Sutapa Sanyal
Leadership Speaker and Advisor | Former Director General of Police
Shaping Leaders for a Changing World.
Sutapa Sanyal, first woman DGP of Uttar Pradesh, helps companies build resilient leaders, inclusive cultures and happy workplaces.
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Leadership in Uncertainty
Mindset and Well-Being
Women's Leadership
Sutapa Sanyal, Keynote Speaker on Leadership and Former Director General of Police
Sutapa Sanyal is a keynote speaker and advisor on ethical leadership, institutional change and women in leadership. She is also the first woman to hold the rank of Director General of Police in Uttar Pradesh.
A career in the Indian Police Service
Sutapa Sanyal joined the Indian Police Service in 1984, when few women held senior positions in Indian policing. Over 35 years in public service she worked across policing, public administration, human rights, civil defence and security. While serving in the IPS, she was Advisor (Security) to GAIL India Ltd., responsible for the protection of people and assets across its operations.
She founded and led the U.P. Police Mahila Samman Prakoshth, a unit focused on women’s empowerment, women’s rights and child rights. Its work reached more than 120 million women and children across the state. She was awarded the President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service, and her recognition also includes the Devi Award (2016), the FICCI-FLO Outstanding Police Woman of the Year Award (2016) and the SKOCH Challenger Award (2021).
On stage and in the boardroom
Sutapa Sanyal now speaks and advises on governance, culture and the systems that make institutions trusted and accountable. Her TEDx talk, “Be the CEO of Your Own Life,” is about personal leadership and ownership. She has spoken at FICCI, CII, Maersk Equal At Sea, One Globe Forum and SCOPE, and at the London School of Economics, IIM Calcutta and IIM Lucknow.
She has worked with Boeing, Taj Group, Reliance Jio, EY, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance and Trilegal. She also advises development agencies, NGOs and CSR foundations, bringing the experience of leading reform at state scale. She holds an M.A. in Economics and a Certification in Management from London Business School.
Sutapa Sanyal is available for leadership conferences, CXO forums, offsites and selected advisory engagements. For enquiries, use the contact page.
She also speaks and runs workshops on diversity and inclusion for companies. See her D&I Speaker page.
For team development, explore diversity and inclusion training and DEI workshops or unconscious bias training.
She also works with organisations developing women leaders. Invite Sutapa as a women's leadership speaker in India.