Ep 97: Dr. Nicki Washington: Armor Up, Every Day

Ep 101: Catherine Tabor: Making Sparks Fly

Diva Tech Talk interviewed Catherine Tabor [https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherinetabor/], CEO and Founder of Sparkfly [https://www.sparkfly.com/], a cloud-based offer management solutions company maximizing customer acquisition by connecting real-time behavior with online and in-store sales. Catherine’s father was a physics professor, and she visited his university classes as a child. “I was mesmerized as he used math to solve real problems. I am a believer in technology solving problems, not just ‘tech for the sake of tech’.” That was demonstrated when, as a Georgia State University [https://www.gsu.edu/] undergraduate, Catherine was recruited by The Coca-Cola Company [https://www.coca-colacompany.com/home] to manage their employee discount program.  “I grew it to manage 1 million employees, nationally, with companies like Delta Airlines [https://www.delta.com/], Suntrust Bank [https://www.suntrust.com/]. It was a bulletin board, where companies would list offers.”  Employees would visit, use coupon codes, and make purchases.  But the system did not allow for customers to redeem personalized offers at physical locations nor enable merchants to get accurate data.  The resulting challenge was “how could we layer technology on top of antiquated POS systems, and make them do innovative things.”   Catherine began by convincing POS providers “that there was a gap.”  Her first integration success was with Radiant Systems [http://www.rdspos.com/Products-Solutions/Quick-Service/Point-of-Sale-Solutions/Radiant-POS], in Atlanta, (eventually acquired by the venerable NCR [https://www.ncr.com/news/newsroom/news-releases/hospitality/ncr-completes-acquisition-of-radiant-systems]). Radiant “embraced my concept; agreed to integrate my platform; and then got acquired by NCR. By the nature of ‘being included in the fold’, it enabled build out, and networking.” After competing with larger, better-funded companies, “in 2017, we signed a contract with Chipotle [https://www.chipotle.com/].” Adoption of the SparkFly platform became the basis of Chipotle’s core digitalization transformation. The Covid-19 pandemic [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic] disrupted SparkFly, as it has many businesses. Fortunately, SparkFly’s platform pushes greater levels of digital participation/presence leading to stabilization. Catherine instituted a weekly “all-hands” phone call so that her team continuously feels close. “I tell them all the time: I cannot promise you good news, but I promise that I will always tell you the truth.” Key leadership nuggets from Catherine Tabor include: * “The driving force for me is having passion around the objective.” In the face of setbacks, it is Catherine’s core belief in what she is achieving that keeps her going. “Know your own value.” * “There’s no reason not to take a chance. You just have to go for it.” Catherine looks at any potential failure and asks, “what is the worst that can happen?” Facing that answer realistically allows her to shed fear. * “If you truly believe in what you’re doing, you never give up. I believe that ‘grit’ is the most important character trait leading to success.” * In juxtaposition, “I have had to learn to realize quickly when I’ve gone down the wrong path.” This has guided Catherine’s decisions about system nuances, doing business with the “right” customers, acquiring appropriate investors and advisors, and hiring/retaining employees. “Surround yourself with people who support what you want to do, and what you want to be.”

