Tech in the Right Direction

This is A Great Time for Women in Tech

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Christine Bongard is the President of the WIT (Women in Tech) Network, and she is joining us in this week’s episode to discuss the amazing work her organization does. The WIT Network is present in over 30 countries worldwide and it is working diligently on encouraging women and girls to pursue careers in the technology sector, enable more women to attain leadership positions and support more female entrepreneurs in their professional endeavors. Christine talked to us about including more girls in the tech world through working with schools, creating work environments that are more welcoming to women and insisting on inclusion strategies. She emphasizes the importance of inspiring and coaching each other to gain confidence needed for a successful career in the fast-paced technology industry. Despite the long road that is still ahead, Christine is confident this is a great time for women in technology as companies are opening up and more opportunities are being offered to marginalized groups. Tune in to learn more about Christine's efforts and pick up on some great advice that she shared with our listeners.

Venture Capital Pursuit

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Sit with Jennifer Didier and Jean Anne Booth as they discuss the world of Venture Capital.  After a great career and millions of dollars made, Jean Anne Booth come out of retirement for a corporate adventure that would change the life of loved one and those like her. 
As a serial entrepreneur, Jean Anne Booth has 30 years of experience in high technology. Her background spans from P&L business unit management to marketing; product definition; systems, software, and applications engineering; silicon development engineering; and operations and product engineering. Jean Anne was the founder of Luminary Micro, the creators of the Stellaris® microcontroller (MCU) platform and the first to market with ARM® Cortex™-M3-based microcontroller solutions. Luminary Micro was purchased by Texas Instruments in May 2009. Jean Anne left TI in November 2011 after serving as the General Manager for TI’s Stellaris family of products. Early in her career, Jean Anne worked with AMD’s embedded microprocessor products for 10 years in a number of management, marketing and engineering roles. Jean Anne holds a BSEE from the University of Texas and an MSCE degree from National Technical University.
Reach her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanannebooth/
Website: https://www.unaliwear.com/
Career Update:
CEO of UnaliWear

Reasons For Not Joining the IT Industry?

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Jennifer Didier has a wonderful conversation with Courtney Quinn, Senior Director of Career Change Marketing at CompTIA. As they reminisce gain wisdom in  the importance to Own it, Know it, and Grow it. These steps can help you set the stage for the next chapter of your career.  You should definitely Consider a career in the IT field. 
 Bio: Courtney Quinn is the Senior Director of Career Change Marketing at CompTIA, the largest trade association for technology professionals. Courtney has played a vital role in the organization's efforts to help over 2 million people earn tech certifications and gain the skills they need to succeed in the tech industry. With a strong background in both technical and leadership roles, Courtney is a valuable resource for anyone looking to start or advance their career in technology. Connect with her to know more about your potential to launch a tech career and how to get ahead in the industry: https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtneyquinn1/.
Passion areas:
Helping job seekers develop career transition strategies through the OWN IT, KNOW IT, GROW IT framework
- Transferable Skills (OWN IT) - Own the skills you have and make them your competitive advantage
- Financial Goals (KNOW IT) - Know where you want to go in life and how long it will take to get there
- Skill Building (GROW IT) - Grow the skills you need to take your first step towards a new career
Courtney thrives on Instilling confidence in job seekers about their ability to work in tech and achieve job satisfaction. Comtia.org 
Career Update:
Senior Director of Marketing at Paragon Micro

Taking Ownership

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This week's guest is Jennifer Buchholz, the Founder of Excel and Flourish - a corporate technical training company. Jennifer helps organizations, teams, and individuals leverage their technology to save time, increase productivity, and reduce frustrations.
Today we talk about Jennifer's early experiences with technology and how her childhood helped shape her career path in tech training. We also talk about the importance of taking ownership as a woman in technology to accomplish the tasks at hand.
You can learn more about Excel & Flourish here: https://www.excelandflourish.com/
Thank you for listening; we hope Jennifer's story helps inspire others to seek or grow their tech career.

How-to Envision Success and Accomplish Your Goals

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This week's guest is Heather Doran, Chief of Staff for Business Applications Marketing & Global Industry at Microsoft. Heather is an enthusiastic leader with a proven record of implementing high-performing marketing, operations, and event strategies. She has an innate ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams to successfully develop a vision based on customer-focused insights and data that delivers results.
Today we talk about Heather's move into the tech industry and how she moved her way up through the ranks at Microsoft. We also talk about how women can find success and break down barriers in a male-dominated industry.
Thank you for listening; we hope Heather's story helps inspire others to seek or grow their tech career.
Career Update:
As head of Business Operations for Commercial Cloud & AI Marketing, I lead operational excellence at the center of product, marketing, and technology. My impact spans across organizational strategy, financial management, and operational enablement. In my role, I am an agent of change management, organizational design and thriving team cultures. My focus is driving operational efficiency at scale while influencing business growth and meaningful value creation. I partner across Microsoft’s senior leadership teams to improve quality, delivery and value, while optimizing to accelerate our AI transformation. I am known as an enthusiastic leader with a proven record of leading successful teams to drive business strategy, operations, rhythms of business, spend optimization and organizational efficiency across cloud & AI. I have an innate ability to inspire teams, collaborate cross-functionally, and successfully deliver business results at scale. My responsibilities include successful management of $500M+ marketing budget, discipline in portfolio management and optimization, and commitment to creating marketing excellence and growth-oriented team cultures that are marked by collaboration, growth mindset, accountability, and integrity. Specialties: business operations, executive communications, financial management, portfolio planning, product marketing, events, organizational design, change management, and inclusive team cultures. Known for high professional standards, attention to detail, inspirational leadership, inclusive teams and high impact.

