Ep 14: Kim Snipes: Balancing Many Hats

Diva Tech Talk recently had the pleasure of chatting with Kimberly Snipes, Vice President of Consumer Products and Operations Technology for Capital One Financial Corporation. Kim is the technology executive for the Core Deposit and Deposit Operations technology platforms for Capital One’s Retail and Direct Bank. Her team is responsible for all of the fraud, compliance, item processing, reporting and core processing platforms.  In her role, she manages approximately 700 colleagues across 5 locations. Kim is also on the advisory board of Women Who Code, a global non-profit 501(c) 3 organization, inspiring women to excel in careers in technology. 

“Wearing many hats” is how Kim describes her early and entrepreneurial career.  After receiving her undergraduate degree in Computer Business at Furman University (“I was one of only 3 women in the program!”), she immediately moved into a technology consulting business, founded by her father.  “It was really energizing” to Kim, since she had the chance to undertake many roles from technical training to production training to telephone support to quality. She says “I quickly saw that having these different perspectives gave me an appreciation for what it takes to innovate, come up with a product, develop it, and actually deploy and sustain it.” 

She credits both her parents for her success, saying “My Mom also always made my sister and I feel that nothing is impossible.”

Moving into a larger corporation, Kim also went back to school in the evening to get an MBA, at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. Her belief is that being “a deep technologist who can actually speak to a business problem is ten-fold more valuable” to any industry.  In developing her career, Kim says “I was open to leading any type of technology team.”  She characterizes herself as both valuing deep competence in a role, and staying open to moving forward. “If I get too comfortable in a role, my mantra is ‘it’s time to change’.”

Speaking about her current leadership role at Capital One, Kim focuses on “hiring great people who can advance the technology strategy,” setting a vision, and inspiring her widely-dispersed team. “Motivate the team you have to want to come to work every day, to want to embrace the strategy, to push it forward,” she says.  To that end she tries to meet, frequently, with everyone on her team either in person or using the newest video-to-video technology to engage in discussions.

Now the recent mother of a 1 year old girl, Kim has been seeking additional balance in her life.  “Before I had my little girl, I was very career-focused,” she says. “The minute I released myself from trying to be who I was before I was a mom, my life got so much better. I’ve gotten comfortable in my own skin now.  I still work very hard, but at the same time, my child sees me every night, if possible.”   As women, Kim truly believes that “our biggest challenge is ourselves” when achieving balance.  “We have to give ourselves a break.”

A key piece of career trajectory advice that Kim shares with other women is that people need to know who you are. “Show what you can do in a very genuine and authentic way,” she counsels. “You also need to engage in other activities, or special projects” as part of your personal “brand-building.”  

Along those lines, Kim got involved first with the internal Capital One “Women In Tech” initiative and then Capital One became a founding sponsor of the international Women Who Code.  Kim became part of their advisory board, when she returned from her maternity leave.  “We wanted to find a great partner, who would be championing the cause” of gender disparity in the technology field, she says. “You can reinvent yourself with technology,” Kim states. “We wanted an organization who felt the same way we did…bringing women in, at any stage of their careers, but also supporting them, and championing them through promotion of their careers. Women Who Code is that.”  She is looking forward to her continuous participation with that nonprofit.  “Going forward, we’re really going to ‘amp it up’ next year,” Kim says.  To that end, she is looking for ways “where we really can engage in a very meaningful way,” to promote and support women in technology.

“Women need to support women more than we do,” Kim says. “What a powerful thing if we were really supporting each other, and paying it forward.” Her advice is “Make time to support people, either internally in your company or externally.”

“You learn how to be resilient,” in the course of your career, according to Kim, who advocates for learning to adjust to change. “You’re never going to have that perfect job in every situation,” she says. “That’s when having a support system will get your through hard times.  Never forget what gets you up in the morning, drives you every day to be here.  Don’t give up on the field just because one environment may not have been the best environment.”

