Aparna Jain

Aparna Jain is an Indian author and executive leadership coach whose work focuses on gender equity and inclusion in the workplace. She has written five books, including Own It: Leadership Lessons from Women Who Do, the anthologies for younger readers Like a Girl (2018) and Boys Will Be Boys (2019), and, with K.P. Singh, Why the Heck Not? Blueprints for Success from the Man Who Built DLF (2024). Own It received a Jury Appreciation Certificate at the First South Asia Laadli Media & Advertising Awards for Gender Sensitivity 2015–16, and was shortlisted for the Tata Literature Live! Business Book of the Year 2016. Jain is also a frequent commentator on workplace gender issues.

Jain founded the leadership coaching and diversity consultancy Zebraa Works in 2011. Publisher biographies describe her as an internationally certified Integral Master Coach™, after two decades in business development and marketing roles in technology and media in India and the United States. She is also the author of the Sood Family Cookbook which features recipes from the widespread Sood family featuring pahaadi, Bengali, Italian, Thai, Swiss and other global cuisines.

Early life and education Jain was born in New Delhi, but grew up in Bangalore in Karnataka. She has studied in different schools including Sophia High School in Bangalore, and Rishi Valley School, Madanapalle, Andhra Pradesh. Jain then moved to Switzerland where she studied at the Alpina School of Hotel Management and received a Diploma with a double specialisation in Sales & Marketing and Food & Beverage in 1993. She moved back to India to pursue a post graduate programme in Hospitality at the Oberoi School of Hotel Management in New Delhi. Jain is also certified as an Integral Master Coach by Integral Coaching in Canada.

Career Before moving into coaching, Jain worked in technology and media. She held marketing leadership roles at the India Today Group for Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Design Today and India Today Travel Plus; in 2010 she joined Tehelka as vice-president, marketing, and served as executive director of the THiNK festivals in 2011 and 2012. She later acted as consultant country head for Partridge, Penguin Random House India’s self-publishing division.

Jain writes and comments on gender, workplace culture and harassment law, with columns and interviews in outlets including Hindustan Times, The Times of India, Firstpost and Mint. During the public debate around R.K. Pachauri and TERI in 2016, she argued for institutional accountability and safer workplaces.

Her second book, Own It: Leadership Lessons from Women Who Do (HarperCollins, 2016; 328 pp., ISBN ), draws on interviews with about 200 senior women professionals in India and examines bias, harassment, motherhood penalties and advancement barriers. Reviews in Firstpost and Hindustan Times described it as a useful resource for women and for leaders seeking gender-neutral workplaces. The book received a Laadli Jury Appreciation Certificate (2015–16) and was shortlisted for the Tata Literature Live! Business Book of the Year (2016).

Boys Will Be Boys: Inspiring Stories for Smart Kids (Context, 2019; 192 pp., ISBN ) profiles 45 Indian men in fields including science, public service, business and sport.

In November 2024, Penguin Random House India published Why the Heck Not? Blueprints for Success from the Man Who Built DLF (India Viking; 304 pp., ISBN ), co-authored by K.P. Singh and Jain. The Week called it an insider account of Gurgaon’s real-estate transformation while noting that parts read like a “sanitised blueprint”.