The poignant story of Goa’s Aisha de Sequeira who passed away on December 10, 2020, at 51, has been told and retold.
What makes fate snatch away the life of a woman in the prime of life and at the height of professional glory? One will never know.
Daughter of Maureen and late Erasmo de Sequeira, Aisha was the youngest of three children who married Roy D’Souza in 2007. The couple had three children – Erasmo (12), Alexander (10) and Nathan (10). Her personality exuded the rich fabric of her birthplace - its lilting music, culture, family values, decency, art, language, Portuguese influence, respect for others and the simple village life. She was nourished from fertile alluvial soil enriched by copious waters of Goa’s rivers and seas, mesmerized by swathes of greenery, imbibed the wafting breezes of palm fronds, swaying coconut trees, and unique Goan forests contrasting with ferrous mud, temples and white church steeples. This was her benefaction from centuries-old roots.
Schooled in Goa, she graduated in electronics engineering, joined Yale School of Management, got a Master’s degree in public and private management. Her business idol was Steve Jobs. She was hired by Morgan Stanley in 1995 and was sent to India in 2007 to head their investment banking group, later as country co-head. With Aisha as top dealmaker at the helm, Morgan Stanley was the dominant mergers-and-acquisitions franchise in India, with 20% of cross-border deals and the number one IPO Bank in India.
Aisha was not the stereotypical banker. She was called “banker with the infectious smile”. and “leader with a heart”. Others who cut deals in the bull market arrogantly exploited business breaks. But Aisha retained a dulcet softness endearing her to everyone. She was not feisty or pugnacious but brought to the table energy and warmth, with trademark charisma. Her smile lit up a room, she rarely complained, was always positive. She drove deals in the fast lane, shaping the firm’s presence in an aggressive environment. Navhind named her “Woman of The Year 2013”.
Fortune India named her one of the most powerful women in India from 2012 to 2015. Then ranked her for the fifth time as one of the most powerful women in 2020; she steered Morgan Stanley to the second spot in equity capital markets with 11.6% market share, catapulting the company to the top of the mergers and acquisitions league table.
Backed by Reliance Industries her legacy would be the final big deal she worked on as the lead India-based banker on strategic sales in Jio Platforms.
Aisha was deeply religious and open minded while admitting that “prayer works”. A die-hard Goan, its not because she was steeped in Catholicism, and spoke fluent Konkani that she was the quintessential Goa girl. It was also lineage. Her personality was built on family pride and values. I know of generations of Aisha’s ancestors of outstanding eminence. Her father Erasmo de Sequeira became the first Goan Member of Parliament, the youngest at 27. Her mother Maureen, is sister to well-known Goan, the late Alban Couto. Her grandfather Jack de Sequeira was President of the United Goans Party and Father of the Opinion Poll which earned statehood for Goa. Aisha said “one thing I learned was that it takes generations to build a reputation but it can be lost in the blink of an eye if not careful”.
Great-grandfather, Erasmo de Sequeira Senior, was once a bureaucrat in British India and graduate of St. Xavier’s College in the early 20th century. When I was a student there in the mid 1950s, Senior Erasmo’s record in the college Roll of Honor had stayed unbeaten for five decades.
But every vocation throws its own curveball. Aisha’s came from out of the blue at 48, at the height of her successes, when diagnosed with colon cancer.
She took it in her stride and did not let the disease interfere in her work. Intrepid in approach she said “I never questioned why great things happened to me all the time, so why be a hypocrite and question cancer now?” She optimized family time and the three boys, her lifeblood.
Aisha acquired a large hideaway deep in the forests of Dhargalim, Goa, with a country-house and a meandering natural lake. It became a magnet to allure friends and family when at Christmas about 100 guests would congregate for a sumptuous Goan cuisine.
One day Aisha, ebullient, ushered us both into a room to recount a recent experience. On a group business trip to Moscow she visited a renowned church, alone – Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception - and prayed for a cure from the cancer. With gratitude writ large she said the prayer was answered, her health was restored and the doctors confirmed it a real miracle. We were ecstatic. Sadly a couple of years later the cancer returned. But her faith never wavered. She made repeat visits to Memorial Sloane Kettering Hospital for therapy but passed away on December 10 last year.
Many tributes from politicians poured in. These are a few excerpts from industry leaders:
Goa has lost a corporate diva and extraordinary daughter of the soil, the world of investment banking one of its finest souls.” (Shrinivas Dempo, Chairman Dempo Group.).
Humility, charm, intellect, integrity, competence, loyalty and sheer goodness all wrapped up in one. So rare. (Amit Chandra, CMD, Bain Capital India).
Always smiling, always kind, absolutely brilliant (NASSCOM President Debjani Ghosh)
The affection and kindness shown by PepsiCo CEO IndraNooyi (mentor and friend)), N Chandrasekharan, Mukesh Ambani, among many others during her illness was overwhelming.
Aisha’s life was meteoric, a fast moving celestial body visible like a streak of incandescence as it traversed the sky – brilliant but short lived.
Her ashes were brought all the way from America to lie in the grave of her beloved Dad Erasmo, in Goa. She was back in the Goa she loved. She had squared the circle.
The analogy between Aisha’s last journey home and the words of Eva Peron is striking: “Don’t cry for me Argentina. The truth is I never left you.”