Ep 100: Michelle Accardi: Jump in With Both Feet

Diva Tech Talk interviewed Michelle Accardi [https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelleaccardi/], President and Chief Revenue Officer at Star2Star Communications [https://www.star2star.com/], a global VoIP telecommunications vendor. Headquartered in Sarasota, Florida [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarasota,_Florida],  Star2Star offers proprietary, hybrid unified voice and data communications solutions, in “the cloud.” A well-known aphorism is: “Life is what happens, after we make other plans.” Michelle’s original aspiration was to be a Broadway star.  Discovering that Manhattan was an exorbitant place to live, she took her first job in sales and “wound up, really liking it!”  In karmic fashion, the CFO of a small technology company was at the front desk when a young Michelle cold-called with her resume. Infresco Corporation [https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_ca/C1968900], (a joint venture with CA Technologies [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CA_Technologies]/Computer Associates), was “willing to take a risk” on her. “When I got there, I was so intrigued.” The company was creating “interesting technology” to convert “green screen” mainframe applications and databases and “make them look like really beautiful Websites.”  Very soon, “I was doing things I had never done, before,” like creating Access databases [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/access].  Her boss counseled her to reconsider becoming an attorney. “You have a natural aptitude for technology and people.” She took his advice and “never looked back.” Within one year, CA Technologies merged Infresco into the larger corporation. Michelle began her upward CA trajectory. “They were starting a reference program at CA and needed someone who knew all the (Infresco) customers. I was recommended.” CA offered Michelle a $25,000 bonus to make the customers referenceable.  She misunderstood CA’s timeline for this, and beat it by a dramatic 11 months, enabling 200 customers to become referenceable in slightly more than a month vs. the year CA had forecasted. Within 6 months, she was managing a customer reference team in North America and, in a year, managing that globally. This was followed by stints in field marketing, product marketing, and sales enablement. All catapulted her into successively more important roles. Along the way, Michelle gained valuable insights.  In field marketing, she noted how much was learned by “getting close to the customer.” In sales enablement she implemented “fun projects to motivate people.” She eventually became Vice President for digital transformation, “the biggest ‘leap’ because this was  when digital marketing was starting, and I was asked to take on a technology team, lead web design, architecture, and IT team. I learned a lot about ‘agile’ as a methodology.” “Technology is always going to change,” said Michelle. Her mantra is “drop in with both feet.” Moving to Star2Star is a full circle story.  The company was co-founded by Norm Worthington [https://www.linkedin.com/in/norman-worthington-19437b/], who was the co-founder of Infresco.   “It was Kismet,” she said. She started as the company’s Chief Marketing Officer. “Actually, I was marketing employee #2.  My job was to build a team and strategy. We built every piece of content, and the Website; and recruited a great team.” She became Chief Operating Officer, mandated to drive operational systems’ excellence, and then President and Chief Revenue Officer.  “It has been really challenging to learn different aspects of running a technology company, driving it to the next level.”  She describes the broad offerings of Star2Star. “We offer so much: collaboration, contact center, text messaging, workflow integration of communications into every business process you can think of, mobile applications, text-based alerting, desktop communications as a service, and more.”  Michelle noted “we also have the only desktop solutions certified to work in a Citrix environment. We help you with your entire network.” Star2Star offers an optimized SD-WAN service to ensure call quality, essential when people are working from home. “We have proprietary technology that allows us to do things that our competitors can’t.” Industry analysts have noticed. Gartner [https://www.gartner.com/en], has recognized Star2Star for six years as a Magic Quadrant [https://www.gartner.com/en/research/magic-quadrant] leader in unified communications [https://www.star2star.com/insights/analyst-insights/2020-gartner-mq]. Michelle, herself, has been named a channel leader [https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/02/10/1982435/0/en/Michelle-Accardi-Of-Star2Star-Communications-Recognized-As-CRN-2020-Channel-Chief-For-6th-Consecutive-Year.html] for the last six years by CRN [https://www.crn.com/]. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated Star2Star growth. In response to the crisis, Michelle is justifiably proud of the company’s stellar customer-focused philosophy.  All company employees moved into a work-from-home environment, using Star2Star’s own technology.  “Then we went to our base of customers.” Star2Star helped each customer deploy effective remote working scenarios and created innovative payment programs to support customers. “Communication is the lifeblood of any business. We didn’t want to be the bill that put any of our smaller companies over the edge.” Star2Star has also used this period to diversify even further. “We moved into digital transformation projects for customers in the restaurant and retail spaces, who needed curbside pickup applications.” Star2Star provided those. “Doctors’ offices needed testing.” Star2Star provided that.  Many customers needed enhanced employee alerting systems.  Star2Star provided them. For a nonprofit customer, and other health facilities, Star2Star provided text alert services. Michelle acknowledges that being a woman has only minimally affected her career. She and her husband juggle a large family of 6 children. Her husband serves as the “stay-at-home” parent, and “I see a lot of ‘reverse sexism’,” which is a challenge,” she says.  But she exults that “women are built to adapt” and feels capable of taking on many increasing responsibilities. If Michelle has a regret it is that “I should have gone into entrepreneurship” at her career advent. “I think balance is a fallacy,” opines Michelle. “Do things that you love, with people you like. And just have perseverance. Nothing is going to be perfect, anywhere.” Michelle’s essential advice is succinct. “Feel the fear and do it, anyway.” Seize opportunities; make the most of them. “You really have nothing to lose.” Make sure to check us out on online at www.divatechtalk.com [http://www.divatechtalks.com], on Twitter @divatechtalks, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/divatechtalk [https://www.facebook.com/divatechtalk]. And please listen to us on SoundCloud, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting channel and provide an online review.