Capital One can be viewed here: www.capitalone.com

Women Who Code can be reached here: https://www.womenwhocode.com/

Follow us on Twitter  - @divatechtalks

Visit us on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/divatechtalk

Catch us on Stitcher! 

Ep 13: Can Women Lean Out? Three Divas Share from Grace Hopper 2015

In October, 2015, Nicole Johnson Scheffler, one Diva Tech Talk’s co-founders, attended The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, organized in Houston, by The Anita Borg Institute.

Attended by over 12,000, the conference connected, inspired and guided women in computing and attracted many sponsoring organizations that view technology innovation as a strategic imperative. This Diva Tech Talk podcast highlights three diverse women who represent facets of that greater community.

The first is Anita Garcia, a junior at California State University in Monterey Bay, enrolled in the cohort-based “CS in 3” —a three year accelerated computer science degree program.  A lucky recipient of one of the Grace Hopper Celebration scholarships, conference “VIP” Anita found the event both exhilarating and “a bit overwhelming.” Her principal reason for attending was to obtain interviews for upcoming internships to complement her budding career.

Anita began her technology odyssey at the early age of 12, developing a fascination with HTML and Websites.  Her interest sprouted further as she researched the burgeoning high demand for women in the field. “I quickly realized that there is a huge need for somebody like me,” she says, “to have this specific skill set.” Anita is excited about “the impact I can have in this domain.  I am able to work in any field with this kind of base as my undergraduate experience.”   Getting no semesters off from immersion in all facets of computer science, Anita describes herself and her colleagues as “busy bees.”  She has been involved in a number of fascinating research projects, one of which is the development of an Android-based mobile application to detect diseases transmitted on apples.  In the field of agricultural technology, Anita is additionally working with a Salinas Valley startup called Heavy Connect on a project to “eliminate unnecessary headaches and help the farmer save time and money.”  Anita is also the Co-Founder and President of student-led Her Script, with a mission to help women with technical and professional aspirations.  The group, (which she describes as “partially an ambitious study group,” as well as a community outreach organization) fields monthly classes in HTML and Android development using MIT’s App Inventor for people as young as 8 years old ranging to college age.  “It’s amazing to see the need for this kind of outreach in our community,” Anita says.  On her future career plans, she comments “One of the things I love about computer science is that I can branch out into any industry.”  Anita also advises our audience: “Don’t be afraid to try something new!”

Our second interview was with uber-entrepreneur Elissa Shevinsky, currently Co-Founder and CEO of JeKuDo Privacy Company, a startup building high security group collaboration tools, which are easy to use, for enterprises and activists.  “The (current) tools available, people aren’t using them,” she says. “We are making enterprise tools that feel like consumer tools.”  In the security field, Elissa prides herself on her ability to explain security issues in layperson’s terms.   She also believes that current security policies are almost unenforceable. “You either have security as part of your company’s culture or you don’t,” Elissa says.  “Breaches can put you out of business! And the ‘insider threat’ is also something you have to think about.”

Talking about her own career evolution, Elissa says “I have always loved being on a team, and making things.  That has driven me more than anything.” The secret to Elissa’s success she says is that she “failed up!  I stuck with it.”  She advises every woman to “stay in the game, and keep learning.”   Elissa credits startups with helping her to “level up” up her skill set and her portfolio to get to where she wanted to go. Elissa’s greatest current learning experience is the “day-to-day hard stuff of running a company. It’s not for everyone but it’s very rewarding. If you want to lead, and you have a vision, there is nothing else like it.”  As an entrepreneur she appreciates the opportunity to recruit and foster her team and create her company’s culture. “You decide what you’re comfortable with.”

“Ideally, I would like to encourage people to do their own thing,” Elissa says. “We should be able to be ourselves in the industry. Companies are actively trying to recruit women, and women of color.  That puts us in a different position.  We can begin standing up and saying ‘this is what we want to be comfortable at work’.  It’s time that men began accommodating women, not just women accommodating men.”  

