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
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