A Journey from D.C. Politics to Tech at Microsoft

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This week on Tech in the right Direction, we’re joined by Kalin McKenna who joined Microsoft in 2011 leading the marketing efforts for Windows Phone and Surface devices, and later transitioning to the AI and Sustainability Market Development Team. Listen in to hear about Kalin’s journey from working in politics to joining the tech world, and her thoughts on the employment, pay and culture gap in the tech industry, how the industry is moving forward, and how discrimination plays a role despite these positive changes.
Career Update:
I am an award-winning marketing executive with strong customer obsession and 15+ years of experience leading strategy, execution, and high-performing teams.I believe in fostering team environments where team members feel empowered to share ideas, take calculated risks, and collaborate fearlessly. I believe customer centricity is the cornerstone of every successful marketing campaign and product success. I believe in the power of clarity, in leading with empathy, and in celebrating wins big and small.When not working you can find me chasing around my two young children, exploring the beauty of the pacific northwest, or seeking out an opportunity to dance.
Kalin McKenna is part of the Lumen Technologies team.  She is Vice President brand, product and solution marketing and Analyst Relations. 

Networking, Learning and Growing in the Tech Industry

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Join Jennifer Didier and Elise Carmichael and they track their roads to success in the tech industry.  They will share about networking, the importance of learning, and growing inside the industry itself.
More About Elise Carmichael:
As Lakeside’s Chief Technology Officer, Elise is responsible for building and delivering the next generation of Digital Employee Experience solutions. She has over 20 years of experience working with enterprise organizations on high-tech, big data, and machine learning-based products. Before joining Lakeside, Elise held senior technology and product leadership roles at Functionize, Tricentis, QASymphony, and Mobiquity throughout the last ten years.
Elise founded a nonprofit in Florida to encourage more women and minorities to enter and stay employed in high-technology fields. She studied Computer Science and Music at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 
The best way to Reach Elise,  is to find her on LinkedIn and engage her about things that are not sales related.  :)
Career Update:
Find Elise on LinkedIn under Elise London.  She currently is an Ubiquity Extended Team Member.  Ubiquity Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm investing in software in the real world. We take an “early and nerdy” approach to investing in smart hardware and machine intelligence applications. Our goal is to back founders making software ubiquitous in the real world.

How to Develop Yours Skills and Lead with Strategy

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This week's guest is Supriya Gupta, the General Manager of Recommendations and Head of Product at Credit Karma - a personal finance company helping individuals reach their financial goals. Supriya is responsible for personalizing the Credit Karma app experience for their 120 million customers. She has taken her department to the next level and their recommendation system now makes more than 35 billion model predictions every day. 
Today we talk about Supriya's career journey and how she went from working on defense satellites to now managing an entire team within Credit Karma. We also discuss the importance of combining technical skills with soft skills and how strategy is key to creating success. The discussion continues with the challenges women face in today's business world and how to facedown imposter syndrome to reach new heights.
Learn more about Credit Karma here: https://www.creditkarma.com/
Career Update:
Supriya Gupta is a seasoned executive and AI strategy advisor, with over 20 years of experience building & scaling zero-to-one products & organizations to serve millions. Now, she helps founders and executives use AI to build better products and organizations. Most recently as a VP/GM at Credit Karma (acquired by Intuit for $7.1B), leading the AI transformation of every touchpoint, I brought a user-centric perspective to solving day-to-day financial needs. I built the AI-native Financial Assistant used by millions each month, as well as AI-powered personalization, simplifying consumers’ access to financial monitoring & products. Previously, I also drove AI innovations at Facebook, BrightRoll (acquired by Yahoo for $640M), and IBM, consistently turning cutting-edge technology into business impact.Through scaling AI products and building cross-functional teams to 300+ employees, what I’ve observed is that building AI technology is only the beginning. Equally critical is applying AI to solve real problems for real people, at scale. These have been my guiding principles to building impactful products:- Innovation needs guardrails, not barriers- User adoption trumps technical sophistication- Elegant AI whispers - so products simply work better - Feedback is an essential gift: User needs can evolve as quick as AI does- While trust is always hard to build and easy to break, it is even more critical to get this right with AIIf you’re building impactful AI-driven products, scaling your business, or exploring the transformative potential of AI, I can help you with:- Strategy: Build innovative AI solutions that solve real problems for your customers & your employees - Execution: Accelerate time to market by optimizing people, process, and technology- Experiences: Implement AI intuitively to delight end users with outsized valueFeatured Speaker: ScaleUp:AI Conference, Grace Hopper CelebrationEducation: Wharton MBA, UIUC EngineeringLearn more about me here: https://www.supriya.ai/
Thank you - we hope Supriya's story helps inspire others to seek or grow their tech career.