The journey of Sura's life began in Basra, Iraq during the turmoil of the 1991 Gulf War. Her mother gave birth to her in a hospital that lacked power, medicine, and basic hygienic necessities before she had to be prematurely escorted out the next day when a combative raid took over the neighbourhood. The destruction during those first few days of birth set the tone for the remainder of her life in Iraq as she grew up with the harsh economic sanctions imposed on the country following the war. This tough beginning laid the foundation for her steadfastness to endure many challenges that she has overcome to become a woman with great depth to offer this world.
Her family’s orchestrated escape from Saddam Hussein’s regime when she was seven years old took her to Libya where they settled for five years. During this time, she attended a school where she learned English and was immersed with a very international student body.
Following the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the family was faced with the horrifying truth that they can never return home and so they traveled to the UK to seek asylum. During those two years, Sura faced many challenges of integrating in a completely new society, culture, and expectations. She quickly overcame these challenges by starting her first job at 12 years giving out newspapers door to door in the city of Nottingham where she learnt to depend on herself and help her family financially.
In 2005, Sura’s journey continued to Calgary, Canada where her family finally found safety and stability. Sura was again thrown into a new challenging environment but given her innate drive to survive, she excelled in her academic life achieving Honour Roll status as a high school student and becoming the “Most Valuable Player” of her rugby team. She continued her education at the University of Calgary in Petroleum Engineering. She managed her academic workload while also playing on a rugby team, becoming a performance dance artist, traveling the world, and juggling part time jobs in retail sales. She also spent 16 months working on internships in her field of study for companies such as Husky Energy and Pengrowth Energy.
Sura's passion for social justice also drove her to volunteer for socially minded causes such as becoming a mentor to a younger student, joining a foundation to build a home for a family in a disadvantaged community in Mexico, and staying active in local political campaigns to push for reforms that she believed in.
Upon her graduation, she went on to work for Vista Projects as a Process Engineer for two years before her unceremonious lay off during the oil and gas economic crash in 2016. She was faced with a new challenge of surviving during a time of crisis which drove her to dive deeper into a self-development phase to prepare for the next steps of her career and life. She participated in volunteer work for charities, a municipal political campaign, and studied various topics. Following that, she moved to Montreal, Canada to study in a French program for which she received a certificate from McGill University before embarking on her MBA journey in Paris and London at ESCP Business School.
During her MBA, she became the first woman to be elected to represent the MBA program on the Agora Student Union board. She founded and organized the First Annual MBA Career Lounge which resulted in numerous students finding employment. She also worked as a Strategy Consultant for companies like the United Nations, Hello Tomorrow, and Societe Generale.
Sura is a trained Management Consultant, Engineer, and Journalist who wants to help you leverage chaos and uncertainty to achieve full potential.
