Leyla Samiee, Mozilla

Trac Bannon: 

Leyla Samiee is another amazing real technologist that I met through Shutterstock CTO, Sejal Amin. Lately, I’ve been pretty amazed watching how networks grow organically and even more excited at the incredible humans willing to share their true stories, their genuine journeys. 

Genuine is probably the most descriptive, single word I can use to describe Leyla. The first time we spoke, she had a gentle smile, and I introduced Bob and myself. When I started to explain the rules of the road Leyla looked directly at the camera and said “I’m not at my best and I want this story to be heard. Could we reschedule in a few weeks?” 

The tone of her voice and her gaze made it clear that this was a genuine request and not simply for convenience in balancing other meetings. As it turns out, Leyla had been listening to other episodes and wanted to share her story with a clear head. We calendared another invite for a few weeks out. We exchanged a few emails in the meantime to check in and send positive energy Leyla’s way. 

When we met again, she had the same glow of authenticity and we began to navigate her origin story. Over her shoulder hung a beautiful picture of her little ones. When asked, she blushed a bit and shared that those cherubic faces were now 20 and 22. 

Having done some brief investigation, I saw references to Leyla being a Persian woman in tech. Sometimes I forget the present day Iran was historically known as Persia. To me, the first place to start learning more about meta’s, senior engineering lead for AI and ML was simply to ask where she grew up.

Leyla Samiee: 

I’m Iranian. I grew up in Tehran, the mega city of Iran for 20 something years I was there.

 My education finished in that city. I moved to Toronto after I finished my bachelor degree. And unfortunately for political reason, master degree was in a path in my country. So, I divorced that and came to Toronto.

Trac Bannon: 

I am one of those typical Americans who is horribly monolingual even with nearly 8 years of German language studies. Learning a language has a shelf life without the opportunity to speak in practice. Leyla learned English as her second language and shared that she still thinks in Farsi and then translates to English.

Leyla was born and grew up in Tehran, Iran until the late 1990s. Her early years in Iran were when the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomein was the supreme leader of Iran. He was both the political and religious leader. He came to power in 1979 at the culmination of the Islamic Revolution and the overthrow of the prior dynasty. American University describes the transition as replacing an authoritarian regime with a religious authoritarian regime. 

When he died in 1989, Leyla was still a young teen. I asked if she would be comfortable sharing a bit about Iran. 

Leyla Samiee: 

Of course I can… I definitely can share. And honestly, these days, nothing is personal for a woman in Iran. Like everything is about everybody. 

Trac Bannon: 

You are listening to Real Technologists. I’m your host, Trac Bannon, coming to you from Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. Each week we choose a unique guest behind leading Edge Tech innovation to explore their genuine stories, their true journeys. Technology touches nearly every aspect of our lives. It’s being driven by diverse perspectives and experiences of real humans.

You’re in the right spot to hear about the real technologists reshaping our world. Stay tuned for stories that will give you something to noodle on.

During my childhood, getting to know someone from another country and learning about their journey happened in two ways: pen pals and foreign exchange students. We learned about different religions, foods, and core culture. As an adult, I realized that my generation often lacked exposures to those who grew up in truly tumultuous times and in a country that was often seen as an enemy of the us. 

Leyla Samiee: 

I grew up till 1997, so I’ve been there till 1997. His death, an impact on a lot of different generation I’ve been witness. The war and impact of so many cultural differences between Iranians, Saturn, Iranians coming to and migrating to central or to just have safe space.

 As a very young person, I was probably in middle school I remember. It was mind blowing. It made me a resilience person, definitely because I had to witness that and be part of the friendship and safe, cycle for some of those girls joining our high school. I always felt lucky to be in a home that my parents both though rudely very religious, they were very open-minded and very, very, fighting for change.

Trac Bannon: 

Her family was conservative and religious though her parents afforded her an opportunity to talk about school and to talk about the other students. They did not shun the dialogue. They were open-minded to an extent. She was brought up with a focus on education. Formal education for women in Iran began in 1907 with the establishment of the first primary school for girls. Education held an important role in Iranian society, especially as the nation began a period of modernization under the prior dynasty. Even under Ayatollah Khomein and the Islamification of education, women began to dominate the college entrance exams. Even so, the majority of Iranian women were married by the age of 19.

