Shuwel Ahmed
Studies:
Cass Business School / City University, LondonI am passionate about
• Education and work experience: Raising awareness of the benefits of education, and the opportunities this can provide for school children once transitioning into professional life
• Improving Social mobility through work experience: Providing work opportunities to children from lower income households, allowing them to have higher aspirations and access to areas/leaders, which they may not currently have access to
• Sharing lessons learnt: Going through the corporate journey during the last 6 years working across 4 countries, and encompassing the above points, sharing my journey and the lessons learnt, through visiting schools and social media
• My passion areas above are driven by my own experience of growing up as a first generation university graduate within my family, while also being a child of Bangladeshi migrants to the UK. My family were extremely supportive of education and work experience, but for further guidance, I had to seek outside insights and support, so now my goal is to help provide access and support to those similar kids, who are currently in the position that I used to be in
Actions
• Community: I’ve visited local schools in my hometown of Portsmouth, UK, sharing my experiences of working abroad (Switzerland, Japan, Denmark), and how this has changed my perspective of the world, the opportunities now available to me, and the benefits for me and the people around me
• Organization: Since joining Novartis, I’ve been able to work across different areas, with levels of increasing responsibility within Finance, supporting Marketing, Drug Development to most recently in Manufacturing. While also, experiencing roles in Global, Regional and Country scope. I believe I’ve been given this breadth of experience, due to my curiosity to learn more, while also performing well in the job at hand
• Pupils to professionals: Building on the community aspect, and my passion for providing work experience opportunities for children in low income households, while working in Novartis, I was able to create a 1 week work experience program, flying school children from the UK and Germany to Switzerland, to meet leaders from across the organization and functions, from Marketing, Finance, Science to the CEO. This gave the kids selected a taste of life in a global organization, and the inspiration to aspire for more. The Pupils to Professionals program has been self-funded by myself and the partner schools, providing accommodation, travel and food to the selected candidates. Since 2014, the program has provided opportunities for 9 kids, with students going onto studying at Oxbridge Universities and LSE, amongst others
• Community: Being positive, open and authentic, and provide insights into my life of the lessons learnt and mistakes made, I believe has helped me build a strong online following across social media platforms (Instagram, FB)