Tag Archive for: women in technology

Neha Singh: Head of Solution Development, PGIM

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Neha Singh“I love working in technology—it’s where problem-solving and innovation intersect,” says Neha Singh. “No matter your role or industry, technology is relevant, shaping how we work, communicate, and access information. It’s ingrained in every part of our lives, and that’s what draws me to this space.”

For Singh, the evolution to a career that is both intellectually challenging and fulfilling has been shaped by her passion for problem-solving and her family’s enduring values. Raised in Minnesota by immigrant parents, Singh credits her family’s resilience and work ethic for shaping her approach to life and leadership. “My parents immigrated from India and worked their whole lives to provide for us. They instilled in me that there’s always a solution to a problem if you work hard enough,” she shares. This ethos of tenacity and responsibility has guided her through pivotal career moments and into her leadership role today.

Technology as a Tool for Connection

Although she now is clear about her purpose and passion, Singh recalls that it took a few false starts to find her way to working in technology. “I graduated in economics without a real idea of what I wanted to do, but I eventually found technology consulting.” The consulting world introduced her to the intersection of technology and business strategy, a space she quickly fell in love with.

“I wasn’t tied to a specific industry. One week, I was analyzing crowd wait times at airports, and another, I was projecting traffic at homeless shelters. It showed me how technology could solve problems beyond just saving time on a report or automating a spreadsheet.”

However, the fast-paced nature of consulting came with challenges. “You’re on the road Monday through Thursday, constantly switching clients, and rarely seeing the long-term impact of your work,” she recalls. These experiences drove her to seek something deeper: a place where she could build relationships and understand the broader business context of her efforts. That search led her to PGIM where she joined as director of Data Strategy Project Management and Analytics.

Now, as PGIM’s Head of Solution Development, Singh is thrilled to have the opportunity to continue making an impact with technology. In Singh’s view, technology isn’t just about tools or processes—it’s about helping people.

“At PGIM, my team’s mandate is to deliver value, not just technology for technology’s sake. We need to comprehend the problem and define how to address it.”

She emphasizes the relevance of technology across all functions and the necessity of making those cross-functional connections to effectively meet their needs.

“We have the opportunity to work with different functions, from HR and Marketing to Sales and Portfolio Analytics, which provides a broader perspective on how business gets done and where opportunities exist for improvement. No matter where you sit, it’s important to connect with different people, areas, and functions to form those value-add relationships.”

Taking Risks and Leaning into Learning

One of Singh’s core beliefs is the importance of taking risks and embracing discomfort. Early in her career, she grappled with the pressure to specialize, but she soon recognized the value of diverse experiences. “It’s about trusting your gut and giving yourself the chance to grow in unfamiliar situations,” she explains. The variety of work in consulting gave her the perfect training ground for this mindset. “You might love one project and be miserable in the next, but it’s all part of building a diverse skill set.”

She emphasizes that this approach applies to every stage of a career. “It’s never too late to learn something new,” Singh states. Singh earned an Executive MBA at Columbia University in 2021 while working full-time at PGIM – a testament to this belief.

“I was already immersed in technology, but I realized my impact would be limited without understanding the business side.”

Singh’s experience in the program, which began just before the COVID-19 pandemic, was as challenging as it was rewarding. “I always reflect on how productive I was during that time. Humans adapt to what’s going on, and I think that phase of my life really demonstrated that.”

Leadership Rooted in Connection and Inclusion

Singh is a leader who deeply values connection and relationship-building.

“It’s all about people for me. I love collaborating with and helping people. I would be nowhere without my team, and leaders who take chances on me and give me new opportunities.”

For Singh, it is also about inclusion and creating spaces for those connections. Reflecting on her time as a consultant, she acknowledges the challenges of often being the only woman or person of color in the room.

“Now, I make it a priority to create an inclusive environment, where everyone feels comfortable. It’s about making people feel like they have a safe space to share and grow.”

This philosophy of inclusion and focusing on the growth and development of others shapes every aspect of her leadership style.

“I’m working on flexing my broader leadership muscles—creating spaces where others can learn without feeling micromanaged. It’s hard for me to step back because I love being hands-on, but I know it’s essential for the team’s growth.”

Acknowledging the impact of leaders who “took a chance” on her and gave her opportunities to learn and develop, Singh hopes to do the same for her team.

Redefining Impact

Throughout her career, Singh’s understanding of “making an impact” has evolved. Early on, she aspired to tackle grand, global challenges, like the ones she encountered during her work with a public health organization in South Africa. “I was working on issues like access to medicine in developing countries, and it gave me perspective on the broader array of problems in the world.”

However, she’s come to appreciate that impact doesn’t always have to be monumental.

“You can make an impact even if you are behind a desk,” she reflects. “Even small contributions, like cutting weeks out of a reporting process, can make a big difference. It’s about understanding the value of what you’re helping people achieve, even if it’s not a headline-grabbing problem.”

Singh points to fostering the next generation of leaders, particularly women, as a way she wants to continue to make a difference going forward.

“The more young people and young women we can help give opportunities and bring up with us is what I want to focus on.”

This philosophy also shapes her personal life. Inspired by her mother’s and sister’s examples, Singh has volunteered as an advocate for sexual assault victims at a city hospital. Though her efforts have taken a backseat since becoming a parent, she remains committed to finding ways to give back. “Helping women has always been a priority for me, and it’s something I want to continue doing in the future.”

Looking ahead, Singh remains focused on growth—for herself, her team, and the business. She also looks forward to spending time outside of work exploring all that New York City has to offer with her husband and two-year-old son.

By Jessica Robaire

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Women Leaders in Tech: Insightful Tips Across Twelve Career Themes

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career tips from women in techWe’ve mined some key insights across twelve topics from inspiring senior women leaders in tech-related roles and companies that we have interviewed over the last five years.

On being broadly curious:

“Curiosity is a hallmark of who I am and has been a huge enabler to my success. I personally like to know enough about everything ‘to be dangerous’ and went out of my way to equip myself with that knowledge,” said Aine Leddy. “That curiosity has served me, particularly with my entreé into the tech COO world. I could show up at the table and enter right into a discussion about the business strategy and where technology fits in, and that was apparent to the people who have given me the opportunities.”

Words from: Aine Leddy: Information Technology Business Partner, AIG Investments

On recruiting for tech (and all) roles:

“As a product team leader, when recruiting, I seek out qualities like resourcefulness, creativity, and other traits that don’t necessarily jump off the page when reading a resume or browsing a LinkedIn profile,” said Loredana Crisan. “I’d encourage all product leaders to be more open-minded throughout the recruitment process. Just because a candidate’s background differs from the conventional, doesn’t mean they aren’t qualified.”