“I feel comfortable saying the women are often very good communicators,” Elissa comments. “Women also contribute incredibly valuable things to organizations which have not been properly compensated. Women’s roles like community moderation really deserve a lot more respect and reward.” Her key advice for women “is to take a step back and reflect; and say ‘who am I and what do I want’. Then figure out how you go after it.”  

A published author, Elissa recently released Lean Out, a self-described “dark” book focused on the struggle for gender equality in technology and entrepreneurship, which features 25 different stories from 19 different contributors. “It’s a collection of stories that is really unedited. I am open to a lot of different ideas and connecting to a lot of different people. I don’t have to agree with you. There’s a story in there for almost everyone.”

Get your copy of her book here: http://www.orbooks.com/catalog/lean-out/

The final interview was with Jessica Legner, a web developer with ESPN.  Pregnant and married at age 18, Jessica was a “lost” college dropout, who got her first job on a manufacturing line producing car parts.  After 18 months, she realized that her aptitudes were being wasted, and decided to go back to community college, where she parlayed her interest in website design into an eventual focus in computer science at Michigan-based Saginaw Valley State University. Internships at various companies, focusing on Website support and development, fueled her interest and built her skills in PHP, CSS, and HTML.  Then her alma mater offered her a full-time job, after graduation, working on a learning management system for the university, where she built her skills in Java, PHP and JavaScript.  

Jessica credits an interest in sports wagering (beginning with “Fantasy Football”) as feeding her competitive nature, sparking her talent for data and leading her to her current role. “I was really interested in what ESPN was doing on their Website,” Jessica says.”In 2006, the Web looked nothing like it does now!  They were ‘ahead of the game’ and it was really cool.  That was where my inspiration started.”  After a decision to leave SVSU, and some lengthy interviewing, Jessica landed her “dream job” as a Website and mobile Web application developer at ESPN, and has never looked back.  “We are improving things at ESPN, every day,” she says. “And here I am, at Grace Hopper, 8 months later, meeting wonderful women and talking to you.”

Jessica’s most important advice to other women is “Notice and realize you are capable of anything.  Follow your dreams; as my grandmother told me, you can do anything you want! You just have to want it, and work hard enough.”

View fullsize

Follow us on Twitter  - @divatechtalks

Visit us on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/divatechtalk

Catch us on Stitcher! 

Ep 12: Tracy-Ann Palmer: Making An Impact In StartUps, Fortune 500’s, and Nonprofits

Diva Tech Talk recently met with the vibrant Tracy-Ann Palmer, a female IT leader and South African expatriate, with a fascinating and multi-faceted career, from entrepreneurship to Fortune 500 companies to community/nonprofit organizations. 

Having started out in the entertainment industry in her native country, one of Tracy-Ann’s first watershed roles, after migrating to the United States, was as a sales executive/manager at a worldwide experiential marketing firm:  Marcus Evans, who concentrates on organizing and implementing events for the “C suite.”  There she got her first taste of what makes global and regional businesses “tick” and learned amazing lessons. “Marcus Evans taught me that anything is possible, nothing is impossible,” she says.  The culture bred entrepreneurship.  “80% of my former colleagues, there, have gone on to start and own their own businesses!” It was also at Marcus Evans, and later at a company she founded (Arzika LLC) that Tracy-Ann got her first deep exposure to the technology industry. “At both Marcus Evans and Arzika, we were always participating in technology from the sidelines,” she explains.  “We tracked what was hot and happening and impacting the way companies and executives functioned and were enabled.”

From being the founder of Arzika, Tracy-Ann then moved to a dynamic IT company, well known for a pioneer in “cloud-based” computing applications on a large scale:  Salesforce.com.  “I started out in their Partner Marketing organization,” she explains. “We steered and established the App. Exchange and built their Partner Program.”    While successfully doing that, her community work came to the attention of a colleague who had moved over to the philanthropic Salesforce.com Foundation.  Logically, she married her interest in philanthropy to a new challenge and Tracy-Ann also migrated to the Foundation to head up their Alliances Program. 