Ep 99: Sandra Estok: Changing Perspectives Through Storytelling

Diva Tech Talk interviewed cybersecurity [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_security] expert, author, keynote speaker, corporate trainer, and entrepreneur, Sandra Estok. [https://www.linkedin.com/in/way2protect/]Creator of the international book series, Happily Ever Cyber [https://www.happilyevercyber.com/optin36587773], Sandra founded her own company:  Way2Protect LLC, after an extensive corporate career. Originally from Venezuela [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuela],  at age 11, Sandra and family were evicted from her childhood home. They found refuge in a shack.  “It had one window, one door, and no water or  bathroom inside,” she recalled.  She felt ostracized from other children in the neighborhood, who lived in more conventional conditions.  When she tried to join their neighborhood volleyball game, “one of the kids said ‘you’re never going to make it; you’re a loser.’“  Bruised, emotionally and physically, Sandra was grateful for a teacher’s inspiration: “Happiness is a choice.  No matter what, you can choose happiness.” She went on to master volleyball and life by choosing to become highly proficient at whatever she tackled, knowing that “whatever you put your mind to, you can achieve.” “Technology was, somehow, in my veins,” said Sandra.  When she graduated from high school at 16, with no money for college, she enrolled in a government secretarial training program that led to an internship at the Heinz Company [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz].  There she rotated through departments including information technology.  She enrolled in night school, in a tech certification program, that led to full completion of college, and graduating as a systems’ engineer.  “Throughout my journey, I moved from company to company” (Kraft Foods [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraft_Foods], the Coca Cola [https://www.coca-cola.com/] Company, PepsiCo [https://www.pepsico.com/] and SC Johnson [https://www.scjohnson.com/]), “in tech-related roles, building all kinds of things.” SC Johnson, where she worked for a total of 19 years, transferred her to Wisconsin.  “It was my dream,” to live in the United States. Sandra’s success secrets? “I was able to apply what I was learning at school to my jobs” and built a “connected” fabric between her academic and work lives. She also accepted new challenges readily.  Her hard work, focus, appetite for new technology created exciting opportunities along the way. Sandra advises ambitious tech women to anticipate the newest trends and evaluate them in terms of skills you must acquire. Then acquire those skills and “success will find you.” Her final role, before leaving SC Johnson, was reporting to it’s Chief Information Security Officer [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_information_security_officer], as Director, Global Information Security Business Operations.  Sandra developed and coordinated overall worldwide security business functions for SC Johnson on every continent. Her leadership advice is: “Always walk the talk. Don’t try to evangelize with words. Do it with your actions.” In her transition to the U.S. with her working visa, Sandra underwent a watershed experience. Returning from Colombia, she was detained. Her passport was temporarily revoked.  A smuggler from China had appropriated personal information and had been smuggling women into the USA using her identity! Two weeks later, returning from a European trip, she was detained again.  Each time she traveled internationally, before she became a full-fledged U.S. citizen, Sandra had to prove her identity incessantly. “That negative experience ‘connected the dots’ and is driving me today.  Identity theft and cybercrime can happen to anyone!” Sandra’s gift for making complex tech concepts comprehensible to non-technical people, coupled with passion to make a much greater impact, outside of a single corporation, led her to become a startup founder.  “Leaving the corporate world is a big decision,” Sandra acknowledged. “But I say…just go for it!”  