Fatimah Gilliam is an author, lawyer, consultant, public speaker, and entrepreneur. Her career combines expertise in the law, diversity, human capital, leadership, stakeholder engagement, and negotiations – including helping organizations build coalitions and consensus, advance workforce optimization, and create and sustain diverse and inclusive workplace cultures.

She began her career in New York City as a corporate attorney on Wall Street at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton LLP, worked for Citigroup overseeing campus diversity recruiting for all its U.S. businesses, and oversaw corporate partnerships as the Head of Finance and Fundraising for North America for the Nobel Peace Prize-winning United Nations World Food Programme. Fatimah founded her firm in 2013, The Azara Group, which provides diversity and inclusion, leadership development, negotiation, and strategy consulting services. Helping people and organizations “get what they want,” she has advised Fortune 500 corporations, senior executives running billion-dollar businesses, and industry thought leaders. She is a seasoned, sought-after speaker, and both a diversity and negotiations expert.

As a thought leader, she has been interviewed on television (e.g., CNBC’s “Power Lunch”), by news outlets (e.g., Insider; Yahoo! Finance), and by industry publications (e.g., Society for Human Resource Management or SHRM).

Fatimah grew up in Berkeley as a third-generation Californian in a socially-conscious family with deep historical roots. She is a Black woman whose family has been in the United States for nearly four hundred years. Her family fought in every American war, including the American Revolution, War of 1812, and Civil War. Her large family stretches from coast to coast, throughout the South, and across the heartland in urban, suburban, and rural areas. Fatimah has traveled to over thirty-five states – including to promote universal access to voting. Collectively, these shape her understanding of her country.

She holds a law degree from Columbia Law School, a Master in Public Policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and an undergraduate degree from Wellesley College. Fatimah serves on several non-profit boards and volunteers as an attorney for Election Protection. She has lived in Africa, the Caribbean, and Europe, been to over forty countries, and speaks French.

Having ties to both coasts, she considers herself a “Cali-Yorker.” Her name Fatimah is phonetically pronounced “Fah-tuh-muh.” Think “Fa La La” and you will make her happy by getting the first syllable right.

Fatimah’s book “Race Rules – What Your Black Friend Won’t Tell You” is her patriotic contribution to America’s ongoing dialogue on race.

You can learn more at FatimahGilliam.com.