Michelle Gadsden-Williams is Managing Director and Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion at the global financial services corporation Credit Suisse AG, which is based in Zurich, Switzerland. In that capacity, she provides strategic direction and thought leadership and champions an inclusive environment by integrating diversity practice into all aspects of the business on a global scale.

Gadsden-Williams is a seasoned diversity practitioner with 15 years of experience working in the pharmaceutical industry before transitioning to financial services. Before that, she held positions of increasing responsibility in diversity management and staffing functions at Merck & Co., Inc. in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey. Before Merck, she worked in HR and product management at Philips-Van Heusen Corporation and Wakefern Food Corporation in New Jersey.

Passion for equality and social justice drive her unwavering efforts to refine processes, policies and programs that support an inclusive work environment. She has designed and deployed global diversity strategies, redeveloped global diversity councils and diversity training curriculums, and was instrumental in the start-up of over 50 Employee Resource Groups around the world.