“Much of my career evolution has come from taking advantages of opportunities,” she shares.  So when “second-stage” Michigan-based startup BillHighway called, she accepted a leadership role as their Chief Growth Officer, regretfully moving from the Salesforce.com Foundation to do so.  

“BillHighway was a Salesforce.com partner,” Tracy-Ann says. “And I learned so much there.   First of all, I learned how to break ground in new markets, where you have no brand recognition.  I also got the chance to participate in venture capital discussions, for the first time. And, I learned the crucial importance of ‘company culture’ to success.”

From BillHighway, Tracy-Ann has now moved to one of the technology leaders in the communications space:  Cisco.  Why has she done that?  “They offered me a ‘change agent’ role, and I love challenges,” she laughs. “Passion and courage have allowed me to take on change agent roles. I am prepared to take the risks.” Her current role is a transformational one, helping her Cisco team penetrate the 155 Midwestern companies they are targeting; and changing the image/mindset of decision-makers so that they see Cisco as not simply a communications hardware company but a leader in the Internet-driven software sector, as well.

In all of these roles, Tracy-Ann has built and led teams, and thinks one of her key strengths is that “I truly care about the companies for whom I work, and people.  My number one priority is to impact people’s lives, and make them better at who they are, and what they do.”

That same philosophy has driven her natural affinity for philanthropic work, too.  “I have started to think about my personal legacy,” she says.  Prior to moving to the Midwest, Tracy-Ann lived in Connecticut and was involved in the Self-Esteemed Women’s Foundation.  In Michigan, she became deeply enmeshed in the work of The Michigan Council of Women in Technology Foundation.  “The people in philanthropy are so self-sacrificing,” she exclaims. “They are the most passionate and hard-working people I have ever met.”

Because of that, in the last several years, she co-founded another worthwhile regional nonprofit of which she is proud. We Build Character was created to support people who Tracy-Ann thinks have been inadvertently neglected —those in mid-career.  “The middle tier of our workforce is often forgotten,” she says. “Yet if you think about how many people are leaving the workforce and retiring, the next generation of leaders is coming from that middle tier!”  The We Build Character program has four facets.  “We set up a person with a senior executive mentor, with whom they meet monthly for coaching,” she explains.  “We also have monthly facilitators and speakers” who give advice and guidance to participants.  “We also work with people on professional network expansion, and elevating the relationships in their network. “  And finally, close to Tracy-Ann’s own heart, “any leader, no matter who you are, needs to have some kind of ‘pay-it-forward’ aspect to their career.”  So the fourth facet of the program helps participants join and benefit community impact organizations. 

We Build Character participants are a fairly diverse group.  Participants include “any individual who cares about where they are going, is interested in having a professional mentor, and who wants to focus on more professional, personal development,” Tracy-Ann explains.  “We have participants from all the major Michigan companies.”

Being a woman has not fazed Tracy-Ann in her own career evolution but she does believe that more women executives are needed. “Statistics show that companies with more women leaders have higher productivity and better return on investment,” she says.  Being a transplant to the U.S. is also a source of Tracy-Ann’s inspiration.  “I wake up every day and I feel that I am incredibly blessed and privileged to be in the U.S.  You can be whatever you want to be, here.”

What three main pieces of advice would Tracy-Ann give to other aspiring women leaders? 

1.     “Be bold.  Don’t give up on your dreams.”

2.     “Be authentic.  Be who you really, truly, are.

3.     And finally: “Don’t judge. Accept everyone and everything from the perspective of what you can learn from them, and from the circumstances you are in.  Know that everyone has something very special to give you.”

Cisco can be visited here: www.cisco.com

Also please visit We Build Character, Tracy-Ann Palmer’s profile, and The Michigan Council of Women in Technology.

Follow us on Twitter  - @divatechtalks

Visit us on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/divatechtalk

Catch us on Stitcher! 

