ABA Managing Partner Farimah Schuerman won the QED Pinnacle Award this month. The Pinnacle Mentoring Award is for outstanding mentoring of fellow professionals. This award recognizes the individual who fosters and actively supports the development and growth of fellow professionals in the field of education marketing.
Farimah was nominated by Berj Akian, CEO of ClassLink Technologies.
Following was taken from the application:
Farimah has been a key to the success of ClassLink Inc through her oversight and guidance as a consultant to the organization over the past two years. Her input has been so substantial that she was invited on to the Board of Directors in 2005. She has provided invaluable advice on a variety of disciplines including Marketing, Management, and Strategy to three of the four members of the firm’s management team.
Berj Akian, CEO, has relied on her for introductions to key individuals in similar leadership positions within the Education industry. She uses her extensive network to forge relationships between like-minded professionals within Education to the mutual benefit of both parties. During key periods of the company’s growth, she has offered insight into trends within the market and has encouraged specific product development and modification to enable ClassLink to capitalize on market trends.
Our VP Education, has benefited from Farimah’s experience and willingness to mentor as well. Farimah has encouraged her professional development through a variety of activities. First, Farimah ensured that our VP has access to key players within the industry both through direct introductions and by inviting her to join the DOLS networking organization. Farimah’s powers to connect people have helped her find great talent to assist in grant-writing proposals. Farimah also offers insightful advice to her regarding the many presentations she delivers at industry conferences allowing our VP to continually improve her presentations. Finally, Farimah is a sage and non-judgmental sounding board for new ideas.
Our VP Marketing and Strategy, is the newest member of the management team and yet, even in her short tenure, she has reaped the rewards of Farimah’s expertise. Farimah helped her transition from her traditional business background to the Educational sector through countless conversations explaining the similarities and differences in the two arenas. Additionally, she offered a wonderful perspective through many key Marketing activities including product naming, website revision, and the wholesale revamping of marketing collateral. Like the rest of the management team, our Marketing and Strategy VP was taken under Farimah’s wing and introduced to key players at industry conferences even before she officially had joined ClassLink’s management team!
I wanted to congratulate Farimah, thank ClassLink for those very kind words, and echo the sentiments of both the awards and the people at ClassLink: Farimah is a great mentor with incredible insights and creativity.