Rati Thanawala spent 39 years in the high-tech industry, the last 17 as Vice President at Bell Labs. She has a PhD in Computer Science. She has held executive positions at AT&T and Nokia, in software development, consulting, product management, and business management. Throughout her career, Rati has been an active mentor and sponsor to many women and minorities. She is now a Fellow at the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School.
Rati is the Founder of the Leadership Academy for Women of Color in Tech. The Academy was launched in Summer 2020 in partnership with faculty from the University of Massachusetts and the Harvard Kennedy School. She is creating accelerators for women of color to succeed in the tech sector. The approach is two-fold: 1) leadership development as extra preparation for women managing multiple dominant identities in challenging workplaces, and 2) curating creative solutions that “enlightened” managers have devised to help level the playing field, and then using these to educate and transform the “culture” in organizations.