Rashmi Airan
| Rashmi Airan | |
| Nationality | American |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Keynote speaker, author, former attorney and investment banker |
| Known for | Keynotes on ethical decision-making; author of All Rise |
| Education | Columbia Law School |
| Website | rashmiairan.com |
Rashmi Airan is an American keynote speaker, author, and former attorney. A first-generation American raised by parents who immigrated from India, she graduated with honors from Columbia Law School and worked as a Wall Street investment banker before establishing an independent law practice in Miami.[1] In 2015 she served a six-month federal prison sentence for bank fraud, and the path from her legal practice to federal prison and back has since become the foundation of an international speaking practice focused on ethical decision-making and leadership.[1][2]
Airan began working as a keynote speaker in 2016 and has delivered programs including the keynotes Rise to Clarity, Rise Through It, and Rise Together, built around her RISE framework for decision-making under pressure.[2][1] Her clients and collaborators have included Coca-Cola, Cardinal Health, Merck, Comcast, Sotheby's, and Hershey's, and her work has been featured by ABC, PBS, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal.[1] She is the author of the book All Rise.[3]
Early life and education
Airan is a first-generation American whose parents immigrated from India; she has described being raised to believe that hard work determined worth and that success would arrive on a linear path.[1] She graduated with honors from Columbia Law School in 1990.[1]
Career
Law and business
Airan's career before speaking spanned law and finance. Her official biography credits her as an attorney, a Wall Street investment banker, a serial entrepreneur, and a college professor.[1] In 2000 she established an independent law practice in Miami.[1]
Federal conviction
In 2015, Airan served a six-month federal prison sentence for bank fraud.[1] She has described the experience as life-altering, tracing her offense to a professional blind spot, and her account of the fall from practice to prison now anchors her keynote on a lawyer's journey to federal prison and beyond.[2][1] Columbia Law School professor John C. Coffee Jr. has hosted her as a guest speaker on how seemingly normal professional practice can cross the line into fraud, and Joe Capone, the former federal prosecutor who was her adversary in the courtroom, now collaborates with her in writing and speaking.[2]
Speaking and writing
Airan began her reinvention as an internationally recognized keynote speaker and TEDx presenter in 2016.[1] Her programs draw on research in behavioral ethics and what she calls ethical vigilance, and her website credits her with more than 450 events across 55 locations, including 125 workshops.[2][1] In 2020 she collaborated with global brands including Coca-Cola, Cardinal Health, Merck, Comcast, Sotheby's, and Hershey's, and in 2024 her work was featured in major media outlets including ABC, PBS, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal.[1]
She is the author of All Rise, a memoir about her fall from legal practice and the framework she developed for rebuilding after failure, in which she writes that the prisons people build within themselves can be harder to escape than any with walls.[3]
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