Alumni
Creating a Foundation for Success
As a Silberstein Family Executive in Residence, Imran Shah shares insights from his career to help students navigate the fast-paced and ever-evolving tech industry.
On a brisk fall afternoon on Oct. 3, alumnus Imran Shah BS’84, MS’86, PhD’94, returned to Columbia Engineering–this time, serving as the new Silberstein Family Executive in Residence.
The media and telecom executive spent his time on campus providing insights from his own professional experience with a select group of undergraduate and graduate students. Created in 2019 with an endowment from Alan M. Silberstein BS’69 and his wife, Carol ’69BC, the Silberstein Family Executive in Residence program recruits distinguished visitors in various fields, from business, government, and the nonprofit sector, to visit students and offer perspectives from their careers and path to executive leadership.
Shah’s residency kicked off Sept. 30 at a luncheon with students and a session on entrepreneurship held at Columbia’s Morningside campus. It continued with the recent lunch-and-learn meeting with students and will commence later this fall with additional dates for student meet-ups and office hours.
At the Oct. 3 session, Shah emphasized the importance of leveraging technical expertise and embodying an entrepreneurial spirit to adapt to industry trends, especially with emerging technologies like AI. He personally followed this approach during his undergraduate years, earning a bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate in electrical engineering–all from Columbia– during the early days of computing.
Shah’s career began in multidimensional signal processing research, where he holds 14 patents on the early development of digital high definition television. He credits his technical depth in allowing him to pivot to the consulting and management industry later in his professional journey, where he founded his first successful consulting firm.
As someone who took advantage of emerging technologies early on, Shah shared insights from his exciting career. Here are a few takeaways:
Adapting to evolving fields
Shah’s journey at Columbia began when he left his home of Pakistan for 1980s New York City. Looking back at his undergraduate years at Columbia, he noted that his developing entrepreneurial instinct coincided with the development of new computer technology.
“This was the early days of computers–laptops had not been invented, PCs had just come out,” he said. “I thought that the future would be in electronics, so I shifted my major from civil engineering to electrical engineering.”
Shah advised students to do the same but to not just follow every new shiny trend. “As you're making career choices, and even academic choices, it's really important to differentiate between what's a fad and what's a [longer-term] shift,” he explained. With new industries being impacted by AI, Shah advised students to find the new needs created from this shift, and capitalize on them.
Foster innovation and take risks
Shah also offered guidance to students who are entering the startup space. As a founder of companies, he shared his experience being a part of a failed startup. “The first thing I learned was, do not start a company with an ‘exit’ in mind,” Shah said. “ You should have sound fundamentals. You should have value to offer. You should have good physical discipline. You should make good margins, and so on and so forth. Even if it means slightly slower growth.”
In addition to building a strong foundation when creating a company, Shah advised students to foster innovation in their teams, and take intentional risks that will ultimately benefit their company in the long run. “I created a couple of other companies that didn't go anywhere,” he said. “But the whole idea is, if you create an environment where you give people the space to express themselves and take risks, things will work out.”
Be a lifelong Learner
Shah advised students to continue learning new things through the rapidly developing tech industry. As an example, Shah talked about taking an MIT course in AI to learn more about this emerging technology, just to be at the forefront of the trend. “If you think there is something happening in a secular trend, just learn more about it–you will evolve and adapt. That's the advice I've been using for myself.”
He also suggested for students to take advantage of the learning environment that they’re in, and take advantage of the network of students, faculty, and mentors that are at Columbia. “It’s a great opportunity to network here. Make friends, make colleagues, find your mentors. Most people are here to help you.”
Photo Credit: Brandon Vallejo/Columbia Engineering.