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Rukiya Thomas
Atkins, VP, Business Development & Strategy/Black Employee Resource Group Lead-US
Professional Background
Rukiya S. Thomas is an accomplished business leader with a robust background in regional business development and strategic direction. She currently serves as the Vice President and Senior Regional Business Development & Strategy Director at Atkins, a renowned global engineering and design consultancy. In her role, Rukiya is responsible for spearheading business initiatives that foster growth and enhance the firm's market reach, making significant contributions to both the organization and clients alike. Her expertise in developing business strategies has positioned her as a key player within the company, allowing her to influence projects at a regional and national level.
Atkins, known for its commitment to innovation and excellence, has greatly benefited from Rukiya’s visionary leadership. She has a talent for identifying emerging trends and opportunities in the market, which has enabled her to successfully guide teams in developing strategic plans that align with the company's objectives and values. Rukiya’s work is characterized by her ability to bridge the gap between strategic vision and operational execution, ensuring that business developments are not only innovative but also viable and sustainable.
Education and Achievements
Rukiya’s academic background is firmly rooted in her pursuit of knowledge and excellence, which she carried into her professional life. She earned her Master of Arts (MA) degree from Penn State University, where she honed her critical thinking and analytical skills. Her time at Penn State not only equipped her with advanced knowledge in her field but also fostered a strong network of professional contacts.
Prior to her MA at Penn State, Rukiya completed her Bachelor of Arts (BA) at Clark Atlanta University. This foundational experience provided her with a solid footing in understanding the dynamics of business and strategic planning. Clark Atlanta University is known for its commitment to developing leaders in various fields, and this atmosphere undoubtedly contributed to Rukiya’s early passion for business development and strategy.
Achievements
Throughout her career, Rukiya S. Thomas has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to excellence in business development. Her leadership role at Atkins signifies her ability to drive change, inspire teamwork, and achieve goals. By effectively leveraging her educational background and industry experience, she has contributed to significant business growth and innovation at the firm.
In addition to her professional duties, Rukiya actively engages in mentoring and coaching aspiring professionals in the field of business development. Her commitment to nurturing talent underscores her belief in the potential of the next generation of business leaders. She frequently shares her insights and experiences at industry conferences, further establishing herself as a thought leader in regional business development and strategy.
Rukiya’s dedication to continuous improvement is evident in her pursuit of lifelong learning, as she regularly updates her skills and knowledge across various aspects of the industry. Her contributions to Atkins and beyond emphasize her role as an influential figure, committed to driving strategic initiatives that inspire innovation and foster growth across different sectors.
Special Skills and Interests
Rukiya possesses notable skills in business strategy formulation, market analysis, and relationship management, which enable her to navigate complex business challenges effectively. Her passion for fostering sustainable development within urban environments showcases her commitment to implementing strategies that benefit communities while advancing corporate goals.
Highlights
One week ago, I had the honor to celebrate with over 360 City of Atlanta professionals who work in and around the transportation and city infrastructure space at the WTS Atlanta Annual Scholarship Luncheon. Our industry is essential to moving this city forward!
This is the reason that I enjoy leading with a board that volunteers tirelessly on behalf of 375 members, and counting, to honor leaders and businesses that support our mission of advancing women in transportation. One way we do this is by ensuring that young women pursuing careers in transportation across colleges in Georgia can earn a scholarship annually to help cover their educational costs. We are proud to do this and so much more with our incredibly generous corporate partners that make it all possible.
Our Scholarship Luncheon was an execution of excellence by this year's planning committee led by Nicole Neeley (Law), and I am so grateful. I deeply appreciate my company AtkinsRéalis for providing the space for me to represent the great work we get to do everyday that have earned us the Diversity Leader of the Year award for 2023. It was a delight to share this honor with our US Market President George Nash.
Thank you to Ashley Frasca for being our Mistress of Ceremony for almost a decade, to Marsha Anderson Bomar for providing a blessing, to Nicole Love Hendrickson for delivering a flawless Industry Briefing and to all the below scholarship recipients, industry awardees and 2023 WTS International Conference Planning Chairs Malika Reed Wilkins, PhD, APR and Regan Hammond, AICP for a special recognition.
Helene M. Overly Memorial Scholarship, Adair Garrett
Jannett Walker Ford Leadership Legacy Scholarship, Natalie Branand
Sharon D. Banks Memorial Scholarship, Jessica Huang
Molitoris Leadership for Undergraduates Scholarship, Valentina Celis
Member of the Year, Katrina Knight, CCP, LEED AP
Diversity Leader of the Year, AtkinsRéalis
Employer of the Year, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
Man of the Year, Balram “B” Bheodari, A.A.E, IAP
Woman of the Year, Keli Kemp, AICP, PTP
Uncovering Our Legacy Award, Dana Lemon
Congratulations again!
#happythanksgiving
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Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
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Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
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