Month: March 2024

When Lauren Kashtan thinks about the point in her life when she started to realize what she stood for, she zeroes in on middle school: those awkward tween years, when kids who are taking their first steps toward adulthood start to form cliques and say things to impress each other.

She remembers kids casually tossing around a slur that is often used to disparage people with special needs. To Lauren, it was deeply personal. Her younger brother, Efram, had been born with a rare birth defect called agenesis of the corpus callosum. As a child, he wore braces on his legs and had trouble walking; his vocabulary is limited, and only those closest to him can understand his pronunciation of certain words.

“My sister and I were equally responsible for making Efram feel included in the world,” she said. “It became such a big part of my identity. And if I really reflect on what shaped me the most as who I am today, it’s being the sibling of a brother with special needs.”

Lauren, who is the Head of Global Corporate, Portfolio and Operations Communications, keeps those early lessons close to her heart still. As the co-chair of EmpoWer, Viatris’ employee resource group for women and their allies, she sees a sense of belonging and inclusion as one of the unifying characteristics of the membership. The theme of International Women’s Day for 2024, “inspire inclusion,” resonated with her childhood memories.

Hear Lauren’s thoughts on how EmpoWer helps to inspire inclusion in the workplace above.

Her parents set the expectation: Efram was an active member of the family, going wherever they went.

“We never apologized for his behavior if he had outbursts or loud noises, or did things that other kids didn’t do,” Lauren said. If her brother approached a total stranger in a store and announced “love you,” his family members would engage in a conversation with them, not pull Efram away. When her father led services at their synagogue, Efram was beside him at the front of the congregation.

And when the middle-school kids started using slurs, Lauren found her voice and told them to stop.

“I had to start to advocate on his behalf. And he wouldn’t have known the difference otherwise, but I started to realize how much it mattered to me,” she said. “He wasn’t even there, and I educated people about how their words mattered.”

Hear Lauren’s perspective on having a personal connection to inclusion here.

Lauren started college as a special education major at the University of Maryland, inspired by Efram. But in her junior year, she had an epiphany: she didn’t have to work in the field to honor her brother. She could explore her growing interest in marketing and communications and still make a difference.

“I think that was a really important decision in my life, to realize that there’s so much great work that people can do as advocates, and being part of organizations and just modeling behavior,” she said. “You’re still able to pursue that authentic part of yourself, but you can still pursue your own career aspirations, too.”

Efram is still on her mind often, and she keeps a picture of him on her desk. When she lived in Pittsburgh, Lauren struggled with the fact that she would not see him for months at a time, because he lives in a group home in Maryland. In 2023, she and her husband decided to return to Maryland so they could be closer to both of their families.

Today, they live on the same street as the house where Lauren grew up, and where her parents still live. Their children, who are 6 and 9, are surrounded by extended family, and they are able to see Efram often. Now they, too, are learning what inclusion means. And Lauren is transported back in time to her own childhood, seeing an entire synagogue embrace her brother as he expresses joy during the services they attend together.

In that way, she points out, Efram is actually the greatest role model of all.

“What’s amazing to me is that my brother – with all of his challenges and limitations and limited vocabulary – that he could make someone with none of those things feel included,” she said. “He will find, actually, the person in the corner, the person in the background, and he’ll seek those people out and look them in the eyes and say, ‘love you.’ And it’s just – it’s the coolest thing. So he’s actually the real role model.”

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CBRE

/3BL/ – Global real estate advisor, CBRE, has published its ranking of European cities according to their resilience to the impacts of climate change. The report, ‘European City Sustainability Study 2024,’ evaluated the performance of 42 cities across Europe in relation to a number of factors, from transition risk, building performance standards and level of air pollution to future flood risks and ability to implement renewable energy. Three UK cities ranked within the top ten, including Birmingham, London and Manchester.

The study provides real estate professionals and investors with insights to help understand different markets, the opportunities and challenges they face.

Out of 42 cities assessed, the study ranked the top 10 in terms of climate resiliency as:

Amsterdam, The NetherlandsBirmingham, United KingdomGothenburg, SwedenHelsinki, FinlandLondon, United KingdomManchester, United KingdomOslo, NorwayParis, FranceRotterdam, The NetherlandsStockholm, Sweden

By improving the understanding of Europe’s key cities in terms of climate readiness, we hope to galvanise not only the property industry and investors, but also broader stakeholders, to take note of the need to prepare against the worst effects of climate change. While many cities may regard themselves as being leaders, this survey holds some surprises and warns against complacency.

