Author: IPN

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Spotlight

Nabila Alibhai

IPN Spotlight: Nabila Alibhai (Founder, inCOMMONS)

Nabila Alibhai leads inCOMMONS, a new cultural production lab focused on invigorating public spaces and inspiring collective responsibility for our cultural and environmental heritage. Nabila Alibhai has had significant career in strategic and creative consulting. She has held positions in the Aga Khan Development Network, the United Nations and the International Organization for Migration and has worked on projects in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania, the United States and Switzerland.
She has a Master of Public Health from Yale University and is trained in conflict resolution. She was also mid-career fellow in MIT’s Special Program for Urban and Regional Studies in order to advance her efforts on community solidarity through public spaces. She is a TED Speaker and author.

What skills have helped you in your career?
Skills: Strategic planning, communications, policy development.
Sectors: conflict resolution, community resilience, public health, urban planning.

What do you wish you had known or done differently throughout your career?
I wish I had put less effort into trying to define myself. Being at TED Global this year I met so many more people who have eclectic lives, and whose passions don’t quite fit a conventional mold. Though not without it’s challenges, doing new things necessitates stepping out of old paradigms.

What do you do for continuing education and improvement?
Working as a consultant means I’m constantly learning. A mid-career fellowship (MIT Special Program in Urban and Regional Studies) was also a wonderful way of taking a step back and redirecting my life’s work.

What is next for you in your career?
Enabling pluralism, solidarity, health and safety through leadership development, governance and creating scalable public space initiatives. I do this through consulting, designing projects through inCOMMONS, and thought leadership – public speaking and writing.

What advice would you offer to others?
Figure out what you would do if no one was paying you to do it and do more of it.

Areas where you can help other Ismailis:
• Thinking through careers in development
• Figuring out career transitions
• Thinking through whether to go back to school
• Experience sharing in working in conflict and in public health

Please provide the link to your LinkedIn profile:
Nabila Alibhai

If you would like to nominate someone to be a part of the spotlight, click Here.

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Spotlight

Alim Hirani

IPN Spotlight: Alim Hirani (General Manager/Managing Director at Hilti India)

Alim Hirani has been General Manager / Managing Director of Hilti India since October 2015. He is responsible for the strategy and long term development of the Hilti organization in India. He began his career with Hilti in 2004 in the United States and he has held various diversified roles in sales, finance, strategic marketing and general management. Alim has lived in Houston, Dallas, Tulsa and in San Francisco where he was Divisional Head for Northern California, Oregon, Washington & Alaska.
In 2015, he was appointed as General Manager / MD for Hilti India and relocated to New Delhi for this role. He has always been instrumental in developing and implementing strategy in alignment with Hilti’s mid- and long-term goals. Alim has majorly contributed towards steering the business results through the execution of strategic initiatives while fostering the development of organizational talent. He holds a Bachelor in Finance/Marketing and an executive MBA from the University of Houston.

What skills have helped you in your career?
Empathetic leadership, passion for people, relentless pursuit to deliver results, listening more talking less, being curious and being patient yet persistent.

What do you wish you had known or done differently throughout your career?
Don’t get dishearten by failures. Failing is learning and it is part of the development process. Take every moment positively and don’t be to hard on yourself when things don’t go right. If you are not making mistakes, you are making the biggest mistake.

What do you do for continuing education and improvement?
1) Read – I travel alot and as a result find time to read a lot in the air. I recently read Hit Refresh, by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. It’s an authentic masterpiece about the importance to stop what we’re doing, rethink, re-energize, & recalibrate
2) Social media platforms – I believe social media if utilized correctly can be a huge learning platform to continuously learn and develop
3) External stimuli – once a year I make it a point to engage in an external conference or executive education to gain different perspectives and stay relevant. The world is changing at such rapid speed and it’s important to try and keep up. It’s very easy to get blinders on and begin to see the world from your viewpoint
4) Mentorship – Leadership can sometimes be a very lonely job and it’s important to have someone to give you feedback and that you can reflect with from time to time

What is next for you in your career?
I have had a very simple policy of not worrying about what is next. I believe in focusing on doing the role you are in, doing it well, developing people and delivering results. As long as I am personally growing, having fun and having the opportunity to have an impact and difference in people’s lives, I am happy doing what I do. When the time is right and if I am ready, the organization will give me a new challenge.

