"From stranger to leader" - A story of success, the Maria Khorsand seminar at SIS

There was a sense of greatness in the lecture room B3 at Stockholm University.

Although the person standing at the podium looked as an ordinary person, many of us knew that there was many extraordinary things about her.

Her name is Maria Khorsand, a Persian born woman in her late 40's being one of the most successful women in the Swedish, maybe even international, industry and business. Maria, the former CEO of Ericsson Technology Licensing and the present President of OMX Technology FM, had come to Stockholm University in order to meet with SIS members and share her thoughts and experiences about our possible paths to success. 

After an introduction by SIS board member Arbajande, Maria began by explaining her desired structure and emphasizing her desire for the seminar to be a dialogue instead of a monologue.

And thus began an amazing story and intense discussions that awoke the engagement of all participants who strongly related to  Maria’s story.

Maria Khorsand was born and brought up in the town of Sari, in northern Iran. As the youngest sister of three daughters and one brother, at the age of 15 her parents sent her to USA, to join her older sisters and brother. This was to be a crucial point-of-no-return which changed her destiny. As she herself calls it, this was the first "character-building" experience, and she was about to have many more.

Crying halfway and being nervous the other half, the journey went on and she arrived at America. The first period there the US was everything but pleasant. Everything was of course better "back-in-dear-Iran". And after a while she thought strongly about returning. After all why should she stay in a country where everything was more difficult to do than in Iran, why should she stay in a country that wasn't as good as Iran? But soon she realized that returning meant giving up, and it was too early to give up; after all she hadn't given it a try yet. This was the second "character-building" experience.

So she decided to beat the situation and be more than she could be. She learned the language, the culture and started gradually to enter a new world; not the physical country of USA she earlier had entered, but the society of America.

Soon she began high-school and college. She graduated with a Masters degree from California State University. Beside the fact that it generally was a great accomplishment for an Iranian woman recently immigrating to America and getting a masters degree, there was another astonishing fact about her studies; she was one of the few women at that time getting a Masters in Computer Science!

Shortly after that the Iranian revolution broke out, the effect of the disturbances spread across the sea into US and into the Americans minds, more specifically into their views of Persians living in the US; and Maria was no exception.

At that time she was lecturing evening-courses at the university and everything was going well; she became the teacher of the year after only three years lecturing. But as she attempted to enter the real world of engineers and applied for a job that many of her American male classmates had gotten, reality hit her and it hit her hard.

During a job interview at an American defense company, as she answered honestly to the question of her place of birth; the interview was silently and mystically halted and minutes later guards escorted her out of the premises.

She was tremendously humiliated and her ego was crushed. She was somewhat depressed for a while and the increasingly hostile situations towards Iranians put her in a position where she had to pause and think. She considered leaving US but then it struck her; the reaction of the defense company was completely logical, any country with sense would have done the same in a situation like that. She also understood an even more important fact that she had pondered upon earlier; if she was to live in this country she had to adapt, not only to the language and the culture but also to the way of thinking and the present status quo. So basically she didn't take it personal and any prejudicial hostility towards her she brushed off herself and considered it their problems, not hers! This was the third "character-building" experience.

She soon got a job as a system and model analyst at Union Oil Company of California, an American oil company, and business was going well. When achieving every goal there and seeing less and less challenges, after a while she changed job to a position at Burroughs and later at Unisys. Never settling with comfort or certainty, her motto was and still is to always challenge yourself.

It was at this time, early 80's, that she met her future husband Daniel. Daniel was a Swedish citizen on job-trip in the US working for the same company. They soon got married and life was going well. But destiny was to take another unexpected turn.

The sudden news of Daniels fathers health deteriorating, put her in a yet another risktaking and difficult situation; should they move to Sweden as Daniel wanted to be close to his father in his last days or not? Was she to give it all up and start all over again; like she had done 15 years earlier? She was 29 and it would surely not be easier, if anything it would be much more difficult this time around.

So she took a leap of faith together with her husband and moved to a third continent; Europe. At this time she realized what a tremendous advantage she had before others; she had a multicultural background, in the words true sense! She would always have that with her. Anywhere she goes she is always proud of her Iranian background as well as her proven capabilities of adapting herself to a new environment and balancing it with her cultural heritage.

In Sweden her daughter Mitra was born. Meanwhile she got a job at Riksbanken as a system engineer. She worked there for a while but felt understimulated. Searching for challenges she started working for Ericsson in 1987. Still being somewhat a stranger (again) to the environment and the language it didn't take her long before understanding that although English was spoken by practically everyone, in order to really get into the system and the society she needed to learn Swedish.

So she set out yet another goal and soon reached that too. Now she was really climbing the career ladder; her excellent social skills and her extraordinary adaptive ability lead her to the top in every sub-division in Ericsson that she worked at.

(Since 1989 Maria has held several managerial positions in mobile telephony and data networks. Within Ericsson she began working with data communication, later with mobile systems and with Bluetooth TM wireless technology.)

Seeking to constantly approving every part of her character, she has rarely been afraid of taking risks. As a woman always up for any challenge, she was and still is considered a little "sharp-elbowed" in the Swedish cluture but she sees her honesty as one of her strongest qualities. With Kurt Hellström (Former President and CEO of Ericsson) as a mentor she has learned to be one of Swedish industries top-executives. So when she in February 2001 she became the President of Ericsson Technology Licensing, it was no surprise to people that knew her closely.

Once more she was at the of her career, nevertheless again after three of years presidency, she felt for yet another challenge, and when OMX contacted her offering a president in position in Financial Market, she took the offer. Learning a new industry was too challenging to resist.

Currently head of OMX Tech-Financial Market, Maria Khorsand is an inspiring person in every sense. Conquering every battle and blind-folding for obstacles out reach, whether it be prejudice of others, personal fears, or just twists of fate, she have proven herself more capable than most men in her field of work.

As the dialogue came closer to its end I can with confidence say that everyone in that room was filled with inspiration and pride!

Maria also showed a great involvement. An Iranian student, who had earlier worked with Maria, afterwards explained that he had heard her speak many times but that he had never seen such enthusiasm before. Maria many times declared how proud she is of her Iranian heritage and that she always brings this with her as a strength which brings her pride.

One in the audience explained how he ranked his pride over Maria Khorsand as a Persian role model as the pride he felt over Nobel laureate Mrs. Shirin Ebadi and even over his own mother, it’s needless to say that the atmosphere in the room was emotional.

We in SIS humbly thank Mrs Maria Khorsand, not only for her time spent with us Iranian students of Stockholm (despite her busy schedule), but also for her struggles and efforts for personal excellence over the past 3 decades. Through her successes she inspires all of us as a guiding-star and proof of the potentials for great success that we all have.