Words from: Loredana Crisan: VP, Messaging Experience — Messenger & Instagram (update: Crisan is now VP at Messenger)

On leveraging the advantage of your difference:

“My professor told me that when he goes into a classroom, he doesn’t know who the best students are. But when he sees a female student or person of color, they get his attention right away,” recalled Rose-Gaëlle Belinga from university. “That’s how my professor challenged me, not to look at being underrepresented as holding me back but as an advantage… Because I really have people’s attention, I make sure that my work speaks for itself, that people take me seriously.”

Words from: Rose-Gaëlle Belinga: Technology Associate, Morgan Stanley (update: Belinga is now a VP at Morgan Stanley)

On the freedom that comes with risk-taking:

“You can have loads of failure but if you have tenacity, the chances are you’re going to figure it out as you try and fail, as you go along,” said Niamh Bushnell. “There’s a lot of freedom when you’re comfortable with risk, and with freedom comes creativity. Don’t worry if every single step isn’t going to come out as you want it to. Often times you don’t even know what the ideal outcome is, until you start.”

Words from: Niamh Bushnell: Chief Communications Officer (CCO), Soapbox Labs (Update: Bushnell is now Chief Marketing Officer at Soapbox Labs)

On the self-validating reflection of mentors and sponsors:

“Sometimes you don’t even see your own potential,” said Sabina Munnelly. “But when someone makes it clear that they see something in you, their belief in you can help grow a belief in yourself that you might have not even had.”

Words from: Sabina Munnelly: Partner, Baringa

On inviting support and asking uncomfortable questions:

“Reaching out for help or advice does not subvert you from your task of getting to what you want to do, and it could have gotten me there faster. Be open to others’ opinions. Don’t be afraid to ask uncomfortable questions, but also be prepared for the tough answers,” said Trisha Sircar. “It’s really important to get different perspectives from different people, from different backgrounds and different facets of the profession.”

Words from: Trisha Sircar; Partner, Privacy, Data and Cybersecurity, Katten

On why different perspectives are essential:

“It’s essential to create the space for people to be heard, especially when some aren’t as comfortable voicing their opinions,” said Stephanie Schultz. “I don’t want to be in a meeting and have everybody agree with a particular direction or discussion. I want to hear the people who are dissenting, or might have a different perspective, because it’s a pressure test – it’s helping to make sure that we’re getting to the most thoughtful outcome.”

Words from: Stephanie Schultz: VP & Head of Partnerships, Amex Digital Labs

On listening deeper as a leader:

“In an emotionally charged situation, I will encourage the team to tease out the facts, take the personalities out of it and then listen for what is not being talked about,” said Danielle Arnone. “The leaders that I admire most have the ability to listen deeply and surface the question behind the question, without putting people on the defensive, and in a way that takes the conversation to the next stage.”

Words from: Danielle Arnone: Chief Digital & Technology Officer, Combe

On embracing failure as part of growth mindset:

“I want to see what happens, and if I am going to fail, I want to fail fast, learn from my mistakes and get up and run again,” said Anna Thomas. “Everyone is going to fail at some point. Everyone is going to have their bad projects. Try to just do it in small cycles, learn fast, and then apply your learning and keep moving.”

Words from: Anna Thomas: Vice President, Private Banking Technology at Brown Brothers Harriman (update: Thomas is now Director, Operations & Technology Transformation at Citi)

On getting real with yourself about work-life effectiveness:

“If one part of the pie gets more dominating than you want it to be, you have to consider how to make that part smaller so you can ‘right-size’ your family life or your spiritual life, for example. That has really helped me to compartmentalize what I’m doing and how it impacts the other parts of my life,” said Kate Kenner Archibald. “If your work is really impacting your home life, take that step back to figure out what and how you can fix it. Push for flexibility, which is becoming more common, or figure out what the issue is. But if you’re not satisfied with how much time you have with your family, you’re never going to be happy at work, no matter how much money you’re making.”

Words from: Kate Kenner Archibald: Chief Marketing Officer, Dash Hudson

On keeping knocking at the door, regardless:

“I think women do ourselves a disservice, because we take things personally and get annoyed with our manager if we don’t get the raise or promotion,” said Aine Leddy. “Whereas men seem to think, ‘If it doesn’t happen, I’ll get back in the ring and I’ll fight the good fight again next year.’ Ultimately, promotion is a numbers game. It can’t happen for everybody all of the time, so rather than take it so personally, elevate your case and prepare to ask again.”

Words from: Aine Leddy: Information Technology Business Partner, AIG Investments

On the potential to impact meaningful change in tech:

“Is your AI developed in a way that is equitable – that doesn’t have inherent gender bias or racial bias? If voice tech doesn’t recognize a kid’s dialect and gives them a lower score on a reading assessment because they don’t pronounce words in the way the AI has been built to understand them, they’re going to lose out at school,” said Niamh Bushnell. “The way technology is built these days hugely impacts people’s quality of life – including their physical and mental health – and it can impact them socioeconomically too. Equity is a big piece.”

Words from: Niamh Bushnell: Chief Communications Officer (CCO), Soapbox Labs (Update: Bushnell is now Chief Marketing Office at Soapbox Labs)

On defining your own career ladder:

“The entire career landscape is shifting and new opportunities are emerging rapidly. Developing a portfolio of skills you can apply in many ways, no matter what path you take, makes your career more dynamic and resilient,” said Joyce Shen. “Conventional wisdom would say the path you follow is a ladder and you progress according to that ladder, but in business and technology there isn’t a ladder that is given to you even though it can seem that way. You can create that ladder yourself, and it doesn’t really matter what shape it takes, as long as there is a strong purpose to the work and that you are enjoying the journey and making an impact. It doesn’t have to be the same ladder that everybody is climbing.”

Words from: Joyce Shen: AI investor, board director, author, and data science at UC Berkeley

Interviewed by Aimee Hansen

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Women in Tech: Why the “Big Quit” is a Big Deal

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women in techEvery year, tech becomes more in need of talent, especially underrepresented women. Over 3/4 of tech decision makers say they are facing critical skills gaps, a 145% increase since 2016. Over half say they have a position unfilled and 38% are struggling to find the right candidates for three+ job posts.

Women’s technical propensities are being undertapped and the belonging divide continues to inhibit participation at different hurdles. Far fewer women who majored in computer science (38%) are working in the field compared to men (53%). Women hold a low share of tech roles – 16% in engineering and 27% in computing. They hold 28% of leadership roles, per BCG, and in the biggest 1,000 tech companies, only 18% of CFOs or CIOs are women. Between 2019 to 2021, the number of U.S. tech managers increased by 9%, but the share of women went down by 2% points.

But on a global level, Deloitte estimates that the overall tech workforce has increased 6.9% from 2019 to 2022, while share of tech roles is up by 11.7%. They project a gain of nearly 20% for women in leadership, stating 1 in 4 leadership roles at global tech firms would be held by women in 2022, a 4% increase.

In no where more than tech right now is diversity needed to help debias the technologies that are ever more pervasive in our daily lives. Not only that, but women in tech matters to the bottom line relative to competitors. The most gender-diverse companies are 48% more likely to financially outperform the least gender diverse. Companies with good representation of women at the top earn up to 50% higher profits and share performance.