Leyla credits her parents and her father in particular for his love and support. As patriarch of a large family by US standards. He held all his children to high standards and expectations. 

Leyla Samiee: 

We are five girls, one boy. And, my father always… I don’t know if he ever said it that way, but we had an assumption that he would love to have four doctors as her girls, like all of her girls being doctors around him. And he just love it so much. But one day I went to him and said… dad, if I don’t become a doctor, would you be sad?

And he looks at me in my eye, what? No, but you just be something that you can be your own boss. That’s all I’m asking you.

Trac Bannon: 

The pressure to be a doctor was present in Leyla’s head. At the same time, her father’s influence and guidance was immeasurable. When she would make a mistake, he was not harsh. He was candid. He would cast a look that clearly said “I expect you to be better”. That quality of being candid began to grow in Leyla and a pattern began to emerge for her that repeats throughout her life and her career: asking honest, open, and candid questions.

 Leyla dredged up the courage to ask her father what would happen if she opted to not be a doctor. His reply was to emphasize that she needed to be her own boss. That was a load off her shoulders. For many reasons including Leyla admitting that she has a fear of anything negatively impacting human life. Being a medical professional would never have been a fit. 

We joked that with all her technical expertise, she would not be the one to take on the design of a medical device. 

 As she prepared to graduate from high school and select a course of collegiate studies, she immediately gravitated to mathematics and statistics.

Leyla Samiee: 

One, I liked it to be very honest. For me, solving a mathematical problem… and I never been a good student. Don’t take me wrong… I never was a good student, but I had fun with math. Math was a part that I would just have fun with and game with. And this was just a game.

 I never was a good student. People were not having much of a hope for me… to be honest in school actually.

 But at grade, at the last grade, at grade 12… things just changing my brain somehow. I think that’s probably some time of growth. And I became so good at it. I got accepted in the school that had that field.

Trac Bannon: 

She was admitted to Tehran Institute of Technology and began her studies in math and stats. She was about to enter her third year when one sentence from her mother changed her path forever. You see, in Iran, the opportunity to choose your field of study is not fluid and changeable like North America. In a glorious moment of nurturing and curiosity, her mother mentioned a new field called software engineering and thought Leyla might be interested.

Leyla Samiee: 

I remember the third year of my education was a starting-ish… when my mom was just looking at a magazine and she said there was an advertise for application to university to master degree of computer science… which in Farsi is a different word.

And my mom was like, oh, Leyla, this field going to be very interesting in the future because it’s comes about making things automated and fast. It’s an engineering field, you like math, this may be fit for you. And, I vividly remember I took the magazine off her hand… I looked at the title. I was like, mom, what, who are you? Because to me, a woman like… she just was a simple house worker, but very smart, but never thought that she would, like her word, changed my mind to my life, to be honest. That moment changed my life. I just went back, I read through it. I showed them advertisement to my prof at the university, and he told me, you know what?

That’s going to be you, you going to be great at it. Just go. And I applied and I got accepted 

Trac Bannon: 

It was 1990 when Leila transferred to Azad University of Tehran. The change in university and field of studies would reset the clock for getting an undergraduate degree. During the senior year of the software engineering program. There was a focused internship for the last term before graduation. 

The opportunity was to work with an Iranian corporation. Leyla recalls it was super interesting work with JPEG software development. That was the high point. The low point was a corporate culture that was not fun. The company was small and male dominated. Even growing up in Iran during dramatic changes, she did not expect what she encountered. The internship though was set in stone and she dove in and applied herself.

Destiny would prove steadfast in providing interesting ideas that Leyla would research. And noodle on. This time, it would be another magazine and an advertisement about an Iranian tech company using American technology. 

Leyla Samiee: 

So I was just looking at the magazine and there was a advertisement again about a company called Pega. And the Informix and Linux was their kind of sign.

And I was like, who would have informix sign in Iran. They are American companies. They have American brand. They don’t have good relationship… what’s happening. And the boss at the time told me that, oh, don’t even think about that company. They’re not hiring people like you. They are just coming from people from MIT and they’re looking for Sharif University of Tehran, which is a very dominated university…engineering university, top ranked. And that was it for me. I had to go in, his statement was like, uh-oh, you said it wrongly. That’s it. I’m gonna go.

