Pioneers

She is the senior vice president and the chief diversity and sustainability officer at MGM Resorts International. That position is the right fit for Jyoti Chopra, an award-winning diversity, inclusion and sustainability leader who has always been focused on inclusion strategies and positive gender initiatives.

A first-generation British-American-Indian is how she describes how she was born in England and subsequently moved to the U.S. to study further when she was 18. Though she has not lived in India, apart from brief holiday trips, she proudly claims herself to be a Sikh Punjabi in heart, soul and roots. She spoke to us about her Indian heritage and the deep connection she has with the country, 

“My parents are from India. My late father was born and raised in Pune and my mother grew up in Bombay. Three months after they got married, they decided to set sail aboard a ship headed for London.” She gives a taste of the inherent British humor when she mentions, “I’m told I was produced somewhere off the coast of Italy.”

From her office in Las Vegas, Jyoti Chopra spoke to SEEMA about her journey, which began in a hospital in the East End of London. 

“We are to the universe only as much as we give back to it.”

That belief drove Meera Gandhi, the CEO and founder of The Giving Back Foundation, when she started her charity in 2010. As part of that work, Gandhi has made a documentary, written a coffee table book, and is now coming out with a new one, “3 Tips.” All this, while managing three children of her own.

When she was a teenager, Gandhi volunteered at Asha Daan for the abandoned and differently abled children in Mumbai where she met Mother Teresa. She says that it was only after spending enough time around Mother Teresa that she realized that giving back is a great joy in itself.

Born in Mumbai, India, to an Irish mother and an Indian father. Gandhi graduated from the University of Delhi with an undergraduate degree in economics, after which she earned an MBA degree from Boston University.