Core Skills Leaders Should Foster in 2022

Kay Formanek is Founder of Diversity and Performance, and the author of Beyond D&I, a book that equips leaders with strategic models and practical tools for advancing Diversity Performance in their organization. Kay is regarded as a leading authority on diversity and inclusion serving as global speaker, board member, contributor to leading business schools and advisor and expert to various leading advisory organizations.

Kay Formanek brings over 30 years of experience of navigating diversity journeys and cultural transformations in over 50 organizations spread across the world. She was Partner and Managing Director in Accenture, a professional services organization where she played a key role in advancing diversity and inclusion over a period of 25 years. She also assumes the role of Inclusive Leadership Coach and Expert in Aberkyn and McKinsey.

Within the framework of her own company, Diversity and Performance, Kay has spent the last six years undertaking extensive study and research in the areas of diversity, inclusion, equity, leadership and purpose. She has collaborated with multiple organizations to develop and test her thinking. Her experience and research led to the development of the anchor diversity models: the Virtuous Circle and the Integrated Diversity Model.

Kay is a teacher at heart, believing in the importance of knowledge and personal learning as the means to overcome personal and systemic bias. She also believes that personal learning is at the heart of becoming a courageous and inclusive leader of diversity. She has developed the global certification program for corporates, government institutions, professional services organizations and NGO’s entitled “Inclusive Leadership and Mitigating Bias” Certification. Diplomats, ambassadors, D&I practitioners, leaders, professors and many individuals who wish to play a role in advancing inclusive diversity have attended certifications around the world: Dubai, Singapore, South Africa, Boston, London, Brussels, Amsterdam and more than 30 other locations.

Kay was born in South Africa, holds the Austrian citizenship and is resident in The Netherlands. She considers herself a global voyager and contributor. She holds an MBA fromThe Graduate School of Business Cape Town, with exchange to Duke, Fuqua School of Business. She obtained her Bachelor of Commerce with Honors in Business Economics from the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

She is a devoted mother to her three kids, whom she holds as being her daily mirror of what diversity means in a changing world.