Sharmla Chetty is a visionary driven by one purpose – transforming organisations and society through leadership. She is passionate about achieving sustainable outcomes in the areas of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESCG). Her areas of ongoing research include board leadership, the future of work, humanity and technology, and people practices and processes.
Chetty is Chief Executive Officer of Duke Corporate Education (Duke CE). Prior to her appointment as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), she served as President of Global Markets, North America, Europe & UK, Asia, and Africa, at Duke CE – a position she held from 2019. In that role, Chetty drove strategic alignment for the organisation globally, and operations for its regional practices around the world. She has a proven track record of driving transformation through leadership, with deep local experience in a range of industries, including financial services, healthcare, mining, energy and manufacturing, from working with clients in 80 countries.
In 2007, Chetty founded the South Africa office for Duke CE, and grew it into the preeminent custom executive education provider on the continent. Prior to joining Duke CE, she was Head of Human Capital Development at Nedbank for over 19 years, where she focused on building the next-generation leadership pipeline. She is currently a board trustee for the AVI Group (a black shares scheme), Chairperson of the BCG Development Trust and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. As part of an Aspen fellowship programme, she implemented the Women Leading Africa Board Programme, building pan-African bench strength for women serving on board positions across the continent. Chetty was a finalist in the Business Woman of the Year Award (2016) for Education, and recipient of the 2016 Award for Entrepreneurial and Academic Excellence on the African Continent. With her deep commitment to build leadership for a better world, she led Duke CE in hosting the Davos Human Capital event in 2020 and 2021, convening global CEOs and Chief Human Research Officers (CHROs) and thousands of participants, to discuss how leadership can be the force multiplier for positive change in business and society. In 2019, she founded #MillionYoungMinds, which livestreams –
with Sophia the Robot – to one million South African youth on the topic of artificial intelligence and its impact on the future of South Africa. Chetty is also a founding member of a mentoring circle designed to mentor and coach South African youth.
