The Ismaili Professionals Network presents its first podcast: The Ismaili Connection. We’ll speak with professionals from all walks of life and across all industries to bring you compelling stories about their career journeys. We’ll laugh. We’ll learn. And we’ll connect. Who knows, you may find your next Ismaili Connection on our show.
Episodes
13 hours ago
13 hours ago
Ashraf is the founder and owner of the Heritage Collection, a South Asian fashion brand she started 17 years ago. In 2022, she became one of the first Ismaili fashion designers to display her work at New York Fashion Week. The event happens semi-annually and gives designers from around the world an opportunity to showcase their latest designs and work.
Growing up in Pakistan, Ashraf found that happiness and celebrations were her key inspiration for her designs, going as far as designing outfits for her Barbies that matched her own. That sentiment shifted slightly when she immigrated to Virginia.
Ashraf’s website: https://myheritagecollection.com
Connect with Ashraf on LinkedIn
Wednesday Apr 03, 2024
Wednesday Apr 03, 2024
Ashraf is the founder and owner of the Heritage Collection, a South Asian fashion brand she started 17 years ago. In 2022, she became one of the first Ismaili fashion designers to display her work at New York Fashion Week. The event happens semi-annually and gives designers from around the world an opportunity to showcase their latest designs and work.
Growing up in Pakistan, Ashraf found that happiness and celebrations were her key inspiration for her designs, going as far as designing outfits for her Barbies that matched her own. That sentiment shifted slightly when she immigrated to Virginia.
Ashraf’s website: https://myheritagecollection.com
Connect with Ashraf on LinkedIn
Wednesday Feb 28, 2024
Beyond Hollywood: Riaz Patel's Story of Perseverance and Purpose- Part 2
Wednesday Feb 28, 2024
Wednesday Feb 28, 2024
Riaz Patel serves as an Executive Producer/Director in Los Angeles, specializing in transformative and perspective-shifting TV series and media projects. With two Emmy Award nominations and an NAACP Image Award, he creatively leads shows for major networks like NBC/Universal, Lifetime, Discovery, and others. Riaz’s productions span 21 countries, distributed globally by A&E, MTV, Hulu, and Netflix. Notably, "The RAD Impact Awards," featuring renowned figures like Priyanka Chopra and Margot Robbie, garnered 138.4 million online impressions. Riaz is a board member of Odyssey/Impact (NYC) and The Jenesse Center (LA).
Connect with Riaz on LinkedIn
Check out interview with Riaz here
Wednesday Feb 07, 2024
Beyond Hollywood: Riaz Patel's Story of Perseverance and Purpose- Part 1
Wednesday Feb 07, 2024
Wednesday Feb 07, 2024
Riaz Patel serves as an Executive Producer/Director in Los Angeles, specializing in transformative and perspective-shifting TV series and media projects. With two Emmy Award nominations and an NAACP Image Award, he creatively leads shows for major networks like NBC/Universal, Lifetime, Discovery, and others. Riaz’s productions span 21 countries, distributed globally by A&E, MTV, Hulu, and Netflix. Notably, "The RAD Impact Awards," featuring renowned figures like Priyanka Chopra and Margot Robbie, garnered 138.4 million online impressions. Riaz is a board member of Odyssey/Impact (NYC) and The Jenesse Center (LA).
Connect with Riaz on LinkedIn
Check out interview with Riaz here
Thursday Oct 26, 2023
Venture Capital and Spirituality Insights from Zain Gulamali
Thursday Oct 26, 2023
Thursday Oct 26, 2023
Zain A. Gulamali is a technology executive, corporate and business development leader, and venture capital / growth equity investor with nearly 20 years of experience in enterprise, consumer, and healthcare technology investing, as well as strategy, M&A, business development, and startup operations. He is currently Head of Amazon Catalytic Capital (fund-of-funds supporting underrepresented founders), an Investment Partner for the Amazon Alexa Fund (VC fund), and a leader in Amazon's Worldwide Business & Corporate Development group. Before Amazon, Zain worked in startups (Pocket Gems), private equity (Warburg Pincus and Monitor Clipper Partners), and investment banking (Goldman Sachs). He is a graduate of the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Zain has volunteered continuously in community service and international development through the Jamati and Imamat Institutions since the age of 4.
