Leadership as a speaking topic has become one of the most diluted categories in the corporate events market. This list is an attempt to recalibrate it. The women documented here have held or currently hold substantive leadership positions across banking, law enforcement, international finance, entrepreneurship, and organisational development. They speak from direct experience of holding institutional authority, navigating succession, managing large teams, and making high-stakes decisions. The list includes the first woman Chairman of the State Bank of India, the former Managing Director of Microsoft India, a former Director General of Police, and the former Country Head of HSBC India. It also includes founders who have built organisations and executive coaches who have worked with senior leaders at scale. Their speaking topics include institutional leadership, management in the public sector, gender and power in organisations, board-level decision-making, and career architecture. None of them have been included on the basis of profile or public recognition alone. Each has a track record of practical leadership that informs their speaking. This list is a starting point for finding the right voice for your leadership programme, conference, or panel.
1. Arundhati Bhattacharya
Former Chairperson, State Bank of India; Former CEO, Salesforce India
Arundhati Bhattacharya is the only person to have served as Chairman of the State Bank of India, one of the world's largest banks by number of customers, and as CEO of Salesforce India, a major global technology company. Over four decades at the State Bank, she rose through roles spanning retail banking, foreign exchange, international operations, and corporate strategy before breaking a barrier that had stood for the institution's entire history. Her leadership talks address institutional change and why it is slow, the dynamics of authority in hierarchical public-sector organisations, the compounding effects of being a woman in rooms built by and for men, and what it actually takes to operate at the top of a large bureaucratic institution over a career span rather than in a single high-profile moment. Her perspective is unsentimental and structurally precise, grounded in decades of operational reality.
2. Neelam Dhawan
Former Managing Director, Microsoft India; Former Managing Director, HP India
Neelam Dhawan served as Managing Director of Microsoft India and, earlier, as Managing Director of HP India, placing her among a very small group of women to have led two major global technology companies' India operations at the most senior level. Her career in enterprise technology, sales leadership, and general management extends across more than three decades. She speaks on enterprise technology strategy, sales leadership at scale, general management in large multinational organisations, women in technology and corporate leadership, mentorship versus sponsorship as distinct development strategies, and leading organisations through multiple cycles of industry transformation. Her talks draw on the reality of managing large teams and maintaining senior client relationships over business cycles, and steering organisations through structural change in the technology sector during her tenures at both HP and Microsoft.
Connect with her on LinkedIn.
3. Naina Lal Kidwai
Former Country Head, HSBC India
Naina Lal Kidwai built one of the most consequential leadership careers in Indian banking, including as Country Head of HSBC India, Group General Manager at HSBC Asia Pacific, and first woman President of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. She was the first Indian woman to graduate from Harvard Business School. Her leadership speaking covers managing within multinational financial institutions across multiple cultures and geographies, succession planning and talent development in large organisations, board governance and director responsibilities in Indian and international companies, the intersection of business strategy and public policy, and what it takes to sustain a long leadership career in a sector built with an entirely different demographic in mind. Her talks are structural and specific: she speaks about how institutions work, not just about her experience inside them.
Connect with her on LinkedIn.
4. Falguni Nayar
Founder and CEO, Nykaa
Falguni Nayar founded Nykaa at 49 after a long career in investment banking, leading the company from inception to a 2021 IPO that made her the founder of India's first listed unicorn led by a woman. Her leadership story is notable for specific reasons: she started her most significant professional chapter at an age when most entrepreneurship narratives presuppose one has already started, she built a company requiring simultaneous mastery of retail, logistics, and brand, and she navigated the transition from financial services executive to startup founder without the typical support structures of the startup ecosystem. She speaks on entrepreneurship, the Indian beauty and retail market, leadership transitions, building a founder-led brand, the dynamics of going public, and what a long career in one field offers when you build in another.
Connect with her on LinkedIn.
5. Sutapa Sanyal
Former Director General of Police, Uttar Pradesh
Sutapa Sanyal served as Director General of Police in Uttar Pradesh, one of India's largest and most complex states, making her one of the only women to reach the highest rank in the Indian Police Service and to hold a DGP position anywhere in the country. Her leadership talks address what it means to lead inside a hierarchical, uniformed organisation where gender was a constant and largely unaddressed dynamic; the organisational mechanics of large government institutions and what genuinely changes them; professional persistence in cultures that actively resist women's advancement; and the governance of public safety institutions from the inside. She offers a view of institutional leadership that is grounded in specific, difficult circumstances and that most leadership speakers drawing on corporate experience cannot replicate.
Connect with her on LinkedIn.
