Woman to watch

"Women are standing at the helm of the Orange County Business Council, serving on the Board of Supervisors and leading the Sheriff’s Department. The region is abundant with women who are leading companies, agencies, nonprofits and movements of all types which is what makes our annual selection of 20 Women To Watch so daunting. It’s tough to choose just 20,” conveyed an introduction to the gusty trailblazers in OCMetro.com’s March 2010 issue.

Among these 20 selected by OCMetro for their "role in advancing the county” is Dr Sherri Treasurywala, lecturer at the UCI (University of California in Irvine) Paul Merage School of Business who "morphs medicine and business into courses that she teaches…Her like-minded students — they are working toward combined business and medical degrees — consistently rate her as their favorite professor. So it’s no surprise that Treasurywala was named the 2009 Lecturer of the Year,” according to the magazine.

"Cross the t’s and dot the i’s because you know you have to be a little bit more perfect than the next person,” is the 35-year-old leader’s advice to other women in business. At Cornell University she earned an MBA and completed her doctoral research in neuro-oncology, specializing in gene therapies for brain cancer. She started her career with McKensey and Company, a global management and consulting firm, where she worked in New York and 11 locations worldwide including Frankfurt and South Africa as a strategy consultant. She was required to advise top managers of Fortune 50 companies that specialized in health care and product development as well as research in biotechnology and medical devices.

Dr Sherri Treasurywala: morphs medicine and business

Just before her marriage to Cyrus Mistry in 2003 she was director of business development for the pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La Roche in New Jersey. Recalling the time when she was dating him Treasurywala conveyed to OCMetro.com that her "best vacation ever” was to Maldives when Cyrus took her by surprise: "He proposed on an isolated sand bank. Unfortunately the tsunami later ate up the sand bank so it’s not there anymore.” Presently mother of two children, Sarosh, six and Sanaya, one, Treasurywala values, more than any other recognition, her "job title as mom. Everything else is second.” To devote time to the children, she has now chosen to restrict her teaching assignments to two days a week.

The inspiration for her career choice was her grandmother Dina Rivetna who raised her and ultimately succumbed to breast cancer. She also credits her parents Kersi and Bhikhoo Trea­sury­wala for instilling in her "a work ethic about being a better person and getting whatever you desire without hurting others.”

"We are very proud of Sherri… (She) is a member of our Zoroastrian Association of California, Los Angeles,” noted an e-mail by Jamshed Cama, adding, "She is frequently interviewed by the Los Angeles Press about medical related issues.” An article in The Orange County Register quoted her as saying that it costs anywhere from $ 800 million to $ 1 billion and an average of 12 years to see a drug go from the science lab to the pharmacy shelves. Drug costs are high in the US but government price controls would stifle innovation, she believed. "The research engines of pharmaceutical companies are the most robust in the United States,” she declared.

"We don’t often stop to think about the role women have played in shaping (Orange) County’s business community and nurturing it into the hub of technology and commerce that it is today,” pointed out OCMetro.com