Job Satisfaction, Work-Life and Retention

According to Deloitte’s Women @ Work global survey, among women, satisfaction with work-life balance has dropped to 32% from 70% before the pandemic, and in every category – productivity, mental well-being – satisfaction has dropped by double digits. Half of women in tech drop out by mid-career and women comprise less than 1/4 of senior roles. Women leave their tech jobs at a rate 45% higher than men.

In line with the continued resignations, 57% of women in tech said they expect to leave their employer for a new role within 2 years—with work-life balance as the biggest reason and Deloitte says 22% are considering leaving the workforce altogether. In a BCG survey, 73% of digital workers said that they expected to leave their job in the next two to three years, and 40% were job-searching.

Retention is also an issue in the tech C-suite. While men across Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft average eight years in executive roles, women stay for only 6.4 years. And while White execs last eight years on average, that’s five for Asian leaders, six for Black leaders, and four for Hispanic leaders.

Different Experiences of Hybrid/Remote Workplace in Tech

According to BCG research, the impact of the pandemic had different impacts for different women in tech. Midlevel women particularly found that work-from-home arrangements made their managerial work easier – such as chairing meetings, influencing decisions and delegating work, and they were even promoted at rates above midlevel men. Midlevel men found those same tasks had become more difficult, suggesting that some of the gender bias is neutralized in the remote workplace.

Women of color (47%) were more likely to report that it was more difficult to connect with mentors and sponsors in the remote setting than white women (35%). Both men and women of color reported less frequent and valuable interactions than their white peers, and women of color (41%) were more likely to report a negative impact on work-life balance than white women (28%) – suspected in part to be impacted by caring for family members other than children.

Senior women (36%) were more likely than senior men to switch jobs (31%), but they were less likely to get a pay increase (39% versus 50%) after doing so. After the pandemic, having a good work-life balance jumped ahead of financial compensation as the top priority for senior women.

Reset Tech Culture Towards Inclusion

Tech firms are still judged as “bro cultures” by many women, and it’s been substantiated that a widespread cultural reset is what is needed to get women back into tech and feeling they fully belong, again. Ipsos research in the UK indicated that 58% of women said that visible role models are one of the things that attract them to organizations, but many noted the lack. 83% of tech women in the UK rate an inclusive manager and 76% rated an inclusive culture as important for joining a tech firm.

But a culture of inclusiveness is not created only by an atmosphere of belonging and being valued, if it doesn’t show up tangibly in action throughout the career journey. It as good as an organization’s ability to remove bias from access to development opportunities, promotions, pay and leadership so that women can participate and advance to their full potential. Next week, we will focus in more on actions that organizations can take.

By Aimee Hansen

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Joyce Shen: AI investor, board director, author, and data science at UC Berkeley

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“You can’t be too risk-averse in your own career journey. It takes risks to create a portfolio of valuable skills and find purpose. It takes risks when structural factors or personal reasons mean one path isn’t working and fulfilling, and it’s time to create another,” says tech trailblazer Joyce Shen. “Instill confidence, and say, ‘I can create my own path. Maybe I’m only at the first step of this path, but it’s a path that I want to pursue.’”

Shen talks about the value of contrarian moves, the often overlooked career paths in tech, how tech is changing the shape of career trajectories and why leaders need to hold both vision and empathy to drive innovation.

Growing at the Pace of Tech

Between accompanying her scientist father to the research lab on weekends as a young girl, being immersed in academia on her mother’s side and growing up in college towns, Shen has always been interested in science, technology and continuous learning. She dropped her pre-med surgeon trajectory when she discovered how economics, statistics and math can model what is happening in the world at The University of Chicago.

Shen then interviewed with a non-profit named Sponsors For Education Opportunity (SEO), an organization that helps to close the academic and career opportunity gap for college students from underserved communities, and was placed as an intern in her sophomore year at IBM in procurement finance. A year later upon graduating with two degrees in Statistics and Economics in three years, Shen joined IBM full time in Corporate Development focusing on mergers and acquisitions. She quickly immersed herself in high-stake projects. Shen was energized by the fast pace of innovations in the technology industry and began to evolve, rapidly.

By 25 years old, she was leading an international finance team of nine people, ranging from fresh college graduates to baby boomers. By 29 years old, she was the first (and youngest) global CFO leading and managing the IBM Cloud Platform, an internal start-up at the time. As a fast-rising star, she was recruited by Thomson Reuters, a global company in information services and technology, to build and lead the emerging tech practice, including establishing emerging technology strategy and launching the corporate venture fund and a blockchain program. Having achieved all milestones including investing in over 12 startups in machine learning, data, digital identity, and blockchain, she was recruited to join Tenfore Holdings, a private investment firm in New York.

Shen has also been lecturing at UC Berkeley and has previously lectured at Saïd Business School, and has published books on innovation and blockchain. For the last ten years, she is also actively involved as a career mentor for SEO.

The Value of Being a Contrarian

“My career has been non-traditional and multi-dimensional. I took risks that most people normally would not take, and each built on the other without me knowing at the time how each step will fit together – my decision was anchored by pursuing knowledge, innovation, making impact, and doing things that I think matter in the world I live in,” says Shen. “And because I took risk in my career, I built a reputation of being a multi-faceted leader, strategic thinker, a problem solver in any environment, and being able to work through tough assignments and execute end-to-end against entirely new visions.”

Shen has been driven by her interdisciplinary and multifunctional skills in the intersection of business, technology, and finance. Her last three positions have been particularly created for her with a blank slate: “Even more than taking a risk, I’ve often been the contrarian and not done what everybody else was doing,” says Shen. “I wanted to keep developing at a different growth vector and bring others along with me.”

Those contrarian choices include going into corporate development out of university instead of consulting or banking, going for her full-time MBA degree at The Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago after only two years as a young professional, returning to IBM after her MBA instead of a new firm, leaving Corporate Development in Armonk for the grittier challenge of leading a mature, less-glamorous business unit to gain management and restructuring experience, departing IBM after starting and growing the cloud computing platform startup to an billion dollar business as the global CFO to gain experience in making emerging technology innovation, procurement, and investing decisions in the CTO office at Thomson Reuters, and then leaving a highly coveted position working with innovative technology startups for an investment firm that had less than seven people and to focus 100% on technology investing and advising founders and management as a lead investor and board member.

Shen attributes her ability to adapt and figure things out in part to a childhood spent moving often as well as her own travels and exposure to different cultures and systems of thinking.

“The world is changing every day,” says Shen, “and the ability to immerse in your environment and have that sixth-sense ability to see opportunities and create value, regardless of the environment or infrastructure or market condition, is incredibly and increasingly valuable and highly demanded.”