What advice would you offer to others?
1) Set your own benchmark on what success looks like – don’t let others define your personal journey
2) Have a mentor and be a mentor – I truly believe that you can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want
3) Don’t forget to give back – when you give back (in any form) and are a contributing member of civil society, I believe you always receive much more than you give
4) Discipline and focus are underrated and boring, however, they are cornerstones for success

Krish Dhanam said it best – “Plan w/attitude, prepare w/ aptitude, participate w/ servitude, receive w/ gratitude, & that should be enough to separate you from the multitudes.”

Areas where you can help other Ismailis:
• Building high performing teams
• Career advice
• Sales leadership
• Job placement
• Strategic Marketing

Please provide the link to your LinkedIn profile:
Alim Hirani

If you would like to nominate someone to be a part of the spotlight, click Here.

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Event

IPN Economic Forecasting Summit 2018 : Atlanta, GA on Thursday, January 18th 2018

IPN is proud to present our 2018 ANNUAL ECONOMIC FORECASTING EVENT!

Come join IPN for its third annual Economic Forecasting Summit. The Former Director of Economic Forecasting for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Galina Alexeenko, will share her thoughts on opportunities and challenges in the economy and real estate for the coming year. This event will be held at the prestigious 103 West in Buckhead on January 18th. Enjoy an exquisite lunch along with an amazing presentation by renowned Economist of the Region.

WHEN: Thursday, 11am-1pm

WHERE: 103 West Paces Ferry Road, Atlanta GA 30305

Be sure to purchase your Tickets and reserve your spot, as space is limited!

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Event

IPN Career Panel : Webinar on Sunday, December 3rd 2017 – Job & Internship Search Advice & Best Practices for International Students

Are you an international student in the U.S.? Are you thinking about coming to study then work in the U.S.?

If you answered yes to either of those questions, this webinar is for you. Come hear a panel of international students who recently got jobs/internships talk about their searches and experiences on Sunday, December 3rd at 11:00AM EST. This webinar will also feature a presentation from an immigration attorney, a compilation of job search best practices, and live Q&A with the panelists.

Register at the link below!

https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/9081294630636385549

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Event

IPN Networking Event : Edison, NJ on Saturday, December 2nd 2017

The Ismaili Professionals Network (IPN) is excited to invite you to a networking event to be held in Edison, NJ on Saturday, December 2nd 2017.
We are grateful to our panelists to be able to share their expert knowledge on a variety of topics. Below are the names of the panel members and the tentative topics that will be discussed-

1) Ayeesha Sachedina: BOA Payment innovation
2) Shanif Dhanani: Startup- Stages and Structures
3) Salman Himani: Retail- Traditional versus Trending

Where : Edison, NJ Jamat Khana
Time: 11am onwards followed by lunch at 12pm
Open Q&A session from 12:30pm onwards

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Event

IPN Panel Discussion : Washington, D.C. on Sunday, December 3rd 2017

IPN will be holding a panel discussion on “Making an Impact Through the Public Sector” in Washington, D.C. on December 3rd 2017. The panel will include jamati members with experience working for a variety of different government institutions. The discussion will be held prior to the Dua gathering and food will be served after the gathering.

Address: Downtown DC, at 1111 19th Street NW
Time: 5pm onwards

Categories
Spotlight

Shemin Nurmohamed

IPN Spotlight: Shemin Nurmohamed (CEO, Pitney Bowes)

Shemin is currently CEO of Pitney Bowes France. She joined PB in early 2016. She is a member of the PB Leadership Team, and has been nominated to the PB Technology team to help craft the strategy on innovation, accelerator and machine-to-machine learning. Prior to joining PB, Shemin had a successful 17-year career at IBM, where she held a number of other leadership roles, in both finance and sales, at the national, European, and Global levels.
Shemin started her career on Wall Street working for D.E. Shaw. She is also Chairman of fast-growing startup LiveMon. Passionate about helping young women navigate their careers, Shemin is regularly invited to speak at seminars and conferences in Europe and the Middle East. She most recently gave a Tedx talk on the subject and plans to release her first book on Amazon Nov. 23, 2017.
Shemin holds a BA in Chemistry from Cornell, an MA from the University of Toronto, and an MBA from Henley. She resides in Paris with her husband and two children.

What skills have helped you in your career?
Believe it or not I think that the softer skills which are easily transferable from job to job have helped me in my career. Skills like: a) listening – people are so worried about making an impression so they are always thinking of the next comment they forget to actually listen and this is where breakthroughs are made; b) Compassion – when you care for your team and think of them as people and not just means to a goal not only breed loyalty but you will outperform because you will truly work as a unit and finally c) Consistency -I have found that in terms of career longevity, looking at it like a marathon versus a sprint, in my opinion. Consistently working on long term objective will allow one to achieve incredible results in one’s lifetime. Although these are soft skills, I believe that they can be real game changers in the trajectory of one’s career.