Trac Bannon: Did someone tell Leyla she wasn’t the right fit? Did they really mention they didn’t recruit from her college? More words I would use to describe Leyla are brave and authentic. Why not me, she thought? The ridge lines in this sand are not fair and I want that. She decided to share the article about the company called Pega with her father along with the statement that they were not hiring people like her at Pega. I have seen the look of determination on Leyla’s face and I can only imagine the same look on her father’s face. He listened then drove her to the Pega offices and dropped her off. When she arrived, the reception desk told her that they were not hiring, especially not hiring from her university. That is when something clicked inside of Leyla.

Leyla Samiee: 

I was watching, a lot of girls were in the office working like, okay, this may change, so lemme try again. So, I asked for the senior VP of the engineering, he was in us, traveling, and I said, okay, I’m gonna stay around until he comes.

And literally 30 days every day morning, I went to the office, sit down, asked if he is there, they said he’s not here and he’s not hiring. I’m like, okay, maybe tomorrow. And I went every single day. 

Trac Bannon: 

You’ve got to wonder what the Pega employees thought to themselves when they saw her day after day. Day 1 is novel, day 2 is curious. But what about day 7, day 10? In fact, her “sit-in” was getting noticed. She would bring her textbooks and read while waiting for the VP to return. 

One of the engineering leaders had sympathy for her. He offered to create an account on their internal systems so that she could look at their library and benefit from studying while she waited. There was no request in return; no code to write or even surveys to fill in. It was simply an act of kindness and grace. 

The days wore on. The vice president had to eventually return, right? Surely someone had mentioned the squad or in the reception area and the student using the corporate tech library? 

Leyla Samiee: 

And then I remember vividly when he came, first day, he was looking at like… who is Leyla? … who is that girl? I’m getting an email every day. There is someone want to see me that I don’t have no clue who she is.

He took me to their office and said, okay, Leyla… What do you want? And I was like, I don’t understand why you’re not hiring from other university. You’re losing a lot of opportunity of a smart group of people. He looked me in the eye and said, and that’s obvious. 

Trac Bannon: 

Brave, authentic, candid, and persistent! The same persistence. She applied to math problems as a girl was being applied to pushing the door open for a corporate opportunity. She was still finishing her internship and we need to graduate.

She even went as far as to say, ” they said you’re not gonna hire me, so I’m gonna prove that you need me and you will hire me” 

This is how Leyla was able to win over the support of Pega and of the VP. In fact, he even helped Leyla with her thesis guaranteeing she would matriculate. Who was her first employer out of college. It was Pega. 

For nearly 5 years, Leyla Samiee learned new programming languages, moving from c to c++, and eventually to Java. Pega was building applications for the Iranian government including an email client like Outlook. And beyond the programming language, Leyla learned about the importance of unicode because all of the documentation and the user interfaces were in the Iranian language: Farsi. 

Leyla chuckles thinking back to her own candidness and authenticity. In the same way she had discussed her career and being a doctor with her father, she had been open and candid when she was interviewed by Mehmed, the VP of Pega. His question was simple “why do you wanna join Pega” 

She was blunt and honest saying that they had a lot of great tech that North America could benefit from. She wanted to learn what Pega had to offer and then immigrate. 

Leyla Samiee: 

And I remember he looked at me and said… leyla, that’s okay that you told me that. But never ever say a company, you wanna go there to learn and move. Okay. He’s like, okay, I’m learning, that’s fine. 

Trac Bannon: 

Leyla had her eyes on leaving Iran and working abroad from the time she entered college her freshman year. She was told that to go for a master’s program, she would need to immigrate and leave Iran. She applied with Canada for approval to immigrate. When she was finally accepted, she was flown to Syria for interview and then returned to Iran to wrap up her work with Pega. 

While she was at Pega, she met the man who had eventually become her husband. They committed to having a strong relationship and agreed it would stay at friendship. The best laid plans of mice and men… after a few months, they discussed how the relationship was growing… but they agreed that they both had their individual eyes on Canada. 

Neither wanted to follow the other. They both wanted to pave their own path. 

Leyla Samiee: 

And I was like, maybe it’s getting serious, so maybe we should just separate… because I’m gonna go to Canada. You are applying for Canada. I don’t wanna come after you. You don’t wanna come after me. Let us just separate and do our own thing and maybe life bring us back together or maybe not.

