Kay Formanek is Founder of Diversity and Performance (founded in 2014), and the author of Beyond D&I (published in 2021), 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 (Speakers Academy 2017), board member (Afrika Tikkun), contributor to leading business schools (INSEAD, TIAS) and advisor and expert to various leading advisory organizations.
Since 2000 is deeply working in the area of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Leadership and Culture. She brings 35 years of experience of navigating diversity journeys and cultural transformations in 75 organizations spread across the world. She was Partner and Managing Director in Accenture (1989 to 2014) 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 decade, since 2014, 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 is the co-lecturer of the Masterclass Inclusive Leadership that equips leaders with a rich understanding of the fundamentals of exclusion and Inclusion, provides frameworks for developing a strategic narrative for their organisation and evaluating their current and required diversity maturity capability, and supports leaders having the practical steps to develop an inclusive environment where diversity can flourish.
Kay was born in South Africa, holds the Austrian citizenship and is resident in The Netherlands. 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 honours in Business Economics from the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.