Ahsiya, Business operations, USA

When I was growing up in Philadelphia, having house guests from all over the world was a common occurrence. I am the daughter of Peace Corps volunteers and, throughout their years of international deployment, they made a lot of friends around the world.

I felt like a global citizen, living in a three-generation home with my maternal grandparents, parents and 6 siblings, along with extended family sprinkled in. It meant that, from a very early age, I learned how to get along with people from different backgrounds. Fast forward several years to my role today, my upbringing has had a huge impact on my career interests and choices.

I lead GSK’s employee volunteering programmes globally, most notably our flagship PULSE scheme.

Each year, up to 100 GSK employees have the opportunity to spend up to six months lending their expertise to a non-profit partner organisation. It is a global programme and this is where my childhood experiences come to the fore. I feel blessed to have my dream job, but my progression to this leadership role has been far from linear.

Serendipity and GSK

In college, I was pre-med until my senior year, when I decided to pursue teaching high school social studies after formative experiences in Zimbabwe and through my work in the US and abroad with non-profit organisations such as Seeds of Peace.  After several years teaching, I completed my Ph.D. in international relations and diplomacy, but just as I was going on the academic job market, my dad was diagnosed with a deadly cancer, so I committed to finding a job close to home.  I hadn’t thought of joining the private sector until a family friend mentioned a R&D strategy consultant opening at GSK.

I applied to this role thinking that I had no chance of success. But I gave the interviews a go and surprisingly got the job. In this role, I gained tremendous exposure to our R&D business and our patients’ perspectives world-wide.

Two years into my role, Andrew Witty, GSK’s then CEO, took the helm. I vividly remember his first employee broadcast as he spoke passionately about the need for the industry to support global development through our most valuable resource – our human resource – specifically through skills-based volunteering.

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