Tech in the Right Direction

Taking Ownership

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.

Women In Tech: Finding Your Purpose

This week's guest is Ayumi Moore Aoki, the Founder and CEO of WOMEN IN TECH - a leading global organization whose mission is to empower and grow women and girls’ presence in STEM. The organization focuses on four primary areas that are a call for action: Education, Entrepreneurialism, Social Inclusion, Science & Research. The aim is to educate, equip and empower women and girls with the necessary skills and confidence to succeed in STEM careers. She is also the Founder and CEO of the award-winning agency Social Brain® and the Co-Founder of HER Digital Academy.
Today we talk about Ayumi's early years in business and how she eventually transitioned from a career in marketing to finding her purpose with a career in technology. Ayumi was fully immersed in technology - learning to code, build websites, and create apps. During this time, Ayumi learned about the ever-widening gap between women and men within the tech industry. To help close this gap, Ayumi founded Social Brain, WOMEN IN TECH, and HER Digital Academy with the focus of empowering and lifting women up.
Learn more about Ayumi and WOMEN IN TECH here: https://women-in-tech.org/
Thank you for listening; we hope Ayumi's story helps inspire others to 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

Learning the Importance of Setting Boundaries in the Workplace

Jennifer and Robin talk about the need for employers and employees to be honest about what they can and are willing to do.  The need to have strong empowering boundaries for all parties is extremely important for business and personal success. 
Robin Corralez is a hands-on, diversified, human resources leader focused on creating sustained value in fast-paced, dynamic environments by building strong teams and identifying, assessing, and executing organizational initiatives that drive business success aligned with the overall strategy.
In her role at PandaDoc, she focuses on building a talented organization that will help scale their business from $20M to $100M while maintaining the best workplace culture possible.
Her specialties include executive coaching and developing new leaders; sourcing, hiring and aligning "A" players in critical positions; creating and maintaining talent pipelines; leading change and enhancing employee relations; improving performance and organizational development; employment law; and achieving cost efficiencies through better utilization of resources.
Robin is eager to share her tips for your audience and is the author of multiple articles on the topic of managing a remote-first, globally distributed workforce.
Under Robin's direction, PandaDoc was honored with multiple awards such as Inc. Magazine's 2021-2020 Best Workplaces, 2021 Forbes 500 Best Start Up Employer, and Quartz Best Companies for Remote Workers.
Robin Corralez, Global Sr. Vice President of Human Resources

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.
 

Hiring Women in the Tech Fields

Jennifer Didier has a lively conversation with Lilian Dutra of AEN Talent Search. They discuss Lilian's own path to the creation of AEN Talent Search and how she is helping other women connect with great jobs and represent themselves at the highest levels.
More information on our Guest:
Lilian DutraCEO & Founder, AEN Talent Search
For more than a decade, Lilian has been adeptly handling the rigors of being a motherand a CFO. She has decided to share the secrets of her success in simultaneouslymanaging both by founding AEN Talent Search. Its mission is to enlighten companieson the richness of adding diversity and to empower women to take back their careersand bring their talents to new, rewarding positions. As a Latina herself, Lilian has madegreat strides in challenging corporations of all sizes to re-evaluate their workforce andre-focus on inclusivity. One of her biggest strengths is the ability to connect the rightpeople to the right jobs, ones which will bring them success and joy.
Prior to founding AEN, Lilian was the CFO of Sublime Communications, an independentmarketing communications company with global reach. She also worked as a ResearchSpecialist and Analyst at several asset management companies, including theCommonfund Group, Greenwich Associates and Gartner, Inc., where she managedreporting, productivity, and expenses to help clients improve their business results.Lilian is also an expert in International Business and is fluent in Portuguese.
You can reach Lilian on LinkedIn or at the company website: AENTalentSearch.com