The Overlooked Career Path in Technology

As technology has changed our lives and become pervasive in every way, Shen notes that much of technology (e.g., software, smart infrastructure, machine learning, artificial intelligence) runs horizontally through every single industry. She’d love to see more women get involved where so much future value creation is coming and consider the breadth of options to create their own purposeful path.

“There tends to be two main paths in technology careers in conventional thinking. One path is a purely technical path, often as an individual contributor as well as a super-doer. But there is another path where people get into more of the operational and business side, around product management and distribution as well as considering emerging topics such as ethics, fairness, governance in technology and especially in AI and machine learning. There is also a lot of opportunity to get into highly critical technology areas such as cybersecurity. In my experience, a lot of the influence and ability to make changes come from working at the intersection of different disciplines and taking that experience to management and leadership.”

Shen continues, “In technology or in any industry, being able to have that broader aperture allows someone to see more opportunities and navigate better decisions about where they want to go and how to do it to make a broader impact in an organization.”

Create Your Own Career Ladder

“The entire career landscape is shifting and new opportunities are emerging rapidly. Developing a portfolio of skills you can apply in many ways, no matter what path you take, makes your career more dynamic and resilient,” advises Shen.

While in some industries, career development still looks like a vertical ladder, technology disrupts that paradigm, and Shen feels watching her parents create their own ladder as immigrants gifted her the agility to do that.

“Conventional wisdom would say the path you follow is a ladder and you progress according to that ladder, but in business and technology there isn’t a ladder that is given to you even though it can seem that way,” says Shen. “You can create that ladder yourself, and it doesn’t really matter what shape it takes, as long as there is a strong purpose to the work and that you are enjoying the journey and making an impact. It doesn’t have to be the same ladder that everybody is climbing.”

Knock Until The Door Opens

Working at the intersection of technology and finance and business, Shen has become used to being the “only,” but she’s focused on leveraging her strategic thinking, expertise and her deep set of skills relevant in her fields. Her parents’ immigrant experience and her moving often as a child taught her to put herself out there and work hard to prove herself. She is energetic, outspoken, direct, and down-to-earth. Sitting down with seasoned executives was an intimidating experience early on when she embarked on her career, but not once she stopped making giants of them.

Shen encourages women to focus on making an impact. Before going into a meeting, she focuses on her own clarity of how she will show up and what she wants to learn and can contribute. She encourages her students to own their voice and show the value of their work. She also encourages women not to give up just because someone doesn’t take interest in your aspirations or you don’t get that assignment.

“What I learned is that everybody who has accomplished a great deal had a lot of help and support from other people. Giving and receiving opportunities are very important to women” Shen says. “So if you ask for an opportunity and you’re told no, and you’ve been doing an amazing job, find another person to ask. Sometimes, women take that ‘no’ very hard and in a personal way, but please don’t be discouraged. Keep knocking on doors until one opens, because you will find people who will see your potential. It is definitely hard but remember don’t get discouraged.”

Shen encourages women to hold the inner strength and confidence. If one day is really tough, another day is going to be better, and amidst the unique structural challenges for women, you have to leverage all the resources within and around to keep progressing on your career journey.

Leadership that Empowers and Includes

Her mother often called Shen a natural leader, and Shen agrees leadership is innate in her. The growth has been honing her leadership for others in different capacities as a corporate executive, investor, board director, and educator.

“I was exposed to the highest levels of leadership at IBM very early on, and I’m a keen observer of human behavior,” says Shen. “From start-ups to larger companies and across different functional areas, I still take the approach of observing and picking up what are the leadership skills that create incredible teams and organizations that have strong culture and purpose.”

What did not work for Shen was detailed and controlling micro-management that didn’t inspire innovation or empower people to leverage their own strengths to add value. From her first management experience, she realized the importance of recognizing and empowering individuals.

“I realized that I had the responsibility to make sure not only that we deliver great work as a team, but also that we take care of each other,” reflects Shen. “It’s not just having an open door policy. It’s having empathy and treating my employees as human beings who have different needs and aspirations. Listen to them and create an environment where they can thrive as individuals, so that as a collective we are more powerful team.”

Shen has seen the difference that makes, more starkly in start-ups: “I think the most incredible leaders are those who can create clear vision, mandate high expectations, but also at the same time, show empathy and flexibility to the team.”

Inspiring Others Behind Her

As a woman who breathes technology and business and finance during most of her waking hours, Shen loves keeping on top of technology innovations, emerging trends, and potential investments. She’s a part-time faculty lecturer at UC Berkeley’s Master of Information and Data Science where she teaches the Capstone course. Among other volunteering, through SEO, she mentors underserved college students in getting hired into technology and finance roles in Corporate America.

“My work gives me a lot of energy because I’m making a difference and helping others,” she reflects. “I get very energized working with portfolio companies and teams, and when I see former employees or my students grow in their careers and thrive.”

She also loves spending time with family and friends, many of whom have a strong overlap in personal and work values. She cycles, runs marathons, and cooks as a daily analog way to unwind.

By Aimee Hansen

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Sabina Munnelly: Partner, Baringa

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Sabina Munnelly“Sometimes you don’t even see your own potential,” says Sabina Munnelly. “But when someone makes it clear that they see something in you, their belief in you can help grow a belief in yourself that you might have not even had.”

Munnelly speaks to openness on your path, being a force of nature, surpassing the barriers and the value of mirrors that reflect and magnify your possibilities.

Embracing Opportunity and Switching It Up

Since the moment that computers were introduced in the ‘90s halfway through her education at Trinity College in Dublin, Munnelly began a career she would never have seen coming.

“Embrace what comes at you. You don’t have to control everything, and it doesn’t always have to fit in with what you originally thought,” says Munnelly. “I got a whole other opportunity because I opened my mind to the technology piece.”

After starting in banking as a technology tester, Munnelly worked for Compaq and Hewlett Packard, gaining vast experience with big players. Rather than transition to management, she joined Accenture so she could continue to keep her hands in project work. Across 16 years, she jumped between various tech and data related areas of expertise, becoming a Managing Director at Accenture Applied Intelligence, and moving to New York from Europe.

“I always like to pivot every three years or so, to keep myself up to date. I’m a bit of a magpie,” confesses Munnelly. “Anything that is white space. Give me a white board, and I’ll figure it out. I prefer that, so my journey has been a constant evolution.”

In 2021, she joined Baringa, a global management consultancy working across multiple sectors including energy, financial services, telecoms, media, consumer goods, retail and government. As a leading advisor on the energy transition globally, sustainability runs through much of the business’s work across sectors. In addition to enjoying the entrepreneurial spirit of building a fast-growing team in the U.S., Munnelly feels she’s come full circle to interests at her roots, having written her thesis on wind farming back in college.

“From a financial services perspective, there’s a lot of momentum behind the notion that if you can put the capital to make the most impact in the right place, then change happens where the money goes,” notes Munnelly. “If I can be involved in making change happen through climate activity and how investors deploy their capital to fund those changes, that really resonates with me.”

