From engineer to entrepreneur

While technical skills may help you land your first job, developing emotional intelligence — which is the ability to understand and manage your emotions, as well as recognize and influence the emotions around you  —  is what can set you apart as a leader. This lesson has been especially valuable for Amir Shami, 18’ EMBA. 

We had the chance to connect with Shami, who shared his journey going from a young engineer in Iran to a flourishing entrepreneur in Canada, and how reflecting on his difficult past has helped make him the business leader he is today. 

Today, Amir is the President and CEO of Rotaflow, a local engineering and construction company specializing in fire protection and utility systems across Western Canada, with over 200 employees and counting. Let’s dive into his journey of self-discovery: 

Tell me a bit about your post-secondary journey. What made you decide to pursue an Executive MBA (EMBA) after becoming an engineer? 

Back in Iran in 2000, I got my undergrad degree in electrical engineering from Azad University. I jumped right into my master’s in electrical engineering and was focused on studying the oil and gas industry. I always wanted to be a part of international exchange opportunities, whether it was Korea or Italy, and was happy to be learning and experimenting until I moved to Canada around ten years ago. In Alberta, I continued practicing as an engineer and eventually obtained my professional engineering license from the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA). 

Then, in 2016 I met the owner of Rotaflow and joined the team as a project manager. There was a critical point when I realized I didn’t have enough understanding of the business. In meetings, people would talk about project costs, strategy and marketing, and I felt that no matter how competent I was as an engineer, I lacked the same proficiency on the business side. I knew then it was the right time to start rebuilding myself and exploring different MBA options. Ultimately, the Executive MBA worked best for my schedule. 

What was your experience like in the EMBA program? What did you learn about yourself?

I discovered the true depth of my capacity. You only know how fast you can run when a grizzly bear is chasing you. During those two years, I felt like I had a 700-pound grizzly chasing me and I had to run or it was going to maul me over. 

At the time, I was a project manager in one of the largest oil sands projects in Fort McMurray. It was seven days on, seven days off. On my days off, I would fly back to Edmonton to attend classes in person. At the camp, I would wake up at 5 a.m., bundle up in -35 weather, work a full day and then head back to the camp at 6 p.m. While everyone else was settling down to relax and watch Netflix, I would quickly grab dinner and find a corner to study in. I remember I even had to smuggle extra lights into my room just so I could study until midnight. 

Looking back, it was all about resiliency and grit. That’s what I enjoyed — not giving up and just moving forward. 

Since starting your career as an engineer at Rotaflow, you’ve transitioned from project manager to VP of operations to CEO. Tell me about that experience. 

When I started as a project manager with Rotaflow, it was a small engineering company of about 20 people. After finishing my EMBA, I had a big decision to make. You know, the fork in the road. Do I stay and build it up? Or, do I take what I’ve learned and leave to find a safe, attractive white-collar corporate job?

But after 20 years of working as an engineer, I knew I had an entrepreneurial flame inside me, I just never had the chance to actualize it. I decided to give it a shot — stay and push hard at Rotaflow — and my partner and the former CEO eventually promoted me to Vice President of Operations.

It was finally time to apply everything I learned from the EMBA program while I oversaw the company’s operations. I worked very hard, shuttled back and forth between the Edmonton and Fort McMurray offices weekly, and took a hands-on approach to upgrade our financial and HR systems, build marketing strategies and more. 

Fast forward to today, we’re an engineering construction company of 200 people, and I’m very proud of this team. My role now as CEO is to only look for two things: people and opportunity. These two things will bring prosperity to everyone here, and I’m excited to produce more leaders. Of course, I’m still a student on my own learning journey. My hope for the next chapter is to bring us to a thousand employees and expand our offices into BC and Saskatchewan.

What’s the most rewarding part of your role as CEO?

Enabling people's capability by motivating them. It’s something that inspires me every morning — when you know you can make a difference. It’s those moments when I have a conversation with someone who’s feeling stuck or doesn’t see their potential … and then six months later I see that they’re blossoming … that’s the best gift ever. It gives me goosebumps. 

Impacting someone in a positive way is contagious. It’s a boomerang effect that comes back with more positivity. However, it’s taken time for me to become a more emotionally intelligent leader. None of the engineering schools teach you how to manage very intense or sentimental emotional situations. You need to understand that a business is fabricated by people, and people are emotional creatures who don’t see everything in black and white. 

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome as a leader?

I’ve had to dig deep into my own character, which I had almost forgotten about for more than 30 years. All of us have some childhood issues, whether it’s from trauma, challenges or different family environments. I grew up in a very tough environment. I was born in Iran in 1979, right after eight years of war between Iran and Iraq. My dad was a military officer so he was drafted to the war and experienced lots of trauma. Subconsciously, he brought that stress back home and had to develop a coping mechanism. That coping mechanism stayed with my family. 

When I graduated from school, the only way I could forget about my past was by becoming a workaholic and seeking what I thought was success: more degrees, more possessions, more luxuries. But when I took over Rotaflow as CEO, I suddenly felt naked. Suddenly, none of those things could help me. I worked long hours and couldn’t sleep over challenges like people quitting or managing disciplinary situations. I felt like I had been rolled back 30 years and needed to rebuild myself from the inside out. I realized how vulnerable and uneducated about emotional intelligence I was. I had to start my own university, where I was my own teacher to my own, singular student: me.

For the last two or three years, I’ve heavily focused on my personality to understand why I react the way I do in situations. My fight-or-flight instinct always told me to fight, whether it was reacting harshly to bad news or lashing out at people. I had to find the root cause of why my defence mechanism was failing. 

I kept searching for the root of the problem, peeling back my layers like an onion, and I eventually acknowledged what happened in my childhood. That made me start to develop some self-respect, self-love and self-esteem, and I realized I was becoming a better person. I don’t think this experience could have ever happened if I wasn’t in the position I was in at the time. I was responsible for hundreds of people’s lives and mortgages and I had to be a role model. I had to learn how to be patient and actively listen without making assumptions. 

If I were to summarize what I've learned, it would be the importance of becoming more dialectica. It means that everything can be right and wrong at the same time depending on the perspective you’re looking at. 

Thank you for sharing your vulnerability. We keep coming back to the concept of life-long learning. What’s next for you, both professionally and personally?

I know I’m not ready to hang up my shoes and say I’m done. I always have the desire to continue my education, but at the same time, I’m gauging my energy. I’ve learned you have to live a multi-dimensional life. You can’t just jump from one accomplishment to the next, or you’re at risk of becoming egotistic, sometimes even narcissistic. If you pay enough attention to family values, spirituality, exercise, and everything else, that’s the ultimate win. So maybe at the right time in the next seven years, I would like to continue my education and get a PhD, or perhaps explore the field of law.

Professionally, I’d also like to be an example of a successful local engineering construction company in Alberta that people look to as a role model. I want to do something significant that makes other people feel great about choosing to live in Edmonton. It’s a wonderful place to build teams and actualize dreams. I’m going to do something big in the next ten to fifteen years. What is that? I’m still in the process of figuring it out. 

From a more personal level, I’d really like to explore some of the things that I’ve suppressed over the years. As I do more and more personality tests, I’m realizing that behind this analytical engineer, is also an intuitive, creative person. I want to commit to trying something artistic, whether it’s photography or painting.