Aatiqa Lateef: Group Chief of Staff at Byco Industries Incorporated.
But time and again, there are trailblazers who crack that code. They see opportunity where others see a disadvantage. They learn to maneuver a world that seems skewed towards serving those already at the top. Armed with their vision, ambition and persistence, they create paths where there were none. Driving this point home are some of Pakistan’s prominent female executives who have overcome multiple impediments to excel in their field and stand as reminders of what one can achieve if they put their mind to it.
Jehan Ara, responsible for developing the P@SHA brand, is a force to reckon with in the male-dominated field of Information Technology. With almost 30 years of experience in marketing, communication and interactive media in Hong Kong, the Far East, United Arab Emirates and Pakistan, she has built an impressive portfolio and remains mostly unchallenged in the field.
Ara completed a Bachelor’s degree in arts from St Joseph’s College for Women and immediately entered the workforce. Today, she is an entrepreneur, a motivator, a social activist and a strong proponent of extending the power and use of information and communication technologies to empower and enable communities. She is currently working on a start-up, P@sha’s Technology incubator, the first of its kind in Pakistan, which aims to provide launching platforms for the next big companies in the country.
Jehan Ara
President of the Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT (P@SHA)
1. Name three of your all-time favourite books.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams and Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.
2. What is the greatest strength you bring to your organisation?
Commitment and passion.
3. What is the one question you ask at every interview?
What drives you?
4. What is the biggest risk you’ve taken in your career?
I left a highly-paid, exciting position in Hong Kong, where I also had a major stake in the firm, and moved back to Pakistan with my parents.
5. Have you ever been a victim of workplace gender discrimination?
Yes. Once, in the absence of the group managing director once, a potential Japanese customer who came to our office in Hong Kong refused to have a business discussion with me because I was a woman. He wrote back to the MD from Japan, asking if he could fix a mutually convenient time, but my colleague wrote saying, “If you can’t do business with Jehan, you cannot do business with this company.”
6. What brings out the competitive streak in you?
I am not a competitive person. I believe more in collaboration and the strength of working together towards a common goal.
7. What is your least favourite thing about humanity?
The hatred that many people feel towards those who think differently.
8. What would you title your autobiography?
“A roller coaster ride!”
9. If you could have dinner with any one person, who would it be?
The late Steve Jobs.
10. If you could retire tomorrow, what would you do?
I don’t know the meaning of the word ‘retire’ but if I had to, I would want to have enough money to open up a high-tech bookstore with multimedia and fast speed internet access, a gift shop and a coffee shop where I could meet people, strike up a conversation with them, read a book and listen to music in peace.
Zeelaf Munir
Chairperson of the executive management board at English Biscuit Manufacturers (Private) Limited
Zeelaf Munir’s 20-year career is much like the woman herself — enterprising, dynamic and purposeful. But it is important to note that this female powerhouse was not initially inclined towards a career in the corporate world. It was her insights into the human psyche and leadership qualities that eventually earned her a prominent spot in the family-owned business.
After completing her medical degree from Dow Medical University, Karachi, Munir moved to the United States in 1994 to specialise in psychiatry from the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri. Later, she completed a masters degree from Johns Hopkins University and an advanced management program at Harvard Business School. A physician by training, Munir started her professional career in 1998 as a practicing psychiatrist at Fellowship Health Resources Incorporated in Delaware, USA. Within two years, she was promoted to medical director where she excelled by overseeing 40 programmes, expanding into seven states and spearheading innovative, evidence-based psychiatry models.
Munir has since headed a number of organisations. In 2010 she was elected president of the Association of Pakistani Physicians in North America, the largest Pakistani association outside the country. She has also led the Delaware Psychiatric Society as president and is an active member of the Asia Society, Acumen Fund and various other non-governmental organisations. She is currently also a board member of the community development programme which comes under the Planning and Development Department of the government of Sindh.
1. What adjectives would your references use to describe you?
People who really know me will say that I am passionate about what I do. I show strong leadership and have an innate proclivity to do whatever I can for humanity.
2. Name three of your all-time favourite books.
One hundred years of solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, A Short Guide to a Happy Life by Anna Quindlen and Good to Great by Jim Collins.
3. What is the one question you ask at every interview?
What is the boldest move you have ever made regarding your work that has achieved beyond expected results for the company?
4. What is the biggest risk you’ve taken in your career?
While I was happily practicing psychiatry, many opportunities came my way that tempted me to accept greater leadership and administrative roles in the healthcare industry in the United States but I decided to come back and contribute to my country.
5. What brings out the competitive streak in you?
Any challenge which appears impossible will always excite me and urge me to take it head-on.
