Profile: Sonal Agrawal, AltoPartners Operating Committee Member / Managing Partner Accord Group India

• Shareholder & Operating CEO for group company, ABC Consultants Group
• Member, Asia Pacific & ME Council, Global Nominations & Governance Committee, AESC

Sonal Agrawal is regarded as one of the leading executive search consultants in India. She was named by the Economic Times as one of the Top 10 Headhunters in India, by BusinessWeek USA as one of the 150 Most Influential Headhunters in the World, 2008, by Business Today as one the Next 30 Most Powerful Women to watch out for in India, and was awarded Woman Achiever of 2011 – (Professionals) by FICCI FLO. A frequent speaker on leadership, she has been profiled regularly by leading publications including Business Today, Business India Mint, HT, India Today Woman, Marwar.

Based in Bombay, Sonal Agrawal has over two decades of experience in executive search and selection in India. She joined the ABC Consultants group in 1993 and incubated Accord Group India, which conducts retained executive search for CXO and leadership talent across industries from offices in Bombay, Delhi and Bangalore. Her core practice areas are Financial Services, Private Equity, Conglomerates and Boards.

A founding member of AltoPartners, an AESC (Association of Executive Search Consultants) certified global alliance of independent executive search firms across the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific, Sonal serves as the Asia-Pacific representative for the global management committee for AltoPartners. She also serves on Asia Pac and Global committees at the AESC. Apart from Accord and AltoPartners, she has also served on the boards of ABC Consultants India, ABC Consultants Singapore and Watson Wyatt India, and is also on a plc board as an independent director. Sonal is an active member of the Young Presidents Organization, a peer network of young global leaders in 100 nations, and is currently a Network officer for the Doing Business With India Network.

Born in East Africa and raised in Kolkata in India, Sonal schooled at La Martiniere College and completed a BSc from Calcutta University, and an MBA from the London Business School, UK. Sonal writes a column on career issues in the Mint, an affiliate of the Wall Street Journal in India.