Deepa Purushothaman

Deepa Purushothaman is a fierce advocate for women looking to rise on their own terms, and a vital advisor to executives and leaders grappling with questions of advancement and retention. 

Deepa spent more than 20 years at Deloitte helping clients transform and grow. She was the first Indian-American woman and one of the youngest people to make partner in the firm's history. As a Senior Partner, Deepa was the US Managing Partner of WIN, Deloitte's renowned Women's Initiative, where she focused on internal advancement programmes and marketplace research.

In 2022, Deepa’s debut book, The First, The Few, The Only, was published by HarperCollins to international acclaim, and hailed by Daniel Pink, as “a category defining book for the corporate world.”

She recently founded the re.write, an unconventional think tank advancing a new story of work. Deepa is also an Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School. Deepa is a TED and SXSW speaker and has been featured in TIME, PBS, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Harvard Business Review. Her TED talks have over 3 million views. 

Her passion to advance women extends to her board work. Deepa serves as a board member of Avasara, India's first leadership academy for girls, and the Rutgers University Center for Women in Business. She has degrees from Wellesley College, Harvard Kennedy School, and the London School of Economics, and lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their four pets.