Jen Siebrits, Head of UK research, CBRE

A key finding of the study is that real estate exposure to climate risk varies significantly across Europe, as does the challenge to decarbonise the built environment, which accounts for 30% of carbon emissions globally.

Within the study, there were three primary categories upon which each city was assessed:

Transition risk: the risks to business associated with societal and economic shifts towards a lower-carbon futurePhysical climate risk: the particular city’s vulnerability to climate changeMitigation and Adaptation Measures: the city’s ability to implement recommended environmental initiatives to limit climate change

UK cities have performed particularly well, with Birmingham, London and Manchester all appearing in the top ten. This is testament to efforts so far to prepare for the inevitable effects of climate change. However, there is much work to be done and no room for complacency if we are to deliver against the country’s much needed net zero targets.

Kaela Fenn-Smith, Managing Director, ESG Consultancy and Sustainability Services, CBRE

Read more about the European City Sustainability Study 2024 report here

About CBRE Group, Inc. 
CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Dallas, is the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (based on 2022 revenue). The company has approximately 115,000 employees (excluding Turner & Townsend employees) serving clients in more than 100 countries. CBRE serves a diverse range of clients with an integrated suite of services, including facilities, transaction and project management; property management; investment management; appraisal and valuation; property leasing; strategic consulting; property sales; mortgage services and development services. Please visit our website at www.cbre.com.

This blog is by Noor Zafar, a Cybersecurity Cadet Risk Advisory Analyst at Deloitte in Australia and a former member of Cisco’s FIFA Women’s World Cup all-female Dream Team. We’re excited to have Noor join us as we go backstage with the Cisco Dream Team on our next Women Rock-IT event on February 29, 2024. 

Noor holds a Bachelor of Science (Chemistry) from the University of Wollongong (UOW) and a Diploma of Mechanical Engineering from TAFE NSW in Wollongong in Australia. She is currently in the UOW / Deloitte Cyber Academy traineeship and studying her Bachelor of Computer Science (cybersecurity) and Diploma of Information Technology (IT). Her multidisciplinary study in various fields in Mechanical, IT and cybersecurity has led to a strong passion for artificial intelligence (AI). 

The Women Rock-IT Program addresses the gender gap in STEM-related subjects. Established in 2014, the program has reached an audience of over 2 million people, featuring 156 female speakers, 91 live TV broadcasts and 78 blogs. As a result, more than 974,000 people have enrolled in technology courses.

There are two principles in life that I have learnt; if one door closes, another door opens, and everything is related and interconnected in some way or form. No knowledge can ever be wasted it—it can always be utilised—whether it be imaginative, creative solutions to real world problems, or simply the curious machinations of our mind’s own imagination.

However, never in my wildest dreams would I ever have imagined that I would be part of helping to capture and broadcast an iconic event in women’s Australian sporting history across the world. This is my story.

Inner workings of a creative child’s mind

As a child I was fascinated with the inner workings of a computer, robotics and technology in general. In fact, one of my earliest memories is helping my father building and fixing computers in our home garage. Tinkering with computers is a passion that I seem to have inherited and have since built upon. As a child I quickly gained knowledge and skills to trouble–shoot operating systems from old manuals that were the size of telephone directories! And for those of you who don’t know what they are, they’re huge! As an adult, I now look back and realise that my childhood obsession and interest in technology was a part of my undiagnosed Autism Spectrum Disorder trait that would form a key part of my identity later in life.

Upheavals of migration 

My parents migrated from Pakistan, upheaving their entire lives just to educate their daughter. My mother gave me a strong sense of conviction and the foundation to pursue hard challenges and set targets. As a woman, she embedded a strong belief in me to pursue education, to be independent and most importantly, to lead a life in purposeful service, leaving a good legacy for future generations. My parents wanted me to pursue medicine, which I directed my studies towards. But I had no idea that one day I would go back to my original dream and passion of technology.

