Tech in the Right Direction

Creating Opportunities for Real World Change

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This week's guest is Chaitra Vedullapalli, an influential business leader with a passion for enabling business equity throughout our communities. Chaitra is also the Co-Founder and CMO of Meylah, a cloud solution provider that helps businesses grow their digital presence through a wide range of solutions. She is also a Board Member, Forbes & YourStory Contributor, Entrepreneur, TEDx & Public Speaker, Strategic Partnerships, Top100 Global Change Leaders Seeking opportunities to contribute to public or private boards.
 
Chaitra began her technological career in college, where she was exposed to COBOL Programming, Oracle Databases, and Windows. This experience opened her eyes up to the opportunities technology can create to change the world for the better. She also saw the glass ceilings for women and saw a chance to make meaningful change. Seeing these glass ceilings led her to become a Co-Founder of Women in Cloud, 'a community-led developmental organization for women that celebrates the female entrepreneurs in the tech world; creates opportunities and access for entrepreneurial acceleration.'
 
Thank you for listening; we hope Chaitra's story helps inspire others to grow their tech career. To learn more about Chaitra and to get in touch with her, visit her LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chaitrav/

Learning Presales techniques from a veteran in technology.

Jennifer Didier interviews a veteran in the Technology space, Rupal Parikh. Get to know Rupal Parikh as we hear how she got started on her tech journey and how she is helping companies understand how to retain their sales teams and build their presales programs.
Bio:
Rupal Parikh is a veteran in the technology space, from tech startups to Fortune 500 companies. As the head of a global Presales team at SAP, Rupal and her team help customers achieve efficiency gains and process improvements across their critical enterprise incentive management systems through SAP's Sales Performance Management portfolio. Rupal is also an advocate of the Presales function. She advises technology startups on best practices in building Presales teams and creating value-added Presales technology to master the craft. Rupal is also passionate about helping elevate and connect women in their professional journeys. She is New York City chapter director for WNORTH, a membership network that brings together women at a high level to share their networks, knowledge, and experience.
Connect with Rupal Parikh rparikh26@yahoo.com or on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/rupal-parikh-b99a5b/overlay/contact-info/

Startup from the Ground Up

This week's guest is Lori McColl, the CEO and Founder of Whim-Detroit, a technology startup and digital transformation group that focuses on implementing agile solutions. She is passionate about sharing her experience in the tech industry and growing a new business. Lori has been a guest speaker at several events, including the future of retail and social movements at the Women's Convention, Social Media Week, Planet M IoT Connect, and Detroit Start-up Week.
Lori has taken a customer-focused approach to growing her business. This focus on client needs has allowed her to build trust, which gives her the ability to innovate and develop projects quickly. This approach has been central to the culture of Whim-Detroit and has allowed them to grow into the successful business they are today.
To learn more about Lori and Whim-Detroit, visit their site here: https://www.whim-detroit.com/
Thank you for listening; we hope Lori's story helps inspire others to seek or grow their tech career.

MENtors that Make a Difference Featuring Vince Menzione

This week on our MENtors that Make a Difference segment is Vince Menzione, an award-winning business leader who has delivered and advanced four successful business transformations by embracing disruptive technology and building successful partnerships to transform organizations. 
Today we talk about Vince's career journey and how it can be summed up into four business transformations that have culminated into the start of his very own podcast. We also talk about the changes happening in tech with regard to women's influence in the industry and how male allies can help support their female counterparts.
Vince also hosts the successful Ultimate Guide to Partnering Podcast, where he spotlights leadership and partnership principles to help technology organizations thrive and survive during this age of rapid transformation. 
You can listen to and learn more about the Ultimate Guide to Partnering Podcast here: https://ultimateguidetopartnering.com/
Thank you for listening; we hope Vince's story helps inspire others to seek or grow their tech career. 

