A computer scientist by training, who became a seasoned manager and strategist, Rima Qureshi actively participated in making Ericsson Canada a major player in telecommunications in Montreal. The company had 300 employees in 1993 when she started there and more than 2,500 when she left in 2017 to become executive vice president and chief strategy officer, responsible for mergers and acquisitions, at the American giant Verizon.
Rima Qureshi’s career has led her to hold high-level positions internationally, but the one who learned French at Saint-Laurent primary school has always kept a strong foothold in Montreal, where she comes regularly. visit his daughters in Griffintown and his father who still lives in Saint-Laurent.
“I was 8 years old when we arrived in Montreal. My father left Pakistan because of the war. I didn’t speak French and they enrolled me in the French-speaking primary school; it’s the best way to learn, my father told me,” says Rima Qureshi.
This was also the case for his father, since he enrolled in a doctorate in genetics at the University of Montreal even though he did not speak French. He then pursued a career as a researcher at Sainte-Justine Hospital.
After studying computer science at McGill, Rima Qureshi undertook to do her MBA there while working at the DMR Group, before joining Ericsson as an analyst in 1993.
“I finished my MBA and became a project manager. The texting function had to be integrated into the Cantel network. I then became Vice President, Client Services, for all of North America. As an equipment supplier, we had all the major telephone companies.
“We had offices in New York, Dallas and San Diego. I consolidated all the research work in Montreal, a team of 500 people,” explains Rima Qureshi.
From Montreal to Stockholm
In 2004, Ericsson repatriated her to the company’s headquarters in Stockholm, where she joined the leadership team and became Vice President, Customer Services, Worldwide, a role in which she delivered growth.
“I stayed in Sweden for four years, but my 7-year-old daughter got sick and I didn’t get a good diagnosis. I asked to come back to Montreal, even if it involved a demotion, where my daughter was followed at Sainte-Justine for chronic ulcerative colitis,” says Ms.me Qureshi.
In 2009, the iPhone arrived, and AT&T, designated as the launch operator for the new phone, experienced countless network problems. We’re sending Rima Qureshi to Dallas to lead the expert team.
“We had to resize the software and the network to be able to support the new functionalities. It was necessary to integrate e-mails and searches on the Internet, we had never done that”, says the specialist.
She returns every weekend to Montreal and, in 2010, her former superior at Ericsson in Sweden, Hans Vestberg, becomes CEO of the company.
“I explained to him that my daughter was better and that after closing the door, I could open it again. Ericsson had just acquired Nortel and I was made responsible for integrating Nortel into Ericsson. I came back to Montreal and I also joined the world leadership team,” says Rima Qureshi.
It will be three busy years where she must integrate the teams (3000 people, mainly software engineers) of the campuses of Saint-Laurent, Kanata, Dallas and China. New products had to be delivered to North American customers: Bell, Telus, Sprint, Verizon, AT&T…
“We paid for the acquisition in 13 months, a record. But we knew we were reaching the peak of this technology. We had to halve the workforce, it was hard,” agrees the strategist.
From Montreal to Dallas and New York
After the integration of Nortel, Rima Qureshi was appointed head of global strategy for Ericsson, a function she could perform from Montreal, but which required her to be constantly between two flights.
In 2014, I was put on the succession list as the possible next CEO of Ericsson, but I had to lead a division that generates revenue. I was named CEO of Ericsson for North America, in Dallas.
Rima Qureshi, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer of Verizon
“I was CEO for North America for two years. I used to come back to Montreal on weekends until I got an offer from Vodafone and another from Verizon. I meet in Stockholm with my former boss Hans Vestberg and I tell him that I thought I would accept Verizon’s proposal. He winks at me and tells me that maybe we’ll see each other again. »
In 2017, she was named Verizon’s chief strategist and head of mergers and acquisitions. Based in New York, she joins the leadership committee, where she joins her ex-boss Hans Vestberg who has just been appointed chief technology officer. He will become CEO of Verizon in 2018 and chairman of the board in 2019.
PHOTO SERGIO PEREZ, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Verizon’s logo at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in 2019. Rima Qureshi joined the group in 2017 as chief strategist and head of mergers and acquisitions.
“I am responsible for executive strategy and partnerships, in particular with our large customers Google, Meta, Apple, Amazon, Disney, but I am also responsible for mergers and acquisitions. I was the one who made the sale of Verizon Media Group this year, a division that was going nowhere,” she explains.
Verizon acquired AOL in 2015 for $4.4 billion and Yahoo in 2017 for $4.5 billion and sold it all this year to an investment bank for all just 5 billion US.
“At some point, you have to make decisions,” explains the strategist. We acquired Tracfone last year and paid $53 billion in 2020 to make the largest spectrum acquisition in the United States. »
Administrator and Mentor
Since 2011, Rima Qureshi has been a member of the board of directors of Mastercard, where she was recruited for her technological expertise.
“They wanted someone from outside the financial world. Because Mastercard is not a bank, it’s a technology company, an interface between a financial institution and buying and selling customers, ”image the manager.
Since 2016, she has also been a member of McGill University’s international advisory committee, its alma materwhere she also mentors MBA and undergraduate students.
“I support start-ups in the development of their business plan, I am part of the jury of certain competitions of the In the eye of the dragon. I lecture in undergraduate and MBA classes. It’s important to share your business experience with the youngest,” explains Rima Qureshi.
We therefore understand that when she returns to Montreal every month, between visits to her daughters and her father and her involvement at McGill, the telecom specialist does not take a vacation.