Saabira Chaudhuri Keynote Speaker

Author of 'Consumed: How Big Brands It was selected as one of the Best Books of 2025: Environment, Science, and Technology, longlisted for the prestigious FT & Schroders Business Book of the Year 2025 Award, shortlisted for SABEW’s 2025 Best Business Book Award, and named a Nautilus Book Awards Silver Winner.
Covered the consumer goods industry for The Wall Street Journal for 12 years.
Reported for Dow Jones Newswires, Forbes, Fast Company and Mint.

Saabira Chaudhuri's Biography

Saabira Chaudhuri is a London-based business journalist with nearly two decades of experience reporting on how big companies shape the way we live. She spent 12 years at The Wall Street Journal in New York and London, where she reported on global consumer goods giants across industries including alcohol, fast fashion, personal care, tobacco and food and drink, and regularly spoke about her work on radio and the Journal’s podcasts.

Prior to WSJ, which she left in May 2025, Saabira worked on staff for Dow Jones newswires, Forbes and Fast Company in New York, and for the business newspaper, Mint, in New Delhi.

Her book Consumed – How Big Brands Got Us Hooked on Plastic was published in May 2025 and is a narrative non-fiction investigation of the global plastics crisis through a corporate lens. Consumed lifts the lid on why decades of promised solutions by the world’s biggest consumer goods companies have failed and why they will continue to fail unless we rewrite the rules by which business is done.

It was selected as one of the Best Books of 2025: Environment, Science, and Technology, longlisted for the prestigious FT & Schroders Business Book of the Year 2025 Award, shortlisted for SABEW’s 2025 Best Business Book Award, and named a Nautilus Book Awards Silver Winner 2026.

‘Consumed’ was described by Mike Berners-Lee – author of The Climate of Truth – as “eye-popping, engaging and rigorous” and by Chris Van Tulleken – author of Ultra-Processed People – as a book that “will change the way you see the world and could change the world itself.”

Saabira was the winner of the prestigious Wall Street Journal Asia fellowship to New York University where she earned an MA in Business and Economic Reporting. She graduated magna cum laude and phi beta kappa from Mount Holyoke College with a BA in sociology and spent her senior year studying law and sociology at the London School of Economics.

Originally from Bangalore, India, Saabira brings a global perspective to her reporting and speaking, drawing on a deep understanding of both the forces shaping emerging markets and the dynamics driving the West.

Consumed: How Big Brands Got Us Hooked on Plastic

For decades, the world’s biggest consumer goods companies have promised to solve the plastics crisis they’ve helped create. For decades, they’ve failed. Drawing on years of reporting and her acclaimed book Consumed, Saabira Chaudhuri takes audiences inside the boardrooms, research labs and marketing departments of the world’s most powerful brands to explain how we ended up drowning in plastic — and why the solutions being offered often aren’t what they seem. This is a story of corporate power, consumer psychology and the urgent need to rewrite the rules of global business if we want real change.

Beyond Greenwashing: The Truth About Corporate Sustainability

As public pressure has mounted on brands to act on climate and plastic pollution, corporate sustainability pledges have multiplied. But how many are more than marketing? In this talk, Saabira Chaudhuri draws on over a decade of reporting on big business for the Wall Street Journal to separate real progress from empty promises, exploring what genuine corporate leadership on sustainability looks like — and why so many well-meaning initiatives fall short.

How Big Business Shapes the Way We Live — and What That Means for the Future

From how we eat to how we parent, global brands have quietly reshaped our everyday lives over the past half century. In this talk, Saabira Chaudhuri traces how corporate strategies, marketing, and supply chains have transformed not just markets but our daily habits and expectations. Understanding this influence is key to tackling today’s biggest challenges, from health crises to climate change and has lessons for how we approach new risks like the impact of AI on our wellbeing.

Why the Sustainability Debate Is So Polarized — and How to Bridge the Divide

Writing about consumer goods companies and sustainability for The Wall Street Journal put Saabira Chaudhuri in a unique position: she’s spoken to people on every side of the debate. Her book 'Consumed' has been praised for holding big companies to account without being censorious or judgmental. Drawing on interviews with CEOs, lawyers and marketing heads, as well as the activists determined to take them down, Saabira explores why the “companies = evil” narrative is both outdated and counterproductive. In an increasingly polarized world, sustainability challenges can’t be solved by deepening divides. This talk examines how old narratives took hold, why they no longer serve us, and what it will take to build trust and collaboration between business, activists, and the public—while warning of the risks if that relationship continues to break down.

She draws on nearly two decades of reporting on global consumer giants to show leaders how corporate power shapes markets, culture and everyday behaviour.
She delivers a forensic view of the plastics crisis through the lens of her award recognised book Consumed, helping organisations understand why legacy sustainability fixes fail and what real change requires.
She brings newsroom level rigor from 12 years at The Wall Street Journal, turning complex corporate and environmental dynamics into clear insight for boards and senior teams.
She equips decision makers to navigate rising scrutiny on ethics, accountability and responsible growth, and to communicate credibly with stakeholders who demand proof over promises.
She offers a global perspective shaped by reporting across the US, UK and India, helping audiences connect consumer trends, regulation and sustainability pressures across markets.