comes out March 1, 2022. She is also a Women and Public Policy Program Leader in Practice at the Harvard Kennedy School where she concentrates on research to combat systemic racism in corporate structures to help women of color rise.

Deepa is a founding board member of Avasara, India's first leadership academy exclusively for young women.  She has degrees from Wellesley College, Harvard Kennedy School, and the London School of Economics. She lives in Los Angeles.