Equally, culture was a big factor in her move: “For me, you have to be able to get up in the morning and love what you do and love the people your work with. A people-focused business was really important to me.”

A Force of Nature

Describing herself as driven, Munnelly feels curiosity and a love of learning and problem solving motivate her. She enjoys start-to-finish involvement, and smiles saying she would be called “a force of nature” by her colleagues.

“It’s definitely an energy, but also a cohesion with the team.”

While she’ll come into a room with a strong point of view, she feels ‘nature’ implies a melding with the environment. She’s very much about being ‘in it together’ as a team and enjoying the adventure, and feels energized by working with others. These days, she would admit that her intuition and her attunement to reading the energy of a room have been important contributions to her success, as well as self-care.

Her sensitivity to her own and other’s energy has increasingly been a validated part of how she navigates her work-life: “I balance my energy. So I don’t think about the hours I work. I actually think about the energy I expend in a day.”

If You Can See It…

Growing up with three younger brothers, Munnelly was both accustomed to being in male-dominated spaces and being respected in them. So when she went into finance and tech, her context didn’t phase her.

“I enjoyed going into rooms and finding those moments where I’d pipe up with an interesting point of view or a question, and all of a sudden, people would shift around and look at me,” she says. “So I find it quite empowering. I’ve used the difference to my advantage.”

Only as she grew more senior did the gaps in representation of women become far more visible to her. And being one of the few in that space, she felt her role was to vocalize what she saw.

“It increased my use of my voice. It’s important that it doesn’t become a silent observation or be held in,” says Munnelly. “It’s important to make sure that things are noted and vocalized, and even with the reasons, considered.”

Mary Robinson, the first female president of Ireland who held term from 1990-1997, was a real inspiration in envisioning possibility. It made such a difference to teenage Munnelly that it stirs up emotion even today. Robinson allowed her to see not only what could be, but what was possible.

“I think all of these factors combined meant I didn’t buy into the barrier, and just ignored it, and still today it hasn’t stopped me, because I have a deeper belief that it can happen – at least in the spaces where I’m operating in.”

Coming to Baringa, she was met with a U.S. office that held a 50/50 gender representation at senior levels, and where every individual has an advisor. Having doubled down on its U.S. growth in the past 5 years, a DEI approach has infused the internal culture and focus for external impact from the outset.

Do What You Love, and Empower Others

Due to her extensive background in consulting and taking an advisory role, Munnelly has become adept at taking the listening seat to consider all voices when it comes to coming up with the best way forward, rather than just pushing her initial viewpoint. She’s learned to take her own ego out of the way.

As she thinks of the shift from ‘doing’ to ‘enabling’ as a leader, and the amount of letting go required, Munnelly is grateful for the people that saw her potential and trusted her. Having your ability reflected back to you matters, she feels, regardless of what level you’re at. She focuses on paying that back, in witnessing, encouraging, motivating and empowering her team through trust: “At the end of the day it’s belief and self-belief that matter.”

“Build your skills using the best of others that are ahead of you,” she suggests. She encourages women to pick up the best of what they observe in managers and leaders, integrate what inspires you and make it your own.

Do what you love is a practical direction she recently received from a leader that empowered her: “She didn’t say ‘meet these numbers’ or ‘I want you to do these things.’ She gave me the freedom of saying ‘just continue, but do what you love.’ She probably knew that if I heard that, then I would already motivate myself and do more than what others would ask from me,” reflects Munnelly. “If I’m in a positive frame of mind, loving what I’m doing, then I’ll be even more successful.”

She suggests to ask yourself if is it possible to tweak your work to get more enjoyment out of what you’re doing. Family, friends, a good chat and laughter are core to Munnelly. She enjoys spending time with her young daughter who keeps her more than busy and grounded. She also loves cycling, and while she’s always loved adventure and fast movement, in the past years she’s begun taking up more energy balancing activities like acupuncture and massage. She’s also a Reiki master.

By Aimee Hansen

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Op-ED: How to Navigate Your Career as a Working Mother in Technology

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Working Mother In TechnologyNavigating one’s career as a working mother in technology is akin to holding a porcupine, while jumping through a ring of fire, and trying to put mascara on at the same time. It can be uncomfortable, it can make you feel hot, and we try to look our best while doing it all. In fact, our survey of over 300 mothers worldwide, published in our book Pressing ON As A Tech Mom: How Tech Industry Mothers Set Goals, Define Boundaries And Raise the Bar for Success, revealed that 34 percent felt that working in such a hectic, high-speed environment was incredibly tough and sometimes downright impossible. Being a woman in tech is challenging, but being a mother makes it even more so challenging.


With just 27 percent of female representation in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) industries, women are underrepresented. Mothers who remain in these fields are even fewer, with 43 percent of women leaving full-time STEM employment after their first child (PNAS). Since women in tech studies report that $12 trillion could be added to global GDP by 2025 with a more gender-diverse workforce, where balanced contributions can lead to the creation of workplaces in which “employees feel safe to innovate, knowing that their unique experiences and contributions are valued” (JAB), there are compelling reasons for change.

As mothers in tech, what can we do to overcome the obstacles, and rise above to thrive in our careers, rather than only survive?

Here are three key steps to navigating motherhood and their STEM careers:
  • Squash Imposter Syndrome – When we believe that we are unworthy of the role that we are in or feel that we lack the skills to be successful, we often feel like imposters. According to Forbes, 75 percent of professional women report experiencing this unsavory feeling. When these thoughts and ideas enter our minds, we need to invoke a strategy to dismiss that negative feedback loop. Instead of telling yourself “I don’t know what I’m doing,” leverage positive self-talk and think about the skills that you are bringing to a role or situation. If you are a leader, be mindful about providing positive reinforcement for a job well done and enable an emotionally safe space where giving and receiving feedback is welcome.

 

  • Find A Mentor And A Sponsor – Mentorship and sponsorship are one of the most important ways to enable a woman to rise. Yet in our survey for our book, we found that just 41 percent of women ever had the benefit of these champion roles boosting their careers. Understanding the difference between the two is one place to start: A mentor is someone with whom you can brainstorm ideas based on shared values. A sponsor is someone who can influence decisions about your career and/or compensation. Note that your sponsor and mentor can be male or female so long as they are your true advocate, in tune with your accomplishments and career goals. A second step to take is to seek these crucial advocacy roles out by simply asking mentor and sponsor candidates. Most people are willing to help, which leads us to our third tip:

 

  • Lift Up Other Women – Live by the “golden rule” – treating other mothers in tech the way that you want to be treated. In past decades, women like my mom recount stories of women mistreating one another in favor of their own advancement (“To climb the corporate ladder, I needed to beat out the other women who were vying for the same limited roles.”).  While competition can be healthy, mindfully supporting one another is most important to nurture a balanced workplace where women can rise, and thrive, together. Lend a helping hand to a mother reintegrating into the workplace after parental leave. Invite another woman to join an important meeting as part of a career development initiative. Oblige when asked to serve as a sponsor and/or mentor for others.

