A Conversation with Dr. Geetha Murali

Sonal Chandna|A “Women in Leadership” fellow at CSU East Bay, Sonal is passionate about technology, marketing and people.

Dr. Geetha Murali is the Chief Executive Officer of Room to Read.

Founded in 2000 on the belief that World Change Starts with Educated Children®., Room to Read is creating a world free from illiteracy and gender inequality. Room to Read has benefited more than 18 million children across 16 countries and 39000 communities and aims to reach 40 million children by 2025. She is also a member of the Founding Circle and co-chair of the Social Impact Committee at Neythri.org.

Q. So, Room to Read is an organization that envisions quality education for all children. Currently you are overseeing its global operations that span 16 countries around the world. Please share more about Room to Read with us, as well as your journey throughout.

I was 22 when I graduated with a master’s degree in biostatistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and started working as a Statistician for a pharmaceutical company. I had a great job and a stable career; however, I hadn’t ever considered career options that weren’t based on math and statistics. There was a point when I asked myself if this was the type of work that I wanted to do for the next 40 years, and the answer was no. So, I made a jump and enrolled in classes at the University of California, Berkeley to explore topics I had an interest in, earning masters and doctorate degrees focused on South Asian Politics. There, I was fortunate to meet a professor who was using statistics effectively in the social sector. I was intrigued by the fact that I could use my skillset in statistics effectively in a different field. From this point onwards, a whole new world of opportunities emerged. I worked on my dissertation in South Asia focused on the intersection of political ideology and voter expectations from government, using voter interviews, surveys and election commission data.

Around the same time, one of my prior colleagues introduced me to the Co-founder and former CEO of Room to Read, Erin Ganju, as they were expanding into India. Room to Read was relatively small at the time, and I was looking to gain some non-profit experience, so Erin connected me to one of its funders, the American Indian Foundation (AIF), and I started volunteering. Later on, I transitioned to a paid consulting job and eventually became a full time Program Officer at AIF. Still unsure of what I wanted in the longer run, I went on to explore other avenues including teaching at Mills College and joining the founding team of a Silicon Valley startup. Room to Read was growing exponentially through this period, and when they began building out their corporate partnerships function, I felt it was a good time to take a leap and join the Room to Read team.

Q. You have been serving extensively for over 20 years across the corporate and non-profit sectors. Also, you have been a member of Forbes Nonprofit Council, the Young President’s Organization (YPO), and have been recognized by WIRED as a leader who will shape the next 25 years. How would you describe your leadership style?

Foundationally, my leadership style is inquisitive and transparent. My interactions should be an authentic reflection of what I believe. I lead the team with the same expectation I set for myself in terms of compassion, decisiveness and work ethic. How does that manifest? In my current role, the inquisitiveness allows me to learn and continue to evolve an entrepreneurial vision. My focus on transparency, relationships, and hard work allow me to build teams that are devoted to operational excellence. Together, we push the organization forward, overcome challenges and create more opportunities. I take execution very seriously, and I think this is what inspires my team. Just having great ideas is not enough. Our business is about transforming lives, and we can’t just talk; we have to act.

In terms of focus on compassion, it helps you build relationships with your team as well as outside of it. I strive to put myself in other people’s shoes and take decisions keeping in mind multiple perspectives. We work across many countries, so understanding the perspectives of our partner communities as well as our investors is critical. Our literacy and girls’ education programs have to delight children and evoke dignity. Our programs and execution have to inspire participation and ensure credibility with our investors. Understanding the perspectives of our stakeholders matters a lot for the business as well as for me personally.

Q. Did you ever find yourself hitting a wall?

Life is full of barriers. When you lead a complex organization that operates across 12 legal entities and 10 branch offices and delivers programs in some of the most under resourced parts of the world, you are bound to find obstacles. But resistance keeps you on your feet, seeking solutions and innovating. As a leader, I am also not expecting my team to agree with me all the time. I am expecting them to contribute their best selves to our mission, to ask questions and to push my thinking. My team may not always agree with my decisions, but if they trust me enough, they’ll give my decisions an honest shot. And, most likely, my decisions have been shaped by their insights. I am a pretty data-driven person, so I tend to make informed decisions when possible, but have developed the muscle to look for just enough data points to make strong decisions in the grey. This approach provides me the confidence to speak with a level of authority and integrity about my thought-process, as I always have a rationale for the business decisions I take. I encourage my teams to take a similar approach — don’t make a choice based on passion alone, back up the decision wherever possible with what you know, as a result of your professional skills, research and experience.

