Leadership

Hishaam Siddiqi standing with a group of colleagues outside of a building

Building and Managing Teams

As Director of Marketing at Exela Technologies, I hired and managed a team of five (designers, growth marketers, and content marketers) while owning all campaign execution, content strategy, and a $500k annual advertising budget.

Managing a team taught me the same thing building systems later would reinforce: the goal isn't to be the person doing the work, it's to build something that keeps working without you standing over it.

I carried that into how I approach enablement and cross-functional influence today: by equipping people with frameworks and judgment.

Hishaam Siddiqi standing with a group of mentors at USC

Mentoring Future Marketers at USC Marshall

For the past four years, I've mentored students in USC Marshall's Master of Science in Marketing program, drawing on 12 years across HR tech, AI, and SaaS to guide career decisions, interview preparation, and how to think about positioning themselves in a competitive market.

It's the same instinct that shows up in my work: most people (and most products) don't lose because they lack substance, they lose because they can't articulate what makes them different. Helping students find that clarity for their own careers is a version of the same problem I solve for companies.

A laptop displaying the WeCreateSpace website showing Hishaam Siddiqi's biography

Community Work with WeCreateSpace

I serve on the collective for WeCreateSpace, a queer-led community network and consultancy, helping organizations build authentic connections with the diverse communities through research-informed strategy rather than performative gestures.

The work is grounded in the same principle I bring to go-to-market: understand a market or a community on its own terms before you try to speak to it.