France
Melisande Kingchatchaval Schifter is the Global Head of Inclusion at Sanofi, where she leads the company’s global strategy to embed inclusion and access across its people, products, and processes. A proven executive with cross-industry experience spanning the private, public, and social sectors, Melisande has worked across the Americas, EMEA, Asia, and Africa. Most recently, she served as Executive Director of Global Inclusion & Diversity and Health Equity Strategy at Bristol Myers Squibb, leading efforts across 63 markets to embed inclusion into everything from HR and clinical trials to product design and commercialization - expanding patient access and driving more equitable outcomes. Previously, Melisande led the World Economic Forum’s global work on inclusion and social justice, where she consulted Fortune 500 companies on their inclusive growth strategies, co-authored publications like the Global Gender Gap Report, and launched global initiatives including The Valuable 500 and Partnering for Racial Justice in Business. She also served as CEO of the disability-focused start-up A Billion Reasons, worked with the UN on climate policy negotiations like the Paris Agreement, and consulted on inclusive business strategies with companies in China. She currently serves on the Executive Advisory Board of Lesbians Who Tech and the Europe Advisory Board of Catalyst. Fluent in English, French, German, and Thai, she finds joy in outdoor running, playing piano, writing poetry, and hosting dinner parties featuring unapologetically spicy food from her Thai homeland.
Lead the development and execution of BMS’ global health equity and DE&I business strategy across all of BMS’ 63 markets and 34.000+ employees, ensuring alignment with business objectives, organizational mission, health equity impact and community needs. . ▪ Business Innovation: Enhanced product usability through universal design in packaging and dispensing mechanisms, ensuring accessibility for greater patient reach. ▪ Algorithmic Fairness: Initiated review process of applications and underlying algorithms on BMS’ Digital Health platform to increase demographic and phenotypic transparency and accountability in AI datasets and algorithmic evaluation. ▪ Inclusive R&D: Activated 58% US clinical trial sites in diverse communities & achieved 26% recruitment of racially diverse patients. ▪ Commercialization: Instituted a diverse patient voice in our go-to-market strategies and LMIC strategy, allowing for medicines to reach more patients faster and increasing BMS’ market share. ▪ Philanthropic Impact: Designed health equity initiatives through the BMS foundation that improved access to medicines in underserved markets and populations. ▪ Campaigns and Marketing: Established campaigns for greater health access & awareness, such as a mole skin-check campaign for transgender people in Argentina and the “Look for the Spot” campaign in Mexico, working with tattoo artists to look for signs of melanoma on their clients. ▪ Awards: Achieved global and regional recognitions and awards such as “Best Place to Work” and Menopause-Friendly Employer.
Founded by UN SDG Advocate Eddie Ndopu, A BILLION REASONS is a global cross-sector platform that seeks to dismantle ableism within organizations. ▪ Raised $500K+ seed funding during a 3-month fundraising period from top tier philanthropic organizations ▪ Established partnerships and collaboration with leading international organizations, such as the UN, WEF, and Global Citizen ▪ Conceptualized the programmatic strategy and content
Directed WEF's first global workstream on DE&I and Social Justice that uses the power of business to create social change. Developed public-private partnerships, reports like WEF’s Global Gender Gap Report and consulted on business strategies of Fortune 500 companies and the global agendas of major political, media and civil society leaders. Leveraged WEF’s media platform (27M followers, 100M viewers/month) to drive awareness/engagement. Conceptionalized, launched and headed the following initiatives: ▪Community of Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officers: 130+ CDIOs (across 22 industries, spanning the Americas, Europe, MENA, Asia) ▪Global Future Council on Equity and Social Justice: 30+ world leaders promoting new paths towards economic justice ▪Hardwiring Gender Parity in the Future of Work: Launched analytic framework leading to two-fold increase of women in strategic roles ▪The Valuable 500: World’s first and largest collective of 500 CEOs driving disability inclusion and universal design in business. ▪Global Parity Alliance (in collaboration with McKinsey), cross-industry group executing DE&I across corporate eco-system. ▪Partnership for Global LGBTI Equality: Coalition of multi-national companies, UN and global LGBTI+ rights organizations to operationalize the UN Standards of Conduct for Business ▪Partnering for Racial Justice in Business: Coalition of 60 multi-national companies (across 13 industries and 7 million employees) to set global metrics and accountability standards to tackle racism in business across the workplace, marketplace, and value chain.
Curated the global programme on Society & Governance, Arts & Culture, Asia-Pacific at World Economic Forum events, including Davos. ▪ Set the programme and designed session content for Fortune 100 CEOs and Heads of State. ▪ Led cross-functional team of 45 people for the annual World Economic Forum on ASEAN summits with 1’000+ participants. ▪ Produced cutting-edge formats (incl. televised sessions), immersive experiences, performances and exhibitions, such as co-producing the first international tour of the Afghan Women’s Orchestra, commissioning the virtual reality film “Awavena” which highlight the stories of indigenous leaders and brought the Forum its first Emmy awards, and restaging the “Access+Ability” exhibition with the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt Design Museum on universal design.
Conducted case study research for my PhD thesis on Chinese Small and Medium Enterprises based in Shenyang, Dalian, Beijing and Wenzhou.