Debjani Biswas
The Iconic Leader of Coachieve, LLC
Debjani Biswas
The Iconic Leader of Coachieve, LLC
Meet Debjani Biswas: a truly inspirational leader with a completely unique background.
A female chemical engineer with two Master’s degrees, a certified Executive Coach and Emotional Intelligence practitioner, a former Fortune 50 executive. An internationally bestselling author, popular two time TEDx and sought after global keynote speaker, Board member and CEO of Coachieve, LLC. How did this amazing journey start?
Debjani’s achievements and accolades walk hand-in-hand with humility, so we had to extract the story behind her meteoric rise with persistence. In this article, we’ll be giving you an eye opening glimpse into her life, starting with her childhood in Asia.
Family and Education
The youngest of four girls, Debjani, describes her childhood as “lucky and blessed.” Raised by loving parents and an inspiring grandfather, her early years set her up for success. In her second TEDx Talk ‘But you don’t look like an engineer!’, she eloquently elaborates how her parents and grandfather helped her build grit and gravitas from a very young age.
“My parents and grandfather helped me build ‘grit and gravitas’ from a very young age.” –Debjani Biswas
Finishing high school at 15, with a love for chemistry and mathematics, the choice was clear. Her next step was a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering (B.Tech) from the world famous Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) as featured by Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes. In her graduating year, there were 4 female students in a class of 250. Regardless of these statistics, Ms. Biswas flourished in IIT Madras, and was awarded the Institute Gold Medal for ‘outstanding contributions to the institute’.
Ms. Biswas then moved on to graduate studies. After regretfully declining admission offers from Harvard Business School – twice – first for an MBA, later for a PhD – she completed her MBA in Marketing and Organizational Behavior from IIM Bangalore.
Selected to join the elite cadre of Tata Administrative Services, she trained and worked in multiple Tata organizations including the Taj Group of Hotels, Voltas, Tata Tea and Tata Economic Consultancy Services, before moving to the United States..
New beginnings and transformations...
In 2012, Debjani was laid off from her executive position at PepsiCo. Her son wisely reminded her of her unfulfilled life goal of writing a book on inclusive leadership.
Her first book ‘Unleash the Power of Diversity – Multi-Cultural Competence for Business Results’ was picked up by Barnes and Noble and she subsequently went on a US Barnes and Noble book tour. This led her to a new career path of transformational keynotes at a veritable Who’s Who of Fortune 500 companies and prestigious conferences, including Union Pacific, Chevron, TI, Ericcson, Lockheed Martin, National Summit for Educational Equity, HMS, UNH, Takeda, SHRM, NSELA, IITM and IIMB…
Ms. Biswas’ second book ‘Miserably Successful No More – Power over Stress’ was published in 2017 and became an international bestseller in its category in Amazon within a week of its release.
Her third book ‘#UsToo: Bridging the Global Gender Gap’ (mini) focused on how men and women can work together for gender equity. It struck a chord with many, and resulted in two highly acclaimed TEDx Talks.
TEDx Talks: ‘Common Ground on Gender Bias ’(TEDxCapeMay), and ‘But You Don’t Look Like an Engineer’ (TEDx Spring Hill) have crossed over a million views and counting. Debjani hopes to attend – and even speak – at the Global TED Conference in the future.
Why has her message been so popular, she is asked? “I think what is unique is that I bring engineering rigor to a field that is considered more qualitative. I apply engineering principles of pattern recognition and data harvesting to the field of inclusive leadership – for enhanced business performance.
Author, TEDx and Keynote Speaker, Entrepreneur...
In 2012, Debjani was laid off from her executive position at PepsiCo. Her son wisely reminded her of her unfulfilled life goal of writing a book on inclusive leadership.
Her first book‘Unleash the Power of Diversity – Multi-Cultural Competence for Business Results’was picked up byBarnes and Noble and she subsequently went on a US Barnes and Noble book tour. This led her to a new career path oftransformational keynotes at a veritable Who’s Who of Fortune 500 companies and prestigious conferences, including Union Pacific, Chevron, TI, Ericcson, Lockheed Martin, National Summit for Educational Equity, HMS, UNH, Takeda, SHRM, NSELA, IITM and IIMB…
Ms. Biswas’ second book‘Miserably Successful No More – Power over Stress’waspublished in 2017 and became an international bestseller in its category in Amazon within a week of its release.
Her third book‘#UsToo: Bridging the Global Gender Gap’ (mini) focused on how men and women can work together for gender equity. It struck a chord with many, and resulted in two highly acclaimed TEDx Talks.
TEDx Talks:‘Common Ground on Gender Bias’(TEDxCapeMay), and ‘But You Don’t Look Like an Engineer’ (TEDxSpringHill) have crossed over a million views and counting. Debjani hopes to attend – and even speak – at the Global TED Conference in the future.
Why has her message been so popular, she is asked? “I think what is unique is that I bring engineering rigor to a field that is considered more qualitative. I apply engineering principles of pattern recognition and data harvesting to the field of inclusive leadership – for enhanced business performance.
“I apply engineering principles of pattern recognition and data harvesting to the field of inclusive leadership – for enhanced business performance.” – Debjani Biswas
Ms. Biswas is presently working on her fourth book, ‘A Bridge to Sanity, The Power of Inclusion in Divisive, Stressful Times’. The ‘BRIDGE’ framework has two parts: Building and Reinforcing Inclusion (BRI) while Destroying the Guardrails of Exclusion (DGE)
Ms. Biswas is an active Board member, serving on IIT (NT), Design Connect Create, Prep Buddies and TBIC; and formerly served on the board of ICF (North Texas) as well.
Coachieve is the trusted advisor to global CEOs, conducts large scale DI&E Organizational Culture Audits, and provides customized workshops on high EQ, low stress inclusive leadership.
Ms. Biswas is also a staunch STEM advocate, partnering with the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity in large scale equity audits, curriculum delivery, design and keynotes.
Coachieve’s motto is, appropriately: ‘Together We Can’. Ms. Biswas hopes to inspire others to help make the world more inclusive during these stressful times. We look forward to seeing where the next phase of her amazing journey will take her (and us)…
Congratulations to a truly inspirational, influential and path breaking leader – Debjani Biswas
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Debjani Biswas
CEO and Founder
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Debjani Biswas, a truly inspirational leader with a completely unique background. A female chemical engineer with two Master’s degrees, a certified Executive Coach and Emotional Intelligence practitioner, a former Fortune 50 executive.
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