What do you wish you had known or done differently throughout your career?
Well – I really have no regrets, but if I had a time machine I would tell my younger self to not be so hard on herself and not to be scared to take short sabbaticals between jobs. Additionally, I would tell her not to laugh at Jeff Bezos’ startup idea of selling books on the internet in 1995 when we worked at the same investment bank. 🙂

What do you do for continuing education and improvement?
Well first I do take advantage of any opportunities offered by my company – for example IBM offered to pay for my MBA which I did and Pitney has a Harvard Manage Mentor program which I am in the process of completing. Additionally, I try to read as much as I can to find the nuggets that will help me improve my team, my leadership and myself – one small step at a time.

What is next for you in your career?
To be very honest sometimes I have to pinch myself as I never thought I would get this far! Given that it is by the grace of God that I am I feel that it is my duty to help others on this journey. So, in terms of next steps to complement my career, I plan on doing more coaching and speaking and who knows maybe write another book!

What advice would you offer to others?
The two best pieces of advice I had received was:
1) Don’t be afraid to make mistakes just don’t make the same ones twice and
2) You can have it all just not all at the same time – this last piece of advice is really helpful for a working mom as it takes the pressure off being perfect all the time

Areas where you can help other Ismailis:
• Career coaching
• Interview prep for students wanting to go to IVY leagues as I am an interviewer for Cornell
• Women mentorship

Please provide the link to your LinkedIn profile:
Shemin Hirji-Nurmohamed

If you would like to nominate someone to be a part of the spotlight, click Here.

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Event

Panel Discussion & Networking Event : Seattle, WA on Saturday, December 9th 2017

The Ismaili Professional Network (IPN) West invites you to learn about and discuss Cultural Competence in the Workplace.

Many employers contend that cultural competence, the ability to interact effectively with individuals from diverse backgrounds, is a non-negotiable skill in the 21st century. Whether you are treating a patient whose culture or religion prohibit certain procedures, or you are closing a deal with an international customer who conducts business in a different manner than you, the ability to recognize disparate perspectives and navigate those conversations is an industry-agnostic competency.

While diversity and its challenges in the workplace are often discussed, professionals today more than ever before need to focus on how to optimize their working relationships in such multicultural environments. In this session, IPN will facilitate a discussion on the topic of cultural competence and have our expert panelists share their experiences. You’ll hear ideas on what you and your employer can do to promote cultural competence within your organization.

We look forward to seeing you on Saturday, December 9th at 1 p.m. PT in Downtown Seattle for an engaging discussion followed by time to network. Light refreshments and snacks will be provided. Our confirmed speakers include Shelmina Babai Abji (Global Empowerment Speaker and Former IBM Vice President), Affshin Valji (Partner, PwC Technology Consulting), Feyrouz Kurji (Principal, FDK Consulting) and Jamil Valliani (Partner Group Program Manager, Microsoft).

The event is open to all friends and colleagues! Please register by December 8th at: https://www.tinyurl.com/ipnwestcultural

WHEN: Saturday, December 9th from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. PT
WHERE: Microsoft Westlake Office, 320 Westlake Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109
REGISTRATION ENDS: Friday, December 8th at 11:59 p.m. PT
TICKETS: $20 + processing fee

Our confirmed speakers include:

Shelmina Babai Abji, Panelist
Shelmina Babai Abji is a global empowerment speaker, a former IBM Vice President, an investor in early stage technology companies, a distinguished alumni and an advisor to C-suite executives. She serves on boards of United Nations Girl Up and Young Women Empowered. Shelmina rose up to be one of the highest ranking women of color at IBM (employs over 400,000 people globally) and had the opportunity to lead many different businesses: hardware, software and services. She has run start-up businesses as well as mature businesses with revenue in excess of a billion dollars annually. She had the privilege of hiring over 1,000 people during her career and promoted / guided the careers of many. She has a proven a track record of consistently delivering on all of her key performance indicators while living a balanced life as a single mother of two children. Shelmina earned her Bachelor of Science in Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, where she was honored as a distinguished alumni, and her Bachelor of Science in Mathematics at the University of Poona, India. As part of IBM’s top talent, she has received extensive leadership training at IBM, Harvard University and UCLA.