Trac Bannon: 

While Leyla was granted her immigration, first it was her future husband who was first to set foot. How? Leyla pumped the brakes slightly in preparing to leave. When immigration is granted, you are given a year to make your plans and arrive. While her future soulmate got his immigration approvals later than she did, he essentially left immediately. But not without first sitting down with Leyla’s father and seeking some sort of approval. 

Leyla Samiee: 

So he did talk to my father before he leaves, and he said, I don’t know if I gonna change when I go to a North American country. Leyla doesn’t know if she may change her mind or her personality when she moves somewhere totally new. We all agreed that we need to do it separately, so I gonna go… but in my heart, I believe I gonna come back.

And, my dad was like, whatever. Okay… whatever you decide, what am I gonna do? 

Trac Bannon: 

The advice given when moving to Canada was to find a job as quickly as possible. Changing jobs is okay, it’s common. Canadian banks were hiring and Leyla assumed it would be an okay place to start, and it was. She started with CIBC and learned tons about enterprise technology, business and corporate culture. 

The work needed for the banking industry in the late 1990s was a bit distance from the excitement, the drama, and the pace that she felt with Pega. Pega was driving rapid innovation and had a core focus on software engineering. Being authentic to herself, she began looking for a new employer and found Syndesis Limited, an experimental lab creating compilers. She would stay with Syndesis for over five years. It was not the work that kept her there, but stability. Leyla was navigating a series of life altering events.

 Hindsight is always 20/20. Leyla made the best decision she could with the information and context she had at the time. She arrived from a very conservative Iran and landed in a more liberal Canada. Her time with CIBC was less than three years, and she grew during that time, it was at Syndesis, however, that she needed stability and at the same time, began to experience biases in the workplace.

Leyla Samiee: 

Moving to Canada made me more hesitant for a while. Because I didn’t know that this is the right thing to do or be the right person in this society or in this culture. Is it acceptant to be bold enough or wanting things enough?

Hard enough? or too hard. Or even I was actually somehow felt that, oh, you are an immigrant. You are a woman, you are in minority. Step back. Be careful and let me share you one thing that is probably mind blowing. The first time ever I felt differentiated between the group around me as a woman was not in Iran though, was in Canada.

Trac Bannon: 

Imagine not one bias applied against you, but two? Both gender and geographic origin labels and the preconceived notions, they made leyla feel truly part of a minority. Truly feel that she was different. Comments like, you don’t know this because it just doesn’t happen like that in Iran, or, how do you know this from your background? Or even is that normal in Iran too? 

She had felt a sense of gender bias before ,during her internship in Iran. She felt the differences and would take hand-me-down work from men who were her intellectual and talent equals. For whatever reason, perhaps it was that she had been raised and exposed to an implied hierarchy during her growing up in Iran, it didn’t impact her the way Syndesis culture did. Leyla believes earnestly that had she been male when she worked for Syndesis, her geographic origin would have been much less important. 

Stability, stability and stability. Sometimes we make a choice that leaves a scar. We make the choices with our eyes wide open. Leyla and her husband discussed her options. She would stay put for the birth of her baby. Life has an interesting way of throwing curve balls through. After the birth of her son, Leyla suffered a health issue with her eyes. When she was finally on the mend, she found she was expecting another blessing of a child.

Leyla Samiee: 

The first year I was there, I felt the pain, but then I was pregnant with my first kid, so was

 best to stay. Then I went back, I had some health issue with my eye. I stayed, I didn’t have fun. I was actually literally put on project that were just literally just not that important. But then when my health issue was resolved and I was pregnant again, and I got the signal very quickly that Leyla when you come back, maybe you wanna look around. 

Trac Bannon: 

For 6 years Leyla worked in an uninspiring and somewhat toxic environment. The role was keeping her in technology and quite frankly, keeping her employed in Canada. 

Looking at it from a silver lining perspective, had she been somewhere else, and if they had started to put her on leading edge project… would that have caused stress or family career conflict? Would it have stoked the fire of her wanting to be at the office more and working longer hours? We’ll never know. As she talks about this time in her career, she glances back at the picture of her two cherubs hanging on the wall behind her. 

Leyla Samiee: 

I’m always looking at the positive sign of the side of things.

