SHARMLA
CHETTY CEO, DUKE
CORPORATE EDUCATION
Overcoming adversity to build better organisations
Sharmla has served as president of global markets, North America, Europe & UK, Asia, and Africa, at Duke CE before being appointed CEO in 2019.
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he now leads the company, driving strategic alignment for the organisation globally and operations for its regional practices around the world. For two decades, the Financial Times has
consistently ranked Duke CE among the top global custom executive education providers. “When you start a new brand, or face a new challenge, you need tenacity, drive, resilience, agility and creativity,” says Sharmla. “You also need to take risks and to own the consequences of your decisions, however they turn out.”
ADVERSITY INTO SUCCESS “The skills and discipline that I learned early in my career in banking, I now apply to my current role,” she says. Having grown up in Durban, South Africa, during the apartheid regime, Sharmla developed a strong sense of social justice, and a desire for change and progress. “I was shaped by adversity but also by the women
around me, particularly my mother and grandmother” she says. She recalls the keen sense of injustice she experienced
as a child when banned from visiting “white” beaches in Durban, and how, at just five years old, she experienced discrimination when she and her grandmother were refused entry to a restaurant because of the colour of their skin. “Although they were oppressed, my mother and
grandmother were women of respect, dignity and life- long learning. They instilled in me the importance of education as a path to opportunity, growth, and a way to escape poverty, particularly for girls and women.” From the age of 15, Sharmla was a student activist speaking up against the deep prejudice of apartheid in South Africa. This experience instilled in her a desire to work for social change and a single goal to transform organisations and society through leadership. Sharmla founded the South Africa office for Duke CE in 2007. Her areas of ongoing research include board leadership,
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