Affshin Valji, Panelist
Affshin is a Partner within PwC’s Technology Consulting group focused on clients in the High Tech and Retail industries. He has over twenty years of consulting and industry experience leading global programs that deliver measurable business value leveraging technology and business process transformation. Affshin regularly leads teams that are spread across the globe and has lived in multiple countries including Singapore and Australia. He is actively engaged in the local community as PwC’s Pro-Bono consulting services leader, which provides strategic services to not-for-profit organizations in Seattle, as well as being an active board member at Treehouse (treehouseforkids.org) and Leadership Tomorrow (leadershiptomorrowseattle.org).

Feyrouz Kurji, Panelist
Born in Kenya, Feyrouz Kurji immigrated to Canada with her parents at the age of three. She received a Bachelor’s Degree from Stanford and subsequently her Master’s in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Feyrouz has extensive experience in the areas of public policy and global development. As Principal, FDK Consulting LLC, she focuses on management and delivery of complex, high-priority projects requiring cross-team and inter-organizational input and accountability. She also conducts policy design and implementation and strategic program assessments. Feyrouz previously worked as Director of Higher Education Research and Development Policy within the Canadian federal government and was the Executive Director of the Secretariat for the Science, Technology and Innovation Council. Prior to that, she was an analyst with the Privy Council Office of the Government of Canada, Country Manager for Kenya for the Aga Khan Foundation, and worked at Kagiso Trust assessing grant proposals and working with communities to strengthen their development efforts.

Jamil Valliani, Panelist
As Partner Group Program Manager at Microsoft, Jamil Valliani leads Bing Image Search, Video Search, Entertainment, Home Page, Growth and UX Platform teams. These experiences and platforms touch over 100mm users and billions of searches every month. Jamil has experience building world-class product teams, driving rapid growth and shipping outstanding products. During his 10 year tenure in Search, he has become well-known as product leader for Bing Image & Video Search – differentiating features that have contributed heavily to Bing’s rise to over 30% US market share. More recently, he also became leader of Bing’s Home Page and Entertainment experiences, which have also had significant impact to Bing’s growth and are industry-leading. As a seasoned manager, Jamil has a reputation for developing strong leaders. Individuals on his team have graduated into senior product leadership roles around the industry.

Categories
Spotlight

Dr. Shirin Poonja

IPN Spotlight: Dr. Shirin Poonja (Hospitalist, Loyola University Medical Center)

Dr. Shirin Poonja is board-certified in Internal Medicine, and practices Hospital Medicine at Loyola University Medical Center. In addition to her clinical time, Shirin is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Nutrition Vertical Curriculum at Loyola’s Stritch School of Medicine. She also currently serves as Kamadiani Ma for the Chicago Downtown Jamat Khana.

What skills have helped you in your career?
There are three fundamental skills I have used to navigate my career – empathy, problem-solving and taking initiative. When patients are admitted to the hospital, they are likely most vulnerable, requiring me to extend a level of empathy that acknowledges their psychosocial state. I then mobilize to gather patient data, and analyze and synthesize a diagnosis that is then addressed with cost-effective treatments. Additionally, when I first started at Loyola University Medical Center, I was determined to fulfill my clinical duties while building a presence on the medical campus via teaching engagements. I have also pursued scholarly activities such as co-authoring book chapters, participating in speaking engagements at peer institutions, and contributing to medical literature in national publications. I have learned that in many western societies, choosing one’s career is an important decision, but the luxury we have is to pursue opportunities that can dramatically evolve our skill set.

What do you wish you had known or done differently throughout your career?
I had the privilege of serving as Chief Resident during residency, which offered me a unique and valuable perspective on leadership, administration and medical education. However, I was not trained in the methodologies and processes for curriculum development. How does one define goals and objectives for curriculum content? What are various methods of assessment for students? When I took the role of Director of the Nutrition Vertical Curriculum, I had to lean more heavily on senior colleagues, online modules and best practices to gain a better appreciation to fulfill my role. Similarly, your profession may require you to think more holistically about accomplishing objectives, and gaining team support to acquire new skills; be ready and willing!

What do you do for continuing education and improvement?
Like other professions, the healthcare field requires continuing medical education that I attempt to fulfill daily – reading health care journals, attending on-campus presentations, and frequenting regional and national conferences. Additionally, there is no better way to stay ahead of new knowledge than teaching it, so I find delivering medical education key to my ability to continue building my own knowledge.

What is next for you in your career?
Given that my primary focus is clinical, I am pursuing the clinical educator track, which will lead to academic promotion following demonstration of greater scholarly contribution, excellence in teaching, service to the Stritch School of Medicine, and even recognition outside the Loyola Community. These efforts cannot merely be achieved overnight, but require investment and dedication from day one. In order to advance your career, start early!

