Michelle Gadsden Williams

Managing Director and Co-Head of Global Talent & Culture

Michelle Gadsden-Williams is the Managing Director and Global Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for BlackRock. She is an award-winning global diversity executive, author, activist, producer, and philanthropist with more than 30 years of experience as an advocate for equality within corporate America and a thought leader around diversity and inclusion. Michelle is a seasoned diversity practitioner with experience working in the consumer goods, pharmaceutical, professional, and financial services industries.

Michelle is the former, Managing Director of Inclusion & Diversity for Accenture North America. She provided strategic direction, thought leadership, and championed the development of an inclusive environment by integrating diversity practice into all aspects of the business. She has held positions of global responsibility in the diversity management arena by living in Switzerland for close to 10 years of her corporate career and managed staffing functions for large multi-national corporations such as Credit Suisse, Novartis and Merck & Co, Inc.

Michelle has acquired a multitude of community service awards and accolades for her work as a diversity leader. In 2024, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award for her leadership in Diversity Equity and Inclusion by the Reverand Al Sharpton and the National Action Network. In 2023, she was recognized by the Global Diversity Leadership organization with the Top DEI Global Champions Award and an honoree at the inaugural Global Chief Diversity Honors Awards by Black Enterprise. Michelle has also been recognized by Market Media with the Financial Services Excellence in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award, Diversity Women Elite 100 and Black Enterprise as one of the Top Executives in Corporate Diversity for 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017. The Reverend Al Sharpton recognized Michelle as a 2016 honoree at the National Action Network “Woman of Power” Luncheon, she was an honoree at the Black Institute Awards Gala in NYC and a 2015 Ebony Magazine Power 100 honoree. Her other notable tributes include: being named the 2010 recipient of the Maya Way Award for Diversity Leadership by the incomparable Dr. Maya Angelou, receiving the 2008 Harvard Black Men’s Forum Businesswoman of the Year Award, accepting the Rainbow Push Coalition’s Bridge Builder Award by the honorable Reverend Jesse L. Jackson and also being recognized with an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree from Kean University for her outstanding personal and professional accomplishments in the field of diversity and inclusion.

In 2013 Michelle was appointed as a member of the Global Advisory Council on Gender Parity for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Michelle is a member of the Executive Leadership Council and currently serves on the board of trustees for WNET and the Apollo Theater in New York City.

Michelle earned a B.S. in Marketing, a B.A. in Communications from Kean College of New Jersey, and an M.S. in Organizational Dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania.