“Walking away from corporate life was the hardest thing I have done because all I have ever known is life in the fast lane. Taking a pitstop of any sort felt very uncomfortable.”
After twenty years building an award-winning career working with brands such as Sainsbury’s, Starbucks, WeWork and JustEat, Jaz Rabadia decided it was time to stop and take stock of what she really wanted.
“As I built my career in sustainability and ESG, my roles had evolved in scope and increased in seniority. While I enjoyed the work it got to a point where I realised I hadn’t stopped long enough to figure out whether I was making the impact I wanted to make.”
“Turning forty was a trigger point, where I asked myself, is this what I want to keep doing for the next twenty years? The natural thing would have been to just carry on and tell myself I would figure it out. However, I didn’t want to get drawn back into the cycle of moving to a new role with wider scope and a more senior title.”
“I am at a stage in my life where I have a young family and I had been sacrificing some of the time I could spend with them to climb the corporate ladder. I wanted to have the time after school to invest in my children and their learning, in the way I was doing for others as a STEM ambassador and mentor. That was the moment the penny dropped for me.”
“The change of pace has freed up space for me to do the thinking, understand myself better and what my future will look like. And what it won’t. I have two decades of experience and the wisdom that comes with that and the freedom to choose what I say yes to. That would be a lot harder if I was five years into my career.”
“I’ve been recognised throughout my career in multiple ways and that has also meant I give back to the organisations that have given me a platform and shone a light on the work that I do. But ultimately, my aim is how can I share my story and inspire others? I have started writing, reflecting on what I have learned after so many years in the industry – the things I would like to tell my 20-year-old self.”
“When I go back to talk to students at City St George’s, they ask what advice I could give them as they start their career. I tell them that everything that has been a success in my career has been down to curiosity. People often think they need to give the right answer, but what they need to do is ask the right question and have the courage to do so.”
Alongside her roles as a mentor and volunteer, Jaz sits on the board of a FTSE 250 company and has started consulting.
“I am enjoying the impact I can make from a strategic perspective, advising boards on their ESG approach. I help them to embed ESG into their business strategy in a way that makes a commercial impact. How can we protect people and the planet and still align that with what is best for the business?”
“There is currently lot of negativity and fear around AI and digital technologies, but I am excited to think about what good it could do and how it might positively contribute to society as a whole. There has been so much innovation in the last twenty years – think of electric cars for example, which seemed an absurd concept when first suggested. What will be the new normal twenty years from now in terms of how much more we could advance?”
“I think the biggest challenge for businesses will be complacency. With so many competing priorities, there’s a risk that sustainability slips further down the agenda. But the challenges we’re trying to address aren’t going away and neither are the opportunities. I’ve always believed that sustainability can also make good business sense and I hope more organisations come to see it that way too.”