Episode 2: Embracing Education, Mentoring, and Cultivating Small Giant Companies, with Hamsa Daher

Hamsa Daher is a business leader who is passionate about people, process, and growth. She grew up in Baghdad, Iraq, moving to the U.S in 1991. Her first language is Arabic, and she speaks English and Spanish. Hamsa received her bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Wayne State University and her MBA from Walsh College.

After college, Hamsa worked for an immigration agency to help refugee and asylee populations assimilate into the US, learn English, and find employment. She then joined Walsh College as their first international student advisor where she helped recruit, admit and counsel over 400 international students over a period of 9 years.

In her four years at Mango Languages, Hamsa recruited and mentored many employees, providing outstanding leadership. She was promoted to the COO/Integrator role in 2012 and helped lead Mango to its most successful year in 2014. Then she joined Small Giants where she’s helping to identify, connect & develop purpose-driven leaders.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

• The significance that education played in Hamsa’s young years growing up in Iraq, especially as she witnessed first-hand the landscape of that country during two different wars before coming to America
• How education remained a high priority even as her family adjusted to difficult times during her childhood in Iraq during the endless sounds of bombs and sirens, and the moments where she had to flee her home without sufficient provisions
• Ways that the experiences she had helping her younger siblings when she fled Iraq at the age of 12 and coming to America needing to learn English from scratch inspired her and gave her leadership skills
• Why she made the right decision by abandoning her plans for a medical career after graduating from Wayne State University when she left a job at the hospital and pursued an MBA from Walsh College
• How her experiences working in student support services in higher education and at an immigration center with refugees transformed her into a mentor and valuable resource for the community
• The way that she took advantage of an opportunity offered her at Mango Languages to recruit, mentor, and lead, taking the skills she had learned in life’s journey to a higher level
• How her previous experiences made her an excellent fit at Small Giants as part of a community that inspired companies to be great rather than big
• Her role in cultivating purpose-driven leaders as Small Giants who focus on their people, community, and customers over profit
• How they use sessions, interactive workshops, and cultural stories to provide business experiences and relationship building within the community
• Ways that great leadership opportunities may start during small conversations while walking to dinner

Ways to contact Hamsa:

• Website: www.smallgiants.org
• Twitter: @HamsaSYD
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/hamsadaher