Zainab PatelChief ‑ I&D, Pernod Ricard India

Pronouns: She/her/hers 

Born in Mumbai, Zainab is a transgender person and is one of the petitioners in the National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India case on transgender rights and in the marriage equality case. 

She currently works with Pernod Ricard India as the Chief - Inclusion and Diversity; prior to this she worked with KPMG as the Director - Diversity and Inclusion. Zainab holds an MBA in HR and was the National Manager - Health and Human Rights at the UNDP country office in India and was the regional policy analyst on human rights in Asia. 

Her areas of interest are health and social development issues and has over 20 years of national and international work experience. She also is a social entrepreneur and employs 18 trans and non-binary folks through her two initiatives in Mumbai - The Trans Cafe and The Transformation Salon. Zainab currently serves as the Western India representative in the National Council for Transgender Persons.  She is a Kamalnayan Bajaj Fellow, a part of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.