Ep 11: Marina Reyna: Humble Beginnings Grow Foundation for Tech Success

Diva Tech Talk recently sat down with digital leader, Marina Reyna, a senior IT project manager at Optum Technology, subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group. Currently supervising a team of eight people, Marina is a master multi-tasker, passionately interested in the growing healthcare market, and a strong advocate for managing one’s career in a dynamic and active fashion. 

Marina did not start out in the computer industry.  Her undergraduate bachelor’s degree at Eastern Michigan University was in marketing and communications, and her initial career roles at Young & Rubicam and MARS were as an account executive handling major advertising customers for those agencies. But when she moved over to Wunderman/Team Detroit, she experienced a revelation.   “I had my ‘ah-ha’ moment,” Marina says. “I needed a career change to stay competitive; I needed to ‘go digital.’” Wunderman/Team Detroit gave her that chance, and she has never looked back.

Like many women, Marina has balanced her career with family responsibilities. At the time she took the leap into the digital space, she was a single (divorced) mother of two, with no incoming child support. She looked at the technology field as potentially more secure in terms of fulfilling her family’s monetary requirements.  

“Financially, IT has opened doors that allowed me to advance my career and provide better for my family,” she says. “But I can honestly also say that, without technology, I would not be the woman I am today.”

Subsequent to Team Detroit, Marina kept growing in a variety of roles (Account Supervisor, Senior Project Manager, Senior Engagement Manager) at other upcoming agencies (Doner, Organic and BrandLabs), which offered unique opportunities for her to marry her growing expertise in digital techniques with her love for campaign management and customer service. At Organic, as an example, she focused solely on digital work. 

She is proud to have launched Organic’s first internal iOS native application (called BizWords). She also led the development of Hilton Garden Inn’s first mobile application, and Kotex’s redesign of both their desktop and mobile websites, for which the agency won two coveted Effie awards.

These stints prepared her for her current career. “At Optum Technology, we manage big data, analytics …and help reinvent the healthcare Internet,” Marina explains. “My team is very important there. We are keeping marketing dollars inside supporting UnitedHealth Group and its other subsidiaries, as an internal digital marketing agency.”  In Marina’s opinion, her Optum team’s value is simple. “We help the company pay off their bottom line and maximize their dollars.” To do that, she has had to become a change agent. “It’s fun but it’s a challenge,” she admits. 

Marina considers one of her core strengths to be her communication style. “I can easily walk into a room, and build rapport.” Even more importantly she characterizes her leadership style as “servant leadership.”  In talking about her team, her approach has always been “what can I do for you to reach your goals.” Finally, she emphasizes that integrity is key to her success.” I lead by example, and I expect other people to do the same thing.”   

Marina is very proud that in her tenure at Optum, she has reduced her team’s staff attrition from a very high rate to 0% in the first year by “rebooting.” As she reorganized and re-focused the team, Marina encouraged members to concentrate on several key principles: “Servant leadership, accountability, trust, commitment, respect. Keep your promises and deliver!”

As a woman in technology, Marina says she has learned “I need to be smarter, faster, detailed and always pay attention. And make good core relationships in every situation. Treat everyone the same.  Be fair; be consistent.” Marina also credits her Latina culture as another element in her success. “I am proud to be a Mexican American. I have a strong faith. I am focused on family, and my culture. Those three things, combined, have helped me develop a very strong work ethic.” 

The mother of a college age daughter, Marina goes on to say “I was very fortunate in my mother. She grew up as a migrant worker, picking whatever fruits or vegetables were in season in the hot climate; then returning home to whatever makeshift farmhouse or barn they could afford at the time,” she says. “Having her come from very humble background taught me that you can do anything you want in this country. The only way to do it is to work hard, believe in yourself, and don’t give up.”

What advice would Marina give other women entering or evolving in their careers? “Be courageous; be curious; and be knowledgeable. ‘Own’ your space. Know your voice. Come prepared.” 

