Azita Shariati

Leadership & Diversity

Leadership, Multicultural issues and Diversity

Azita Shariati is the CEO of Sodexo in Sweden and Denmark. She was recently appointed as the most powerful woman in Swedish business, thanks to her inclusive leadership style which radically improved her company's work on equality and diversity.

She lectures on sustainable leadership and diversity and has herself described her leadership as a mixture of Iranian clarity and Swedish team spirit. Under her leadership, Sodexo has raised its women in management from 14 to 50 percent in five years. Azita is passionate about social issues and development as can be seen from her work.

She is convinced that equality and diversity contributes to increased growth and better results. It also makes easier to find and retain the right skills to the organization. The company Azita manages, Sodexo is a company that operates in the Swedish service sector, has sales of 3.5 billion and over 8,000 employees. She started working in the company in 1998 and the first job she had was in a restaurant. Through rigorous work and dedication she has now gained the ability to inspire others from the position of CEO.