Delving into programming

During my teenage years, I delved into programming when my teacher enrolled me into the inaugural Google Python competition. This involved creating html and CSS websites which exposed me to technical challenges and problem solving. As students, we were given Lego robotics kits to construct robots with a small touch censor and a black and white camera for the robot to look at targets ahead. Our goal was to code a sensor program so that the robot could turn and avoid obstacles. These experiences not only honed my technical skills but further instilled in me a sense of curiosity and a love for hands-on problem-solving. The passion for robotics naturally led me to develop a very strong interest in AI. At high school, I loved science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects and applied for a bachelor’s degree in science at UOW after I finished my final year.

Coding, COVID, and cyber career change 

At UOW, I majored in chemistry and I did a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering at TAFE NSW Wollongong. At the time, I only continued coding and pen-testing courses as a hobby. After graduating, I had a brief stint as a chemical engineer which I enjoyed immensely. However, after I was laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic, I decided to go back to my old job as an early childcare educator and considered teaching as a career change.

I had started doing a Master’s in Education until one day an advertisement on Reddit caught my eye. The ad promoted a UOW / Deloitte Cyber Academy Program for new school leavers and mature age students, paying them to study a degree in computer science at UOW, a Diploma in IT at TAFE NSW and to work at a big four company. Such possibilities seemed insurmountable, yet I applied for it and after the year-long application process, I finally got in.

The program consisted of a two-week bootcamp before coursework commenced. I completed the Fundamentals of Networking [Networking Essentials] course through Cisco Networking Academy, one of the world’s longest-running and purpose-driven IT skills-to-jobs programs. My teacher, Shan Ansari, nominated me for the Cisco Dream Team as I was able to pick up networking concepts quickly, asked a lot of questions, and was very quick to problem solve the Cisco Packet Tracer lab exercises. He wrote me a wonderful recommendation letter and I applied for the Dream Team; it was a very last-minute application!

You’re dreaming!

Honestly, I was gobsmacked when I heard that I got into the Cisco Dream Team. My TAFE teacher told me that I was the first TAFE student to make it into the Dream Team and that is a highly coveted experience to obtain in the IT industry. The Dream Team went to three workshops where we gained hands-on experience of how to do cabling and basic troubleshooting. It was the first time for me to meet the all-female Dream Team which included the all-female Dream Team which included six women from all across Australia. The workshops were very informative as we were all enrolled into Cisco Networking Academy’s CCNA course, and we physically learnt how to do cabling and work with Cisco equipment. This was my dream coming true:

I had always wanted to study and apply my technical knowledge but this was at a whole new level, at a major sporting event!

The Dream Team event went over seven days. We were split into two teams to cover the cabling at both event stadiums: Stadium Australia and Homebush Stadium. The Dream Team shadowed the Swisscom team which was in charge of planning and installing the IT infrastructure using Cisco equipment. We were given the schematics of the media tribune area, and we spent our time setting-up the equipment in order for the media to have reliable high-speed internet throughout the coverage of the FIFA Women’s World Cup. The Dream Team also set up wireless access points near the area of play. On the day of the opening match of France vs Jamaica, the Dream Team gathered with the Swisscom team to troubleshoot the match in real-time. Seeing how a major event is put together behind the scenes, from the infrastructure and planning and sheer scale of people working, was a life-changing experience for me. Fortunately, the opening match coverage went smoothly without any issues and it was a fantastic learning opportunity.

Cisco recognition

The feeling of contributing to such a monumental event brought a wave of emotions over me. The camaraderie among the Dream Team members and the recognition from Cisco executives made me realise the numerous opportunities and pathways for women in IT.

Cisco’s all-female Dream Team received coverage in the national newspapers, industry press, and my local hometown regional newspapers. I even got the opportunity to share my experience on the ABC Illawarra radio station. This opportunity has opened-up so many career pathways and recognition that I am truly grateful for. My advice to anybody starting in IT is to seize the opportunity to upskill and retrain. IT is a pathway for women that can provide more options and greater flexibility than many others, and all your knowledge that you gain throughout your career can be utilised to solve the most unique problems and create innovative solutions. Always be curious, be resilient under the face of challenges and always have a creative flair in your work.

I hope this story serves as an inspiration for those navigating the tech landscape. As I reflect on my own path, it’s heartening to know that the skills I developed in my formative years played a crucial role in my more recent success. The FIFA Women’s World Cup made Australian TV history. The Cisco Dream Team journey stands as a testament to the limitless possibilities that unfold when childhood passions meet curiosity and resilience.

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