Dr. Rohini Anand is Senior Vice President and Global Chief Diversity Officer for Sodexo, a leading provider of Quality of Life Services with $24 billion or 18 billion euro in consolidated annual revenue and nearly 428,000 employees in 80 countries serving 75 million customers daily. Dr. Anand is responsible for the strategic direction, implementation and business alignment of Sodexo’s integrated global diversity and inclusion initiatives, as well as Sodexo USA’s sustainable development, wellness and corporate social responsibility strategies. She leads the organization’s sustained culture change initiatives as well as its integration in the overall business growth strategy. Today diversity, wellness and inclusion and sustainability are thought leadership platforms of the Sodexo brand and key drivers of Sodexo’s business growth.
Under Dr. Anand’s leadership, Sodexo received the prestigious 2012 Catalyst Award and was the only company to be ranked #1 or #2 for five years consecutive years on the DiversityInc business index of Top Companies for Diversity and Inclusion. In addition, the Human Rights Campaign has given Sodexo a 100% rating on its prestigious Corporate Equality Index for seven consecutive years. Sodexo has been recognized as best-in-class for social, environmental and economic responsibility by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index every year for the past nine years and commitment to sustainability has been recognized for efforts and results in social, environmental and economic performance at the World Economic Forum 2013 in Davos with three awards: Sector Leader 2013, Gold Class 2013, and Sector Mover 2013. Today the Sodexo brand is synonymous with diversity, sustainability and wellness leadership. Sodexo’s remarkable culture change, led by diversity and inclusion, is featured in a Harvard Business School case study entitled Shifting the Diversity Climate: the Sodexo Solution.
Widely considered a leading expert on organizational change and diversity and inclusion, Dr. Anand has authored several manuals and has been published in numerous trade journals. Her works include texts on cultural competency and diversity and inclusion such as a chapter in The SAGE Handbook of Intercultural Competence (2009), Customizing Diversity Training Using Case Vignettes (2001), Multicultural Case Studies: Tools for Training (1999), Teaching Skills and Cultural Competence: A Guide for Trainers (1997) and Cultural Competency in Health Care: A Guide for Trainers (1997).
Dr. Anand has also been the recipient of many prestigious awards and honors including the Mosaic Woman Leadership Award, the Women’s Foodservice Forum Trailblazer Award, the Maryland International Business Leadership Award, the American Institute for Managing Diversity’s Individual Leader Award and Webster University’s Women of Influence Award.
Dr. Anand received her PhD from the University of Michigan and serves on the boards of several organizations including the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN); the Human Rights Campaign, Universities at Shady Grove, iMCI, the Catalyst Board of Advisors and the National Organization on Disabilities (NOD).