Name: Leading Across Cultures
Start: 2025-06-10T08:00:00+01:00
End: 2025-06-10T09:00:00+01:00

WeQual Executives - Leading Across Cultures - Sheela Nambiar

APAC, EMEA

Development

Leading Across Cultures

Influence isn’t universal. The way you lead needs to land—wherever you are.

Your leadership style might work perfectly in one setting but completely miss the mark in another. Cultural intelligence isn’t about avoiding missteps—it’s about building credibility, trust, and influence in any environment. Without it, you risk losing buy-in, creating friction, and holding your business back.

This session goes beyond theory. You’ll gain practical, tried and tested insights to help you adapt, connect, and lead confidently—no matter who’s in the room.

Your speaker: Sheela Nambiar, Director – Sales Development, Digital Sales Americas, IBM

Sheela Nambiar brings a global perspective to leadership, having held senior roles across India, Singapore, and the United States with companies including IBM, Oracle, Wipro, and Compuware. She currently heads IBM’s Digital Sales Development Team in the Americas and leads the Dallas Digital Center. With decades of experience driving growth across diverse markets, Sheela has built and led high-performing teams across regions—and understands firsthand how culture shapes collaboration, communication, and credibility.

At IBM India, she led initiatives to increase cloud adoption while championing gender diversity She’s passionate about mentoring women in tech and sales and brings a practical, empowering approach to leadership across borders.

Expect to learn:

How to read the room in any culture—understanding the unspoken rules that shape leadership interactions

Common leadership blind spots that cause friction when working across different cultural expectations

Tactics to build trust and alignment with diverse teams, clients, and global stakeholders

How to flex your leadership style without losing authenticity or authority

The best leaders don’t just work across cultures—they master them. If you want to lead at the highest level, this session is essential.

Sheela Nambiar

IBM

Director – Sales Development, Digital Sales Americas, and Dallas Center Leader

Sheela Nambiar is a dynamic and accomplished leader who currently serves as the head of the IBM Digital Sales Development Team in the Americas. She has spent 3.5 years in the Americas Digital Sales team and has been responsible for driving revenue growth and acquiring new clients for the company. Additionally, she plays a crucial role in managing and expanding the Digital Center in Dallas.

Sheela previously held the role of Senior Director at Oracle, where she was instrumental in establishing the Digital Sales Center for the company in India. 

She was part of the IBM India leadership team from 2005 to 2017.When she left, she was serving as Director – Digital Sales for India and South Asia and was responsible for driving commercial business growth and increasing cloud adoption in the market.

During her tenure in IBM India, she also led the Women in Sales group. Where she made signification contributions as a champion for gender diversity and empowerment in the sales industry. She is passionate about promoting, coaching and mentoring women pursuing careers in sales and pre-sales.

Throughout her career, Sheela has gained valuable international experience, having worked in Singapore, India, and the United States. She has held positions with prominent software solution companies, such as IBM, Oracle, Wipro and Compuware.

Apart from her professional accomplishments, Sheela is a sports enthusiast and enjoys playing Badminton and Golf. Her passion for sports reflects her drive, discipline, and commitment to success in both her personal and professional life.

Ovin Mohan

WeQual

Director of Leadership Development

Ovin Mohan has coached over 1000 senior leaders representing the world’s largest companies. As a result, he is recognized as a “Brilliant” (CPO – JustEat), “Exceptional” (CTO – Prologis), and “Amazing” (CFO – Holcim) Executive Coach.

He has created award-winning coaching programs for Apple and received five-star feedback from 360-degree Coaching at Christie’s for leaders Csuite -2. He is a guest lecturer on various MSc programs focusing on strategic leadership development. He advises on a Board that informs the training for the leading coaching training company in the US. Ovin has led large-scale leadership development programs for NATO, the NHS, Barclays, and HSBC and has lived and worked in Chicago, NYC, Valencia, and London.

He was previously Head of Leadership Development, managing the largest CMI centre in the UK, delivering and assessing leadership capabilities up to PhD level. He also designed the curriculum for the Institute of Leadership and Management at L7 (MSc equivalent), which received an “Outstanding” award from ILM.

As a former athlete, in both martial arts and football, his approach to leadership development is driven by teaching deliberate practice of tools, providing feedback to refine those skills, and holding the highest standard of competitive accountability. This is further strengthened by his master’s in occupational psychology.