Yolanda Friend

Yolanda Friend is the Inclusion and Diversity lead for Accenture Americas. She is responsible for setting the strategic direction of Accenture’s inclusion and diversity agenda in the United States, Canada, and Latin America. She leads actions to build inclusive leaders at all levels and ensure equal opportunity for all. She is a member of Accenture’s Americas Leadership Team. Yolanda started her career at Accenture in 2006 through Talent & Organization within Accenture Strategy, where she led numerous clients through talent and workforce transformations. Since 2016, she has applied her expertise in integrating inclusion and diversity into Accenture’s business strategy and the talent life cycle. She partners with business leaders across the organization to maintain accountability for progress. An advocate for change, Yolanda strongly believes that attracting, hiring, and developing people who have different backgrounds, different perspectives, and different lived experiences, are essential to driving innovation and inclusion is a critical success factor for organizational performance. Yolanda holds a bachelor’s degree and MBA from Florida A&M University, a historically Black university. She also has Executive Certificates in Strategic Diversity and Inclusion Management from Georgetown University and Cornell University. Yolanda is married with a blended family of four children and remains consciously grateful for the opportunity to drive meaningful change.