Image caption: Payal Sahni and her parents celebrate World Refugee Day 2023 at Pfizer’s New York Headquarters

When Payal Sahni Becher reflects on the valuable lessons that have shaped her life, the one that stands out most is the power of saying “yes.” For Sahni Becher, who is Pfizer’s Chief People Experience Officer, saying “yes” to an internship opportunity at Pfizer 27 years ago paved the path to her current leadership role.

Many years before, when she was just 6 years old, her parents made the life-changing decision to move their family to the United States as refugees, leaving their home in Afghanistan. As they built a new life in New York City, her mother encouraged her to seek out opportunities and say “yes” as much as possible. “My mom always told me to try everything because she didn’t want me to ever look back and say that I didn't have an opportunity,’” explains Sahni Becher.

Today, she offers that same advice to others in their careers. “Say yes to different experiences,” she says. “Because you will learn something, and you never know where it will lead.”

From intern to employee

Sahni Becher comes from a family of entrepreneurs. As immigrants to the U.S., her parents had a vision of what success would mean for their daughter. She would go to college and then medical school. She would become a doctor.

She tried to follow their dream, but quickly learned that medicine wasn’t for her. So, she studied psychology instead. While she was pursuing a master’s degree at Fairleigh Dickinson University Silberman College of Business in New Jersey, an advisor told her about an internship opening at Pfizer. At the time, she didn’t know much about the company, but she was eager, nonetheless. “Someone gave me an opportunity,” she says. “They said look, it’s a good experience to have on your resume and it’ll give you credit toward your major.” She said yes.

She loved the work, the company and people immediately. And she found that her experience doing intake interviews as a psychology major adapted well to conducting interviews for prospective candidates. “It opened my eyes to the fact that there were so many different kinds of roles at Pfizer, with the purpose of bringing medicines and vaccines to patients that need them,” she says. Soon after starting her internship, her supervisor offered her a job—and told her Pfizer would reimburse a portion of her graduate school costs.

“It completely changed my life,” says Sahni Becher.

Embracing the journey

She never stopped saying yes. Various job openings arose, and she accepted them, working in human resources roles that supported marketing, medical affairs, safety, and even international teams. “I took a number of project-based opportunities without ever really thinking about whether they were promotions or not,” she says. “For me, it was all about having experiences that I could build on, that would help me see the world in a different way, through a different lens. I learned that there are so many ways to a destination, and you might not even know, when you start off, where you are going.” She never set out to become a chief executive, but in time, the path became clear.

Over the course of her career, Sahni Becher says she’s never lost sight of the passion that led her to study psychology so many years ago: helping to make people the best version of themselves, so they can accomplish their own goals. Working in human resources turned out to be an ideal fit for her. Her remit is wide-ranging, but her main focus is ensuring all Pfizer colleagues feel seen, heard, and cared for, so that they can focus on our shared purpose: Breakthroughs that change patients’ lives. Her vision led to the renaming of the HR organization to People Experience, to better capture the work and priorities.

“My department puts our colleagues at the center of everything we do. We spend time finding and developing the best talent, culture and ways of working—we want people who have the right skills and experiences to bring innovative medicines and vaccines to the patients who need them most,” she says.

Paying it forward

In her 27 years of employment with Pfizer, Sahni Becher has never once forgotten the opportunity that the company gave her in her graduate school days. Now, as a senior leader, she thinks a lot about what her legacy will be. She believes it revolves around giving others the kind of opportunity she once got, so she’s always looking for ways to pay it forward and have generational impact. One way she’s done this is through Pfizer’s Refugee Leadership Initiative, which aims to support the economic inclusion of refugees and other displaced people around the world through hiring, mentoring, and advocacy. “It's giving people an opportunity to change their life and to change the lives of their families,” she says. “Just like somebody gave me a chance.”

And she does it through Pfizer’s internship programs, where she meets with interns to tell her story, and to listen to theirs. Of course, her message to them is inspired by her own journey: she tells them to say yes.

Sahni Becher never became the doctor that her parents envisioned. She followed a different path, often not sure where it would lead.

Today, her whole family is grateful that she did.

“‘Forget doctor," her parents say. "You’re working for a company that saves the world.’”