Shehzia Lilani

Shehzia finds energy in supporting individuals to unlock their leadership potential and create more impact with their lives. She currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer for Amani Institute globally and is based in India. She also spent 7 months in 2023 as our Interim Chief Executive Officer and her first 5 years in the organization as the Country Director of Amani Institute in India, where she joined as one of the founding team members.

A passionate learning & development (L&D) professional, Shehzia has experience in the areas of leadership development, strategic facilitation, coaching, mentoring, social innovation and talent management. In the first ten years of her career, she predominantly spent time designing and delivering L&D interventions in the corporate world. She has worked with leading financial services companies like Barclays and Société Générale, where she has led their behavioral learning, leadership development and talent management initiatives. She has designed and implemented large-scale leadership development interventions and also facilitated programs to address transitioning into management roles.

Through her work at Amani Institute, she has led training and facilitation programs across the world with organizations like the Rockefeller Foundation, Oxfam, The McCain Institute, University of Chicago, the U.S. Consulate General in Chennai, UN Women Afghanistan, Upaya Social Ventures, Clean Air Fund, and Nilekani Philanthropies, to name a few.

As Amani Institute's COO, Shehzia leads the strategic oversight and management of the organization. She is responsible for strengthening the internal operations of the organization, to enable a shared value creation ecosystem that drives the Amani Institute engine forward. Her strengths and prior experience in the field of HR, leadership development and organization development are key assets for her role.

Shehzia is also an AIESEC alumna from AIESEC in Pune and started off her career with an AIESEC internship in the city of Wroclaw, Poland where she worked with a corporate training and consulting firm. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Fergusson College (Pune University) and a Diploma in Training & Development from ISTD (Indian Society for Training & Development, New Delhi). Passionate about the study of human behavior, Shehzia is also MBTI certified and accredited on Harrison Assessments. When she is not at work, she enjoys traveling & taking road trips, learning new languages, watching movies/binge-watching TV shows, exploring new eateries and coffee conversations with friends.