Zareen Cheema

IMD Business School, Lausanne

“Curious mind in motion intersecting human-centric technology and mobility with purpose, empathy, and creativity.”

Hometown: Pune, India and Gothenburg, Sweden

Fun Fact About Yourself: I was shortlisted by MarsOne for a one-way mission to colonize Mars. I chose Earth. (Though I did visit Antarctica before turning 20… so maybe I just took the scenic route.)

Undergraduate School and Major:

University of Pune, India – BEng Mechanical Engineering

University of California, Berkeley, US – MEng Mechanical Engineering

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Volvo Cars, Technical Exploration Manager

What has been the best part of being in a small class with this group of classmates? There’s a kind of magic that happens when a group of people from across the world are thrown together into a pressure cooker of learning, self-reflection, and occasional existential crisis. In a class this small, there’s nowhere to hide, which sounds terrifying, but ends up being the greatest gift. We’ve become mirrors for each other, constantly reflecting strengths we don’t see and blind spots we’d rather avoid. There’s an intimacy that forms in shared discomfort, whether it is late-night study sessions at IMD, Leadership Labs that leave you emotionally raw, or even that first failed group presentation where you realize just how much you still have to learn. What makes it special is that it’s not performative. It’s not networking. It’s just people, humans, trying to grow together. And in that process, some of them stop being classmates and become family!

Aside from classmates, what part of IMD’s MBA program led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? The moment I read about IMD’s Leadership Stream weaving through the curriculum of the whole year, I knew this wasn’t going to be a traditional MBA. While selecting the business school I wanted to go to, I wasn’t just looking for frameworks and case studies, I was looking for clarity. IMD promised to hold up a mirror, and it did. Through a blend of 1:1 leadership coaching, feedback sessions, and Leadership Labs, the program asked me to confront not just who I am as a leader, but who I am when no one is watching. The world doesn’t need more polished PowerPoint presentations. It needs leaders who are self-aware, grounded, and capable of holding ambiguity. I chose IMD because it doesn’t let you hide behind your resume. It challenges you to bring your full, flawed, evolving self into the room and to lead from there.

IMD is known for academic rigor. What is one strategy you used that would help a future IMD MBA better adapt to the workload early on? I realized that the biggest trap at business school is trying to do everything: be the perfect student, teammate, networker, and leader – all at once, all of the time. You can’t. What saved me was thinking like an engineer: I systematized my week. I blocked out hours for deep work and built “slack” into my schedule the way engineers build it into supply chains. I also found an accountability buddy. This was someone who would check in: not to compare scores or accomplishments, but to ask: Did you protect your sleep this week? Did you say no to something you didn’t need to do? Adaptation at IMD isn’t about productivity. It’s about presence. What helped me most was making space for stillness for the mind and learning through it.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I was working at Volvo Cars during a pivotal time when the automotive industry was at the crux of a transformation from traditional IC engines to EVs (electric vehicles). Teams were grappling with legacy mindsets, while trying to deliver futuristic products. At Volvo Cars, I led the development of internal GPT-based AI tools for R&D, saving over 1.5 million SEK annually by transforming how knowledge flows across functions.

But the real accomplishment wasn’t technical. It was building trust among 1,500+ stakeholders through co-creation workshops, tackling over 35 complex challenges across teams. I learned that innovation isn’t just about the model behind the tool; it’s about people choosing to believe in the future you’re helping them see. My role, strangely, became that of a translator between vision and feasibility. But more than the outcome, what I’m proud of is the way we worked. I helped build a space where we started to truly collaborate, challenge, and respect each other within our R&D department through a mindset of open innovation. That shift in culture and mutual understanding felt like a bigger win than anything we put on the road.

Describe your biggest accomplishment at IMD so far: It started with a joke: “We should start a women’s basketball team for MBAT (The Olympics for MBA Schools held at HEC Paris).” What followed was somehow even more improbable – we did. None of us had played together before. Four had never played at all. But we practiced, strategized, and most importantly, supported each other. I was the captain, but really, I was just the one crazy enough to believe we could pull it off. At the MBA Tournament, we were underdogs in every sense. In one game, we didn’t score a single point in the first half. At halftime, I looked around and saw frustration, even embarrassment. I just said, “Let’s stop chasing the win. Let’s focus on learning. Let’s focus on us.” We played the second half like it was the finals. We lost, but the energy, the heart, and the joy as we walked off court was the real win. For me, leadership isn’t about commanding. It’s about creating space where people surprise even themselves!

Where is your favorite hang-out in Lausanne? Why do you (and your classmates) gravitate there? Le Lacustre, a lakeside bar, is part lakeside sanctuary, part unofficial IMD after-hours spot. There’s something about being near water that softens us all. We go there after presentations, after intense weeks, sometimes just after tough conversations. And somehow, over fondue and laughter, the heaviness lifts. It’s where we’ve celebrated, debriefed, and vented. In a program this intense, we all need a place to remember we’re more than our deliverables. For me, that place is Le Lacustre!

What has been your best memory at IMD thus far? It was Week 19 of the MBA program and a grey Lausanne weekend. I found myself managing two $600m venture funds with five teammates, 18 startup exits on the line, and not a moment to breathe. For two days at the Venture Capital Asset Management program, we were inside the eye of a simulation that felt real, painfully, thrillingly real. Every decision mattered: when to follow on, when to walk away, and when to trust instinct over spreadsheets. By the end, my team’s portfolio NAV had grown to $1.8bn.

Strangely, that wasn’t the part that stayed with me. What stayed was the chaos and the clarity inside it. The way our team moved between strategy and second-guessing, ambition, and caution. The rush of debating a startup’s fate with one eye on the clock and the other on the market. It taught me more than I expected, not just about venture capital, but about how people think, lead, and adapt when the stakes feel real. And somewhere in the middle of it, I caught myself smiling. I was exhausted, overwhelmed, but alive in a way that reminded me why I came here. That weekend didn’t just simulate pressure. It revealed something. About myself, and the kind of leader I want to become.

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