Trac Bannon: 

Relationships are a strong suite for Leyla and she kept her relationships even with the Pega Vice President’s fresh. Sayed was VP of product and consultation, and Mamuud was the VP of engineering. While it was Mahmoud who helped her with her undergraduate thesis. It was Sayed who gave her a lifeline while she was at Syndesis; he offered her a fantastic opportunity with a new startup. It was a welcomed reentry into the workforce after the birth of her second child. The technology included graphical user interfaces and mobile devices. 

The idea was to allow mobile phone users to enter or scan the price of an item, and then receive a list of prices of cheaper items close by, but using text messages. 

Leyla Samiee: 

So actually my allegiance was the opportunity given to me by my favorite boss in Pega again, when I left Syndesis. Because I was through maternity leaves back to back, I felt distance from technology. Though I was always in the company working, but I didn’t have the top new technologies hands-on experience. It took me six months to wrap up and warm up. And unfortunately, his startup didn’t go very much because… you know what? His startup was very smart at the time, but was too smart for the time. 

Trac Bannon: 

While working with the startup, Leyla was actually working remotely. This was unusual and much more difficult than today. Her boss at the startup, Sayed, told her to keep her ear to the ground for other opportunities in Canada. He happened to cross the company called Afilias. Can you guess what happened next? Leyla talked to Sayed and was authentic and candid. She was ready to move on. He was equally candid with his reply: 

Leyla Samiee: 

And the only thing he told me was like… are you sure this is a field and a space that you’d like… because this is just about domain registry. Is that technical enough for you? And my answer was, I make it technical enough. 

Trac Bannon: 

I will make it technical enough. She said she would and she did. Her next jump was to Afilias where she stayed for 5 years rising to the role of senior manager of Application services. Afilias was a US corporation that was a registry operator of the .info and .mobi domains and the service provider from many more.

Leyla Samiee: 

So I loved my time in Afilias as well. It was a great time from engineering perspective. I worked with the same manager that eventually without me knowing, became my boss in Reuters. So I started bringing some sort of automation, correction, quality checks and things like that on their platform and solutions, and eventually build a solution around data warehousing and big data concept for the registry system, which eventually became more of, not only for affiliates, but generally for any domain registry.

Trac Bannon: 

Through the years, there have been myriad corporate mergers and acquisitions in the domain registry industry. Afilias was eventually dissolved in 2022. For Leyla, Afilias was in a growth period when she was there and she grew rapidly in the company until there was no more room to grow. She didn’t encounter a glass ceiling, but rather she was a fish that had grown too big for the fishbowl! In a small company there were simply no other roles for Leyla to grow into. Leyla does admit there was another contributing factor for her leaving Afilias. 

Leyla Samiee: 

I had a little bit of feeling that the team that I was working had that conceptual differences that I felt… like I would get comments, I would see messages, and I was the only woman leader in the team at the time.

Trac Bannon: 

When she was seeking her next step, she discussed it with her senior manager, Ram. Kind of guts and definitely her MO. Pega, the startup, and now Afilias, she talked with her leadership authentically and candidly about her next steps. Ram had the insight and observation that she was very good working with big data. In 2011, big data was a growth area, especially for FinTech. She was not a fan of going back to the financial industry. She was, however, pulled by a dream of working with data. She wanted to use big data. Data platforms were becoming a focus area. She moved to a corporation called FundSERV. She stayed and learned and grew for two years.

She was Director of Solution Delivery and in 2014, moved to the Bank of Montreal as the Director and Lead Technology Officer. They had a lot of data transformation needs; they lacked the tooling necessary. For Leyla, it was a good mix of bringing software engineering to serve data platforms as a service.

 Throughout her life and career, she had been constantly mentoring other women. Interestingly, it really started with her family as the oldest child with three younger sisters. 

Leyla Samiee: 

And I have a lot of sisters. So being a woman in an environment and guide them through tough times and hearing their stories become part of my life… this is what we do. And especially because I sponsored all of them to Canada, eventually helping them grow in Canada and educate. It was just part of mentoring of others anyway. 

