Naureen Meraj
Naureen is a high-impact executive and respected thought leader in the fields of global innovation, digital engagement and gamification, who was recognized by the Worcester Business Journal as one of 2015’s Outstanding Women in Business. Most recently, Naureen helped clients at Salesforce create innovative solutions in healthcare, travel and hospitality using design thinking in conjunction with the Salesforce digital platform. Previously, she was the Senior Global Director for Digital Engagement & Gamification at NTT DATA, the 5th largest IT Services company in the world. There she helped launch NTT DATA’s Global Digital Practice to advise clients on realizing the business value of digital investments, and compete successfully with the hottest upstarts in their industry. By conducting innovation workshops to identify relevant trends and improving stakeholder participation, she successfully accelerated clients’ digital transformation and grew NTT DATA’s practice from startup to $60MM in 18 months.
Previously, Naureen created NTT DATA’s practices in Gamification and Corporate eLearning that won high profile new clients, generated several million dollars of new revenue, won several industry awards and was profiled by leading analysts and publications. Her pioneering work has been recognized by InformationWeek as one of the 500 best innovations for 2012 and 2013. Naureen has also received the 2014 Chief Learning Officer ‘Learning in Practice Award’ for Achievement in Business Impact, and ‘2014 Brandon Hall Excellence in Technology Award’ for Best Advance in Social Learning Technology. Naureen continues to advise corporate leaders around the world on using gamification to improve their business, and her insights have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and Forbes.
Naureen has been a featured speaker on Digital and Gamification opportunities to business leaders at Gartner, Disney, Harvard and MIT in North America; Mobile World Congress and Gamification World Congress in Europe; Melbourne Business Leaders Conference in Australia; and Digital Innovation Summit in Central America and Asia Pacific.
Naureen has over 10 years of experience working with students and adults to maximize their professional and personal development potential, often using games as a catalyst for positive behavior reinforcement. She graduated with a B.A. in Sociology from University of Washington and a M.Ed. from University of Massachusetts, Boston School of Education and Human Development.
Outside of work, Naureen is passionate about using innovation to improve K-12 education. She has been deeply involved in various educational initiatives across several Boston institutions. In 2013, she founded iGAME, the first organization to focus on increasing innovation and adoption of educational games in public schools. In 2015, iGame evolved into Teach the World, a nonprofit that teaches reading, writing and math to children in the developing world using games on low-cost tablets. In 2016, she was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Worcester Ecotarium, one of the nation’s most innovative institutions dedicated to the study of science and nature. Naureen was also elected as a Corporator overseeing the philanthropic work of the Greater Worcester Community Foundation.