In terms of technology careers, Marina is very pragmatic. “I think technology is a moving target. You don’t have to be a software engineer, or a graphic designer. Find out what makes you tick, and what you have passion to be,” she says.  And most importantly “don’t be afraid. Don’t let the word ‘technology’ intimidate you. View it as a tool to sharpen that skill set and help you get to that next stop. Buckle up and enjoy the ride!”

Marina Reyna is a Senior IT Project Manager at Optum: http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/businesses/optum.aspx

Follow us on Twitter  - @divatechtalks

Visit us on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/divatechtalk

Catch us on Stitcher! 

Ep 10: Linda Lynch: IT Leader, Author, and Practical Problem Solver

Diva Tech Talk recently sat down with Linda Lynch, president of KI Technology Group, an IT services provider that helps small and medium-sized businesses grow through the best use of appropriate, cost-effective technology.

A software programmer, by training, Linda held developer positions at Consumers’ Energy and Burroughs Corporation before joining KI in 1986. She acquired an ownership interest in the company in 1990 and has been president since 1992.  

Linda was instrumental in managing KI Technology Group’s transition from a software company to a full service technology company, now providing diverse outsourced IT services to businesses in the greater Lansing, Michigan region. 

A hallmark of Linda’s evolving career is her practical and straight forward approach. “I started college with a strong interest in theoretical math,” she shares. “But I was drawn to computer science because programmers solve real problems!”

Having begun by learning classic languages like Fortran and Cobol (“on punch cards,” she laughs, “I guess I am ‘dating’ myself…”), she and her team are always excited about new, transformative technology trends changing the way her customers do business. The top three trends that Linda thinks are currently making significant differences in the business landscape are cloud-based solutions, mobile applications, and the proliferation of computing devices (particularly smart phones) being used by customers for a variety of applications. 

Linda characterizes her best professional skill as the fact that “I can talk in a language that a client can understand” vs. “techspeak”. So it is no surprise that in addition to her role leading KI, Linda is also the author of several books.  One of them is the self-published Executive’s Guide to Trouble-Free IT.  She describes this labor of love as having taken much longer than she expected.  (“I thought it would be 6-8 weeks, but instead from beginning to end, the project took 6 to 8 months!”).

Additionally, in collaboration with other technology and business experts, she authored a chapter on IT outsourcing in The Tech Multiplier (available on Amazon).  

“It was an Amazon best seller on the day it launched!” she says, proudly.

Linda is a strong believer in collaboration, and demonstrates that through constant civic and professional involvement.  She characterizes the groups from whom she gets advice and to which she contributes as “very helpful".

Those professional associations include CompTIA, —where she served on the Board of Directors, the ASCII Group, the CareerQuest Advisory Council, the Rotary Club of Lansing, and The Founding Chapter of the National Association of Career Women — where she served as President. Linda also credits an informal group of 8-10 technology CEO’s as helping her keep her company thriving, by filling in gaps that she perceives she might have.  With all of these groups, Linda gives and gets great advice and insight.

“Together, we are good at everything,” she says.

Linda does not think that being a woman has seriously hampered her career or her company.  While she acknowledges that there are some revenue opportunities that have been harder to get because she may not be in “the old boys’ club,” she philosophically says: “There is plenty of business out there,” so Linda and her team cheerfully pursues it!

In keeping with her pragmatic nature, Linda’s words of counsel for other leaders are direct, actionable, and also profound in their simplicity:

• “Decide what you want.  Then go after it.”
• “You can’t be good at everything…so you have to surround yourself with people, who are good at the things that you are not.  Then rely on them.”
• “Only you know what you can do.  Just set out to do it!”

Linda Lynch is the President of KI Technology Group - http://kitechnologygroup.com/

Follow Diva Tech Talk on Twitter - @divatechtalks

Visit Diva Tech Talk on Facebook -www.facebook.com/DivaTechTalk