Tech in the Right Direction

Developing Your Skills to Stand Out from the Field

This week's guest is Evelyn Sheahan, Director of Business Programs for Azure Cloud and AI at Microsoft. She has a background in technology, business management, and marketing. Evelyn has a wide range of corporate and field experience and has worked in sales-enablement programs developed to drive multi-million-dollar sales with increased efficiencies.
Today we talk about Evelyn's beginnings and how it eventually grew into a role at Microsoft. We also talk about the challenge’s women face within tech and how important it is to develop your skills to stand out. We also talk about how important it is to find a mentor who can guide you in the right direction.
Thank you for listening; we hope Evelyn's story helps inspire others to grow their tech career.

MENtors that Make a Difference Premiere Episode Featuring Vince Menzione

Today's guest on MENtors that Make a Difference 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. Follow him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincemenzione/

A Woman’s Journey: 30 Years Through Tech.

This week we get a different view of technology from 30-year tech vet and Vice President of Sales, Sharan Hildebrand. Sharan fell in love with tech her Junior year of college when she took a coding class and saw the amazing output that could come from writing code. She shares her experiences over three decades of working with technology and dives into the tech job roles that are often overlooked. She also shares what it’s like to be a woman in tech, how to gain and maintain confidence, and the challenges she’s overcome.

Hayden Orme talks about Life, Work balance.

Jennifer Didier speaks with Hayden Orme as she shares how she left the corporate world to become an entrepreneur.  In this process she has developed a system to help individuals as well as companies find their life, work balance.
Hayden Orme Bio:
For over 13 years, prior to launching her own business, Haydensupported top executives and teams at companies such as PartnersHealthcare, Brightcove, Inc., Novartis and McKesson. She most recentlymanaged the office of the Chairman and CEO of McKesson (a Fortune 5company at the time). Now as an entrepreneur herself, Haydenleverages her corporate experience and her unique “get it” factor.Handled. By Hayden & Co. is a business elevation and optimizationfirm, providing a unique approach to remote support and business development. Haydenand her Crew utilize their combined experiences and expertise to provide top-notch strategyand high-caliber support for their clients in order to claim their space and authority asEmpowered CEOs and create sustainable growth and holistic success for their businessesand lives. They combine elements of strategic consulting, executive assistance, and digitalmarketing services to give their clients back the time and freedom to operate solely in theirzone of genius and joy while delegating the rest. As part of Hayden's vision, her employeesare empowered by playing an integral role in the company's mission and are holisticallysuccessful. She believes in a culture where everyone is celebrated in what they do best!Hayden is also a speaker, a two-time international bestselling author, an award-winning leaderin her field, and a 50 Ton Master Merchant Mariner Captain

Meet Danica Bunnett COO of Bluon

Join Jennifer Didier and Danica Bunnett as they discuss the operations of Bluon.  Danica will share how her childhood experiences have helped to find her passion and use it to build Bluon to it's current status in the marketplace. 
Danica Bunnett Bio:
As Bluon’s Chief Operating Officer, Danica manages the day-to-day operations of Bluon, a rapidly growing technology company in the HVAC space that has grown from 30 people to 130 in just over a year. As is typical in a company of Bluon’s size, Danica directly oversees several critical teams while working hand in glove with managers on several others.  Danica is a true hands-on manager and player coach, who utilizes her unique skill set to manage a diverse group of technicians, professionals and software engineers with equal skill, grace and authority. Danica has been with Bluon from the virtual beginning and has been instrumental in its growth as well as its one-of-a-kind culture. In many ways, Bluon is a direct reflection of Danica and her unworldly work ethic, unmatched enthusiasm, seemingly always positive attitude and direct style of communication. She is a graduate of Stanford University with a Bachelors in Product Design Mechanical Engineering. She was also the co-president of Stanford Women in Design (SWID) and believes in bridging Silicon Valley's high-tech innovation with the HVAC world.

Tips on how to be seen by Technology Staff recruiters.

Tech in the Right Direction host, Jennifer Didier and Manager of People and Culture at Curate Partners,  Natasha Thomas talk about how she got involved in the Technology industry.  Natasha also shares some great insight on how to represent yourself to be considered for technology opportunities.
Natasha's Bio:
Natasha Thomas is the Manager of People and Culture at Curate Partners. She studied at SUNY Fredonia, majoring in Psychology and minoring in Sociology and currently resides in the North end of Boston, MA. With over a decade of IT industry experience, Natasha is passionate about building programs and opportunities to support people of all backgrounds in achieving their career ambitions. A major focus in her current role is expanding DEI&B initiatives for internal/external employees and clients.

Understanding Software Security

Join Jennifer and Laura Bell Main as they talk about the importance of Software security.  Software security is not just a business challenge, but a challenge for home computer users as well.  Laura Bell Main shares some great insights and tips that everyone can use to have a safer online experience.
A little more about Laura Bell Main:
Laura Bell Main specializes in securing some of Australia andNew Zealand’s fastest-growing organizations. She has overtwenty years of experience in software development andinformation security. It's her mission and passion to bringsecurity into organizations of every shape and size.Laura is the founder and CEO of SafeStack Academy, anonline education platform offering flexible, high-quality, andpeople-focused, secure development training for fastmoving companies, with a focus on building security skills,practices, and culture across the entire engineering team.SafeStack is a value’s driven company on a mission to makecybersecurity accessible for everyone and any organization.“To protect each one of us, we must protect all of us”This is the underpinning belief that drives Laura. Hercompany pushing hard into this issue by attempting to trainall of our organisations, big and small. Through free plans,student sponsorships and sponsored communities, she isworking towards a future where we no longer spend 99% ofour security resources on 1% of our organizations.She is an experienced conference speaker, trainer, andregular panel member, and has spoken at a range of eventssuch as BlackHat USA, Velocity, and OSCON on the subjectsof privacy, covert communications, agile security, and securitymindset. She is also the co-author of Agile ApplicationSecurity and Security for Everyone.

Understanding Education Technology

Jennifer Didier and Shannon Meadows talk details on education technology.  How it came to be a necessary service for our daily lives. 
Some additional information about Shannon:
Shannon was previously VP of Sales & Operations for Blackboard Inc. where she worked on $182M in Acquisition between NTI Group & Blackboard Connect. As Chief Revenue Officer, Shannon leads the Sales and Customer Success organizations at BibliU. She is an industry expert in Ed Tech and Digital Publishing sales and go-to-market strategies. She has led companies in C-level roles in Sales, Marketing and Business Development, building several start-up businesses resulting in successful company equity events.
About BibliU
BibliU is a learning enablement platform that empowers higher education institutions to streamline their textbook and courseware workflows to achieve greater student outcomes, affordability and social mobility. With BibliU, colleges and universities can finally deliver on the promise of digitalization, guaranteeing all students have first-day access to the learning content they need.