Elaine Whitton Davis '73 and Winthrop University's College of Business and Technology have established a series of training seminars for business leaders in our community and the Charlotte, NC region. Sponsored by Davis, the Whitton Executive Series was developed to provide free or low-cost access to current state of the art knowledge relevant to business practice.
Zainab Ghadiyali has built her career by stepping into problems before the path was clear - from conceptualizing
Facebook's first public-health product, to leading Airbnb's re-architecture, to founding
companies that break stereotypes and expand access to AI. In this talk, she will share
practical lessons from moving between engineering, product leadership, and entrepreneurship:
how to learn faster than the problem changes, build with purpose, recover when plans
break, and turn an unconventional path into an advantage. Students and business leaders
will leave with a grounded way to approach new technology, career pivots, and the
work of building something that does not exist yet.
Photo Credit: Bonnie Rae Photography
Thursday, November 5, 2026
11 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Whitton Auditorium
Vivian Moore Carroll Hall
Rock Hill, SC
Admission to this event is free.
Whitton Auditorium is located within Carroll Hall. The President's Circle parking lot directly across Ebenezer Avenue has been reserved for this event.
Campus Map (PDF - 4.2MB) | Parking Areas (PDF - 772KB)
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