Neelam Hadaf, C30

Neelam was raised in the Bay Area and has lived there most of her life; however, she was born in Afghanistan and came to America with her mother when she was only one year old. Neelam’s mother was brave enough to leave the country as a refugee to give her opportunities that she would not be exposed to in a country that did not value women’s rights.

Professionally, Neelam brings 13 years of experience in sales, operations, marketing, and recruiting. She started her Presidio Graduate School journey after traveling to India and witnessing the waste accumulated on the beach and in the ocean. She was moved to take action and chose to pursue a career in the field of sustainability to protect our oceans.

Neelam graduated from Menlo College with a BA in Psychology and earned her MBA from Presidio Graduate School in December 2020. She’s worked on projects for Ocean2Table, VMware, and other organizations as part of our experiential learning model, rewarding experiences to make a tangible contribution while applying what she learned during the program.

Neelam enjoys swimming, hiking, and spending time with her family in her free time. She is also a Kathak dancer. Kathak is one of the main genres of ancient Indian classical dance and originated from the traveling bards of North India known as Kathakars or storytellers. The Kathakars communicated their stories through movement, so this is a style of dance and performance art that incorporates legends from ancient mythology and great Indian epics.