Sandra Sims-Williams

Sandra Sims-Williams is the Chief Business Inclusion, Impact & Belonging Officer of Nielsen, a global audience measurement and data analytics company. In this role, Sandra leads Nielsen’s business inclusion, impact and belonging strategy to create a more inclusive and equitable media industry—empowering clients, communities and employees.

Sandra is a transformational leader with over 30 years of experience. Since joining Nielsen in 2020, Sandra has led the company’s work across inclusive culture and business practices, global talent development and corporate responsibility. In 2024, she evolved the combined DE&I and Corporate Citizenship team to Business Inclusion, Impact & Belonging to reflect the team’s tangible and positive impact on both internal and external stakeholders and ultimately, the success of Nielsen’s people and business. Making the case for "all at the table" brings more opportunity for change and outcomes that improve the bottom line.

She has increased the Business Resource Groups at Nielsen to 15 representative groups. She is also on the Nielsen Foundation’s board which seeks to support development of diverse representation in media and marketing, while educating external constituents. In addition, she leads Nielsen’s External Advisory Council, a group that ensures fair audience measurement that is representative of the population benchmarked by the U.S. Census.

Prior to joining Nielsen, Sandra made history by becoming the very first Chief Diversity Officer for Publicis Groupe—a communications holding company with global affiliates. She spent 14 years working for a variety of Publicis agencies. Her diversity and inclusion career began at Digitas, a media and digital agency.

Sandra is a straight talk leader and change agent. She counsels leaders to develop an inclusive mindset in business, communication, and people engagement. Given her influence across multiple industries, she is known for creating space for diverse groups—space that gives room for their voices and creates opportunities to build stronger leaders and managers with a mindset and behaviors that drives inclusion at work. She believes in the power of high-touch experiences that change people through stories, situations, and developmental workshops.

To influence and help change the marketing and media industries, Sandra is on the boards of the New York Advertising Club, BRIDGE and ColorComm. On these boards, she helps shape the industry through CEOs, CMOs and CDO colleagues while also helping to develop future leaders and building diverse industry connections.

Sandra has been a mentor, advisor, supporter of women in various stages of their careers. She has created two groups of women: one of her peers to support each other, and Sandra’s Sister Circle (SSC)—a younger group of women mentored by the first. Both groups have lasted over 13 years and meet each month. SSC women have advanced their careers through the support and mentoring from this group interaction. Sandra’s purpose is to leave a place, a person, a situation better than she found it.