Deepika Bajaj is featuring interviews with successful multicultural women through her new venture Invincibelle. Whether you are a multicultural woman or not, you are bound to be inspired by what these accomplished women have to share. She has five interviews up on the site and here are the links:
Yoshiko RothYoshiko’s fascination with skin health began in her childhood with the discovery of her Chemist father’s dictionary of dermatological diseases. This prompted her to spend many afternoons and weekends at skincare counters in department stores, specialty stores and pharmacies, studying ingredient labels, telling anyone who would listen of effects of UV rays on skin, while looking out for the newest products in skincare. Of Japanese and German origin, Yoshiko has worked in marketing in the skincare industry since obtaining her MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business. She was instrumental in the rapid expansion of France’s #1 dermo-cosmetic brand, Eau Thermale Avène in the US and the building of a new skincare category. Eternally passionate about skin health, she continues to share her enthusiasm for effective skincare through marketing and sales for Juara.
Sheela MurthySheela came here to pursue higher education. She had the opportunity to go to Harvard Law School, one of the best law schools in the world. She found that there is a huge difference in the education system in India and the education system in the US. Despite the openness of her bringing up in India, she had to work hard and struggled when she got here, at first.
She believes that adversity makes you stronger. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. She was motivated by the push and pull in her life. Today, she is one of the most renowned lawyers in the US. Not only is she passionate about helping clients with immigration issues but also lobbies many policies that are in favor of people through American Immigration Law Foundation.
Mihwa ChaMihwa came to this country from Korea for better opportunities. At the time, her biggest challenge was the language barrier. She had to translate almost everything from Korean to English. Once she landed her first real job with the company which is the one she works for even today she had to learn the new language all over again pertaining to the technology, organization, and company mission, etc. What kept her inspire is that she didn’t want to lose or be the second best to someone in the area that she felt competent in. Today, she is VP Device Development at Sprint.
DR. Shima Joshi moved to this country for two reasons. Firstly, for her husband and herself there were more opportunities in the US. Secondly, she believed that leaving a community of joint families would enable me to lead a life that she wants and not as dictated by others which is often the case in joint families. New York in the early 80’s had its own violence problems and her family would never used to step out of the apartment in the evening.
Inspired by being perfect at what she did, she took jobs as an analyst and later started a company with her husband. She points out that as a woman she had to work twice as heard to make her point heard. In many areas, even if she had done all the work, the credit would be given to her husband.
She guides women out be prepared to work hard. Never take no for an answer. Today, she is the VP of Operations and aims to make her company number one or two in its field.
Twenty-three years ago, there were challenges of being an African American woman in the Media industry. She took a risk and moved to Oxygen at a level that equated to her earlier position in WABC. The money wasn’t great but she had faith in herself, she was inspired to work for company like Oxygen and really admired Oprah Winfrey, Geraldine Laybourne, Marcy Carsey, Tom Werner and Caryn Mandabach who were starting the company.
A fear of failure always kept her motivated. Being competitive, she was inspired to do better than other folks. Today she is SVP of Programming at Oxygen Media.