LaMae deJongh wasn't sure if she should attend law school or medical school when she graduated from Princeton with a degree in economics. So she deferred the decision by going to work for the consultancy giant Accenture.

"I thought I'd do this for two or three years and then go back to school. Well, 22 years later, I am still here," she says.

As of Jan. 1, she started her new job as U.S. Human Capital & Diversity managing director after most recently managing Accenture's North America Capital Markets Client Service Group.

"Accenture is all I know, and I am extremely passionate about our business and how we work with clients," deJongh says.

Her three main areas of focus are the individual, the client and the community.

The individual focus is about winning the war for talent by attracting skilled professionals and helping them develop through training and mentoring.

The client focus is, as she puts it, that "our clients expect us to bring them diversity they can see and diversity in thought. It's critical that we demonstrate to them that we're committed to an inclusive workplace and culture."

The community focus is a stepped-up effort in corporate citizenship, especially in these economic times.

For deJongh, thought leadership is critical to all these areas. As one of the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders, she clearly understands the big picture and how to translate it into day-to-day responsibilities.

"What has served me well here was really seeking to do every day what I needed to do to deliver the results that would be expected," she says.