Press & Testimonials

It has been a pleasure to have Prasanna present at our events. He is one of the most engaging speakers we have ever had. The content he delivers is both inspiring and entertaining, while also being strategic and easy to implement. I am looking forward to having him speak at future events.

- Kosta Petrov, Managing Director, P World, Organizer of the Global PR Summit 7 where Prasanna was a keynote speaker

Prasanna is truly a multi-talented individual. He made the leap from a legal profession to DEI work within the tech industry at Shopify and in his time at the company had a profound impact on multiple different areas and levels of the business. He built and managed the roll out of a Global Diversity & Belonging strategy that was informed by our teams across the globe thanks to Prasanna's work developing an international committee to partner on the strategy and ensure it spoke to all our employees. He also partnered with our Brand and Studios teams to ensure our communications and storytelling projects were built from an inclusive lens from the very beginning. In the time I spent as his direct report I was constantly witnessing various parts of the business pulling Prasanna in for his expertise - the impact he had at Shopify was massive. It was no surprise to me as in addition to his expertise he is incredibly kind, thoughtful and a true pleasure to work with. You always know he's bringing 100% to what he does and with the most positive attitude. Cannot recommend him enough!

- Amandah Wood, Professional Coach and the Founder of The Ways We Work

We had Prasanna speak at our virtual conference and he was definitely the highlight of our conference. His ability to convey so much information and emotion, especially over the internet, was really wonderful. He provided insights that felt personalized and meaningful. Any event and their attendees would be lucky to have him.

- Mike Morrison, Founder and Chair, Social @ Home Conference, host, writer, speaker, podcaster and community builder.

Prasanna is an exceptional leader in the Diversity & Inclusion space. Having worked with him closely at Shopify for several years, I can confidently say that Pras brings his expertise, approachable demeanour, and tremendous energy to every project he works on. As a storyteller and content producer at Shopify, it’s imperative that the work we create is both accessible and inclusive to all audiences. Prasanna developed and facilitated countless workshops internally to help ensure all in-house producers were equipped with the necessary inclusion and accessibility training, which helped unlock a new level of confidence needed to make our work in the field and in the editing suite more universally inclusive. From pre-production casting considerations to post-production accessibility builds like described video, Pras’ involvement always helped elevate the stories we told and the work we shipped. Pras made time to offer extensive advisory services on a broad range of projects including Shopify Summit.

- Chrissi Forte, Executive Producer, Culture at Shopify

I first got to know Prasanna in 2019-2021 while working at Shopify as the Managing Producer of Shopify Studios and later as Shopify’s Head of Social. Prasanna’s allyship towards underrepresented communities in Tech was a force within the company. He created safe spaces for dialogue and built a foundation for diversity and inclusion to grow within the company. Part of how he achieved this was through a number of custom workshops for teams with creative and customer-facing responsibilities. In one such workshop, Prasanna delicately coached my team on how to apply a D&I lens to our customer focused content. His presentation still stands out as being engaging, sensitive, and refreshingly current. So often D&I work in corporate settings feels out of date - dialogue on these topics advances so quickly that even a few months can sometimes make the content feel stale. Prasanna demonstrated that he’s not only up to date with the dialogue but a leading figure in advancing this dialogue online. He earned my team’s trust and admiration instantly and his workshop helped us immensely in evolving Shopify’s creative craft and ultimately made the brand present appropriately as an ally to the communities we aimed to foster.

- Sal Patel, Red Bull Media Network Head

Prasanna and I had the opportunity to collaborate on a number of programs (employee and leader onboarding, DE&I training and workshops, and action planning on employee feedback) as well as individual employee relations cases at Shopify. I always felt that Pras was a true partner, an expert and leader in his field, and one that approaches each situation with high care and deep empathy. I would welcome the opportunity to work with Pras again in the future, and am thrilled to see the continued success he is having.

