For this installment of On the RISE, the Safety Trade Affiliation (SIA) spoke with Ghaida Alkhateeb, safety space supervisor at Amazon and a 2025 honoree in SIA’s 25 on the RISE Awards.
Safety Trade Affiliation: Inform us a little bit bit about your self and your profession path.
Ghaida Alkhateeb: I’ve all the time been drawn to languages and communication…drawn to how individuals join and perceive one another. Working within the area formed that zeal into one thing greater and schooling helped me see it with extra readability.
Coming again to work in an area that blends each was a full-circle second for me. I by no means deliberate to finish up within the safety world, but it surely turned out to be precisely the place all my abilities and goal got here collectively.
SIA: What first acquired you curious about safety and security as a profession selection?
Alkhateeb: Truthfully, I didn’t plan to work in safety; it discovered me. My background in communication made me notice how a lot readability and empathy matter throughout moments of disaster. The extra I noticed how info can form security and response, the extra I needed to be a part of that world.
What began as a concentrate on individuals and language become a ardour for shielding them. And that’s what retains me right here.
SIA: Who has influenced or mentored you — both throughout the safety trade or outdoors?
Alkhateeb: I’ve been lucky to study from mentors who lead with goal and authenticity. By means of the SIA Expertise Inclusion Mentorship Schooling (TIME) program, I’m honored to be mentored by Kathleen Carroll. Her steering jogs my memory that innovation means little with out accountability and belief.
Exterior the safety area, I deeply admire Indra Nooyi, for her unapologetic authenticity and people-first management. She confirmed that energy and empathy can — and may — coexist and that true affect comes from main with each head and coronary heart.
SIA: What’s one thing most individuals don’t find out about you?
Alkhateeb: Most individuals don’t know that my profession started with a daring leap, launching my very own translation firm in Jordan whereas nonetheless in my early 20s. I used to be one of many youngest sworn translators to seem in court docket, typically underestimated and continually having to show myself.
I began from zero as a result of I needed to study every little thing: each course of, each problem, each voice. That have grew to become my biggest trainer, shaping how I lead as we speak: with curiosity, resilience and a deep respect for individuals who construct their success from the bottom up.
SIA: What are some challenges and benefits of being a younger skilled within the safety trade?
Alkhateeb: One of many greatest challenges is incomes credibility in a area typically formed by lengthy tenure and conventional paths. Coming from a communication and cultural background. With a shorter tenure in safety, I needed to show that affect isn’t outlined by how lengthy you’ve been right here; it’s outlined by the way you assume, study and lead.
The benefit is perspective. I carry a people-centered strategy that connects empathy, knowledge and cross-cultural consciousness to drive higher choices.
SIA: What recommendation do you could have for younger professionals simply beginning out within the trade?
Alkhateeb: Say sure to studying earlier than main. Ask questions fearlessly but in addition pay attention deeply. Construct belief. Keep curious. And don’t cover what makes you totally different: your background, your story, your voice. It’s your biggest asset.
SIA: What do you take pleasure in most about being at your organization — and within the safety trade?
Alkhateeb: At Amazon, I really like that innovation is anticipated. Each problem is a puzzle with real-world affect. And the safety trade, at its greatest, provides us an opportunity to guard individuals by way of programs that worth each effectivity and empathy. It’s the place know-how meets humanity, and I really like residing at that intersection.
SIA: How do you outline success?
Alkhateeb: Success, to me, is affect with integrity. It’s creating change with out shedding your self within the course of — and leaving each house a little bit stronger, safer and kinder than you discovered it.
SIA: How do you assume the SIA RISE neighborhood can assist foster the careers of younger individuals within the trade? What does RISE supply that’s most essential to you/your organization?
Alkhateeb: RISE provides younger professionals visibility, mentorship and a seat on the desk. It helps us join throughout generations, share classes brazenly and form the way forward for the trade collectively. Probably the most highly effective factor RISE affords is belonging; it reminds us that our voices matter.
SIA: What are some key parts of your function with Amazon?
Alkhateeb: In my function, I concentrate on strengthening international safety operations by way of individuals, communication and course of. I work on initiatives that improve readiness, streamline response and construct resilience throughout various groups.
It’s a steadiness of technique, collaboration and management improvement, making certain that each choice contributes to a safer and extra linked setting.
SIA: What key challenges, alternatives and/or tendencies do you see as most essential to the trade – or extra particularly to these within the safety operations house?
Alkhateeb: Know-how is transferring quicker than individuals — and that’s each the problem and the chance. We speak so much about innovation however what really issues is protecting empathy, ethics and human understanding on the middle of it.
For me, the way forward for safety lies in bridging communication gaps, decreasing cognitive load and designing programs that help individuals moderately than overwhelming them. After we get that proper, we construct not simply safer operations however stronger connections.
SIA: What drew you to your previous roles in translation, language providers, media and the general public sector and the way have you ever leveraged these abilities in your present function?
Alkhateeb: I’ve all the time been fascinated by how individuals talk, particularly beneath strain. My earlier roles in translation, media and the general public sector gave me a front-row seat to how info, when delivered clearly and with empathy, can change outcomes.
These experiences taught me to pay attention first, simplify complexity and construct belief throughout cultures. All of that interprets straight into my work as we speak — the place main groups, managing dangers or dealing with crises nonetheless come down to 1 factor: clear communication and human connection.
SIA: What has been essentially the most rewarding accomplishment or expertise in your profession within the safety trade?
Alkhateeb: Main groups by way of international crises — and watching them develop stronger and extra assured alongside the best way — has been deeply rewarding. Being acknowledged with the Amazon Girls in Safety Encourage Award and the SIA 25 On the RISE Tradition Award reaffirmed for me that kindness and efficiency aren’t opposites; they amplify one another.
SIA: What are your predictions for the place the safety trade could also be headed within the subsequent 5 to 10 years?
Alkhateeb: The way forward for safety is holistic. It’s shifting from response to resilience, from management to collaboration. Within the subsequent decade, success will belong to those that can merge knowledge with empathy and design programs that defend individuals by understanding them.
SIA: How can we maintain inclusion past dialog?
Alkhateeb: For me, inclusion isn’t a one-time initiative; it’s a each day follow. It’s how we rent, mentor and make house for voices that haven’t all the time been heard. In my very own groups, I attempt to construct that consistency by listening first, being clear and giving individuals room to develop in their very own means.
True inclusion doesn’t begin with a program; it begins with intent. It’s about selecting, day-after-day, to guide with empathy and equity, even when nobody’s watching.
On the RISE is a column by the Safety Trade Affiliation (SIA) in partnership with Safety Gross sales & Integration profiling the following technology of safety trade leaders. This column is a part of SIA RISE, a neighborhood that fosters the careers of younger professionals within the safety by way of networking and profession progress occasions, schooling {and professional} improvement choices and scholarship and mentorship alternatives.