By being confident, seeking out allyship, and practicing benevolence, mothers in technology have a greater chance of breaking down barriers and invoking change. With more mothers staying in technology, a more inclusive environment will emerge that sets the precedent for future generations. So, while the day-to-day routine of a working mom may feel like a circus act, continue to show up. Persist. Persevere. Your efforts are part of our movement to change the future for our daughters and their allies.

Other resources to nurture and inspire your journey that we often use include:
  • How Women Rise: Break the 12 Habits Holding You Back from Your Next Raise, Promotion, Or Job. In their book, Marshall Goldsmith and Sally Helgesen identify twelve habits that women typically have that limit their ability to grow professionally and ways to change those behaviors.
  • The Adventures of Women in Technology: How We Got Here And Why We Stay, by Alana Karen. Alana is Senior Software Engineer at Google, where she’s worked for over a decade. She has seen it all and remains loyal to her craft. Learn how she does it, and more importantly, why she is still in tech.
  • Nevertheless, She Persisted: True Stories of Women Leaders in Tech. This book by Pratima Rao Gluckman recounts the stories of hundreds of women leaders who faced adversity and hardship in their tech careers, yet managed to find success.

About:
Sabina M. Pons is a management consultant whose focus is on driving revenue protection and growth for technology companies. In her 20+ year career, she has led global corporate teams, managed multi-million-dollar P&Ls, and built teams from the ground up. Now, she serves as the Managing Director of the emerging management consulting company, Growth Molecules.

With a master’s degree in Communication, Leadership & Organizational Behavior from Gonzaga University and a bachelor’s degree in Communications from the University of Southern California, Sabina is passionate about igniting corporate transformational change. She also sits on several boards, participates in many mentorship programs, and recently obtained a First-Degree Black Belt in Taekwondo. Sabina resides in Orange County in Southern California with her husband, two young children, and Goldendoodle dog, Riley. Pressing ON as a Tech Mom: How Tech Industry Mothers Set Goals, Define Boundaries & Raise the Bar for Success is Sabina’s first book.

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OP-Ed: From Gaming to Gowns: Bringing More Women to Artificial Intelligence

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women in artificial intelligence Bringing more women into artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t just about gender equality. The science of AI offers the opportunity to make data more human, positively impacting nearly every aspect of our lives. Since artificial intelligence uses technology to mimic human decision-making, it is a field that requires a diversity in perspectives from the people who develop it, and yet the gender gap in AI companies limits the innovation and integrity of the products they create. If the data fed into AI algorithms contain bias, their outcomes will as well.

Research from Gartner predicts that in 2022, 85% of AI projects will deliver “erroneous outcomes owing to bias in data, algorithms or the teams responsible for managing them.” To prevent AI from furthering discrimination, we need to start by looking at the man – and the woman – in the mirror, and ensure that those creating and developing AI technology represent a spectrum of society at large.

Supporting Female Talent to Grow and Thrive

This doesn’t mean that creating a representative workplace is easy. Getting more women and diverse populations into STEM is a slow process, starting with primary education and eventually moving into universities and technical schools, encouraging and cultivating talent at every step in the process. Yet research shows that gender diversity can truly make a profound impact, even to a company’s bottom line. As the co-founder of a female-led AI company, we focus on what we can do as employers to embrace and develop female talent in the workplace. I recognize that this is only one piece of the puzzle, but through the inspiring stories I hear of female coders, engineers, and technologists, I am encouraged that even small steps can make a difference.

For those of us in the retail technology sector of AI, building a workplace in which female talent thrives is especially important, as our customers are primarily women. Yet my personal work history is rooted in a much more male-dominated side of the AI industry – gaming. I started my career at a gaming startup in San Francisco where I was the first female engineer. I noticed a palpable difference when other female engineers slowly joined the team. The team dynamic changed immensely, including the team communication and strength of interpersonal connections.

At Lily AI, our initial focus on fashion and apparel within the retail space naturally attracted women to the team more easily than gaming. As we grew the company and hired more people, it became evident that having personal experiences with online shopping – whether as a male or female – brought an additional depth of understanding to the product, and the challenges of search and personalization on e-commerce sites. Still, while our styling team is most predominantly made up of women, our engineering team has taken the most concerted effort to find a gender balance. We try to be intentional about creating diversity through hiring, through our workplace culture, and in mentoring female engineers – and are currently at over 52% women on our full-time staff, a rarity within Silicon Valley.

From our experience in growing Lily AI, we’ve found there are three main elements to focus on to help promote gender diversity:

Inspire women studying engineering


In order to have enough female talent to create gender diversity in engineering companies across the country, encouraging girls and women while they are still in school is key. Social influences still steer some girls out of STEM, and that cultural discouragement can be counteracted by showcasing female trailblazers, especially in fields like AI. We try to get out into the community, speaking to young girls and college students, offering internships and making ourselves visible as women in AI.

Encourage career growth through mentorship


Through both formal and informal mentorship programs, it is essential to be intentional about nurturing female engineers’ career paths. It is pivotal to not only hire women into AI teams, but to ensure they have the resources they need to reach leadership positions.

Create a culture that provides equal opportunities


In addition to paying women equal wages for equal work, prioritizing workplace benefits like flexible hours, remote work, and showcasing a track record of successful maternity leave is essential. My co-founder is currently on her own maternity leave, intentionally setting an example for the women and men at our company that this time away is not just offered, but encouraged, and that having a family does not stunt your career path at Lily.

There is still much work to be done in creating not only gender diversity in AI, but also a broader range of racial and social diversity within the tech industry at large. I am encouraged by progress we’ve made, such as currently having such brilliant women leaders on our board like ​​Maha Ibrahim, Vanessa Larco and Marigay McKee. These women in leadership are an inspiration to me, and will hopefully be beacons to other female talent across industries.

Sowmiya Narayanan is the co-founder and CTO of Lily AI. She previously worked in technology leadership and software engineering roles at Box, Pocket Gems, Yahoo! and Texas Instruments, and has a Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas, Austin.

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Women in Tech: Is a “Widespread Cultural Reset” on the Horizon?

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women in techAmidst a global acceleration of the tech transformation, the shortage of tech talent is becoming increasingly pressing. Accenture is advocating that a “widespread cultural reset” is needed to address the gaps in women’s representation in tech.

COVID-19 Disproportionately Affected Women In Tech, Too

A recent tech report by Kapersky showed that over half of surveyed IT professionals felt that women in senior tech roles had increased and gender equality had improved.

But nearly half the women in tech felt COVID-19 effects had delayed, not accelerated, their own career progression, largely due to the challenges of balancing home/work life while taking on a disproportional amount of cleaning, childcare, and homeschooling responsibilities. Four out of every ten women felt these pressures had kept them from pursuing career changes, and the same amount felt men had faster career progression. Not to mention that male-majority teams dominate female-majority teams at nearly a 5 to 1 ratio.

