‘I’m Learning Every Day’

“I can’t do it.”

Those were the words running through Bijal Shah’s mind in March of 2024 after receiving a shocking phone call that designated her as successor and CEO of Guild. Despite being on the continuity plan, Shah was on parental leave at the time and while her education and experiences had prepared her for the role, she didn’t feel ready in the moment.

“Never would I have expected that to be something that I’d have to wrestle with or go through,” Shah recalled.

Leading with Vision and Purpose Through Change

Shah shared her unique journey to the CEO role with Regions Bank associates as part of the 2025 RegionsLEADS in Action speaker series. This wide-ranging discussion facilitated by Seanna McGough, head of Learning and Development, explored purpose-driven leadership, bold decision-making, and the benefits of pursuing learning opportunities throughout life.

While most of us won’t suddenly shift from leader to CEO, all of us are faced with unexpected challenges and opportunities, at work and throughout life. Shah and McGough explored a variety of topics including resilience through times of change, leading with vision and purpose, and how associates can apply what they are learning at Regions to build their careers.

Read on for highlights of their discussion.

A Love of Learning

As a child, Shah’s parents instilled in her an appreciation for learning which became foundational to Shah’s rise to CEO of an EdTech firm.

I never really worried about what the title was or what the job was. I cared about who I would be learning from and what I could be learning. And that’s taken me on an adventure.
Bijal Shah

“My dad was a quality assurance engineer and my mom was a front office desk worker at a pediatric office and they always instilled in me my entire life, ‘If you don’t do anything else, educate yourself.’ … I ferociously want to be learning. I want to learn from everyone around me. If you spend ten minutes with me, I’ll ask you 20 questions to try and learn something not just about you, but something to make myself better. And so even in my career, I never really worried about what the title was or what the job was. I cared about who I would be learning from and what I could be learning. And that’s taken me on an adventure. I was a data scientist coming out of college. I then ended up in corporate strategy. I then went and ran a machine learning and data analytics team. And then I ended up in product and technology. And now I’m here. A winding path, but a great one.”

On Continuous Improvement

“I find it rewarding when we can see the foundations, we can see the Lego blocks of where we’re trying to go, we can see how the strategy is manifesting itself and execution. We can see how operational challenges that might have occurred in the past aren’t occurring anymore. To me, that’s like you’re in the process of succeeding. One of my colleagues says that, and I love it. You’re never going to hit perfection, but you’re going to do your best to improve. And I love it’s so rewarding to see that continuous improvement.”

Community is Crucial

“I learned that we’re more resilient than we think we are. I learned that community is so important. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you live, what your status is, how much money you make, you need people around you. You need people around you in moments of crisis. You need people around you in moments of opportunity. You need people that champion for you. You need people. These people matter. They matter a lot. And I, I’m so grateful for that aspect of what I learned on the job.”