Zara Zamani, Chief Solutions Officer of ChromaWay, is a blockchain solution architect in her expertise and a leader made over time. She is lecturer and researcher in Blockchain adoption at Halmstad university, Sweden. She started her professional career as a wireline engineer in Oil and Gas industry and work all the way from Asia, the Middle East to Europe. Zara’s worldwide experience taught her patience and communication skills in dealing with people from other cultures. It aided Zara in her subsequent careers in finance and information technology. She has progressed from an expert to a professional since joining the IT business in 2010.
Below are highlights of the interview:
Describe who you are as a person, inside and outside of the workplace.
I am not a very different person inside and outside of the workplace. I am a go getter and an ambitious person. I am often told that I have a strong character with a kind heart. We often do not speak of kindness in a professional environment. But, despite the fact that I am ambitious, a high achiever, hardworking, and sometimes a perfectionist, I believe I am also a kind and humble person. I am a firm believer that everyone can be a 10X better version of themselves, no matter where they are in life. So, I am constantly competing with my current version of myself be it in my workplace or outside of my workplace. At my workplace, I work for great results but ensuring that I build an environment for myself and everyone else around me to grow, building technology to make the world a better place and make an impact on people’s lives. Outside of Office, as a researcher and university lecturer, I enjoy not only producing knowledge for the future but also raising the next generation of people to whom we can safely pass on our world. Besides, I am a mother, a wife, a daughter, and a friend to my loved ones, but most importantly, I am a human who wants to constantly positively impact my surroundings. If I want to be brutally honest, outside my workplace I am known as a very outgoing and social person who is not afraid of trying new things, but also an extremely emotional person who cannot watch a drama movie without crying.
Describe your background and what did you do before you joined ChromaWay?
Well, my story is not a whole different story from many more who made it right in their career. It is a lot about focus, hard work, learning to do smart work and then working smart but hard. I am an engineer turned leader. I started my career in the oil and gas industry as a hardcore field engineer. My experience in the oil and gas industry taught me to communicate effectively with a very diverse group of people in terms of professions, skills, education, culture, gender, language and many more. However, after a few years, I felt isolated and not able to relate to where I wanted to head in my life, which was to make a change to make the world a better place. That is when I shifted to the tech industry and founded a travel tech company, later turned to a fintech company, and got myself into the whole finance world and eventually blockchain since 2015. Today, I am a blockchain solution architect and work as Chief Solutions Officer at ChromaWay. I have had the privilege of designing blockchain solutions in various industries and working with some of the most brilliant people. I am also a lecturer and a doctoral researcher in blockchain adoption at Halmstad University, South Sweden.
Tell us the inception story of ChromaWay.
ChromaWay was founded in 2014 with our relational blockchain model, called Postchain, which proved itself to be an excellent platform for private enterprise blockchain applications.
Since then, the team and vision surrounding the company have grown exponentially. In addition to our private enterprise work through ChromaWay, we have also launched a public platform called Chromia, which boasts a rapidly expanding ecosystem.
We strive to provide blockchain applications that are easy to use and create real value in society by providing transparent systems that enhance efficiency and reduce exploitation. ChromaWay was named among the 50 fastest growing tech companies in 2021 by Deloitte.
What has been your biggest learning since becoming an entrepreneur?
To be resilient. To not wait for others to make it happen for me but instead take full control and responsibility of my life and career and business and to never give up on my dreams. To be humble at my highest and to believe in light at my lowest. Being an entrepreneur means being able of walking a path alone when other don’t believe in you. It means you will lose resources and even people around you a lot and change a lot too, but it will always end up with you gaining a whole new self and opening up a whole new world full of opportunities for yourself.
How do you motivate people to go the extra mile?
I always tell them to ask themselves the “Why” question. Why did you start this journey at all at the very beginning? There must have been a very strong reason that made you an entrepreneur. We tend to forget the why throughout the journey when the hardship shows itself. To remind ourselves of the why behind our decisions is a good motivation. Plus, always keep in mind, you don’t need to see the end of the path. As long as you see the very next step you need to take, it’s good enough. Take it. The best things always happened to me at my darkest times.
Kindly describe how you will specifically know what success looks like for you.
I do not know what success looks like for me. But, I do know what happiness looks like for me and what makes me happy. And I assume I will consider myself successful if I am happy, content, and satisfied with myself. I might be considered successful in the eyes of many, but not in my own eyes yet. I have achieved a lot in my career and education, but I believe I have a long way to go to have the impact I want to leave on people’s lives. However, I do believe I am on the right path towards it and that motivates me to move forward.
What is some of the advice you give to aspiring women leaders who sees disability as a career barrier?
Change the lens through which you look at the world and yourself. Be kind to yourself. We often tend to be our harshest critics. How would you treat and motivate another person in hardship? Treat and motivate yourself exactly the same. This might sound cliché, but I deeply believe that the only barrier on your way to your dreams is your mind and thoughts. Learn to control your mind and you will achieve the impossible.
What are your future plans to sustain ChromaWay’s success?
To continue giving power back to people by democratizing more spaces through building the right technology together with the community. To give control and ownership back to its rightful owners.
Website: www.chromaway.com
