Diversity as a Weapon of Success

Your own personal background is really fascinating. In many ways you are a global citizen: born in Lebanon, grew up in Canada, went to the University of Toronto, attended Stanford, now you live in California. How has that shaped your view of diversity? And how has that view evolved over the course of your career?

Yeah, so I’m of Palestinian descent. I was born in Lebanon, I lived in the UK for a period of time, I grew up in Canada, I’m now a proud American. So, I have been to a few places in my lifetime. And maybe this background has helped me in acquiring a leadership attribute that I believe is pretty important, and that’s just empathy. I know what it’s like, from an early age as a child of feeling somewhat out of place, of feeling like you don’t belong. And so I may be extra sensitive to that feeling today, and I don’t want anybody to experience it today. I don’t think there’s any place for it in the workplace.
So now, of course, my beliefs in D&I have evolved as a leader. It’s not just about making people feel included; I view it today as a business imperative. I think it’s absolutely foundational to the success of any company, especially a company that wants to be considered an innovative company. Because innovation, like I said earlier, comes at the cross section of ideas. And if you want to have a diversity of ideas, you need to have a diversity of people. And I’ve also just seen the effects of how diversity in an organization can just improve the team dynamics. I’ve seen that in my leadership team. I’ve seen it in our board of directors. It’s a very powerful weapon for success for any company, especially a high-tech innovative Silicon Valley company.