- Trisha Mauro-Barnett, SVP, People & Values, Bond Brand Loyalty

I was lucky enough to be a peer of Prasanna's on Shopify's Employee Experience, Diversity and Belonging senior leadership team. Although we led different sub-teams, Prasanna quickly became my go-to thought partner on a number of topics - not just how to consider DEI as integral to all my work, but also anything to do with leadership and building inclusive teams. We worked directly together on a diversity, equity and inclusion audit of Shopify's TA processes and systems. Through this work, Prasanna established key project objectives, steered the team towards those while giving everyone the autonomy to own their discrete parts, shared his knowledge in a way that made us all better for it, and built influential cross-team partnerships across many parts of HR. Prasanna is no doubt a brilliant addition to any team, but he's also a constant learner, a bridge builder and an incredibly curious human. These traits 10x the impact he is able to have in any setting

- Lisa Madokoro, Director of People Research & Analytics @ Wealthsimple

If you are looking for a speaker who will put the work in to create something that will really connect with your audience, while also challenging them to think differently, look no further than Prasanna. I worked with Prasanna when I was the founding curator of The Walrus Talks, a national series of thought leadership events. Prasanna was a featured speaker, where he delivered a well-crafted, thoughtful, and impassioned talk about why diverse representation matters in all aspects of business and society. His Walrus Talk was an audience favourite that continues to get attention, and Prasanna was an absolute joy to work with.

- David Leonard, Leader in purpose-driven orgs - strategy, program development, public programming and engagement, events, fundraising (formerly Director at The Walrus)

I have worked with Prasanna for the past 5 years. He is a wonderful human, and a dream to collaborate with. Prasanna has transformed our accessibility training for 500+ staff members each year, and we continue to work with him to keep this training relevant and improve our audience experience. This training module includes valuable and insightful information, and is presented in an interactive and engaging way. Prasanna provides the perfect balance between overarching, detailed information about accessibility while being industry-specific with references to the film industry, representation in film, and scenarios that the team might face in their specific roles onsite. The staff feel comfortable asking questions, providing feedback, and sharing their own experiences and insights. Prasanna answers and responds to this with patience and grace, embracing the interaction which further enriches these sessions. Each year, the team expresses that they feel prepared, informed, and confident about the customer service that they are able to provide to our audiences. Overall, the work that Prasanna continues to do with us provides our team with tactical and tangible takeaways and lessons which make our team more inclusive in their approach with our audience. Prasanna is extremely knowledgeable, an expert in this field, has a kind heart, and an infectious personality that makes any interaction with them a true pleasure.

- Alyssa Kornet, Senior Director, Festival Services and Event Production at Toronto International Film Festival

My team and I learned so much from Prasanna — he prepared content, led sessions and provided consultation services for us on an ongoing basis (the Brand & Audience Expansion org). I appreciated that he was well-versed in the media landscape and pop culture, so he was able to give really nuanced and relevant guidance. His approachable style made us feel comfortable asking questions and eager to collaborate more

- Lindsay Craig, Director of Brand & Audience Expansion at Shopify

Prasanna is an exemplary manager and judicial-legal advisor, dealing with all aspects of program design, reporting, and implementation in justice sector, court reform, and judicial programming. He has a keen mind and fantastic research, writing, and communications skills, as demonstrated by the range of reports and papers he has authored as a part of his work on judicial programs in other countries. He is adept at dealing with a range of stakeholders in Canada and internationally, including judges, ministers, diplomats, consultants, and government officials and pays great attention to detail in all aspects of his work. Prasanna is an exceptional ambassador for our international programming, successfully representing Federal Judicial Affairs at several international missions, meetings, and events and forging deep and meaningful connections with key project partners. Furthermore, he is a joy to work with, sharing kindness, good humor, and friendship with all of his colleagues in our department.

- Oleg Shakov, Director, International Programs Division, Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada

Prasanna is an outstanding lawyer. In his time at MLT, he quickly demonstrated excellent legal skills, especially in complex and specialized areas of the law. Prasanna has particular strength in his analytical skills and writing. While he was at MLT, he made many friends. We miss having him around the office!

- Kevin Wilson, K.C., Partner (Labour and Employment Law), MLT Aikins LLP