Sana Mithani came to Saint John, N.B. to take the MBA program at UNB Saint John. Her husband and son will follow from the United Arab Emirates when he finds a job in the Port city.
Sana Mithani has lived in mega-cities like Karachi in Pakistan (population 15,000,000) and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (a small town by comparison at 3,000,000). But when she researched universities for an MBA, a small port city had more appeal than one of Canada’s larger urban centres.
“I like calm cities and calm feelings and I’ve felt it here,” she said about Saint John in an interview just a few days after she arrived here in early October. “Toronto is very busy. Dubai is a very busy city. You have your own life here. You can give more time to yourself and your family.”
Saint John has an industrial core but waterways and parks close by, which is very appealing to Sana. She and the other 90 members of the new MBA class at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John did their orientation at the Assumption Church on the west side. As we chatted in one of the church rooms, she kept glancing at a large mural on the wall that depicts a river running through forest land.
“Just imagine if you were there and sitting around and thinking and relaxing with a cup of tea or coffee. Wow,” she says. “That is something that attracts me – the natural scenery. Whenever I go commuting by bus we pass by a river or green spaces that give me soothing feelings.”
Sana has a background in construction and design, graduating with a degree in architecture from Mehran University and an MBA with a focus on finance from Khadim Ali Shah Bukhari Institute of Technology (KASBIT), both in Pakistan.
She built a career in the construction industry, eventually securing a management position with the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) in Pakistan, which designs and constructs commercial, educational and residential buildings.
Her degree in architecture provided her with the technical training she needed for the construction industry, but it’s her MBAs, the one she did in Pakistan and the one she’s now doing in Saint John, that teaches her the skills she needs for senior management positions.
“I like managing people and projects,” she says, “learning how to present yourself to executives and CEOs.”
She left Pakistan for Dubai after marrying Nadeem Mithani, an IT business analyst who had grown up in Pakistan as well but had moved to UAE for work. Their families had known each other since Sana and Nadeem were children, but they didn’t grow up together. They met as adults at a wedding – literally bumping into each other.
“Mistakenly I turned around and hit him. So that was our first meeting,” she says.
After they got married, Sana moved to the UAE and continued to work, doing freelance design on residential and commercial projects. They also had a son, Zuhny, now four years old.
Sana had cut short a career she was building in Pakistan, and Nadeem is now very supportive of her desire to build a new life and career in Canada.
“I moved for him. I sacrificed my career for him, which he always acknowledged,” she says. “I feel like I was in a good position if I had stayed in Pakistan. I could have become CEO or been in another executive position.”
“He now says, ‘you go ahead and start your career again.’ He’s helping me out with our son because I could not look after him now during my studies.”
Nadeem works for a bank in UAE, but he has a Canadian work permit and plans to move here when he finds a job in Saint John. He was here with their son for two weeks in early October but they have returned home to Abu Dhabi, where they live now, while he continues his search.
Sana hopes they can return soon because she misses Zuhny. “I have never left him for a single day so it’s very tough for me,” she says.
For now, Sana remains focused on her MBA, which has a general management focus to complement her MBA in finance.
“You can handle anything that comes your way,” she says of the broader focus that will better prepare her for senior management and CEO roles.
“I want to open up opportunities for me,” she said. “I want to work for a big company that has a diversity of opportunities and challenges. This will help build on my expertise and experience. I would like to work to become a CEO or an [executive position like that].”
After she completes the MBA program, she would like to find the right job. It could be in the construction field, but she’s open to other opportunities – as long as it means she can remain here.
“I want to stay in New Brunswick,” she says. “It’s peaceful, calm and loving here. I love the life here.”
A version of this story was published in Huddle, an online business news publication based in Saint John. Huddle is an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
