profile

WIA Profile: Shaliza Somani

What is your role and responsibility at your company?

My main role is to oversee the Toronto sales and marketing department. We focus primarily on expanding our distribution as well as management and support for ePassporte business accounts. My department also is responsible for constructing new products and updates, so we spend a lot of time on creative design and development.

My main role is to oversee the Toronto sales and marketing department.

Give us a typical Monday at your desk?

I usually start the day off by hitting the snooze button four or five times. LOL! Mondays are mad. Everyone at our company uses Monday as a way to lay out the action items for the week to come. It’s a busy day, lots of meetings, progress assessments, deadlines and all the usual stuff. Having a solid Monday is important to ensure our week is as productive as possible.

What do you think is your greatest challenge or asset being a woman in the adult industry?

I don’t think my challenges are any different than anyone else’s in the industry. In the end, all of us are working hard to achieve the goals we have laid out for ourselves. My mentors in business are both male and female, and whether I follow in Michael Dell or Ruth Parasol’s footsteps, it’s all the same to me.

What strategies do you use to maintain balance in your life?

After a hard day at work, I like to go home, put up a picture of Chris Mallick on my wall and have a fun game of darts. It helps me unwind. All joking aside, it’s hard to find the right balance between your career and your personal life, but I think a little planning goes a long way. I schedule my social life and my alone time in advance, and I try to stick to it. Most of the time this works but there are instances when emergencies come up or deadlines must be met.

What advice would you give other women who want to enter your field?

Commit yourself and look at the company as if it is your very own. EPassporte is my little baby, and I take pride in knowing I make a difference on a day-to-day basis regardless of whether I’m offering help to an account holder or presenting an idea to the CEO. For me, really understanding the business means you get hands on at every level. This philosophy has helped me understand the business from the ground up and with much more detail.

Each month, industry news media organization XBIZ spotlights the career accomplishments and outstanding contributions of Women in Adult. WIA profiles offer an intimate look at the professional lives of the industry's most influential female executives.

Copyright © 2026 Adnet Media. All Rights Reserved. XBIZ is a trademark of Adnet Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.

More Articles

profile

BranditScan's Aerie Saunders on Fostering Creator Knowledge, Confidence and Community

Aerie Saunders is firmly in her season. When she sits down with XBIZ, a fall-scented WoodWick candle burns in the background, pumpkins decorate her desk and the first signs of spooky season are already on display. Not that Saunders waits until autumn to embrace the macabre.

Jackie Backman ·
opinion

What Mastercard's Scam Monitoring Program Means for Adult Merchants

Mastercard's Scam Merchant Monitoring Program (SMMP) has introduced a new, investigation-led framework that works very differently from the ratio-based chargeback programs the industry has relied on for years. It applies to card-not-present merchants globally, and Mastercard's guidance on business models warranting closer attention includes adult content and dating platforms, along with subscription services, digital goods and forex.

Len Garcia ·
opinion

Why the Right Merchant Category Code Matters for NSFW AI Businesses

You explained exactly what your NSFW AI business does to your payment processor and they seemed to get it. The underwriting process felt thorough and exhausting, but it was well worth it because you began processing.

Jonathan Corona ·
opinion

How Local Payments Can Expand Access and Reduce Friction at Checkout

Global adult platforms often enter new markets with a familiar assumption: If their checkout accepts major cards, they're ready for local customers. In reality, payment habits vary widely by country. Dutch consumers use iDEAL for online shopping, BLIK is a leading e-commerce payment method in Poland, and India's UPI handles billions of transactions each month.

Mitch Platt ·
opinion

How Detailed Receipts Build Consumer Trust and Reduce Chargeback

When was the last time you bought something online? Chances are you looked for the confirmation almost immediately. Did the transaction go through? Does it show what you bought? Were you charged correctly? And if there's a problem, who can you contact?

Cathy Beardsley ·
opinion

What Adult Platforms Should Know About the EU AI Act

The European Union's Artificial Intelligence Act is now largely in force, creating new obligations for adult platforms using AI for content creation, performer verification, age estimation, moderation and other functions.

Corey Silverstein ·
profile

Verifymy's Emma Robert-Tissot on Putting People at the Heart of Online Safety

Warm, friendly and always happy to help, Emma Robert-Tissot has a gift for making even the most complex corners of online safety feel approachable.

Jackie Backman ·
profile

YourVids' Gino on Listening, Learning and Putting Creators First

Get Gino talking about the work creators pour into their careers, and his passion quickly becomes contagious. He deeply appreciates the people powering the business and has firm ideas about what they deserve in return.

Jackie Backman ·
profile

Vendo CEO Mitch Platt Reflects on 20 Years of Lessons and Evolution

More than 20 years ago, three entrepreneurs in Barcelona began gathering over beers to pitch, dissect and routinely destroy one another's business ideas. The ritual was simple: One person arrived with a concept, while the other two tried to expose every weakness. Any proposal that survived earned another look. Most did not.

Jackie Backman ·
opinion

How to Avoid the Hidden Risks of AI-Generated Legal Documents

Artificial intelligence can write a contract in seconds, but that does not mean it can write the contract your business actually needs. Across the adult industry, operators, creators and producers are increasingly using generative AI to prepare model releases, performer agreements, privacy policies, takedown notices, employment documents and responses to regulators. The appeal is obvious: Legal work is expensive, AI is fast and the resulting document often looks impressively professional. That polished appearance is exactly what makes the practice dangerous.

Corey Silverstein ·
Show More