meet madhu
I am an Indian woman, a child of immigrants and a New Yorker at heart who was raised in suburban Detroit.
Over the past 20 years, I’ve supported leaders and their organizations on the path to transformation. I combine my Human Resources expertise with stellar coaching skills and a deep curiosity about what makes people and organizations tick.
I founded MadhuCoach in 2003 and have had the privilege of helping to drive organizational change and employee engagement at a diverse portfolio of companies including Euclid Transactional, Ford Foundation, Institute for Nonprofit News, The Just Transition Fund and The Associated Press.
I specialize in organizational development and engagement, workshop facilitation, leadership coaching and management training.
Who I Am
I am a Motown girl, from the suburbs, from a cul-de-sac with a circular drive.
I am from a dusty village, Bengaluru, where we sat on the floor for our meals.
I am an only child, the only child, a son and a daughter combined into one, an impossible thing to live up to.
I am from immigrant parents, a dad who staked his life on the American Dream and a mom who longed to go home.
I am from internalized whiteness, not seeing my true self in the mirror.
I don’t know Bollywood or ayurveda or garam masala or the Taj Mahal
I know Smokey, Stevie, Marvin, Michael, Aretha, Prince
Detroit and New York. Joe Louis and Malcolm X.
Pizza and beer. Latkes and sour cream.
Who I am is ever-unfolding.
Without my dad on this Earth
With my mother on another continent
I stand untethered, undefined
Surrounded by love and still on my own.
Picking up pieces of myself along the way,
Holding them up, trying them on for size,
Wrapping myself up in them,
Noticing who I become.
(based on The I Am From Project. If you’ve never done this exercise, I highly recommend it!)