"They forecasted that I will be in the C-suite. I'm like, what is the C-suite?" - Ilham Kadri's Path

The Path is a video series where I chat with some of the most influential leaders in the world exploring the successes, missteps, and key pivotal moments that shaped their professional paths. It’s through these authentic stories that we can learn how to navigate our own career journeys.

My guest this week is Dr. Ilham Kadri.

Dr. Ilham Kadri never dreamed of becoming a CEO. 

She was raised in a very humble Moroccan household by an illiterate grandmother, who told her that women traditionally have only two “exits” in life – marriage…and death. But she pushed Ilham to dream big and look for a “third exit”. Ilham had a name to live up to — the one her grandmother gave her.

"Ilham in Arabic means inspiration," Kadri told me on The Path. "She gave me that name to be inspired all my life, to find my third exit." 

Kadri's “third exit” became education and knowledge – and it led her to the corner office. She is now the CEO of Syensqo, a spin off of Solvay — a 160-year-old chemical giant working behind the scenes to clean our air and water, preserve our food, and even make our cars more sustainable. But her path did require making her own luck, breaking through societal norms and glass ceilings, with help from mentors and sponsors who believed in her.

Among her earliest believers: Teachers who could not have known Ilham was dyslexic but saw in her an aptitude for math and science. They encouraged her even though she was a girl. "Some teachers, you know, for them, it was dolls for girls and trucks for boys," she said. "It was challenging, but by age of 11, 13, some good teachers actually found out that I was really good in mathematics and science and challenged the status quo."

The challenges got tougher. At 17, she was given 48 hours to live after drinking contaminated water. Bedridden, Ilhan still refused to fall behind in her studies. She graduated with top grades, earned scholarships to study chemical engineering in France. She eventually got two master’s degrees, and then a Ph.D at one of the best and most demanding labs in the world.

Some insightful people at her first job — Shell — saw in her leadership potential. "They gave me assessments for a week. They were very serious. And then they forecasted that I would be in the C-suite. I'm like, 'What is the C-suite?' ‘You are an A type, etc.’ And I was laughing, you know, I mean, I could equally stay just in my lab."

She did spend years in a lab in which she was the only woman, getting a larger and larger staff. Bigger roles followed. And something clicked. "I started understanding that business is about humanity, is about managing people. And I start understanding that I like it."

Ilham turned her own story into her mission — to create impact, to drive change, and to help others forge their own paths.

Her story proves one thing: if the door isn’t there, make one. From the lab to the boardroom, the throughline is a relentless drive to create a better world.

My takeaways:

Don't wait for doors to open — build them. 

She knew early on that the third exit her grandmother spoke of wouldn’t just appear out of thin air. She had to go find it. And she did—again and again. She had no money, so she earned scholarships. She faced a glass ceiling, but she broke through. She took unexpected opportunities—stepping out of the lab, moving across continents, and transforming companies others had written off.

Keeping it personal can be a rewarding path to success

Ilham nearly lost her life to unsafe water — decades later, she led global water purification efforts. She launched projects across the Middle East and Africa, including Saudi Arabia’s first reverse osmosis plant, which helped reduce the cost of purified water.  Also, her grandmother was a cleaner — and Ilham went on to lead a hygiene company. Her work often intersected with her upbringing story, which fueled her passion and drive.

Find mentors and supporters, but follow your own intuition

Ilham had early sponsors: her teachers who saw her aptitude for science and math and encouraged her to pursue them. Then at her first company, Shell, she had a mentor who told her to go into sales to better understand the customer, which she later found to be instrumental in her understanding of business. 

But there was one moment in her career when she had to listen to her own intuition – when she took the job with Dow in the Middle East. Everyone told her it was a mistake. She followed her heart, and it turned out to be her greatest mandate.