Trac Bannon: 

It became something so natural. Helping sisters and eventually guiding her own daughter. The type of empathy and grace she affords others is very open and transparent. Her approach is instinctive just like the young Leyla that made a decision to camp out in the Pega offices. Leyla mentors people “in the moment”. She does not plan out detailed strategies and alliances. When a need becomes visible, it is immediately the time to address it. 

Leyla Samiee: 

I’m always a mentor at the moment. I never wait for someone to ask and reach out. So would happen constantly that we are in a meeting, people talk over each other, men or woman, doesn’t matter. And then I usually see the person, which is usually woman, but a person more quiet than others.

So I always naturally quiet the room and say, what do you think? Do you want to share your thought? Very interestingly, when I go to coaching sessions that they tell us what to do, I’m like… does it really need to be trained? All of these that you’re telling me, it’s just so obvious.

Trac Bannon: 

Leyla also finds joy by impacting younger women and girls.

Leyla Samiee: 

I love kids. I love young people, and I would love to be able to make them feel happy, and look into the right side of life.

 It just makes my life just more beautiful. So maybe that’s my hobby.

Maybe that is it. Because to me, if I can make a difference for next generation of thought leaders, that’s make me happy.

Trac Bannon: 

All of the real technologists alumni call out their family as a major support. Leyla’s husband is a huge part of her support system. He’s also an engineer, though more of a product solution architect working as a supply chain consultant for Nike. 

Leyla Samiee: 

My husband is such a unique, supportive Persian, Iranian man that I don’t think exists often. But he literally was the one enabling me to fly in my career. I was traveling maybe every other week for work when my kids were three and five.

And he never told me Leyla, why are you doing this? Can’t you just stop this one? Never. He never asked even, oh, is that mandatory to go? Even that question never came up. 

Trac Bannon: 

Her daughter has inherited her candid and authentic voice recently make a comment to her mom that set her mom back on her heels. Leyla has been left pondering the optics of her career to her daughter. The comment is so innocent and sweet and yet, it carries with it so much weight with Leyla’s analytic mindset. 

Leyla Samiee: 

I honestly wanna share with you that my daughter once told me that… mom, while I’m very proud of you as a successful woman, sometimes I’m wondering that I’m afraid to be you because it’s just so hard.

Trac Bannon: 

Leyla knows that she’s a strong role model and yet, she has two nieces who are growing up in Iran. As she spoke about them, I could see a sadness in her eyes. Iran’s government continues to merge politics and religion. In June of 2023, a watchdog group called Human Rights Watch reported “In today’s Iran, a woman’s access to employment, education, social benefits, and proper healthcare – and even her mere public presence in society – depends on complying with compulsory hijab rules, which are routinely enforced through a web of rules and arbitrary interpretation by state agents as well as businesses.”

Perhaps this is the source of sadness for Leyla. She had benefited from turmoil and change as things began to open up slightly more. She was able to go to school, to get an education, to emigrate and to sponsor her sisters. Could she feel somehow that these two young girls are left behind? 

Leyla Samiee: 

I have my two beautiful niece back home. They are growing up. They are trying to find their path, and settling, but I’m sure emotionally they’re not as healthy as they should have been or could have been. They’re always sad, they’re always angry.

They feel nothing is fair. And I agree with them. There is nothing to disagree. Not everybody is offered or have an opportunity to leave the country, that’s the problem. 

I’m sure I seeing other young girls, different generation, as of my nieces are back home… tells me that the situation is just unmanageable anymore.

Like I was the lucky one. I think, though I went through a lot of pain, but I was the lucky one… But everything gets worse.

Trac Bannon: 

What is so mind boggling to Leyla and to me is that some girls don’t want to get out. They want to dig in and fix the situation. Leyla tries to be upbeat though she’s wise and pragmatic. The situation is very complex and perhaps more complex than the younger generation thinks. It’s not hopeless, but damn, it’ll be hard. 

Leyla Samiee: 

Some girls don’t even want to get out. They want to fix it. And that’s even the more painful part.

And then as you want to fix it, you lose hope when you see it. You go two step forward and then turn three step back… and it’s just hopeless. It’s a painful, very painful situation.

Trac Bannon: 

The hope and energy of the young. It could be a good thing. Maybe there is hopefulness that comes in the form of innocence and zealotry. When you’re young, you don’t realize that you may never be able to change something. We all need to do what we can to send energy and hope, but this generation can be the spark that creates the next round of change.

