Aida Sabo

As Senior Vice President & Global Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for Parexel, Aida Sabo is responsible for the global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion strategy, finding creative ways to execute this strategy, building DEI awareness and launching a culture change to ensure DEI is part of Parexel’s DNA. Some elements of this strategy include Gender Partnership—promoting an inclusive environment so that all genders flourish in the company, engaging men as advocates and champions, and empowering a global diverse workforce—and Gender Intelligence, leveraging big data/predictive analytics to identify and address institutional blind spots and barriers. Her work extends to global initiatives in India, Germany, the UK, Japan, Argentina and other regions. Additionally, Aida launched a Leadership and Inclusion Forum to enable diversity and inclusion thought-provoking discussions with not only internal Parexel leaders but also the local community so that all can advance. The forum has been extended to the external community in Boston, Berlin, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Tokyo and Uxbridge, focusing on the larger hubs in the company.

Aida’s trailblazing work at Cardinal Health continues to be recognized by many organizations nationally and regionally for innovative approaches to promoting DEI. Under Aida’s leadership, Cardinal Health was one of the first companies to begin the work of engaging men as advocates of change. Prior to working at Cardinal Health, Aida led the launch of the corporate diversity functions at EMC in Boston and Agilent Technologies in Palo Alto, CA. During her tenure at Agilent, she was the first in Silicon Valley to link Diversity & Inclusion to innovation.

The child of Mexican immigrants, Aida moved to the United States when she was three years old. With a passion for learning, she exceled and earned a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Davis. She then completed engineering graduate work at the University of California at Berkeley and at Georgia Tech. She also has participated in programs in Executive Education at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School, Harvard Business School, Stanford University and UCLA.

In March 2022, Aida led Parexel to win the prestigious Catalyst Award, and in 2017, she was recognized by White Men as Full Diversity Partners with a Courageous Leader Award. In 2014, she received awards from the State of Ohio for her work with the Latino community. In 2012–13, she received awards from the Human Rights Campaign and Stonewall for her work with the LGBT community. In 2012, the National Association for Female Executives recognized Page 1 Linkage • www.linkageinc.com her as a Woman of Excellence. In 2011–12, she was recognized by the Women’s Book and WELD (Women for Economical and Leadership Development). In 2006, she was selected as a Fellow with the National Hispana Leadership Institute and received the Santiago Rodriguez Diversity Award from the Hispanic National Engineers Association. Aida serves on various boards, including the Partnership Inc., the Howard University College of Pharmacy Board of Visitors, and the Harvard John F. Kennedy School’s Women’s Leadership Board. She is a member of the Catalyst Expert Community and a taskforce member of the Center for Talent Innovation (now Coqual).

While her current office is at the Parexel headquarters in Newton, MA, her home is in the San Francisco Bay Area and her heart lives in the quest for the inclusion of all underrepresented groups in our society.