Like her 11-year old self, longing to play volleyball with kids who were rejecting her, she relied on internal fortitude, focus, faith, and fearlessness to make the leap. To transition, Sandra became a consultant in the first year of founding her company, which helped her evolve to the “entrepreneurship mindset” while maintaining cash flow. An outgrowth of consulting is Sandra’s first book: HAPPILY EVER CYBER: Protecting Yourself Against Hackers, Scammers and CyberMonsters. [https://www.amazon.com/Happily-Ever-Cyber-Yourself-Cybermonsters-ebook/dp/B084652YZH/] Through the stories she tells, it is clear cybercrime can affect anyone, at any age or walk of life. But if you understand cybersecurity basics, on a non-tech level, you will be galvanized to take action to protect what matters most to you. Her book encapsulates a very timely, scary subject and transforms it to be both non-threatening and empowering. “It helps you pinpoint what is most important to you, that you most want to protect. You can take measures to protect it.” An extension of the book is a foundation she envisions to help orphaned and foster children.  “There are 153 million orphans in the world.  And we have a global shortage of cybersecurity talent. So many kids can find their way through technology.” Sandra exhorts listeners to always remember you are the architect of your own life. And you can build anything. She advises you to find a mentor, in the space in which you want to operate. Then cultivate coaches who can guide you to become better in any area you want to tackle.  Above all, marry the clarity in your mind with the feelings in your heart. “Don’t worry about the 'how.' Just get clear on the ‘why’ and act on it.”  Her final advice? “Practice gratitude in everything you do in your life.” Make sure to check us out on online at www.divatechtalk.com [http://www.divatechtalks.com], on Twitter @divatechtalks, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/divatechtalk [https://www.facebook.com/divatechtalk]. And please listen to us on SoundCloud, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting channel and provide an online review.

Ep 98: Amelia Ransom: Inclusion Leadership -- Not for The Faint of Heart

Diva Tech Talk interviewed Amelia Ransom [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ameliaransom/], Senior Director, Diversity and Engagement at Avalara [https://www.avalara.com/us/en/index.html], a tech company that ensures global tax compliance is done right.  Amelia is dedicated to “trying to solve a problem that the world has not solved.  It is not for the faint of heart.” “I didn’t plan to be in diversity and inclusion,” Amelia said. She started in sales, moved to management and eventually was tapped to be the regional Diversity Director. “That role was pivotal for me. I felt like I was using my skills, knowledge and background to help make the company better.” After seven years in that role she moved into store management and later lead all the diversity initiatives for the company.   Amelia emphasized that it takes the full gamut of business proficiencies to tackle employee engagement, diversity and inclusion. Her diversity and inclusion skills have been self-taught, through reading, face-to-face management challenges, and trial and error. “You have to learn when to use your own voice, and when to pull back and amplify everyone else’s.” The role demands that she be “constantly willing to learn, shift and change as the community needs shift and change.” Amelia believes a key component of successful programs depend on noticing repetitive patterns coupled with “knowing what’s going on outside of the walls, in the world,” according to Amelia. “You have to be part of society.  You have to be asking constant questions.” To gain top-level support, Amelia critiques her own proposals and then goes to her “naysayers” to shoot holes in an idea. By the time she gets to ultimate decision-makers, she has bullet-proofed any concept. Amelia joined Avalara in 2018, where she supports ERG’s [https://www.diversitybestpractices.com/employee-resource-groups] (Employee Resource Groups) who she sees as “a conduit to deeper engagement, a tool to drive more community,”  beginning with a prototype woman-oriented global ERG, to “show everyone what could be.” . This was quickly followed by three other groups:  Ujima (for African Americans), Veterans of Avalara, and the Prism Group, geared toward LGBTQIA individuals. “They have been very instrumental in driving more inclusion, more voices, and more ‘safe space’ for those voices,” said Amelia. Avalara measures the success of its inclusion programs through raw data, anecdotal feedback, the level of engagement of various populations, as well as metrics around recruiting pools and populations.  