Did you enjoy school?
I enjoyed my time in school, especially at Northwestern University. School gave me the foundation and confidence that have empowered me along my career path. Going to university also gave me the opportunity to build lifelong relationships – many of which I still value and turn to for professional advice. While my schooling followed a more traditional engineering path which expanded my technical knowledge, it was my education outside of the classroom that made me realise that my passion truly lies in the business or human impact of this technology.
What qualifications do you have?
I studied Industrial Engineering at Northwestern University and from this education I learned how to use technology to solve business problems. When I graduated, instead of heading down the typical engineering career path, I discovered my passion for helping customers translate technology into measurable business value, which led me into technology consulting and post sales.
More recently, I completed an Executive Education programme at Stanford Law School, which has helped me elevate and refine my role as a business leader. Continuous learning and professional growth are very important to me given how rapidly the tech landscape evolves.
Has your career path been a smooth transition, a rocky road or a combination of both?
I think career paths are rarely a smooth road from start to finish, and it would be very boring if they were! I wouldn’t say my career has been only rocky either, but it has been a combination of both. I have a “yes” mentality – I’m always open to trying new things and learning from experience. Throughout my career, this mindset has opened doors to opportunities I didn’t even realise were possible. From setting up the London office at my first job, to pioneering customer success at Salesforce and Slack, I’ve always been focused on hyper-growth activities, which has made my career fast paced and exciting, to say the least.
What specific challenges do you see women facing in the industry?
Historically, the representation of women in tech has been shamefully low and diverse hiring has left much to be desired. Unfortunately, I believe that the pandemic also set us backwards, as many women suddenly had to shoulder the added responsibilities of childcare and home-schooling on top of their careers. Many women left the workforce entirely because of this. While the pandemic may feel like a lifetime ago already, these effects are still visible, and we have to continue to ensure that women get a fair seat at the table. Representation helps, but we also need to embrace equity if we’re to effect true industry change.
What is the best career advice you can give to others?
First and foremost, it’s important to understand what you love and care about, and then follow your passion. If you don’t have love for your work, it will be much more difficult to achieve success. You then need to have skills, so concentrate on developing a strong foundation of core skills which will give you confidence to push on in your field. In an industry as fast moving as tech, constant learning and personal development has been central to my success.
However, you can’t just go it alone: collaboration is key. Be sure to surround yourself with the right people, who you have chemistry with and who are aligned to your vision. Additionally, good leaders will consider how they can help others and share success, to elevate their team along with themselves. Accountability is also crucial – you must hold people accountable, as well as having people in place to hold you accountable.
Lastly, there’s no substitute for grit. Whether you win or lose, don’t lose sight of your vision, learn from your failures, and work tirelessly towards your goal. If you have everything else in place, with some determination you’ll be able to realise your dreams.
If you had to pick one mentor that had the biggest influence on you, who would it be?
I am very fortunate to have a great personal board of directors who has influenced me to be my authentic self in all I do. It includes my father, my teenage daughters as well as former bosses, peers and direct reports. The variety in my personal BOD enables me to get advice from all aspects of my life. I have also been fortunate to have an amazing mentor at Salesforce, Maria Martinez, who helped me hone my management skills by utilising data for decision making, and she strengthened my passion and ability to translate products into business value for customers. Maria was the person that inspired me to bring customer centricity into the organisations I work for, and I always look for opportunities to pay this mentorship forward.
From where do you draw inspiration?
My main source of inspiration comes from those around me – my daughters and family, my colleagues, and those I work with every day. As I mentioned before, we’re far more powerful together than we are solo. It’s hugely important to surround yourself with amazing people that support your vision and that you can bounce off of. Whilst I’m incredibly lucky to have a supportive family, I also endeavour to build the best team around me, full of fantastic people who inspire me every day to do my best work.
As someone who has played competitive sports throughout my life, I also take a lot of inspiration from soccer (football!) when it comes to building a team that collaborates seamlessly and where every individual is heard, appreciated, and challenged to be the best version of themselves.
