From Exile to Excellence: Salma de Graaff on Leadership, Identity & Freedom.

In this moving conversation, Sam Wigan sits down with Salma de Graaff to explore her extraordinary journey, from her father’s stories of escape across continents after the partition of India and Pakistan, to her own experience growing up mixed-race in 1970s Birmingham.Salma reflects on the challenges of belonging, cultural identity, and navigating expectations as a young woman in a Muslim household. She speaks candidly about resilience, love, and independence, sharing how those early experiences shaped her leadership philosophy and her later success as a global HR and organisational development leader.