Parmesh Shahani

Parmesh Shahani is an award-winning author, culture curator and LGBTQ inclusion activist. He is the Founder and Head of the Godrej DEI Lab, an experimental think-do space that aims to empower inclusion ecosystems both within and outside the 127-year-old Godrej Industries Group of companies. Prior to this, between 2011-2021, he founded and headed the Godrej India Culture Lab as a multi-year interdisciplinary project, which examined the ever-changing nature of Indian society. Parmesh’s first book Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be)Longing in Contemporary India (Sage Publications) was released in 2008 and his second book Queeristan: LGBTQ Inclusion in the Indian Workplace (Westland) was released in August 2020, and won the 2021 CK Prahalad Prize for Business Book of the Year, as well as the 2021 Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity. Parmesh holds an MS in Comparative Media Studies from MIT. He is an Aspen Fellow, a TED Senior Fellow, a Yale World Fellow, and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, and a board member of the non-profit organisations KHOJ and Breakthrough.