Amelia’s goal is that diversity and inclusion are “deep and rooted in the DNA” of Avalara, connected to “Avalara’s goal -- to be involved in every tax transaction in the world.” That implies reaching and engaging every possible permutation of population in the world, too. Amelia’s personal practices for developing as a leader include 30 minutes each day to read about something she knows nothing about, and retaining mentors “who will tell me the absolute truth.” For her last birthday, she asked people to give her the link to a book that changed their life, so that she could “drive deeper relationships.” She loves to travel and bring those experiences back to others.  In her community life, she serves on the boards of Seattle’s Goodwill Foundation [https://seattlegoodwill.org/], Seattle’s Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce [https://www.seattlechamber.com/], homeless advocacy nonprofit Building Changes [https://buildingchanges.org/],  the Institute for Sustainable Diversity and Inclusion [https://www.i4sdi.org/], and the advisory board of the Seattle chapter of ALPFA [http://www.seattlealpfa.org/] (Association of Latino Professionals For America). “My job is to amplify the voices of the marginalized, and underrepresented.” In Amelia’s view, “the biggest threat to the planet, and business, is the untapped potential in people’s minds.”  She believes in plumbing that potential deeply. “I don’t have time to make people comfortable,” Amelia said. Instead she wants to inspire everyone to think, engage, evolve into their greatest potential, and “have seats at the table, which makes all of us better.”  Amelia noted that diversity and inclusion leadership can feel lonely, at times. When Amelia feels that, this quote of Presidential Medal of Honor recipient, famed poet Maya Angelou [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou],  gives her strength: “I go forth alone.  I stand as ten thousand [https://www.poetryverse.com/maya-angelou-poems/our-grandmothers].” Make sure to check us out on online at www.divatechtalk.com [http://www.divatechtalks.com], on Twitter @divatechtalks, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/divatechtalk [https://www.facebook.com/divatechtalk]. And please listen to us on iTunes, SoundCloud, and Stitcher and provide an online review.

Ep 97: Dr. Nicki Washington: Armor Up, Every Day

Diva Tech Talk interviewed Dr. Nicki Washington [https://www.linkedin.com/in/drnickiw/],  author, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Winthrop University [https://www.winthrop.edu/], founder at Washington Consulting LLC and passionate advocate for women of color, in technology. Winthrop University featured [http://mytjnow.com/2019/03/27/computer-science-professor-breaks-barriers/] her work. “I was born and raised in Durham, North Carolina [https://durhamnc.gov/],” site of world-class universities and home to Research Triangle Park [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_Triangle]. Her mother was a 32-year IBM [https://www.ibm.com/us-en/] programmer, and father was a K through 12 educator and administrator. “I was surrounded by black men and women who were educators, engineers, college professors, business leaders, attorneys, doctors and more: a network doing inspiring things in science and math.” Her mother purchased a new computer every few years and Dr. Washington assembled each one.  Her mother “introduced me to programming opportunities,” Pascal [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal_(programming_language)] and Basic [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC], then more advanced languages.  At Johnson C. Smith University [https://www.jcsu.edu/], Dr. Washington’s path changed when an influential professor convinced her to concentrate on computer science. Dr. Dorothy Cawser Yancy [https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/dorothy-cowser-yancy-41], University President, nominated her for the David and Lucille Packard fellowship [https://www.packard.org/what-we-fund/science/packard-fellowships-for-science-and-engineering/], a $100,000 5-year grant for students to pursue STEM doctorates, including annual week-long symposiums, with professional workshops and “honest safe spaces” for sharing.  Dr. Washington graduated as undergraduate valedictorian and won the award. “My trajectory changed from there.” Dr. Washington became “a black woman in a program where only one other person looked like me” pursuing masters/doctoral degrees at North Carolina State University. [https://www.ncsu.edu/]“I suffered from ‘impostor syndrome;’ and would lean on my community,” since her campus was 20 minutes from her childhood home. She often had to “armor up” every day and was fortunate to gain an empathetic advisor, Dr. Harry Perros [https://www.csc.ncsu.edu/people/hp], with whom she had “real talks” about struggles as a black woman in a post-graduate computer science program.  