What role has mentorship played in your career?
Mentorship has played a very important role in my growth, particularly through two leaders who have influenced me in different ways.
My boss, Danish Mukhtar, has taught me the value of being far-sighted and proactive. I admire how he remembers details about his own team as well as extended teams, how well he identifies strengths in a team member and knows when and how to use them effectively.
Our Regional General Manager, Abbas Akbar, has influenced me through the way he leads himself and communicates with others. I admire his punctuality, organization, attention to detail and his ability to say more with fewer words. I learned the importance of keeping commitments, even with juniors and time management from him.
Both have helped shape how I think about leadership. They have shown me that leadership is not only about technical expertise; it is also about perspective, discipline, accountability and the ability to bring out the best in others.
What's the best career decision you've ever made?
Choosing EHS as my career was one of the best decisions I’ve made. It has allowed me to combine my professional skills with something I genuinely care about — the safety and well-being of people.
At Avery Dennison, another important decision has been to focus on building ownership rather than creating dependency on the EHS function. I want people to have the capability and confidence to identify risks and act on them themselves. That shift in mindset has influenced how I approach leadership and how I measure success.
As you think about the next steps in your career, what are the most important actions you plan to take?
My goal is to continue growing as an EHS professional while broadening the impact I can make. I want to strengthen my leadership and strategic capabilities, continue learning from diverse functions and perspectives and pursue opportunities to influence EHS beyond my immediate area of responsibility. I also want to continue exploring how technology, data and innovative approaches can make EHS more effective and engaging.
Ultimately, I want to build teams and systems capable of sustaining a strong safety culture and continuous improvement, rather than relying on a single person or function to drive it.
What do you enjoy most about the work you do?
I enjoy that my work is never monotonous, since the beginning of my career, no two days have been the same. Every day brings a different challenge, and the decisions and direction I provide can have a real impact on people's lives.
What I find most rewarding is seeing people become genuinely engaged in safety and start taking ownership of themselves. When someone outside the EHS function identifies a risk, asks the right question or takes action because they have developed the same safety lens, that is one of the most satisfying outcomes for me. I enjoy how EHS initiatives and capability building create the mindset and cultural shift, and how people benefit from them in terms of improved wellbeing.