What is the biggest challenge you have faced to date?
In our quickly evolving world, it is inevitable to face challenges. Throughout my career I’ve been involved in several organisations that fall within the early stages of the innovation adoption curve. Given the nature of hyper-growth businesses, I have faced occasional scepticism about the new technologies my teams have worked on, as well as my vision for a high tech and highly accessible future. In these moments, I focus on my ‘why’ and look to my inspirations, so that I can use moments of doubt to push my work to the next level.
What qualities do you feel makes a good leader?
A good leader aligns with their entire organisation. They determine the “north star,” the guiding light that every team in the business should follow to achieve success. Once the vision is set, a good leader reinforces it at every chance they get, ensuring it ripples out to and is understood by every executive, director, manager, and partner. For me and my team at LogicMonitor, it’s customer obsession.
While maintaining their vision, a good leader should also be adaptable. Especially in tech, businesses need to be able to pivot in order to stay ahead. This requires a deep knowledge of the work and preparation for how the industry will evolve.
Another essential leadership quality is accountability. This has to be multi-directional, showing trust between teams and motivating each other to achieve big goals. In the past I’ve been called an “equal opportunity pusher”, which I’m proud of, as I believe it’s my job to push people to achieve their full potential, even if they’re still working out what that might be.
And finally, a good leader seeks the advice of experts in all facets of their work. This advice often comes from someone outside the company, like a mentor, to tap into different experiences and external perspectives. The mark of a smart leader (at all levels — not just in the C-suite) is one who recognises when they are stepping beyond their own expertise and seeks guidance from specialists.
From a work viewpoint, what has the last 12 months been like?
For LogicMonitor, I’m proud to report that 2023 was another fantastic year for growth, driven by key enterprise customer acquisitions and geographic expansion. We saw strong business performance, supported by a growing and diversifying customer base. The team also released a number of AI-powered product innovations to ensure hybrid coverage, layered intelligence, and a unified experience for customers.
From an overall industry perspective, the past year has highlighted just how rapidly this sector advances. Technologies such as generative AI are developing at breakneck pace, requiring tech teams to constantly adapt and upskill to keep pace with the competition.
What would you say are the biggest tech-based challenges we face today?
Given how quickly forms of generative AI, like ChatGPT, have entered common vernacular, we’re dealing with an alarming amount of AI anxiety. While regulations and guardrails on the technology are necessary, plagiarism and misinformation have been around a lot longer than AI, and we need to trust the tech leaders of tomorrow to safely use the technology without fear or hesitation. While many regulators and governments are jumping to take away the tool, we should be focusing on unlocking the full potential of generative AI and empowering young people to use it effectively and responsibly.
What can be done to encourage more women into the industry?
We can encourage more women into the industry, if we are flexible and recognise that each person is dealing with different personal and professional circumstances. Tech organisations must ensure they’re allocating the right resources and opportunities needed for individuals to reach their full potential. There is no such thing as a level playing field, and if we don’t tailor opportunities to the individual, we risk losing talent.
One of the keys to this, and something that we offer at LogicMonitor, is mentorship. We’ve developed programmes that support first-time people managers and connect female employees, as well as LGBTQ+ people and people of colour. LogicMonitor has also launched a scholarship programme for women pursuing careers in STEM. Three recipients were awarded a $6000 scholarship for the 2023 school year, starting in the Fall 2023 semester.
It’s vital to weave a commitment to gender diversity into the fibre of the business with things like inclusive job descriptions, consistent hiring processes, and regular training sessions on discrimination. But encouraging more women into the industry goes beyond just metrics and policies – it hinges on every employee remaining authentic and bringing their whole self to work every day. Only then can we all feel truly included, represented, and inspired.
Give us a fact about you that most other people wouldn’t know.
I have swam from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco (approximately 3.2km) several times. Each occasion was simultaneously terrifying and exhilarating. There is something about being in the open water that gives you the confidence to do whatever you put your mind to. Oh, and the freezing cold water temperatures help too!
