Reena Desai

She advises boards, and senior leadership teams on CEO and C-suite succession, leadership transitions, executive assessment, executive coaching and top-team effectiveness.

Reena helps clients navigate high-stakes leadership moments that shape business performance and long-term organizational capability. She works with clients to define future leadership requirements, assess and develop senior talent, and align stakeholders around succession and transition decisions. As an executive coach, she also works closely with senior leaders stepping into broader roles, helping them sharpen self-awareness, strengthen judgment, and elevate their influence and effectiveness in complex environments.

She is particularly effective in complex, high-touch situations requiring both strategic judgment and disciplined execution. Clients value her ability to combine thoughtful challenge with practical action to deliver integrated, commercially grounded solutions.

Reena brings over 25 years of experience across consulting and in-house leadership roles. Her work spans Asia, the Middle East and North America across financial services, technology, industrial, healthcare and family-owned enterprises.

Before joining Korn Ferry, she held senior HR and talent leadership roles across Asia, including Head of HR for SAP India and Thailand, regional talent leadership roles at IBM South Asia, and a Group Talent role at AIA in Hong Kong. She also worked with DDI in executive assessment and leadership development and built her own coaching and leadership consulting practice in Dubai and Hong Kong.

Reena is an ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and holds a Master’s degree in Human Resources from the University of Pune, India. She has lived and worked in Mumbai, Bangalore, Dubai and Hong Kong, and speaks English, Hindi and Gujarati.