The authors are grateful to Karen Pastakia, Kate Sweeney, Simona Spelman, Bill Briggs, and Nitin Mittal for their time, input, and steady collaboration throughout this effort.
Special thanks to Catherine Gergen for her dependable research support and coordination in writing this Introduction.
A special note of recognition is reserved for Ishani Purohit and Olivia Rueger, whose steady project management stewardship over the past year orchestrated every moving piece of this report—from early planning through final production—keeping the team aligned, momentum strong, and execution seamless. The authors also extend their appreciation to Marissa Copeland and Anya Jaffer for their marketing leadership and creative guidance, which elevated the report’s positioning, polish, and reach.
The authors extend thanks to the REM team—Matt Deruntz, Maria Neira, Qiaoli Wang, Manshreya Grover, Nirupam Datta, Charu Ratnu, Santhosh Naidu, Derek Taylor, Marcella Hines, Parag Zalpuri, Chris Tomke, and Luly Castillero—for their steadfast partnership and behind-the-scenes execution that kept the work moving from draft to delivery. The authors also recognize the Deloitte Insights team—Corrie Commisso, Hannah Bachman, Annalyn Kurtz, Alexis Werbeck, Jim Slatton, Govindh Raj, and Molly Piersol, and the data visualization team, whose editorial rigor, storytelling craft, and visual clarity sharpened the narrative and brought the insights to life.
The authors would like to recognize the US India survey team—Dheeraj “DJ” Sharma, Urja Yashpal Singh, Shikha Warikoo, Vikas Arora, Shivani Maheshwari, Somya Bhardwaj, Vaibhav Jain, Shruti Garg, Nabamita Chakraborty, Nigel Lima Pereira, Hardika Sawhney, Disha Padmanabha, Koyel Sen, Ankita Mehar, Nitya Ganeshan Iyer, Janessa Karra, and Lipika Binani—for the survey execution and analysis, which strengthened the evidence base and enriched our exploration with critical insights.
Thank you to the Global Human Capital executive team—Kate Sweeney, Kate Morican, Amanda Flouch, Nathalie Vandaele, Jodi Baker Calamai, Dheeraj Sharma, Franz Gilbert, Karen Pastakia, Simona Spelman, Yasushi Muranaka, Tom Alstein, Sebastian Pfeifle, John Brownridge, Kurt Proctor-Parker, Pat Shannon, Andrew Potts, Dahlia Katz, Ava Damri, Kelly Nelson, Joan Pere Salom, Gerhard Botha, and Stuart Scotis—for sponsoring and supporting the global reach of this report. Their strategic guidance, insights, and perspectives helped sharpen the storyline, elevate the thoughtful analysis, and ensure the work resonated with our clients around the world.
The authors also extend sincere thanks to the clients who generously shared their time and experiences through interviews conducted for this report. Their candid insights and perspectives enriched our exploration, grounded the thoughtful analysis in real-world realities, and strengthened the relevance and practicality of the findings. Thank you to Lara Martinez Gonzalez, global director of talent intelligence, AstraZeneca; Michelle Robertson, executive board member (global human resources, people and culture), Adidas; Emily Bacon, senior manager, organization and people strategy, Adobe; Zac Parris, former director of organizational effectiveness, Atlassian; Taeko Kawano, executive officer and chief human resources officer, AXA; Justin Zaccaria, chief human resources officer, Bechtel; Matt Schuyler, chief people officer, Creative Artists Agency (CAA); Megan Bazan, vice president of people, Cisco; Charlotte Wolf Tarfa, vice president, global talent strategy and succession, Coca-Cola; Melissa Collier, director, change leadership, Georgia-Pacific; Elise Bathurst, director of people operations, Google; Courtney Gilliland, senior director, US human resources, Gordon Food Service; Lindsey Taylor, senior director, strategic workforce planning and people analytics, Hewlett Packard Enterprise; Marcia Oglen, senior vice president, enterprise human resources, Highmark Health; Jon Pitts, founder and chief technical officer, Ihp Analytics; Reiko Mukai, chief human resources officer, MetLife Japan; Charlotte Simpson, corporate officer and head of people and organization, Novartis Japan; Heather Neville, senior vice president, people and places strategy and operations, Sony Interactive Entertainment; Jill Larsen, chief people officer, Synopsys; Niki Rose, workforce experience and capability executive, Telstra; Tomoko Adachi, global chief human resources officer, Terumo Corporation; and Michael Ehret, senior vice president and chief people officer, Walmart International.
Editorial: Corrie Commisso, Hannah Bachman, Pubali Dey, Cintia Cheong, Anu Augustine, and Stacy Wagner-Kinnear
Design: Molly Piersol, Alexis Werbeck, Govindh Raj, Guido Agüero Gonzalez, and Sylvia Chang
Audience development: Atira Anderson and Maria Martin Cirujano
Knowledge services: Vanapalli Viswa Teja and Agni Wagh