From Art to Technology

Jennifer Didier Interviews Alexandra West of Nerd/Noir.  Alexandra shares her journey from the world of Art to technology, back to Art and making her final career in the world of Technology. Listen to her story of how her art background had allowed her to experience and share a unique technology experience and focus.
About Nerd/Noir:
Founded in 2015, Nerd/Noir is a consulting firm specializing in transforming large-scale product engineering organizations. ​​The company is dedicated to fostering a culture of continuous improvement and helping businesses rethink digital transformation. Nerd/Noir helps clients build self-sustaining coaching capabilities, ensuring long-term success in today's rapidly evolving tech landscape; focusing on outcome-driven strategies and impacts, versus process-centric approaches. The Nerd/Noir team has more than 25 years of experience in modernizing processes and increasing the success of engineering and product teams, from startups to Fortune 500 firms. For more information, please visit https://nerdnoir.com/.
 
Alexandra West, Cofounder & Creative Director
Alexandra West is an award-winning designer, international speaker, and corporate trainer. She is passionate about culture, creativity, and collaboration. Her focus is on bringing both a visual thinking mindset and a strong sense of psychological safety to the world of collaborative work.
Alex has a long history as a creative. After earning her degree in Art History from Emory University, Alex spent her early career in commercial and nonprofit art galleries. She then spent a decade managing large-scale software implementations for Fortune 500 HR teams before leaving corporate America to return to her creative roots. Alex worked as a production designer and art director on feature films, television shows, and commercials for over ten years.
Alex works with organizations on product discovery and development projects, as well as corporate culture and diversity & inclusion initiatives. When not busy curating and coaching, Alex can be found eating cheese. All kinds of cheese.
You can find Alexandra West on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-west-nerdnoir/

How Technology can power fashion

Join Jennifer Didier as she talks technology and fashion with entrepreneurs Kotryna Jukneviciute and Cassie Huang from Arete.  Here about their journey to build Arete and their story of how they got there. 
A little more about Kotryna Jukneviciute:
Kotryna immigrated to the US from Lithuania as a kid. Thanks to her artistic mother, she grew up loving fashion. She started her first venture in third grade and has been an entrepreneur ever since. Kotryna received her BA and MA from Georgetown University and was in the School of Foreign Service. She spent a few years working at the RAND Corporation, where she spearheaded international business partnerships and became known for her research on Russia.  You can reach Kotryna on LinkedIn or email her at kotryna@areteforyou.com
More information on Cassie Huang:
Cassie Huang grew up in Shanghai and came to the US when she was 16. A Georgetown University graduate, she started her career at Morgan Stanley as an investment banker, then joined The Cranemere Group as a private equity investor. Driven by her passion for building and entrepreneurship, she deferred her Wharton MBA to join Forum Brands, gaining experience in startup operations, e-commerce, and team building. Alongside Kotryna, she's now focused on growing Arete, leveraging her business acumen and a shared vision for impactful change. You can reach Cassie on LinkedIn or email her at cassie@areteforyou.com

How-to Create a More Inclusive Organization and Foster Growth

Enjoy this previously recorded Podcast. 
An update on Dr. Antoine. In March 2023 she joined the Capgemini team.  Her new role is EVP, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer in Europe.  Congratulations on being a rising star for Women In Technology everywhere. 
This week's guest is Dr. Cara Antoine, Managing Director Digital Transformation IG&H - a leading independent business consulting firm based in the Netherlands. IG&H is a market leader in complex end-to-end digital transformation and has focused its work across five industries: retail, healthcare, banking, insurance, and pensions.
In today's episode, we talk about Dr. Cara's journey from fixing radios as a young child to the head of IG&H's Digital Transformation team. We also discuss the difficulties women currently face in the technology industry and what we can all do to help grow their presence. Lastly, we discuss creating a more accessible business and how organizations can help create opportunities for anyone and everyone to gain access to products, services, and solutions.
You can learn more about IG&H here: https://www.igh.com/
We hope Dr. Cara's story helps inspire others to grow their tech career.
 

Is There Privacy in Advertising?

This week on Tech in the Right Direction we follow Vanina Ivanova's journey in the Tech Industry and the extreme differences in digital marketing from when she first started her career to today. Vanina is currently the CMO at Adex Network, a blockchain powered system that is bringing full transparency to the digital marketing space through smart contract technology. She’s a cryptocurrency enthusiast herself, and is finding working for a blockchain company inspiring, empowering and overall – delightful. Join us as we dive into personal data, the lack of privacy in advertising, and what we can do to change this problem.
Learn more about Adex Network here: https://www.adex.network/
Thank you - we hope Vanina's story helps inspire others to seek or grow their tech career.