She won another fellowship in her graduate school: NASA’s Harriet G. Jenkins award [https://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/education/harriett_jenkins.html], giving monetary support and other unique experiences tailored to graduates from historically black colleges/universities [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historically_black_colleges_and_universities]. Dr. Washington shared advice for programmers, technologists, application developers.  “When you reach a roadblock, take a break and step away. Sometimes you are so engrossed, you cannot see high levels.” She decried students’ misconceptions that they must “know everything” and advised “be unafraid to ask for help.”  When faced with bias, she said: “It is not you. You are not the first. You will not be the last. Take up space without losing yourself in the process. Maintain a level of self-care.” Dr. Washington’s message is “until there is a major shift in the narrative, we are going to see major challenges. Find the tribe who can get you through.” Dr. Washington is now doing appreciable research in cultural competence in computing [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=cultural+competence+in+computing&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart] citing insufficiencies on the university level.  Approximately 85% of university computing faculty are Caucasian or Asian, not serving as full role models.  “We lose students in the middle ground, between K through 12 and careers.” She noted that while undergraduate curriculum emphasizes technology skills, it does not emphasize cultural competence. “We see, every day, technology announcements that are biased,” as a result. She cited self-driving car and healthcare database applications as two examples where “people developing them are not recognizing biases.” Dr. Washington proposes a long-overdue revolution: required assessment for cultural competence in computing. “I am trying to force a conversation around cultural competence for all computer science students before graduation,” beginning with a required 3-credit course called Race, Gender, Class and Computing.  Her aspiration is a country-wide movement on computing cultural competency, using the right role models, “people who live, eat and breathe this for a living.” During nine years at Howard University [https://home.howard.edu/], Dr. Washington partnered with Google [https://about.google/] to bring a middle school course to 300 Howard University’s Middle School [https://hu-ms2.org/] students; then co-championed an Exploring Computer Science [http://www.exploringcs.org/] program to bring computer science to Washington DC public high schools.  She helped establish the first Google In Residence [https://newsroom.howard.edu/newsroom/static/7931/howard-university-and-google-expand-howard-west-computer-science-residency] program at Howard which “expanded to other historically black universities including Fisk, Morehouse College, Spellman and Hampton.”  Since relocating to Winthrop, Dr. Washington is working with Code.org [https://code.org/] to develop the nationwide framework for K through  12 computer science curriculum “as a blueprint in every state, so every student has access to computer science at every step.” She served as lead writer on South Carolina state’s K through 12 computer science and digital literacy standards and through Alpha Kappa Alpha Inc [https://aka1908.com/]., leads college prep workshops for students and parents. Dr. Washington’s book: UNAPOLOGETICALLY DOPE [https://www.amazon.com/Unapologetically-Dope-Lessons-Surviving-Thriving/dp/098474679X/],  “speaks to every black woman and girl who needs to know there was someone just like them who went through the same things.” She speaks to computer science departments across the country on her research.  Dr. Washington’s key advice for women tech leaders, especially women of color, is: “Be unafraid to ‘take up space’ and own your narrative. Be intentional with everything you do. Recognize it’s always bigger than you. It’s not just happening to you. Make sure your intention is the best possible.” Make sure to check us out on online at www.divatechtalk.com [http://www.divatechtalks.com], on Twitter @divatechtalks, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/divatechtalk [https://www.facebook.com/divatechtalk]. And please listen to us on SoundCloud, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting channel and provide an online review.