6. Zarin Daruwala
Former CEO, Standard Chartered Bank India
Zarin Daruwala served as CEO of Standard Chartered Bank India until April 2025, leading the international bank's operations in one of its important Asia-Pacific markets. Before Standard Chartered, she spent over two decades at ICICI Bank, where she held several senior positions including Chief Credit Officer. She is one of the few women to have led a major multinational bank in India as its country chief executive, which places her in a small cohort with specific and grounded knowledge of what that role entails. Her leadership talks address banking leadership and what it requires operationally, credit risk and financial governance, managing international organisations within local regulatory and cultural contexts, women in banking and financial services leadership, and the career decisions that lead to senior banking roles.
Connect with her on LinkedIn.
7. Shanti Ekambaram
President, Consumer Banking, Kotak Mahindra Bank
Shanti Ekambaram is President of Consumer Banking at Kotak Mahindra Bank, one of India's largest private sector banks, where she oversees retail banking, consumer lending, deposits, and the customer-facing banking experience for millions of Kotak clients. She has had a long career at Kotak, rising through roles in treasury, wholesale banking, and consumer banking as the institution grew from a smaller private bank to one of India's leading financial services companies. Her leadership speaks to the experience of building a long career inside one financial institution across a period of significant transformation. She speaks on banking leadership, retail financial services strategy, career development for women in the banking sector, institutional leadership, and what sustaining a senior career inside one organisation over the long term looks like and requires.
Connect with her on LinkedIn.
8. Kinita Seema Schripsema
Founder and CEO, Seema Global Consulting
Kinita Seema Schripsema is the founder and CEO of Seema Global Consulting, a leadership development and executive coaching firm operating across international markets. She works with senior executives, boards, and leadership teams on strategy, culture alignment, and building leadership capacity in complex, multi-stakeholder environments. Her consulting work gives her a comparative view of leadership challenges grounded in direct engagement with senior leaders across sectors and geographies, rather than in one organisation's internal experience. Her speaking topics include leadership development frameworks, executive coaching at the C-suite and board level, cross-cultural management and leading across geographies, building high-performance cultures in distributed organisations, and the particular transitions women navigate when moving into senior leadership positions for the first time.
Connect with her on LinkedIn.
9. Debeshi Chakraborty
President, ICF Delhi NCR Charter Chapter
Debeshi Chakraborty is the President of the ICF Delhi NCR Charter Chapter, representing the International Coaching Federation in one of India's largest coaching markets. She is a leadership coach and organisational development professional who works with executives, teams, and organisations on building leadership capability, managing change, and developing more effective cultures. The ICF credential represents the global standard in professional coaching, and her chapter leadership gives her visibility into the current state of executive coaching and leadership development as a professional field in India. Her speaking topics include leadership coaching and its application to organisational challenges, managing change in large organisations, the development of emotional intelligence in leadership contexts, women in leadership coaching, and building resilience in demanding professional environments.
Connect with her on LinkedIn.
10. Archana KR
Founder, Stand4She
Archana KR is the founder of Stand4She, an organisation that works to support women who have experienced domestic violence, sexual harassment, and professional retaliation for speaking out. Her work sits at the intersection of women's safety, professional rights, and institutional advocacy, and her leadership talks draw on the experience of building an organisation in a space that most institutional funders and corporate partners find difficult to engage with directly. She speaks on leadership in the context of advocacy and social change, building an organisation with limited resources and strong opposition, the governance of non-profit and social impact organisations, women's rights and what institutional support looks like in practice, and the leadership decisions that arise when an organisation's work puts it in conflict with powerful actors.
Connect with her on LinkedIn.
11. Shuchi Singla
Founder and CEO, BaffleSol Technologies
Shuchi Singla is the founder and CEO of BaffleSol Technologies, a digital transformation and technology company she built from Chandigarh into a firm with significant enterprise client relationships across industries. She leads the company with direct operational responsibility for strategy, client relationships, and team development, which gives her a hands-on perspective on what leadership looks like in a technology company that operates outside the major startup ecosystems. Her leadership speaking draws on the experience of building and running an organisation as a woman founder in a sector where most narrative is set in Mumbai, Bengaluru, or Delhi NCR. She speaks on leadership in founder-led organisations, building high-performance technical teams, leadership for women in the technology sector, client-led growth strategy, and the particular challenges of sustaining an organisation's culture as it scales.
Connect with her on LinkedIn.
About Draupadi on the Dais
The leadership speaking circuit in India has a tendency to privilege the familiar and the prominent, which means it often skips the practitioners who have the most specific and transferable knowledge to offer. Draupadi on the Dais was built to change that. Every speaker on the platform is individually verified. Professional standing is confirmed; speaking topics are assessed for credibility rather than marketability. The women listed here have led institutions, built organisations, managed crises, and made the kinds of decisions that define what leadership actually requires under pressure. Their talks are grounded in that experience. If you are running a leadership conference, a senior management programme, a board-level forum, or a corporate speaker series, the women on this list represent a range of sectors, tenures, and perspectives that most shortlists do not capture.
Browse the full Women Leadership Speakers in India roster on Draupadi on the Dais.