Zain’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zgulamali/
Wednesday Sep 27, 2023
SCALING NUTRITION LITERACY WITH SHIREEN ABDULLAH
Wednesday Sep 27, 2023
Wednesday Sep 27, 2023
Shireen Abdullah is a foodie with a passion for problem-solving. Growing a culturally competent nutrition platform that connects individuals to dietitians. After spending most of her career as a project manager and management consultant, Shireen decided to change paths and pursue her passion to become a “nutri-prenuer.” While managing her own illness, she realized the importance of cultural nutrition education paired with an empowering, patient-centered care model to close gaps in health equity for minorities. Her startup is called Yumlish, creating an AI-powered, culturally relevant nutrition therapy platform for minorities with diabetes that addresses socioeconomic barriers to dietary adherence.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shireenabdullah/
https://yumlish.com/
Wednesday Jun 28, 2023
Sohail Zindani – Journey towards becoming Leadership Consultant & High Performance Coach
Wednesday Jun 28, 2023
Wednesday Jun 28, 2023
For almost a decade now, Sohail Zindani has helped companies build and sustain learning culture through his dynamic, result oriented and focused training and consulting interventions. With the mission of “promoting learning, no matter what”, Sohail is one of the Pakistan’s most sought-after trainer, consultant, thought-leader and keynote speaker. He is arguably the most provocative, engaging and stimulating management consultant in business. In addition to his work in the business sector, Sohail has passion for learning and teaching in the social sectors, including education, healthcare, social ventures, and cause-driven non-profits. He has also authored “Passion Plus” & “Common Sense at Work”.
Important links:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sohailzindani/
Ashrei Tech website: https://ashreitech.com/
Wednesday May 31, 2023
Empowering Women to Leadership With Shelmina Abji
Wednesday May 31, 2023
Wednesday May 31, 2023
Shelmina’s life purpose is to advance gender and racial equality in leadership roles. She is an author,, board member, TedX speaker, former IBM V.P., angel investor and a distinguished alumni. Shelmina comes from humble beginnings in Tanzania. Driven by her desire to lift herself out of poverty, she left home at 15 to pursue higher education. Through many trials, tribulations and triumphs, she discovered strategies that transformed her career. She went from being the first in her family to graduate college to becoming one of the highest ranking women of color at IBM- while raising her two children as a single mother since they were 4 and 2. At the peak of her career, she left IBM to share her strategies with other women to accelerate their career success. Through mentoring thousands of women, speaking at corporations, colleges, and conferences globally, she realized that women are still struggling with the same challenges she faced during her career. They inspired her to write her book, Show your worth: 8 Intentional Strategies for Women to Emerge as Leaders At Work.
* Connect with Shelmina Abji on LinkedIn.
* For more information please visit “Show Your Worth”: Intention and strategy to uplift women leaders and American Ismailis Partner to Build a Secondary School in Remote Tanzania Village
*Listen to Shelmina’s TED talk here
* Visit Shemina’s website at www.shelmina.com
Wednesday Apr 26, 2023
Wednesday Apr 26, 2023
Afzal Habib is a co-founder of a social enterprise named kidogo with his wife serving quality childcare in East Africa. Being an undergraduate from York University, Schulich School of Business, Afzal started working as a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group for 3.5 years. He is currently serving as a Strategy & Operations Manager with the Central Office for Poverty Elimination (COPE). His career spans around an interesting journey from consultancy (BCG) to entrepreneurship (kidogo) to managing community focused poverty programmes.
Important links:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/2020-year-i-left-kidogo-afzal-habib/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/taking-leap-3-conversations-led-leaving-six-figure-consulting-habib/
Kidogo website: www.kidogo.co
Friday Mar 31, 2023
Friday Mar 31, 2023
This Women’s History Month, we want to highlight and appreciate Azima Dhanjee. She is a Co-founder at ConnectHear (The Google Translate for Sign Language), recipient of the Diana Award, World Summit Award, Standard Chartered Women in Tech Award, P@SHA ICT Award, Forbes, and Pioneer Post and Board Member at SEWF Social Enterprise World Forum C.I.C. As a 19-year-old, she started a Facebook page to teach Pakistani Sign Language (PSL) and today it has turned into the largest Deaf accessibility service provider in South Asia with a major focus on technology.
Important links:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/azimadhanjee/
ConnectHear website: https://www.connecthear.org/