"You are different..."

Working on the theory that "if you can make everybody comfortable around you, with you, then you can get a whole lot done,” technology marketing consultant Shernaz Daver has reached high in her chosen field. Her clients include Motorola, Netflix, Openwave and Baidu, notes TIME magazine (November 10, 2005).

According to TIME, Daver is one of the nine "Minority women who make a difference in the workplace.” They have "taken on stereotypes to better the corporate world,” notes the publication. To be a woman and a foreigner in corporate America is a "double whammy,” Daver told reporter Laura Locke. Despite speaking flawless English and wearing western clothes, gaining access to some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent boardrooms needed all her tenacity, flexibility and good humor, reveals the article. "Physically, you just look different. You are different. You have a different kind of presence. You can’t change that. There’s no way you can automatically become a white woman or a white man, so you acknowledge the double whammy”…and try harder, Daver told her interviewer.

"At Motorola, she was the only woman handling PR (public relations) for the company’s microprocessor unit. Later, at Sun Microsystems, Daver worked closely with Sun’s COO (chief operating officer) Ed Zander and helped position and brand the Solaris product line. Next, she become vice president of corporate communications and investor relations at game maker 3DO. After that, she served as vice president of marketing and investor relations at search pioneer Inktomi, acquired by Yahoo. At Inktomi, Daver helped build the company’s marketing group, brand identity, and guided the company’s public offering and buyout,” the magazine lists her achievements.

Shernaz and Brian with Rohit and Jai

Stanford and Harvard educated mother of three, Daver, 41, was said to be one of the first Indian women to enter the world of technology marketing in the late 1980s. She had arrived in Stanford as an undergraduate in the non-technical field of communications. The only woman in Motorola’s semiconductor division when she joined, she made it a point to become well-versed in technical jargon. "I could never design a computer chip but at least when I talked to trade magazines at that time, I was credible,” she says. With the same dogged determination she watched reruns of old American TV classics like Dallas, Strarsky and Hutch, Mash and many more to learn American diction, slang, pop-cultural references to communicate, initially with her fellow students and later in the corporate cafeterias.

Why, Parsiana wondered, did the daughter of Dina and Dr Minoo Daver choose to market high technology? Shernaz responded to our e-mail query: "In Silicon Valley, hi-tech was the growing industry and was prevalent around me for the years I was at Stanford. My father studied at Stanford when it was on the cusp of creating Hewlett-Packard, the harbinger for the hi-tech revolution. This and my studies made me believe that technology was the wave of the future and I wanted to be a part of an industry that was being created.”

Married to Brian Totty, an entrepreneur in the field of internet development, they have three children, Jai 12, Rohit 8 and Carina, all of six weeks. Daver writes that the birth of each of them has given added impetus to her career. Jai was born in France where she had relocated while she was with Sun Micro­systems. "The international experience added to my portfolio making me a more valuable employee in the Valley,” she notes. Rohit’s birth coincided with Inktomi’s successful initial public offering. And now she freelances to ensure she does not miss any of her children’s development milestones, big or small. But she is certain her career has a long way to go: "I still work as many hours as I used to but it’s on my time. Having international clients is great since I can talk to China when the kids are asleep and not miss a beat.

"I am very interested in using the Internet for social communication and education in a more meaningful way. My graduate degree focused on the use of technology to further education. Ultimately, I hope to use my knowledge and experience to change and add value in the field of education using new technologies.”

A track competitor in her student days in India at J. B. Petit School and St Xavier’s College, Daver says she enjoys taking part in running events in the Bay Area of California where they live. And she finds the time to keep up with reading of new developments in her line of work. But most of all, she loves spending time with her family: "We all go snowboarding to Lake Tahoe, which is about a four-hour drive from our house, in the winter. We bike and spend time exploring the Bay Area with the kids. In between the drives to the kids’ activities, I enjoy having time at school in their classroom. I plan to train my older son’s class for their sports meet in the next few months.”

The family is member of the Zarthoshti Anjuman of Northern California. Daver says she believes in the Zoroastrian faith and is bringing up her children to be Zoroastrians. "We celebrate the New Year and their roz birthdays with a ses and rice and tili and presents, and, of course, rice and mora dal. Both my sons wait for their roz birthdays. We visit the Darbe-Mehr in San Jose too. Jai finished a project in school about the Zoroastrians in India and the origin of our roz calendar, which was fascinating for his class. My younger one, Rohit, prayed Ashem Vohu and showed the ses to his first grade class last year. They are both preparing for their navjote in the next few months. Our youngest, Carina, will do the same,” she is sure.

Daver says she worries about the community’s declining numbers: "Every issue of Parsiana reports four to six times more deaths than births. Our view on non-Zoroastrians being excluded from the community will hurt our faith. I am glad for groups in the United States that are committed to listening to our youth and their views on inter-marriage, and I hope they succeed.

"We have a beautiful faith and Zoroastrians continue to contribute much to the community and the world. Our rich history and beliefs in equality for women, education for all, and focus on philanthropy and sacrifice in life are noble. They are much needed in our current world. If we don’t change our attitudes, it is highly possible for us to become a lost faith in a short time and never have our history and beliefs available for generations to come.”