Overcoming Adversity as a Female Leader

By Ben Walker

The characteristics that shape leaders can sometimes come from the most adverse sources. Such is the case for Sharmla Chetty, Duke Corporate Education’s president of Africa and global managing director for Europe and Africa. The deep prejudice of apartheid in South Africa instilled in her a desire to work for social change. She has been doing this throughout her career.

Her leadership credentials were developed early. A consummate school athlete (she still holds some school records on the track), she rose to captain of the netball team before her embryonic activism led to her being expelled at age 16. “In those days, you were not allowed to challenge the government, and I was openly opposing the government while in school,” she recalls. “My parents were in a state of shock. A young girl in your family being expelled, I guess that’s not so great.”

But despite the familial upset, Chetty’s life path was rolling out before her. “I was immediately known as being fearless, being a disrupter, someone who would seek to change the status quo,” she says. “Who couldn’t wish to violate these rules of white minority advantage?”

Read the full article on DukeCE.com.