12 Questions- Panteha Pedram

Question 1: Who is Panteha Pedram?

PP: I am Director of Risk at Ingenico ePayments, responsible for Global Fraud teams , AML and Transaction Monitoring Teams within our company. I have a Master Degree from University of Oslo (Norway) and I am following my PhD degree at this moment in University of Heerlen (Netherlands). I enjoy connecting business to academics and try different hypothesis in my daily job, learning and challenging myself. I love reading and I get energy from socializing with other highly motivated people.

Question 2. What do you enjoy most about your job and what do you find most difficult?

PP: We are working with data and discovering patterns in the data in our teams trying to prevent fraud, terrorist financing and Money Laundering. I have a team of passionate professionals that come to the office with a big smile on their faces every day. There is no better reward than helping our customers when enjoying our jobs at the same time.

Question 3.  As a female (young)leader or a woman working in the financial sector, what has been the most significant barrier in your career so far?

PP: I don’t associate myself differently “as female vs. male” in working environment. Once on the job, there is hardly a barrier as a female leader/professional to develop but before getting into an organization, female leaders might have difficulties to present their CV truly due to the bias that might exist in some companies regarding women’s role and responsibilities.

Question 4. What is the best piece of advice given to you? Who gave you that advice? 

PP: Take a chance and step out of your comfort zone. There is a risk in every aspect of our life but the taste of achievement worth it. This is what my parents have always told me and there is nothing more important than having people in your life that believe in your capabilities and motivate you constantly.

Question 5. Who inspired/inspires (role model) you and why?

PP: I have had many great role models in my life which necessarily not all of them have been females, but they all have been successful in achieving their goals and dreams. I have been lucky to be born in a family that both parents have achieved high levels of education and career developments and they have always inspired me and motivated me to take the chances in my life.

Question 6.When you began your career (many) years ago, did you ever imagine that you would be a (young) leader in a male-dominated profession?

PP: My goal has never been on becoming a leader but to express my opinion and to make a change. Becoming a leader made it easier for me to achieve those goals.

Question 7. What do you think is the most significant barrier to female leadership especially in the financial sector?

PP: I personally believe there is no goal which is not achievable, if we believe in our capabilities and if we show those capabilities in action. I have had the privilege of working in different sectors than financial sector and what I have observed is that hard-working employees who are creative, dare to change the process and open to new ideas, get the chance to develop regardless of gender.

Question 8. What advice would you give to the next generation of female leaders in financial sector? And what do you think will be the biggest challenge for the generation of women behind you?

PP: The new generation are open to the fast changes in the technology and thanks to vast number internet-based social networks, quite willing to express their ideas. There will be a great competition between young professionals for sure regardless of gender.

Question 9. Mentorship? What is your opinion about it? Is it necessary? Does it make a difference? Did you have a mentor when you started your career? Do you think it would have made a difference if you did?

PP: Mentorship played a very important role for me. It is important that someone looks into your ideas and interests from a different angle and guides you towards the right direction. We have the same system in Universities when a supervisor helps you to shape your idea into a successful dissertation. Necessarily not all my mentors have been women but they all believed in me and saw the passion in me and helped me in shaping it in right direction.

Question 10. When it comes to gender pay gap, diversity and inclusion in financial sector: are we progressing, moving backwards or stagnated? Why?

PP: I never had this experience and I think I have received what I have asked for and never had the feeling that I was less-paid than what I asked for. There have been more important aspects in the job than pay roll for me, but that totally is individual and not gender-related.

Question 11.What is some of the advice you can share with (young) women entering a male-dominated profession such as tech or finance?

PP: If there is one advise that I have for young professional females is to dare to express your ideas and dare to take the risk. Step out of your comfort zone often to challenge yourself and don’t try to dress up or behave like men to prove equality.

Question 12.If you could do it all again, what would you do differently?

PP: There is nothing I would do differently. Every phase and experience of my life has been a step towards where I am standing now and without those, the joy of the current achievements would not exist.

Panteha will be speaking at the EWPN annual awards & conference event in Amsterdam on October 30 & 31st. Make sure you grab your ticket before they are sold out. Register for the event here.