Technology Professional Exemplifies Stamina
Niti Khurana Bashambu, Chief Analytics Officer at IAC Applications, provides data driven leadership across the organization, executional focus for the company, and leads a team that provides online search services to more than 48 million consumers daily.
And that is just her day job. “I always joke that my second shift starts when I come home in the evening,” Bashambu said.
Emigrating from India at age 19, Bashambu lived with her sister while pursuing her degree from Duquesne University. Even as a student, Bashambu made time to give back to the community, by mentoring and tutoring young people. She taught English as second language and science as well as a college preparatory program for underprivileged youth.
In 2003, Bashambu joined IAC Applications as a product manager with Ask Jeeves. Her determination and ability to take on new responsibilities quickly established her upward career path.
She moved through the ranks of product management and data analytics, and into an executive leadership role in charge of search yield, analytics, and business intelligence. She elevated search to a product status within IAC Applications and succeeded in creating a new revenue stream that rapidly became 50 percent of the company’s revenue.
She credits her success to her willingness to “get into the weeds” to analyze data and find the nuggets of information that will most impact the company’s product pipeline.
In 2010, Bashambu established the Lamorindians, an organization of 85 families that teaches young people in her Lamorinda community about their Indian heritage and culture. She organizes events for the group and maintains its membership to foster community and global citizenship.
“The most important quality a woman leader should have is mental strength and stamina,” she said. “Strength to speak her mind, hold her ground, juggle many priorities, and stamina to multitask and work hard. As a woman, you need to be so many things to so many people, you need to be strong and have the stamina to run a marathon every single day at home and at work,” she added.
