Anita Mehra’s Passion for Microsoft’s ‘Culture of Inclusion’
# People and Talent
# DEI
The recently retired Microsoft treasurer on how mentorship can help women and people of color in finance.
In a new video clip you can watch by clicking the play button below, Anita Mehra, newly retired treasurer of Microsoft, shares how mentorship and peer networks shaped her career and ignited her passion for fostering the next generation of finance leaders, including women and people of color.
The video is taken from an upcoming episode of the Strategic Finance Lab podcast featuring Ms. Mehra in conversation with NeuGroup founder and CEO Joseph Neu. In it, she reflects on her career and the role that networks like NeuGroup played in her professional growth.
Ms. Mehra spent two decades at Microsoft, rising to the role of treasurer in 2021. She retired this year at the end of February.
An eye-opening moment. Looking back, Ms. Mehra recalls working at another company where she was also promoted to treasurer—making her one of only two women with the title of vice president—a recognition of her hard work that nonetheless amazed other women at the company, surprising and educating Ms. Mehra.
“It made me realize that I may have been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity, the sponsors and got promoted—and not everyone who puts in the work gets promoted,” she says. “And it’s harder for women and women of color.”
It is always the community. That realization underpinned Ms. Mehra’s commitment at Microsoft to “give back” and help drive what she describes as “a culture of inclusion,” mentoring emerging leaders and creating an environment where sharing experiences and insights sparked innovation and collaboration.
In the full podcast, Ms. Mehra credits Microsoft’s longstanding focus on inclusion—championed by leaders like CEO Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood—and its emphasis on community and innovation as a key to her professional growth. “Nothing gets done by one person; it is always the community,” she says.
Mentors and networks. Ms. Mehra notes that throughout her career, she benefitted from the support of mentors and professional networks—including NeuGroup’s Tech20 Treasurers’ Peer Group (now known as NeuGroup for Tech Treasurers), where a strong community of female treasurers collaborated and supported each other.
“We were showing up as treasury professionals, helping each other in a safe space,” she recalls. This environment, built on trust and mutual sponsorship, provided the foundation for transformational leadership.
Stay tuned to NeuGroup Insights to hear the full conversation, which covers Ms. Mehra’s early-career transition from the world of academia into corporate finance, how treasury navigates geopolitical and economic changes, her personal leadership style and more.