Leyla has a clear appreciation for all that life has given to her so far though you can hear in her voice how much she misses Persia. Despite all the benefits and goodness immigrating to Canada has given to her family, she has some similarities to the protagonist Philip Nolan. In the short story “The Man Without a Country.” In the story by the American writer Edward Everett Hale, Philip Nolan is transported from ship to ship, living out his life as a prisoner on the high seas and is never allowed back in his home port.

Leyla Samiee: 

So I consider myself lucky one, I have different opportunity to grow and then move to Canada because of my technical background. But I can tell you that the pain of being separated from something you think you should have belonged… will never leave you.

 And, I just don’t think I belong anymore. it’s been such a long time now that I don’t feel that. But the feeling that you should have is never leaves you. I miss it. I miss it hard. 

Trac Bannon: 

The resilience. The hopefulness despite all odds. The authentic concern for others. The candid conversations. She is quite a fighter and precocious. An hour spent with Leyla Samiee will both humble you and inspire you. 

After her time with FundSERV, she has continued to continuously evolve to take on increasingly challenging roles. After three years as the director and lead technology officer for BMO Financial Group, she made a decision to transition to Thompson Reuters as the Senior Director and Head of Technology.

Back in 2008, Reuters was acquired by the Thompson Corporation. The two corporate cultures are very distinct still. Leyla found herself more on the Reuters side of the enterprise with an imperative to drive triple digit growth in headcount. This is another time where her “in the moment” mentoring approach was able to shine in bringing a voice to many. She found herself, however, longing to get back to her passion: software engineering and innovation.

She landed an interview with Facebook now, Meta, in 2018. The offer came quickly and Leyla was excited. There was a glitch, however. The lawyers involved recommended Leyla apply for a special case visa. They were concerned with Leyla being Iranian and having two passports. The US administration was applying tons of scrutiny for folks looking to live and work in the us.

It would take two years for Leyla’s complicated Visa application to be processed and approved. It was now 2021, and the world was in the midst of lockdowns. In retrospect, that may have helped to ease the move to New York City. 

Leyla Samiee: 

Nobody was going out but I have photos from Times Square in New York.

Like literally almost empty, not as empty as other pictures, but very low number of people. So it was very quiet city, but it was good probably for me because I needed quiet. I think after a lot of hectic challenges that we went through. I needed some quiet time. It was good here.

Trac Bannon: 

What is next for Leyla Samiee? If the pattern holds true, she’ll be looking for her next adventure. Meta has given her the opportunity to get her hands dirty. She is also passionate to keep on learning. From 2012 to 2018, she studied big data, data science, and artificial intelligence with MIT and Johns University. 

When I ask Leyla what advice she would give to her younger self, I could see the direct impact of her father’s wise ways in her answer.

Leyla Samiee: 

We are all human. We make mistakes. There is no way not to but feeling that mistakes is end of the world, is something that we shouldn’t do. And I think in my career or in my even life, I always unfortunately have that sense that… I mess it up. It’s just never going to be good and it’s not true.

I feel human is always definitive and you defend yourself to yourself and it makes it more complicated to trust yourself.

And I just think that’s what I have learned to be careful about.

But I think it’s just making sure that you are aware of making a mistake is not end of the world If it’s a mistake and sometimes it’s not a mistake, it’s unfortunate series of events, just stay strong through it.

 I think resiliency is the result of that if we do. 

Trac Bannon: 

And that’s a wrap for today’s episode of Real Technologists. I want to thank my guest, Leyla Samiee for sharing her story. Your insights and experiences are truly inspiring. I’m grateful for the opportunity to share them with the audience. This podcast is a Sourced Network production and updates are available weekly on your favorite audio streaming platform. Just search for real technologists and consider subscribing. Special thanks to our executive producer, Mark Miller, for making this show possible. Our editor and sound engineer, Pokie Huang has done an amazing job bringing this story to life. Thank you both. The music for today’s episode was provided by Blue Dot Sessions, and we use Descript for spoken text editing and audacity for the soundscaping. The show distribution platform is provided by CaptivateFM making it easy for our listeners to find and enjoy the show. 

That’s all for today, folks. This is Trac Bannon. Don’t forget to tune in next week for another intriguing episode of Real Technologists and something new to noodle on.