Another 2021 “Women in Tech Report” by TrustRadius shared that women were equally as likely to claim the pandemic had a negative impact on their careers as a positive one. But men (54%) were more likely than women (42%) to perceive the remote work office in the past year had been positive for women.

57% of women in tech felt burnt out, relative to only 36% of men. Women in tech were more likely to have worked overtime, taken on more responsibility at work, and have much greater childcare responsibility than male counterparts. They were also twice as likely to have lost their jobs or been furloughed since the pandemic began.


The report found that “bro culture” remained pervasive in tech firms, but interestingly only 63% of women in IT/engineering roles reported this, relative to 80%+ in sales and marketing roles in tech firms.

Intervention: Unbiasing Systems and Caregiving Support

In identifying the best tech companies for women, Anita B concluded from their 2021 Top Companies for Women Technologists report that those organizations which focused on unbiasing systems such as recruitment and performance management, rather than just training on raising awareness of bias, had much stronger representation of black women and Latinx women. The report found that companies with mandatory training on unbiasing the hiring process have 20% more tech women and tech women hires.

When it comes to women of color, companies that provide caregiving support as a benefit had higher levels of black and Latinx women, especially at the senior and executive levels. Companies that conducted intersectional pay audits had 30% more women hires, 90% more black women hires, and 80% more Latinx women hires.

Wake-up Call: “Widespread Cultural Reset”

Accenture’s Resetting Tech Culture 2020 report found that an inclusive culture that enables everyone’s voice to be heard at both the academic and professional levels is the “master key that unlocks opportunities for women who are studying and working in technology.” The pillars of “more-inclusive culture”, underpinned by 40 specific factors, are “bold leadership, comprehensive action and empowering environment”.

For example, only 1 in 20 tech women feel like an “outsider” in more-inclusive colleges, whereas 1 in 4 women feel this way in less-inclusive colleges. Among more-inclusive cultures, all women are much more likely to see a clear pathway from studying STEM to a related career and are much more likely to enjoy their jobs. And while literally half of women in tech roles among less-inclusive cultures feel they are made to feel their job is “not for people like them”, this drops to 16% in more-inclusive cultures. Also, in more- inclusive workplace cultures, the likelihood of women advancing to manager and beyond by age 30 increases by 61%; for women of color it increases by a staggering 77%.”

But Accenture found that HR professionals tend to significantly undervalue the importance of building a more-inclusive culture and support in retaining and advancing women in tech roles, only 38% seeing it as effective, when it’s the number one reason why women leave tech jobs, and alongside with more role models, the top factor listed for attraction.

Accenture is advocating for a “widespread cultural reset” to drive the much-needed change in tech, projecting in just one example, that if every company had a culture like the top 20% more-inclusive ones, annual attrition of women in tech could drop by 70% and 1.4 million more women would be retained by 2030.

Overall, Fortune points out that women need the same conditions to thrive in tech as anyone needs to thrive: “encouragement; hands-on tech discovery in school; the presence of role models in leadership positions; mentorship; executive sponsorship; fair pay; workplace inclusion; and the flexibility to parent while employed.”

By Aimee Hansen

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Women In Tech: Why Tech Is Increasingly Desperate For Women

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women in techThe lack of sufficient representation of women in tech at all levels is hailed as a “crisis” for the global economy. Yet the accelerating tech industry, while in massive need of highly skilled talent, is still fumbling to both bring women back to and keep them in an industry that they, for the large part, pioneered.

Global Acceleration of Tech Transformation

In 2019 and 2020, technology compromised 10% and 10.5% of US GDP, nothing compared to where it will go. The 2020 McKinsey Global Survey of executives reports how much COVID-19 has accelerated the global tech revolution: speeding up digital customer interactions by three years and digital products/services by seven years.

Whereas executives had envisioned shifts such as remote working capabilities and increased used of advanced technologies in business strategy to take 454 and 635 days respectively, these shifts happened in real time in just 10.5 and 25 day in 2020.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that tech and computer related occupations will grow by 13% from 2020 to 2030. Tech occupations have a median annual wage that are 117% more than median annual wage for all occupations.

The Dice Tech Job Report shows that after a dip in 2020, tech job postings were up by 30% in Q2 of 2021 versus a year ago, creating “one of the hottest market since the dot-com era.”

Shortage of Tech Talent Is Most Acute in U.S. Financial Services

Meanwhile, a shortage of tech talent is considered the top restraining factor for adopting 64% of new technologies, and Korn Ferry is forecasting that by 2030, 85 million jobs could go unfulfilled globally, resulting in a $8.5 trillion talent shorted.

The U.S. financial services sector is anticipated to be most affected by the talent shortage, resulting in a $435.69 billion shortfall forecast, a third of the global sector total, and is anticipated to be in acute deficit within the financial services sector. India is the only country projected to have a surplus of highly skilled finance and business services tech talent by 2030, with current surplus countries such as China, Russia and UK losing that footing.

“Global financial services players are already experiencing skilled-talent shortages and are set to face the greatest talent gap of any industry sector in the next decade,” states Michael Franzino, President of Global Financial Services at Korn Ferry. “Financial services leaders need to act now or they will forfeit substantial growth opportunity.”

Women’s Representation in Tech Industry

According to the Anita B report, 2021 Top Companies for Women Technologists, women’s participation in tech (among their wide sample of firms with 100+ tech employees) slid by 2.1% from March 2020 to January 2021, to just 26.7%, a backslide after five years of progress. (Tech giants such as Apple, Facebook, Netflix and Google did not participate, where women make up about 25% of tech positions.) 18% fewer women were brought into tech positions due to hiring freezes in 2020 with a rebound in January 2021, women representing 31% of new hires that month. The share of women being promoted remained steady.

Among the participating companies, women as tech CEOs jumped from 3.9% in 2020 to 10.0% in 2021. While white women were represented from entry level (13.1%) to executive leadership (15.3%) at similar levels, representation for women of color declines as the ladder goes up. And while Asian women begin almost in parity to white women at 12.6%, they only comprise 3.7% of executive seats.

In the UK, The Guardian notes that despite the decade long agenda of boosting female representation in technology, “the percentage of women employed in tech in the UK has barely moved from 15.7% in 2009 to 17% today. And women hold just 10% of leadership roles in the industry.”

Pioneered by Women, Now Unable to Attract and Retain Them

The underrepresentation of women in STEM is a persistent theme, with hurdles across seven different levels including the drastic erosion of women’s sense of belonging in the STEM field.

“Ironically, America’s tech industry started as a majority-female industry. As Mary Ann Sieghart notes in Wired, during the 1950s and ’60s, roughly 90 percent of programmers and systems analysts were women,” writes Victoria Mosby in BizTech. “By the 1990s, however, men held most of those positions.”