6. What is your least favourite thing about humanity?
As humans we’ve been given the gift of wisdom, which will only deepen with continued learning. It really upsets me when I see complacent people. Also, I don’t feel too good about passive aggressive individuals and women who don’t take risks.
7. What would you title your autobiography?
“A life well-lived, every drop counts”
8. If you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be?
Just meeting Warren Buffet would be a huge learning experience for me.
9. If you could choose one person and have them truthfully answer one question, who would you select and what is the question?
The one person I have always wanted to meet is Muhammad Ali Jinnah. I want to ask him how he feels about Pakistan today and why.
10. If you could retire tomorrow, what would you do?
I think people like me only retire when they die. However, if I was to retire tomorrow, I think I would like to get involved in hands-on social work.
Tahira Raza
President of the First Women Bank Limited
Raza holds an MBA in banking and finance from the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, and a banking diploma, DAIBP, from the Institute of Bankers in Pakistan. In 1975, she started her career with Muslim Commercial Bank and joined the First Women Bank Limited (FWBL) in 1989 as one of its founding executives. After serving there for 14 years she moved to the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) where she became the first woman in the history of NBP to reach the position of senior executive vice president and group chief risk management in 2012.
In 2013 she rejoined FWBL as the bank’s president and has held the position ever since.
1. What adjectives would your references use to describe you?
They would say that I am headstrong, a lateral thinker, very disciplined and a workaholic in a positive way.
2. Name three of your all-time favourite books.
Akhri Chatan by Naseem Hijazi, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie.
3. What is the greatest strength you bring to your organisation?
I am very structure-oriented and I prefer a certain degree of discipline. Also, I have brought the culture of merit with me.
4. What is the biggest risk you’ve taken in your career?
I took up a failed project worth millions of rupees for which I had no previous knowledge or skills. I was warned by my colleagues that it was career suicide, but I managed to turn the project into a success story within 11 months.
5. Have you ever been a victim of workplace gender discrimination?
Yes. When I had just started with my career, there came a point when only the men in my organisation were promoted and I was the only one to question it. That bold move worked in my favour and after that I hardly faced any workplace gender discrimination.
6. What brings out the competitive streak in you?
Challenges make me very competitive; overcoming them, facing adversity and achieving goals that were previously thought to be impossible.
7. What is your least favourite thing about humanity?
Sympathy; especially where it is not due.
8. What would you do if you won a lottery?
When I become an equity holder, I would inject it as capital in First Women Bank.
9. What would you title your autobiography?
“No shortcut to success”
10. If you could retire tomorrow, what would you do?
If I retired tomorrow, I would just golf all day long.
Madiha Khalid
Head of Human Resources for Shell Pakistan
Madiha Khalid never shies away from a challenge. She has always pushed the boundaries and made it her life’s mission to eradicate male chauvinism with her extensive body of work.
In July 2005, Khalid, who holds a Bachelor’s degree in business strategy from the University of Wollongong, Australia, and an MBA in human resources from the Institute of Business Management, Karachi, began her career as a business partner for consumer banking at ABN-AMRO bank. In May 2006, she joined Shell Pakistan as a recruitment and learning advisor, looking after their summer internship and graduate programmes along with vacancy-driven recruitment. Two years later, she moved on to become one of the business partners managing global functions and became the recruitment manager for Shell Pakistan.
In January 2011, she became a business partner for the largest commercial skill pool as an HR Account Manager while retaining her recruitment portfolio. Due to her excellent display of skills, she was further asked to supervise Shell’s recruitment in UAE, Oman and Saudi Arabia. Currently as the head of HR, she looks after over 400 staff members.
1. What adjectives would your references use to describe you?
Resilient, opinionated and spirited.
2. Name three of your all-time favourite books.
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink, The End of the affair by Graham Greene and The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
3. What is the greatest strength you bring to your organisation?
Empathy, approachability and the ability to listen. I think part of being a true leader is to be accessible, engaging and inspirational.
4. What is the one question you ask at every interview?
What makes you get out of bed every day?
5. What is the biggest risk you’ve taken in your career?
Taking up my current role. I had never managed a large team, didn’t have any significant payroll or labour management experience and these were all core elements of the job. What got me through the early days was to consistently believe in myself and never let anyone convince me otherwise.
6. What is your least favourite thing about humanity?
How casually and frequently we break the codes of morality.
7. What would you title your autobiography?
“High heels and breaking glass ceilings”
8. If you could have dinner with any one person, who would it be?
American technology executive, activist and author Sheryl Sandberg.
9. If you could retire tomorrow, what would you do?
I would become a coach and help girls achieve their dreams.
10. If you could choose any one person and have them truthfully answer one question, who would you select and what is the question?
