The Annual South Asian Women’s conference at the Naperville Marriott was hosted by The Indian American Community Services on April 9. The conference, ‘Breaking Barriers – Today’s Women Leaders’, has provided an interactive forum to educate and empower women and provide them with the networking opportunities to connect, learn and grow in their careers, IACS press release said.
Suja Chandrasekharan, CIO, Kimberly Clark, Lei Zhang Schlitz, executive vice president, ITW, and Maryam Saleh, vice president, Programs, Matter were the keynote speakers. They shared their many aspects of leadership including the challenges they have faced along with their personal experiences and practical advice to help the professional women to achieve their goals.
The conference began with a welcome note by IACS Executive team member Lakshmi Nagamohan. Chaya Setty, one of the conference organizing team members, introduced the keynote speakers.
Chandrasekharan has emphasized on the “learning agility where you learn, unlearn and relearn all the time” as this is very crucial to achieve success.
“Successful people are reading all the time apart from building a network with others who are specialists in their field,” she said.
She encouraged the participants to interact with people as this is a key part of leadership. Having grown up in India, Chandrasekharan has lived in many countries before moving to the United States. And this, she says, is what prompted her to put a concerted effort to develop and build strong networks for herself, which has immensely helped in her career growth.
Chandrasekharan has more than 25 years of experience in technology and leadership roles in both the consumer packaged goods and retail industries. Her accolades include Top 10 Women in Tech, Top 10 Leader of Digital and Technology, ICONIC Leader for Women in Technology.
Zhang Schlitz has mentioned about paying attention to the highest and lowest points in one’s career. “Building a career is like a marathon and is not a sprint,” Having grown up in China, she said, that she had faced language and cultural challenges, but rose to the occasion to improve her communication skills and personality development.
Zhang Schlitz advised the participants to be open to constructive criticism and use it to improve themselves. Zhang Schlitz was elected as the Executive Vice President of ITW in September 2015. She oversees the entire $2.2 billion global portfolio of the ITW food equipment segment business.
Saleh highlighted about the role of entrepreneurs in healthcare and encouraged the participants to continue their efforts and pursue their dreams, no matter what hurdles they may face. Born in the UK, Saleh is an immigrant from Iran who lived in Canada before moving to the United States. She talked about how important it is to make an effort to fit in. This improves your chances of success, whether it is the workplace or your personal lives, she said. Saleh was featured in Crain’s Chicago Business 40 under 40 list in 2016.
Q&A session moderated by Sunita Rachapalli and Radha Balwani has addressed the questions from participants. Some of the questions were focused on handling work life balance, mentoring, entrepreneurship and personality development.
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The conference featured local women entrepreneurs – Shalini Patel, founder of Inspire Girls Academy and Rita Chevli, founder of Shuban Designs. Patel’s work revolves around breaking down traditional gender roles and inspiring girls to believe that they can achieve or become anything they desire. The curriculum and learning at Inspire Girls Academy focuses on STEM education, with an emphasis on supporting them to build the skills and habits of mind that are developmentally appropriate.
Chevli is a local Chicago artist who began her career in arts by earning a degree in Fine Arts from India. Her time was spent living in Japan, China and America and has influenced her jewelry designs. She started working with silver in 2004, but since then has branched out by incorporating different metals in her jewelry.
By Premji
