Wall Street Journal

How I Got Here: Nilofer Merchant, CEO/Founder, Rubicon Consulting
May 1, 2008

By Elizabeth Garone

Before founding her own technology consulting firm in 1999, Nilofer Merchant worked for a number of the big names in technology, from Apple Computer to Autodesk. Along the way she worked for a lot of different personalities; at Apple alone, Ms. Merchant had 23 different managers. She attributes much of her success to “failing fast” and “failing often” and always getting right back up again. Writer Elizabeth Garone spoke to Ms. Merchant about her journey. Edited excerpts follow.

Full name: Nilofer Merchant
Age: 40
Hometown: Los Gatos
Current position: CEO/Founder, Rubicon Consulting
First job: Administrative Assistant at Apple Computer
Favorite job: My current one
Education: B.S. in Economics from University of San Francisco, M.B.A. from Santa Clara University
Years in the industry: 18
How I got here in 10 words or less: Many companies, many positions, failing fast, and having courage.

Q: As CEO/Founder, what are your responsibilities?

A: Leading an ensemble of strategists, and each of those strategists is responsible for doing transformational client work.

The original publication can be found at this link.

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