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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.
