Tech in the Right Direction

How Real Change is Created by Market Leaders

This week's guest is Aja Hill, Director of Modern Workplace Customer Success - Federal at Microsoft. Aja's primary focus is on ensuring Microsoft customers achieve full adoption of their Microsoft Teams technology. She does this by giving the customer full visibility into what they own, developing plans to train end-users to use the technology, and encouraging end-users to make the technology their own.
Today we talk about Aja's beginnings in marketing within the music industry and how she eventually grew into a role at Microsoft. We also talk about the challenges women are facing within tech and how market leaders like Microsoft are taking action.
Thank you for listening; we hope Aja's story helps inspire others to grow their tech career.

How-to Grow a Diverse and Inclusive Organization

This week's guests are Megan McCann, Jane Hamner, and Leslie Vickrey. Megan is an established IT recruitment and technology services leader known for building and leading highly successful IT services firms and for her work to advance diversity and cultivate talent across the technology industry. Jane is a dedicated and seasoned IT staffing professional with more than 30 years of experience delivering top technology talent and IT solutions to businesses. Lastly, we have Leslie, an enterprising Chicagoan with a keen entrepreneurial spirit, focusing on making a difference in the tech and business community.
Today we talk about how different journeys can bring people to a single place and create a shared mission. Our different talents, passion for diversity, and affinity to technology led us to each other and has allowed us to grow diversity and inclusion within tech. We will also look at how everyone can help make a difference in the tech industry by driving a diverse and inclusive workforce.
Thank you for listening; we hope Megan, Jane, and Leslie help inspire others to grow their tech career

How-to Innovate and Thrive in Today's World

This week's guests are Colette Buscemi and Melody Roberts. Colette is the Director of Women's Innovation Learning Labs at the Women's Business Development Center. The organization is focused on supporting and accelerating innovation by and between women business owners, subject matter experts, and corporate partners. Melody is the CEO and Co-Founder of Liv-Labs. They focus on combining self-care tools and easy-access services for convenient health management, starting with pelvic floor fitness.
In today's episode, we talk about how innovation is a crucial aspect of business growth. The pandemic has made innovation difficult, but not impossible. Listen to the episode and learn how you can continue to innovate and thrive when facing the modern world's challenges.
Thank you for listening; we hope Colette and Melody help inspire others to grow their tech career.

Finding Modern Day Solutions for Modern Day Problems

This week's guest is Rhonda Cook, a Senior Director of Customer Success at Microsoft. Rhonda is responsible for managing the adoption, consumption, and digital transformation for all United States Federal Agencies, Military Services, and Intelligence Organizations. Her focus is to ensure all aspects of these organizations have their needs met when it comes to their usage of all Microsoft 365 offerings. She has continued to help these organizations maintain a modern-day infrastructure in today's digital world.
Rhonda's started her career by teaching mathematics and knew that she was excited about continued learning. She continued to train and learn about new technologies, which eventually led her to join an IT training organization. At this new organization, Rhonda honed in on how to find solutions for IT problems that arise. Her knowledge and newfound skill set for finding modern-day solutions allowed her to join Microsoft, where she continued to grow and flourish within the organization.
Thank you for listening; we hope Rhonda's story helps inspire others to grow their tech career.

Start-Up 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.
Thank you for listening; we hope Lori's story helps inspire others to grow their tech career. To learn more about Lori and Whim-Detroit, visit their site here: https://www.whim-detroit.com/

The Strategy: 'Best in Class' Marketing for Tech

This week's guest is Tina Eskridge, a Senior Director of Marketing at Microsoft. Tina is responsible for digital marketing, strategy and analytics, marketing technology, and inclusion with a focus on the delivery of best-in-class services. Before joining Microsoft in 2012, Tina spent more than 17 years in strategic roles across various industries.
Tina started her career in supply-chain and marketing, which allowed her to get a full picture of what it takes to grow a successful business. Her journey continued to revolve around marketing but touched on several different aspects within organizations. Along this journey, Tina saw the value of connecting with people and growing her relationships. Connecting and meeting with people to not only improve business but to develop personal relationships is vital to her. This idea has become even more prevalent within the world we are currently living.
Thanks for listening; we hope Tina's story helps inspire others to grow their tech career.

Change of Perception: Expanding “Who is in Tech”

This week's guest is Cathy Moya, a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft. Cathy's primary focus is to bring customers and engineers together to create better technology products. Cathy's ability to bring people together has allowed her to grow her program and become a successful member of the Microsoft team.
Cathy saw the disconnect between people who are heavily involved in tech vs. those who work in positions or industries outside of that world. Cathy understands that people who consider themselves outside of tech are really working on or with tech every day—shifting their belief to view themselves as working in tech has allowed them to open-up to different ideas and solutions to problems. This idea of changing their worldview or 'work-view' has helped bridge some gaps between the two.
Thank you for listening; we hope Cathy's story helps inspire others to grow their tech career.

Growing Your Career with a Global Perspective

This week's guest is Lisa Heite, a Partner Development Manager at Microsoft, with a passion for helping others. Lisa's story revolves around living, studying, and working around the world. She gained a wide range of experience throughout her international travel and has used that to bring a unique perspective to the tech industry. Her ideas and approach give her an edge when it comes to solving problems and bringing people together.
While volunteering at an NGO, Lisa developed a digital strategy and saw how digital transformation furthered women's rights and give them a voice throughout the world. This passion for women's rights led Lisa to the WIT Network, and she is now lending her skills to their cause.
Thank you for listening; we hope Lisa's story helps inspire others to grow their tech career. To learn more about the WIT Network, visit their site here: https://thewitnetwork.com/