I hail from Kashmir, often referred to as A Paradise on the Earth by Poets, and according to Seismologists, Kashmir is at the juncture of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates it is this collision which caused the formation of the Himalaya Mountains. So, Sustainability and respect for our Planet come right from my heritage.

Being a father of a little angel with a strong belief that with years of experience and Civil Engineering background that I have a responsibility to help transform the AEC – Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Industry to design and build a better sustainable world for my daughter and her generation, we owe this to them.

Roles I have been in:
“Change is a Necessity, and not a Luxury” is the mantra of my life. Throughout my professional career, at any point in time, if I ever felt the absence of change or new learnings, I haven’t hesitated to get out of my comfort zone and try something new. Being always open to learning, I have never let the fear of my failure come in my way to challenge myself or explore something new. I have developed, managed, and done business with a wide range of Customer types across the AEC Industry right from Design, Construction firms, to Owners, and Government Agencies. Most of my experience years,

I have spent being a Thought leader, Strategist, Sales & Business Leader, an Agent of Change, managing and developing direct and indirect teams to evangelize the Technologies of Tomorrow. All these roles have helped me not only to improve the traditional skills of a sales & strategy leader, but I also developed a muscle of engaging and challenging the Business leaders (CXO’s) of Industry who play a crucial role in making this world a better place.

To summarize, I enjoy working and engaging with CXO’s on a meaningful discussion not just on specific workflow value but across their project/business lifecycle and help them with solutions that can benefit their business top and bottom-line.

Supporting Academia to Nurture the Future Talent:
I have been spending a significant amount of time advocating and sharing my know-how with academia, wherein I deliver visiting lectures, sessions, and classes on Technology and AEC Industry in Engineering and Architecture colleges and schools.

In my various roles, I have had an honor of work in and with some great people and companies in ASEAN, Europe, and America Regions and Countries, which contributed to my excellent learning experiences of working with diverse cultures to build, win, and deliver business in those respective environments. The most common theme among all these countries and cultures is the hunger and passion of the students, our future talent pool, and being part of their phenomenal transformation is genuinely fulfilling.

Public Speaker and Thought Leader:
The best part of being a Thought Leader is always exploring the new possibilities and pushing the envelope so that you can share and serve fresh to your audience. I am part of several recognized Industry groups, forums, and think tanks and have always enjoyed sharing thought-provoking ideas with larger audiences and groups the most massive audience I have presented was over 1500 People.

Often, I am invited to be part of prestigious industry panel discussions (link) and judging teams to judge and vote on nominated projects, organizations, and people for Industry Awards (link). Over the years, several of my articles, interviews, and points of view/opinions have got published in the local and international press. Lately, I have started collecting a few of them here (link).

Organizations I worked for:
Most of my career has been dedicated to Construction Industry and within the Autodesk ecosystem in various roles and geographies other than few stints outside it. Back in 2007, I have helped to drive and increase the AEC vertical software sales by 4X in India – ASEAN region, and in the Middle East, I established the Consulting Services business in 2014 and won Multi-Million dollar deals for the services business alone apart from driving a surge in the Products business in the ecosystem these are a few of the examples of pushing the limits and being creative to win, which also resulted in my winning “VP Award for the Global Teamwork” and “Largest Global Project Deal” awards.

One of my most rewarding outside Autodesk has been my work at Eigen -Laing O’ Rourke as their CTO – Chief Technology Officer with an ambitious goal of helping to realize the DfMA – Design for Manufacture and Assembly vision of the Company.

Net-net, I am a Father, Technologist, Strategist, Speaker, and Business Leader who is not afraid of “Learning” and adapting to the “Change” and is passionate about the role that technology can play to make this world a better place.

Thank you for your interest and time. I also want to thank everyone who throughout my career contributed to helping me shape my life today, I truly appreciated it.

Sincerely,
Suhail Arfath