As recently as 1984, women comprised nearly 40% of computer science majors at U.S. universities, and women comprised 35% of tech workers. Today, fewer than 1 of 5 Chief Information Officers at the 1,000 biggest companies are women.

Accenture’s Resetting Tech Culture 2020 report shares that women leave tech roles at a 45% higher attrition rate than men, and 50% of women who take a tech role drop it by the age of 35, 2.5x more than attrition in other positions. Meanwhile, there’s a huge disconnection between HR leaders perception and the women working in tech: HR is twice as likely to perceive it’s easy for women to thrive in tech.

What needs to shift? Next week, theglasshammer focuses on how COVID-19 has impacted women in tech and why tech is crying out for what Accenture calls a “widespread cultural reset”.

By: Aimee Hansen

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Niamh Bushnell: Chief Communications Officer (CCO), Soapbox Labs

Niamh Bushnell“Communicating about things I feel passionate about feels good, even joyful.” says Niamh Bushnell, CCO of SoapBox Labs, based in Dublin.

Bushnell shares her passion for Ireland’s technology prowess, the importance of equitable AI and the challenges for women in technology. 

Tech Was The Ticket, Ireland Was the Passion

Coming out of university in the mid-90’s, Bushnell was keen to travel, use her foreign languages (Spanish, French and Italian), and work with smart, exciting people.

“So it wasn’t a love of technology itself that attracted me to the tech industry.” she admits. “I’ve always had those two sides, working with savvy tech entrepreneurs and representing tech companies, but not being a ‘tech person’ myself. What I did love, and was drawn to, was their smarts, and the universality and the dynamism of the industry.”

During 16 years based in the NYC area, she worked on supporting Irish, European and other international start-ups in entering the U.S. market. While adventure may have drawn her to tech, what compelled her to remain has been the opportunity to secure Ireland’s place in the “pantheon of technology champions.”

“For someone who loves to travel and has a global mindset, I’m also very committed to supporting local – be where you are, get involved in where you, shop where you are,” says Bushnell. “I was 16 years in NYC when I saw an ad for a leadership role in Dublin – to be the face of the indigenous tech industry there, to tell the story of Dublin as a city of technology and innovation. It read like a job tailor made for me, with a mission I could be really excited about.” 

In 2014, as Dublin Commissioner for Startups, she returned home with family, where she launched popular initiatives like the First Friday Brekkie, the publication Dublin Globe (to tell the stories of Irish tech companies), the data tracking platform TechIreland, and female founder focused activities like the €100M campaign, and the video series Female Founder Fridays.

“People think that multinational companies are the only Irish tech stories,” states Bushnell. “But there are over 2000 Irish startups and scale-ups expanding globally with technology homegrown in Ireland. I was just really fired up to tell that story.”

The Power of Tech Networking

As Commissioner, Bushnell’s strategy was to focus on promoting “the best of the best” Irish companies to achieve international traction.

“My philosophy was always that to win, our approach can’t be to love all of our companies equally. If we want Dublin’s reputation to grow, we have to focus our limited resources on promoting the very best companies, the most talented and gifted teams, the businesses with the greatest global potential,” she remembers, “Promote them first and foremost, and all Irish companies will benefit from that.”

It was at one of the monthly First Friday Brekkies Bushnell hosted in the Commissioner’s office that she met Patricia Scanlon, CEO and Founder of SoapBox Labs, a deep tech AI company specializing in speech recognition for children. They happened to both have a ring made by the same Soho designer from their stints living in New York. 

“You can tell when you meet founders how deep their ambition is, how great their vision is, and how solid their ground rules are,” states Bushnell. Scanlon’s 20+ years of specialization in speech recognition, her vision, and her approach to fundraising impressed Niamh hugely.

“Speech recognition for kids hadn’t really been touched,” explained Bushnell. “So SoapBox was going to be the specialist who would become a world leader in that space. The ambition to deliver on that was already tangible.” 

Real integrity in AI 

In her current role at SoapBox Labs, Bushnell testifies to the value of foresight and patience in developing the best technology to positively impact all user’s lives.

“Is your AI developed in a way that is equitable – that doesn’t have inherent gender bias or racial bias?” asks Bushnell. “If voice tech doesn’t recognize a kid’s dialect and gives them a lower score on a reading assessment because they don’t pronounce words in the way the AI has been built to understand them, they’re going to lose out at school.” 

“The way technology is built these days hugely impacts people’s quality of life – including their physical and mental health – and it can impact them socioeconomically too.” says Bushnell. “Equity is a big piece. Our voice technology has been proven to show no bias when it comes to accents and dialects. That’s massive. We built it with the ambition to deliver a level playing field for all kids, so we’re super excited that independent validators and customers are confirming that.”

As technology becomes more deeply integrated into our lives and education, especially at a young age, it’s more important than ever that it offers a positive and accurate experience for all users. With voice technology, this means developing solutions from the ground-up that actually work for all kinds of children.

“So that’s the compelling vision I’m now happy to be communicating,” smiles Bushnell.  

Challenge for Women in Tech

Having held several roles promoting the tech industry, Bushnell has talked to many women about their experiences. 

“What is one-hundred percent true, but kind of unbelievable still, is that women founders who are technical by background are often not taken seriously for their big vision and big ambition,” says Bushnell, especially if they’re proposing game changing, first-of-its-kind innovation. 

“Women founders who are scientists, who are engineers, who are PhDs, who have spent their whole careers building innovation and have the patents to prove it, these women say that when they go into a room and position a big vision of something that is going to change the world, they are often not believed by the men or the women (if there are any) sitting on the other side of the table.”

These women need extra grit and resilience as they move step by step through the process of knocking down the hurdles placed before them. Bushnell agrees that women have a huge responsibility to support other women in breaking down the barriers we collectively face. She also says it’s about time that women get over the need to be liked by everyone. 

“I think you’ve gotta really be comfortable with being a leader and being respected” she says, “but it’s also okay to be unpopular for decisions you make. It’s also okay to be wrong about decisions you make and put up your hand and say so. I think women care a lot more about their reputations at every stage of their journey than maybe they should.”

Despite the observation that society has a harder time accepting and encouraging women through failures, she encourages women to learn to embrace racking up some failures along the way. 

“We just have such a hard time faking it until we make it,” says Bushnell. “and business is nothing but that. You never really have any of the answers! You do good research, pay attention to the trends, listen to your instincts, but in the end, you have to take risks.”

One of her greatest experiences was in the TechIreland role when her team had little resource but a big vision. She loved taking risks, dusting herself off, and developing the tenacity to get up again and learn by doing. 

“You can have loads of failure but if you have tenacity, the chances are you’re going to figure it out as you try and fail, as you go along.” she muses.

“There’s a lot of freedom when you’re comfortable with risk, and with freedom comes creativity. Don’t worry if every single step isn’t going to come out as you want it to. Often times you don’t even know what the ideal outcome is, until you start.”

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