5 questions for Nabila Ahmad
Lindner alum recalls how co-op experience helped launch her career
UC ties run deep in Ahmad’s family. Her father was a professor, while her mother, siblings and two of her sons are UC graduates.
After beginning her studies in architecture, Ahmad shifted to business, where an impactful co-op with IBM helped launch her career in technology sales leadership. As part of her present involvement with Lindner and UC, Ahmad relays her expertise as a guest instructor in Lindner sales courses.
Get to Know Nabila Ahmad
- Job Title: Global Technology Sales Leader, IBM
- Graduation Year: 1986
- Majors: Information Systems, Marketing
- Lindner/UC Accolades & Activities
- Professional involvement: Grau Center for Professional Selling, Warren Bennis Leadership Institute, Lindner Women in Business
- Student involvement: Student Alumni Council, RallyCats (founding member), Delta Delta Delta
1. What experiences from your time studying business do you still carry with you today?
The Lindner College of Business and the University of Cincinnati really prepare you well for the workforce because of the emphasis on co-op and experiential learning. I remember doing a project for Federated Department Stores that Federated could take and move forward with. My colleagues coming out of college did not have the same experiential learning opportunities that I had, and I felt so much more prepared.
2. What was it specifically about your co-op experience that made you feel ready?
How you interact in the workplace, how you collaborate with your colleagues and how you interact with clients. I had client experience while working in technical sales, and you really cannot get that in a classroom environment.
3. What keeps you challenged or inspired in your position?
Ahmad in the Lindner Hall atrium.
I’m constantly challenged to learn about new technology. Being a sales leader for a particular segment of our business, I’m the subject matter expert. Not only are you teaching others on why we have the best technology and how it helps solve our clients’ problems, but you also have the job of continually learning about new capabilities and innovations — and communicating those innovations to your employees, and in turn, your clients. It’s a constant learning process. It’s exciting and I wouldn’t choose anything else.
4. How would you characterize your leadership style, and how has it evolved over your career?
I’ve found that my greatest accomplishments occur when each member of my team is empowered to achieve success. My leadership philosophy has always been to lift up others as you rise and progress, to support others to enable their growth and be present when someone needs help — whether professionally or personally.
For me, lifting others can mean coaching, opening doors to new opportunities or offering a hand in times of need. This commitment is rooted in my faith and shapes how I lead every day.
I deeply believe that UC has so much to provide to students, the community and to the business world.
Nabila Ahmad, Bus '86 Global Technology Sales Leader, IBM
5. What skills or mindsets do you think matter most for students entering your industry?
One, surround yourself with numerous mentors and make sure you initiate those discussions. If you admire someone or see here’s what I want to be in five years, here’s what I want to be in 10 years — then reach out to that individual.
Two, I’ve been in sales my entire career, and I believe that every interaction is some type of sale. You cannot replace interpersonal skills and human interaction. Being capable, having technical depth and credibility, you might have all that. But it means nothing if you are not communicating properly.
Your career is next
Through one of the nation’s most robust co-op programs, UC students don’t just learn about their future — they live it, alternating classroom study with real, career-shaping experience in industries around the world.
Students: Earn while you learn at UC.
Employers: Find your next hire.
Featured image: Nabila Ahmad in a Lindner Hall courtyard. Photos/Grant Freking.
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