“Leadership isn’t shaped in the calm moments. It’s forged when power, pressure and ambiguity collide.”
Revealing the patterns shaping ambition, power, and leadership under pressure.
Deepa
Patternist
Purushothaman
Revealing the patterns shaping ambition, power, and leadership under pressure.
“Leadership isn’t shaped in the calm moments. It’s forged when power, pressure and ambiguity collide.”
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3.5m+
TED Talk views
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25+
Years advising global clients
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450+
Keynotes and leadership conversations
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20+
Guest lectures at business schools and universities
Economist by training.
Partner by accident.
Researcher by design.
Deepa trained as an economist and spent more than two decades at Deloitte, rising to senior partner. Today she studies and writes about how ambition and power move through modern workplaces under pressure and uncertainty. Her research draws on interviews with thousands of leaders and her work as founder of the re.write, an unconventional think tank advancing a new story of work. She is the author of The First, The Few, The Only.
Deepa is an Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School and a TED speaker, addressing audiences around the world on ambition, power, and the changing systems of work.
Leadership and Work.
Ideas
Harvard Business
School Case Study
In 2026, Harvard Business School published a case study on Deepa’s leadership, examining her approach to ambition, power, and success.
The CEO
Compass Podcast
Deepa co-hosts Egon Zehnder’s podcast with CEOs on leading in uncertain times.
Coming Soon
Trusted By.
Work with Deepa.
Speaking
Keynotes, workshops, fireside chats, and executive conversations.
Deepa challenges the myths shaping modern leadership and helps leaders navigate uncertainty, competing pressures, and the evolving systems of work.
She understands the pressures of leadership because she has lived them.
the re.write
An unconventional think tank advancing a new story of work.
Through research, convenings, and narrative change, the re.write examines the patterns shaping leadership and work.
Work is shaped by stories. Those stories are overdue for revision.