Stories
Stories
Jumping In, Fighting Bias
Photo via LinkedIn
Photo via LinkedIn
Growing up in suburban Chicago, Sumaiya Balbale (MBA 2009) and her Indian immigrant parents didn’t see many other Muslims. At school she was teased and bullied—an experience that no doubt shaped her as she moved from a history major at Brown University to HBS to leadership roles at Quidsi, Jet.com, and Walmart. “My gender, ethnicity and faith compelled me to be ambitious in a way that I don’t know if I otherwise would have been,” Balbale told the Wall Street Journal.
Last June, Balbale left her position at Walmart as VP of e-commerce, mobile and digital marketing, and transitioned to an entirely new industry, accepting the role of CMO at Sequoia Capital. She made the decision after drawing on the advice of a handful of personal advisors, including Judy Zhu (MBA 2009), founder and CEO of MoneyGirls Inc. Zhu and others always advised her to pick hard paths, Balbale said: “If you jump into something and don’t have a lifeline, you figure out how to swim.”
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