Beyond the Boardroom: Grainger College of Engineering's Rashid Bashir

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How’s this for an immigration success story: Teen brothers, aged 15 and 17, move from their native Pakistan to the United States, landing in Lubbock, Texas, where the youngest gets a part-time job working the grill at McDonald’s and eventually grows up to become dean of the University of Illinois’ Grainger College of Engineering.

“It was our father’s vision to send us to America for education and to better our lives. I had money for one year and a return ticket,” says RASHID BASHIR, who’s in Year 7 of running higher ed’s No. 9 engineering school, per U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings.

You name it, the scholar with two degrees from Purdue has done it in his field — Bashir has authored 250-plus journal papers, been granted 45 patents and been named a fellow in eight international professional societies.

The Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering, who joined the UI faculty in 2007, took time out to answer questions from Editor Jeff D’Alessio in the 261st installment of our weekly speed read spotlighting leaders of organizations big and small.

The single-most important question I ask job candidates during interviews is … how would you like to change the world for the better or what Mars-shot goal would you like to achieve in 10 years?

My philosophy on meetings is … define the purpose, focus on outcomes, assign tasks and walk away with action items.

My single favorite moment of all-time in this job was … the celebrations of the college naming to Grainger College of Engineering.

When it comes to the one thing I can’t live without … I hate to say this but my cellphone.

The three adjectives I hope my staff would use to describe me are … empathetic, humble and visionary.

On my office walls, you’ll find … pictures of my family, my professional awards and fellowships of professional societies.

My professional role model is … in my current research realm, John Rogers, who is now at Northwestern. John is a genius, works super hard and is just a very nice guy.

I’m frugal in that … in my casual ware, I love wearing U of I gear and my same blue jeans. My kids call me a walking advertisement of UIUC.

If I could trade places for a week with any other business person in town, I wouldn’t mind switching with … Dr. Jim Leonard, CEO of Carle, to learn and experience the health-care delivery industry from the inside. And health care is such a challenging and important industry.

I have great regards for Carle — how it’s running and growing and partnering with us in the Carle Illinois College of Medicine.

My one unbreakable rule of the workplace is … have respect for each other.

The first thing I do when I get to work most days is … talk to Cindy Pruitt, my amazing administrative assistant, about the day and the next few days.

For lunch, I like to … just work through and catch up on email and tasks. Lunch is not a priority if I don’t have meetings.

I wind down after work by … spending time with family, catching up on news and monologues from the previous night’s comedy shows.

The most beneficial college classes I took were … two bioengineering graduate elective classes during the last year of my Ph.D. I fell in love with biology and bioengineering.

That is when I decided to make a switch from electrical engineering and nanotechnology research to integrating nanotechnology with biology and medicine.

I also took a short course on neuro-electric interface at Princeton and my Ph.D. advisor supported me to take that summer short course, and this further heightened my interest in bioengineering.

The last good book I read was … “Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology” — but I now have a stack that I cannot find time to read.

My exercise routine consists of … at least 30 minutes on the elliptical and 20 minutes on weights — three to four times a week if I can.

I knew this is what I wanted to do for a living at age … 25, when I finished my Ph.D. I knew I wanted to do research in bioengineering and be a professor.

The first job I ever had was … when I was 15/16, at McDonald’s in Lubbock, Texas, making hamburgers on the 10:1 grill. I learned a lot — discipline, hard work, customer service. The manager taught all the high schoolers to never stand still and keep smiling.

I was the proud winner of the store competition, in-town competition and went to state competition — a great experience.

The worst job I ever had was … my second job — at Fur’s Cafeteria in Lubbock, washing dishes. It was tough. I was 17.