What advice would you offer to others?
Realize that one reason we aim to excel in our professions is to serve our community. Use the skills that have been acquired in your career to further our institutional capacities, either at the local or national level. Additionally, for those who feel that accommodating service into an already demanding career is difficult, remember that personal or professional challenges will always present themselves in various forms. Someone once told me, when there is a “seva” knock at the door, open it (in other words, be willing to accept service opportunities when they are presented to you)!

Areas where you can help other Ismailis:
• Career counseling in hospital medicine
• Balancing work/life/jamati responsibilities
• Nutrition-related guidance

Please provide the link to your LinkedIn profile:
Shirin Poonja

If you would like to nominate someone to be a part of the spotlight, click Here.

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Event

IPN Panel Discussion & Networking Event : Playa Vista, LA on Saturday, December 2nd 2017

Disruption is a buzzword in our business vernacular. It characterizes industry’s battle against new waves of technology that displace the incumbents. It is also used to classify a new market where none had existed before. Critical emerging technologies today include big data, blockchain, cloud computing, IoT, AI, machine learning, digital transformation, autonomous vehicles and more. Each offers the potential to alter the way we live and conduct business on a global basis.

Today’s seemingly constant state of disruption leaves business and policy leaders wondering the implications. It also raises questions from professionals on how to stay relevant in today’s evolving business landscape.

IPN West invites you to continue the conversation on Saturday, December 2nd at 12 p.m. in Playa Vista, Los Angeles followed by time to network. Light refreshments and lunch will be provided.

The event is open to all friends and colleagues! Please register by December 1st at: https://tinyurl.com/ipnwestdisruption

WHEN: Saturday, December 2nd from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. PT
WHERE: WeWork Playa Vista, 12655 W Jefferson Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90066
REGISTRATION ENDS: Friday, December 1st at 5:00 p.m. PT
TICKETS: $20 + processing fee

The State of Disruption keynote will be provided by:

Akbar Jaffer, Keynote
Akbar Jaffer is a 30-year veteran in the software industry and specializes in growth strategies. Akbar currently serves as the Chief Marketing Officer of ZorroSign, an advanced digital transaction management platform company that helps organizations digitally transform business transactions using bank-grade security and document 4n6 (forensics) technology. Akbar is also the author of a blog about crossroads of technology and humanities called PointOfIntersection.org.

Our confirmed panelists include:

Ville Houttu, Panelist
Ville Houttu is Founder and CEO of Vincit California. Previously, he worked as a Head of Business Development for Vincit Group, helping the Finnish organization to reach US$30 million and take it public on Nasdaq First North marketplace.

Irfan Ali, Panelist
Irfan Ali is the Global Director of the Innovation, Architecture and Solutions team for the Digital Transformation Group at Cisco. He also was previously on the advisory board for Pepperdine University in Malibu, California for its e-Learning Platform, is the Vice chairman of the Board of Advisors for Sacred Heart Family Medical Clinic in Downey, California and is on the Board of Advisors for eFormshotline.com in Fullerton, California.

Lisa Song Sutton, Panelist
Lisa Song Sutton, J.D., is a real estate investor and entrepreneur, holding ownership interests in several
companies in the real estate, tech, retail and food and beverage industries, including Las Vegas’ Sin City Cupakes. She sits on the advisory boards for several companies including Bitcoin Nevada, an education foundation promoting cryptocurrency, and Youngry, an entrepreneurship media company.

Al Lalani, Panelist
Al Lalani is the Founder and CEO of Annex Cloud – a SaaS provider for Customer Marketing Solutions for increasing brand loyalty, advocacy and user generated content for brands. He built the company from a team of 2 to over 150, now spread across multiple locations in the US as well as in the UK and India.

Irfan Ranmal, Panelist
Irfan Ranmal has been in Big Data and Analytics for over 15 years primarily in the entertainment industry. Irfan currently holds the title of Vice President of Data and Analytics at Hulu in Los Angeles, CA. His previous experience spans companies such as DirecTV, NBCUniversal and most recently Activision Blizzard where he led teams responsible for Consumer Technology, CRM, Marketing Analytics and Business Intelligence.

With the discussion being moderated by:

Naushad Huda, Moderator
Naushad Huda is a passionate entrepreneur, brand and digital strategist focused on innovation and growth. His nine year old strategy, UX/UI agency XTOPOLY was acquired June 2017 by Vincit. Today, Naushad leads strategy and partnerships at Vincit, a global 400+ team-member strong engineering powerhouse.