What Happens When We Speak Up? A Conversation with Sajida Kaliyadan Artwork

Getting to 50/50: Conversations to Bridge the Gender Gap

Currently we are at about 5 of women in the top roles of Fortune 500 Companies. What will it take to get to 50 percent? Pratima Rao Gluckman explores stories, issues and mindsets related to fostering gender equity in our organizations, education institutions and communities and invites a wide range of thought leaders to join in the conversation.

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Getting to 50/50: Conversations to Bridge the Gender Gap

What Happens When We Speak Up? A Conversation with Sajida Kaliyadan

July 01, 2020 • Pratima Rao Gluckman

Sajida shares her unique viewpoint in this intriguing conversation - What happens when we speak up rather than sit quietly regarding issues that affect women in the workplace. From attending one of the most sought after colleges, BITS Pilani on a partial scholarship to working with strong masculine Wall Street personalities. She used each of her experiences to prepare herself and gain the courage to lead and address social norms. Sajida discusses how she developed her leadership style to make it her own, rather than conforming herself.

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Bio: Sajida Kaliyadan lead a product team as the Head of Buyer Experience at Atlassian with an exciting charter in pioneering a unified buyer experience by taking world-class consumer capabilities and applying them to a B2B model.

She said she has had a zig zag career path that she sought out consciously now and unconsciously at first, to further her growth and learning. She began as a developer and then engineering manager in banking technology for global banks such as Citibank and Deutsche Bank, working in India, Singapore and New York. Looking for a change from large organizations, she joined a privately held algorithmic trading systems provider in New York - where she was the first female employee wherer she worked in the demanding and challenging environs of Wall Street, a huge learning experience for her.

Keen on building more customer facing products, she invested in a part time MBA at NYU Stern. She later transitioned to a career in product management which she loves in Walmart Labs after a move to the West Coast. Sajida led a portfolio that drove over $800MM in annual revenue. She was responsible for the digital transformation of gift registry and digital pharmacy including a patent pending innovation (Techcrunch, Fortune) for digital pharmacy refills. Seeking to further challenge herself and to learn new domains, she joined Atlassian. I am super pumped about the company’s mission to unleash the potential of all teams - whether its a small non profit or NASA’s projects to drive Rovers on Mars, Atlassian’s products have a huge impact.