Q. Normally non-profits are passionate about a particular cause and not very data driven? How do you ensure rationality?

Room to Read has always set and exceeded ambitious goals. This organization is results driven and keenly focused on the measurement of our outcomes. We formalize our plans and budgets on an annual basis and make sure the process and progress are transparent. We collect indicators around two major focus areas, Literacy and Gender Equality. In our Literacy portfolio, we collect data from our partner schools about the number of children benefited, fluency and comprehension measures, teacher training hours, book usage and more. In our Girls’ Education and Gender Equality portfolio, we collect data around things like transition and dropout rates, life skills competencies, and hours of mentorship. This type of data collection allows us to continue to learn and evolve in the best interest of the communities we serve.

Q. You shifted gears from the corporate world to the not for profit… What inspired you to do so?

Education endures. My parents instilled this value in me at a very young age. My mother left her home because she was pushed to get married and resisted, eventually joining the Indian army. She came to the US in the 70s on a nursing visa. She put herself through school to become a statistician, while doing night duty as a nurse. Later, she got married and had me, much later than her family expected for her to become a mother. She ensured that I was highly educated with more degrees than I needed because education was a symbol of independence, something that was important for her daughter to have.

I was first inspired to make a shift in career, by my exposure to grassroots organizations working tirelessly to uplift society, and I wanted to do my part to support their efforts. So now, I have “succeeded” as the CEO of a major international non-profit with operations run by local nationals all over the world. I know there is a perception out there that a non-profit is a place where you go to “slow down your career” or when you “retire from a corporate life”. I can attest to the fact that working to build and sustain a well-functioning non-profit that reflects your values requires as much drive and professionalism as any corporate job — and maybe more because of resource-constraints many non-profits are operating against.

I didn’t always know that I would choose the non-profit sector over for-profit or academia, but once I did, there was no going back.

Q. Tell us something about your family background and what your childhood days were like?

I was born in New York City, and I am the only child to my parents. I went back to Coonoor, Tamil Nadu, India in the middle of my childhood where I attended a convent school and learnt to speak my mother tongue, Tamil. But once my grandmother passed away, my parents brought me back to the US. We moved around a lot within the US and finally settled in North Carolina. I moved to California in 2000 after I got married.

I also grew up learning Bharatanatyam and went on to perform classical and folk dance forms professionally for several years. Dance has always been a very important part of my life. It built so many life skills like self-confidence and perseverance, while providing exposure to Indian cultural elements of many forms. It is still one of my most favorite hobbies.

Q. Do you believe that your South Asian heritage has influenced your leadership style in any way? If so, how?

Having been raised across so many places in the US and India provided me with certain perspectives. It made me adaptable. Being raised by an amazing mother who fought societal norms in India and a father who encouraged my every dream, added to those perspectives. I greatly value seeing perspectives beyond my own. My journey has made me realize how large the world is in terms of diversity, but also how small it is in terms of our shared humanity. It has made me recognize that education is a necessity for every child in this world, and every girl has the right to control her life and make her own informed decisions.

The Room to Read Board recognized the value of having a CEO with roots in one of our major countries of operations. At the same time, my commitment to seeking new perspectives as well as building partnerships and alliances has allowed Room to Read to grow its influence around the world. So being a South Asian, has undoubtedly helped shape who I am and how I lead, but it has also helped me recognize the limitations some face and what I can do to help.

Q. What advice would you give to young women leaders entering a male-dominated profession?

I didn’t necessarily appreciate how to enjoy the learning process until much later in life. So, my advice would be to figure out how to enjoy the learning process, have fun becoming better informed and take meaningful action based on what you have learned. Build useful skillsets that will allow you to contribute to the organizations you work for and society as a whole, in your own unique way. As Cal Newport says, be “so good they can’t ignore you” and you will find colleagues, allies and networks that will lift you up. Just when you think you have reached the limit of what you can accomplish, I believe a potential path always exists (or should exist!), if you want to grow more.

Bonus Fun facts:

What are you most passionate about apart from work?

I love to dance. I trained as a Bharatanatyam artist. Later, I was on a competitive bhangra team and performed professionally. I still enjoy a good Bollywood, Garba or any type of dance party. Of course, I love books. I have become particularly interested in maps recently. I am fascinated by the stories they tell. Finally, I have a very soft spot for animals. I have a dog named Geo and a conure named Leela who lights up my life, in addition to my husband and kids of course!

One of your most memorable leisure travel trips in the past?

Trekking in the Ecuadorian Amazon with my family in search of macaws. My daughter was only six at the time!

What are you reading currently?

A Short History of Progress by Ronald Wright

Positive Intelligence: Why Only 20% of Teams and Individuals Achieve Their True Potential and How You Can Achieve Yours by Shirzad Chamine

Author Bio:
Sonal has worked in Strategy and Operations at Pitney Bowes Inc in India for five years. Aspiring to be a digital marketing professional, she is looking forward to advancing her career with an MBA degree at CSU East Bay. Sonal is also a PADI certified scuba diver, a resilient traveler and an avid animal lover.