over ten years and it’s been a great
adventure my first discovery actually
started during the second week at the
company I went to our CEOs weekly
meeting excited a little bit nervous
like how I am right now and I arrived
there five minutes early very eager to
sit at the boardroom table I looked
around I saw every chair is taken except
for one so I thought I go and sit down
immediately I heard a very very soft but
a definite collective cause I thought oh
my dear I must be sitting in my CEOs
chair I looked around from the corner of
my eyes and I noticed several colleagues
are giving me a very disapproving stairs
so I thought to myself I guess I have a
choice I can stand up and go and sit at
the back of the room or I can remain
[Applause]
but what shall I do so before I tell you
what I did let me give you a brief
context about how I actually arrived at
that moment of truth let me take you
back to when I was born when my father
was told that his newborn baby is a girl
he reacted with disappointment Oh again
when we found out about this later on I
said father why why were you so
disappointed and he said because the way
our society discriminates against women
I didn’t want my own child to be
subjected to that as you can imagine it
was very confusing at the time for me
and it wasn’t until later on that I
understood well not everyone in our
organization or in our societies
actually understand or even appreciates
the value of diversity but here is my
question and I want you to think about
it who is actually responsible for
recognizing the value of diversity does
this responsibility only lie with the
society are we really at the mercy of
government and company’s policy
practices quotas or is there more to it
based on my personal experiences
I think there is more to it and that is
what actually diversity means to
individuals with diverse background you
see my opinion about diversity is that I
play an important role it starts with me
it is important that I value my own
diversity that I’d see my diversity as
an asset not a liability this empowers
me to feel that I am in control of my
destiny and allows me to deal with life
challenges much more effectively so you
remember I told you about my father he
was very worried that maybe the society
doesn’t give me opportunity to reach my
full potential
he saw education as a way to overcome
some future barriers he encouraged me to
get as much information as I could and
that’s exactly what we paid back in my
native country in Iran some of you
remember that we faced revolution in
Iran and when the revolution hit
everything changed our daily lives
became dangerously uncertain and
disrupted my dream of pursuing my higher
education was completely jeopardized
like many things in our lives I kind of
felt someone has turned my life upside
down and it slammed the door on my
future so this is what I did I left Iran
went to England
in pursuit of my higher education
entering a new environment I was in my
early 20s and without sufficient funds
to realize my dream but despite this and
many other challenges I managed to win
scholarship for both doing both my
master and PhD I had a Porton job as a
researcher at the University with some
occasional opportunity to give lecture
and add into this juggling and
struggling I was raising two very young
children with no family support but
luckily I have a very supportive husband
who at the same time was very much
immersed in advancing his own career now
can assure you
I can assure you that there turned out
to be just fine so you see I love and
today to stand here and tell you when I
went to England I felt strong and brave
and very certain of the path that I’ve
taken but it wasn’t like that I was
feeling afraid and uncomfortable a kind
of lost sense of identity thinking what
people think of me as a woman with
foreign ethnicity especially from Iran
when at the time the news was
increasingly negative about the events
but over time I started to think about
my differences as positive differences I
thought well and these are very powerful
differences that can enrich dialog in my
community at work and I started focusing
on my and shall I say feminine trait but
some men’s are very nice to most of them
and so I started focusing on my personal
trait of compassion openness
collaboration and also these are very
useful for creating an environment that
is open is inclusive tolerant of
different ideas
I also focused on my cultural awareness
at a time when we are going through
transformational changes in
globalization that requires we bring
people with diverse thought with diverse
background to come together
to solve problems to come up with
innovative ideas so over time I
developed this sense of strength this
inner strength that wasn’t coming
necessarily from the way I was dealing
with my life challenges it was coming
from Who I am I started to see that if I
blame every setback every bias on my
diversity I can become easily the victim
to people’s biases real and imagined
rather than being in charge of my
destiny rather than believing in myself
and I started to see that if I trust
myself if I believe in myself it’s very
likely that others will respect and
honor my differences so let me tell you
a story which happened at the University
at some point in my career I had an
opportunity to apply for two positions
one as a full professor and the other
one as a head of department immediately
one of my colleagues told me haven’t you
heard of glass ceiling another colleague
told me look I care for you but being a
woman with foreign ethnicity it’s not
going to be helpful and you’re going to
be very disappointed just go and look at
the statistics so I don’t think these
comments were necessarily spiteful but
they could have been very demoralizing
and
doubt started creeping in but after the short one Irie salutely got back to my
short one Irie salutely got back to my belief that actually my personal trade
belief that actually my personal trade more cultural awareness my love of
more cultural awareness my love of nurturing teens could be an advantage
nurturing teens could be an advantage and it was guess what I got both
and it was guess what I got both positions as a head of department and as
positions as a head of department and as apposite professor
apposite professor [Applause]
it was a great feeling and I’m still friend with those colleagues
so I started developing deep expertise about aviation and that’s how I got to
about aviation and that’s how I got to my current position at The Boeing
my current position at The Boeing Company now going back to my dilemma
Company now going back to my dilemma when I was sitting in my CEOs chair what
when I was sitting in my CEOs chair what do you think I did so I I started I
do you think I did so I I started I started thinking to myself think of the
started thinking to myself think of the path that has taken you so far trying to
path that has taken you so far trying to be positive trying to be humble but
be positive trying to be humble but never make decision out of fear so I
never make decision out of fear so I thought I’ll continue sitting in that
thought I’ll continue sitting in that chair thinking that my CEO won’t mind
chair thinking that my CEO won’t mind that and he didn’t so please don’t get
that and he didn’t so please don’t get me wrong I have bad times like many
me wrong I have bad times like many people but I remain faithful to my
people but I remain faithful to my beliefs relentlessly and especially
beliefs relentlessly and especially during challenging times and please
during challenging times and please please don’t picture me running around
please don’t picture me running around in my company or in my community wearing
in my company or in my community wearing diversity as a badge of honor no not at
diversity as a badge of honor no not at all I believe that recognizing the value
all I believe that recognizing the value of diversity is the responsibility of
of diversity is the responsibility of community society companies but at the
community society companies but at the same time I believe it is individual’s
same time I believe it is individual’s responsibility to so to benefit from the
responsibility to so to benefit from the gift of diversity I need to push past my
gift of diversity I need to push past my fears and see my diversity as an asset
fears and see my diversity as an asset and source of inspiration I have one
and source of inspiration I have one regret in life and that is I wish my
regret in life and that is I wish my father lived long enough to see her
father lived long enough to see her daughter give this talk I think he would
daughter give this talk I think he would have been proud