Farzana Mohamed
FARZANA MOHAMED, Senior Advisor at Lax Sebenius, is a native of Nairobi, Kenya, and earned a master’s in city planning and a master’s in environmental engineering from MIT. She has had a broad-ranging career in consulting, management, education, and healthcare with an emphasis on negotiation strategy, corporate and non-profit governance, and strategic planning. She was part of a core management team at MIT setting up international bio-medical technology partnerships in India and Spain. Previously, Farzana served as Chief of Staff and Director of Strategic Planning for a community hospital, where she was responsible for managing governance activities and coordinating all aspects of a significant facility expansion, a project that involved interfacing with multiple stakeholders with diverse interests.
Farzana has worked, lived, traveled, and been involved in negotiations and training and advisory services in Australia, India, Spain, United Kingdom, Israel, South Africa, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Kenya. She has taught, advised, and mentored hundreds of college graduates and young professionals on career negotiations.
Farzana writes on negotiation and career issues, including, with Paul Levy, two books: How to Negotiate Your First Job and Don’t Sign Anything: A Guide for the Day you are Laid Off; the Harvard Business School negotiation case study, “High Drama in Milford,” with Jim Sebenius; and “Pay Equity Law’s Unintended Consequences,” in Commonwealth Magazine.
Farzana has served on the governing board of the Boston-based Eliot School of Fine and Applied Arts, where she chaired the governance committee and co-chaired the strategic planning committee. Other community activities include membership on the Massachusetts Audubon Society advisory council and the board of advisors of the Charles River Watershed Association, where she co-chaired the organization’s strategic planning process.
Farzana is fluent in Kiswahili, Kutchi, Gujarati, Hindi, and Urdu. She served as a lead clergy member in the Shia Ismaili community.