Shaleenah Marie
Human Resources Manager
Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics
“Be the change you want to see in the world....” My name is Shaleenah Marie and I am the Human Resources Manager at Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics.
Who am I? Firstly and fore mostly, I am a woman, a woman who refuses to accept defeat or any limitations, the only limitations there are for us women are the ones we force upon ourselves…
Born and brought up in Durban, I studied at the University of Durban Westville and one of my subjects at university was Education, Gender and Feminism Studies. I majored in Education because I believe that education is power and knowledge sets you free. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”.
Armed with a B.Paed degree, I started my career as a Child Behavioral Specialist in Boston, Massachusetts (USA). I soon realized that I wanted to contribute to the development of human potential and returned to South Africa and enrolled for post graduate studies in Organizational Development and Labor Relations. I joined TSS Business Services as an HR Manager and later as my career evolved, joined Scientific Group/Adcock Ingram and later Tiger Brands. I joined Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics two years ago as a Human Resources Manager. It has been an exhilarating two years where I have travelled abroad to the USA, Spain, Germany and France on international HR projects and training workshops.
I believe that success is not only measured by an organizations monetary profits but success is always measured by what we put back into our community. Last year
SHD adopted two Children's Homes where we in our personal capacity collected clothing, shoes, and books and gave off our time to these children. Recently
SHD adopted the Isekelo Primary School in Tembisa where we have just completed painting the school and equipping a fully functional science room. We have an in house mentoring programme where the managers are responsible in mentoring our school graduates. Our role as mentors are taken very seriously because we are skilling our future leaders of tomorrow.
Why did I want to become a member of ALOW (Africa Leadership Organization of Women)? We have the silent PHD (Pull her down) pandemic which is threatening our unified strength as women. "United we stand, Divided we fall" We need to acknowledge other women’s achievements more, encourage each other more and lend a helping hand to each other more… We need to inculcate a PHU (Pull her up culture) that wipes away the need for us to put other women down. Women's experiences and skills are our most valuable resource, so let’s use this effectively. Empowering our young females with the knowledge, skills and the know how is not a choice which we have but a social responsibility we have as woman toward woman. This is a platform to raise social awareness around female leadership. Being part of ALOW is a great opportunity to have a bigger reach into our communities and have a bigger and louder voice to be heard as women….
