Name: Neda Omidvari
Title: Digital Service Transformation Manager
Company: Topsoe
Degree: MSc in Materials Engineering
- Introduce yourself, and share a fun fact that makes you unique!
My name is Neda, I am 33 years old and I hold a master’s degree in Materials Engineering. A fun fact about me, is that I had to get stiches in my forehead the night before my wedding.
- What does a day in your life look like as a Digital Service Transformation Manager at Topsoe?
As a Digital Service Transformation Manager, my typical day involves meetings with project collaborators and stakeholders. These meetings are focused on developing tools for our service engineers and customers, discussing user requirements, and planning releases. Considering that these projects are normally in collaboration with other parts of our organization such as digitalization or commercial excellence, I also have regular check-ins with my partners on how we can collaborate better and discuss bottlenecks. Finally, I have regular meetings with my own team to discuss how they are doing and how I can support them. On top of my meetings, I spend some of my time, in preparing presentations for Steer Committee meetings and leadership meetings to update our stakeholders on the progress, testing our new tools and planning releases.
- What motivates and excites you the most about your career path and the leadership position you hold?
What excites me most about my career path and leadership position is that my current position is a combination of people management, project management, and digital transformation.
- Share with us the biggest lessons you learned on your journey to where you are today.
The biggest lesson I have learned on my journey to where I am today is to view every challenge as an opportunity to learn and grow. It might be that a task or a project is really frustrating today but in my experience the lessons I have learned in challenging situations have been very useful, in another set-up.
- Tell us about a (female) role model who inspired you to become the leader you are today, and how (s)he impacted you personally or professionally.
My mother has been a significant role model for me. She held various leadership positions for over 20 years. What I found most inspiring about her was her authenticity, which created a culture of trust in her team. Her team was motivated to deliver their best and thrive in their roles.
- If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, or to other young female students today, what would it be?
Keep an open mind and be open to new opportunities, you will be surprised were you end up. Sometimes it is very difficult to have a long-term plan. Especially when you think about where you want to go with your career, so just focus on making the right decision today.
- How do you see STEM education shaping the future?
STEM education equips people with critical-thinking and problem-solving skill that are essential skills to shape a better future. Specially STEM education is crucial for addressing environmental issues and shaping a sustainable future.
- Why is it important for you to promote diversity and inclusion within STEM?
I think promoting diversity and inclusion goes together with creating a healthy and trust-based culture, which leads to an environment where people can thrive and deliver best.
- What steps do you see that your company taken to promote a more diverse and inclusive workplace?
In order to promote inclusivity and diversity, Topsoe has provided leaders with tools that can be used in the recruitment process, to ensure diverse hiring. Furthermore, a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) committee is set-up to challenge our organization to become more inclusive and diverse and support our efforts to become a more inclusive and diverse workplace.