Shyam Sundaram is a Partner at Dalberg Advisors and Director of the Washington, DC office. Shyam leads our global Talent & Leadership practice area – working with mission-driven organizations and firms to find the best strategies and approaches to attract, activate and unleash their talent. Shyam also leads much of our work on strategy and organizational effectiveness. He helps clients to define a vision and identify optimal organizational structures and facilitates effective change management processes for large and complex organizations.

Shyam’s recent work includes designing a leadership program for frontline anti-slavery workers in India, helping a major UN agency conduct a strategic and organizational review, supporting a company to define the strategy and organizational structure of its social impact team, helping a nutrition-focused NGO to review and refine its strategic pathway over the next five years, and building an entirely virtual leadership program for a multilateral organization.

Prior to this role, Shyam served as Chief of Staff at Dalberg Advisors – supporting the growth of the firm, implementing a number of strategic initiatives, and helping the leaders of the firm to work more effectively across its regions, business lines and 20+ offices.  Before joining Dalberg, Shyam worked with the World Bank Group, focusing on disaster risk management in the Middle East North Africa region. He consulted for the Inter-American Development Bank and has worked with a number of NGOs in the conflict resolution sector, including the International Crisis Group.

Shyam holds a MS with Honors from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a BA with Honors from Brown University. He is fluent in French and Tamil.