Dear All,
Happy New Year. Hope everyone had a nice holiday season.
It is probably an understatement to say that the last two years have been challenging for many people, and especially for our Asian community. I continue to be inspired by our resiliency, and tenacity to excel professionally. Therefore, I’m thrilled to inform you that two of our CELP colleagues were promoted recently.
Ameer Ali who is part of our CELP Cohort 1 has been promoted to Managing Director at Accenture and Liz Benson who led our CEI/CELP PMO team has been promoted to Vice President at Kofax. Below provides more information on Ameer and Liz.
Ameer is a Sales and Delivery Leader in Accenture’s US South Market Unit, and the National co-lead for Accenture’s US Asian Pacific American ERG (APAERG). Over the past twenty years, Ameer has delivered business outcomes across ERP, SCM, CRM, and Analytics for marquee organizations such as Panasonic, Hershey’s, Kellogg’s, Abbott, the United Nations, US Dept. of Agriculture, US Dept. of Defense, and the US Census Bureau. He is currently leading a large SAP S4 transformation at a global Fashion and Retail client.
Ameer is a graduate of Ascend GW’s CELP Cohort 1, and owes what he is to many leaders, peers, and team members who have shaped and improved him as a professional, and as a person. He is passionate about paying it forward, and relishes serving as an active mentor, coach, and counselor to many rising leaders. Outside of work, Ameer enjoys reading about history, civics, culture, politics, food, and traveling on a budget to different parts of the world. He hit 16 countries in the 36 months pre-COVID, and has been able to get to Iceland, Ireland, and India in 2021.
Liz Benson is the Vice President of Strategy for Kofax, an intelligent automation software provider, where she drives global corporate strategy, product strategy, customer experience, strategic alliances, and internal cross-functional alignment. She focuses on operational excellence and creating enterprise value in recurring revenue models. She previously led the Conversational Artificial Intelligence practice for Deloitte across the federal, state, and local government and higher education markets.
Liz is passionate about advancing diversity and inclusion in the workplace. She has spent the last decade engaging in the Pan-Asian business community in the Greater Washington, DC area, currently serving on the Ascend GW Chapter Executive Board. She has also served as the Ascend GW Corporate Executive Initiative and Corporate Executive Leadership Program PMO Lead and Inspiring Across Generations Conference Chair. Having had mentors and many inspirations in the Pan-Asian community, she has endeavored to support other colleagues and students in the Pan-Asian community through professional development and community programs. She is a graduate of West Virginia University and enjoys spending time with her husband Steven, children Kinsley and Jack, two dogs, and cat.
Please join me in congratulating Ameer and Liz on their promotions and for achieving a significant milestone in their respective careers.
Hopefully things will settle down this year and we can reconvene some of our CELP activities. If so, we will send out further communications. I look forward to seeing you in the near future.
Have a wonderful 2022.
Best,
Winson