The Smart Techie was renamed Siliconindia India Edition starting Feb 2012 to continue the nearly two decade track record of excellence of our US edition.
January - 2007 - issue > Woman Achiever
“Not challenges (always), but opportunities”
Vidya Balakrishnan
When Sheela Singh decided to move from being Head of Quality to Head of Human Resources at Perot Systems, she was trusting her instincts and betting on her ability to handle people. The move was coming after nearly 21 years in the IT industry- where she started as an embedded system software developer quickly growing into Chief Operations Officer and Director of Quality Management Services. A proven survivor, there was no obvious reason for this detour except that the challenge was alluring, encompassing her in its charms.
After all overcoming challenges time after time is what Sheela had been busy at in her long tenure as an IT professional. Her kitty of commendable achievements in varied sectors attesting the lady’s worth. Running back to her days as Senior Engineer at Bharath Electronics Ltd (BEL) where she worked with the best minds on India’s prestigious airborne early warning radar system (AWACS), this techie then steered Verifone’s Appliance Engineering team as it developed and delivered its first smart card applications.
She was also the backbone of creating the Quality Management team of the consulting unit at Oracle India from scratch and helped the company attain CMMI level III certification in the very first shot. ‘Job-hopping’ could be how some view her career graph but she terms them as ‘making use of the new exposure and opportunities - something that was necessary to build strong leadership skills.’
Today she heads the Global HR practices for the 5000 strong Consulting and Application Solutions team at Perot Systems. For her it is not about the challenge only but “opportunities that were waiting to be acted upon”.
The drive to act on such opportunities was innate in Sheela. If it weren’t for the drive, she would probably still be in BEL, oblivious to what she could have achieved. “I was lucky enough to be handpicked for the AWACS project, but then on I had to push myself to explore newer opportunities,” she asserts.
|
|