I would ask American poet and novelist Sylvia Plath why she didn’t walk away from her unhappy marriage.
Shafaq Omar
Director of human resources for Unilever
Spotting talent comes naturally to Shafaq Omar. She has worked at some of the top firms in the country and can easily sift through thousands of potential candidates and narrow down the options to a handful of interviewees just by taking them through a series of unconventional questions.
A gold medallist from Kinnaird College, Lahore, and an MBA from the Lahore University of Management Sciences, Omar started her career in HR as a management trainee at Nestle Pakistan in Lahore. Later, she moved to Karachi and re-entered the workplace with short stints in a consultancy and a financial services company where she headed the HR department for the International General Insurance group. Soon after, she joined a local conglomerate, Engro Corporation, where she headed the HR department in their extended foods business and the parent company. From there on, Omar moved on to become the head of HR at Royal Dutch Shell Pakistan and in 2013 she joined Unilever where she currently serves at the head of HR.
1. What adjectives would your references use to describe you?
Approachable, empathetic and authentic.
2. Name three of your all-time favourite books.
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, The Forty rules of Love by Elif Shafak and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.
3. What is the greatest strength you bring to your organisation?
I channel the benefits of an open-minded work environment to further Unilever’s corporate objectives.
4. What is the one question you ask at every interview?
Would you describe yourself as more of an operational/organised person or a visionary/big thinker?
5. What is the biggest risk you’ve taken in your career?
Taking a mid-career break to be a stay-at-home mother.
6. What brings out the competitive streak in you?
When I want to prove something to myself.
7. What is your least favourite thing about humanity?
How we don’t understand that we all originate from the same energy, the same light.
8. What would you title your autobiography?
“Towards soul consciousness”
9. If you could have dinner with any one person, who would it be?
The Turkish author and columnist Elif Shafak.
10. If you could choose one person and have them truthfully answer one question, who would you select and what is the question?
I would talk to my paternal grandmother, a wise, gentle and beautiful woman who was ahead of her time, and ask her more questions on life.
Aatiqa Lateef
Group Chief of Staff at Byco Industries Incorporated
Aatiqa Lateef’s goal in life has been to empower women. While advancing her own career, she has made a conscious effort to encourage other women to join the corporate world and to shun stereotypes that women take as a given.
A Doctor of Law from the South Texas College of Law with an MBA in strategy from the Texas A&M University, Lateef initially put her qualifications to test as a business strategy consultant with the global firm BearingPoint in Chicago and later as an associate partner heading the Corporate Practice Group of Awan Raza’s Pakistan-based multinational law firm. She also served as a general counsel for House Building Finance Company Limited where she was instrumental in transitioning Pakistan’s oldest financial institution from public to private sector. Lateef also serves on the boards of Khushhali Bank, The Indus Entrepreneurs’ women’s entrepreneurship incubator and the preeminent Business Magazine, IBEX.
In addition to her professional focus in positioning market entities for entry onto global platforms, she is also a noted speaker and an advocate for women’s empowerment and success within the corporate environment. This includes authoring several publications which focus on the subject.
1. What adjectives would your references use to describe you?
It’s been said that I lend a unique and valuable perspective with an eye to detail. I’m someone who will always rise to the occasion and in doing so I’m a game-changer.
2. Name three of your all-time favourite books.
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach and Oh, the places you’ll go! by Dr Seuss.
3. What is the greatest strength you bring to your organisation?
I’ve been told that I’m goal-oriented and objective.
4. What is the one question you ask at every interview?
What is the one thing you would change about your career?
5. What is the biggest risk you’ve taken in your career?
I’ve taken a lot of risks but I think my biggest career-related risk has yet to come.
6. Have you ever been a victim of workplace gender discrimination?
Maybe not explicitly, but perhaps as unconscious bias in the workplace I have. At the onset of joining a company, I was advised by a female colleague that she had overheard male colleagues declaring that a woman in my role could not handle the job. I was, of course, indignant and so a few of us ladies decided to change their minds. We simply stood our ground when we were being addressed by more aggressive colleagues and this eventually resulted in meetings becoming more balanced.
7. What brings out the competitive streak in you?
Whenever I am underestimated, it brings out my fighting spirit.
8. What is your least favourite thing about humanity?
In general, humans lack compassion for others. Our generation must teach the next one to be kind to creation and the universe will be kind to them.
9. What would you title your autobiography?
“A cliff-hanger”
10. If you could choose one person and have them truthfully answer one question, who would you select and what is the question?
That would be American television screenwriter Gene Rodenberry. I would ask him what captured his imagination.
Marina Faryal is a subeditor for The Express Tribune business desk and tweets @marinamarri89
Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, February 15th, 2015.
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