Women In Technology Spotlight: Recent Episodes

Ronke Babajide

A space where I talk to women working in IT across the spectrum of different roles. We will discuss our career journey, visions, obstacles, roles, our views on the industry, what we love and why we are here to stay

Ludmila’s international path (Slovakia → France → Austria) shaped a career that bridges investigations, corporate IT security and entrepreneurship. We discuss how to choose a focus in cybersecurity, the role of multilingual communication, and urgent issues at the intersection of AI, social media and child safety. She shares practical advice for parents, teachers and communities—and how events and roundtables can raise meaningful awareness.

In this episode, we meet Teresa Pereira aka starmtp, Cyber Threat Hunter at a multinational energy company, who shares how she moved from penetration testing and red teaming into the proactive world of threat hunting.

Teresa explains how her experience as an ethical hacker helps her recognize attacker behavior, detect Indicators of Compromise, and collaborate across teams to protect her organization. We also discuss the impact of AI on phishing and deepfake attacks — and why curiosity, critical thinking, and continuous learning are key to success in cybersecurity.

Beyond her technical expertise, Teresa is deeply involved in the global community as OWASP Leiria co‑leader, APIsec University Ambassador, and volunteer at Women in Security and Privacy.

In dieser Episode von Women in Technology Spotlight spreche ich mit Dr. Bettina Thurnher, Chief Information Security Officer der Zumtobel Group.

Bettina nimmt uns mit auf ihre berufliche Reise – von einer kaufmännischen Ausbildung über ein Informatikstudium und eine Promotion bis hin zur obersten Sicherheitsverantwortung in einem international tätigen Unternehmen.

Wir reden über die wachsende Bedeutung von Change Management in der Digitalisierung, warum OT-Security längst nicht mehr nur ein Nischenthema ist, und wie sich regulatorische Anforderungen wie der Cyber Resilience Act auf die Arbeit eines CISOs auswirken. Bettina zeigt, wie Security heute nicht mehr nur als Compliance-Aufgabe, sondern als Business Enabler verstanden werden kann.

Außerdem teilt sie ihre Sicht auf die Rolle von Soft Skills in der IT-Security – von Kommunikationsstärke über Projektmanagement bis zum Umgang mit Widerständen – und warum diese Fähigkeiten in einer Führungsrolle oft wichtiger sind als tiefgehende technische Expertise.

Ein inspirierendes Gespräch für alle, die mehr über den Alltag in der Informationssicherheit erfahren wollen, und für alle, die wissen möchten, wie man mit der richtigen Einstellung und Lernbereitschaft seinen Weg in die Cybersecurity finden kann.

🎧 Alle Folgen hören und abonnieren: https://rss.com/podcasts/witspotlight/

In dieser Folge spricht Julia Dewitz Würzelberger über ihre Arbeit im OT Cyber Security Lab des VERBUND – und über ein Thema mit großer Zukunft: Quantenkryptographie.

Was passiert, wenn Quantencomputer unsere heutigen Verschlüsselungsverfahren brechen können? Wie bereitet sich kritische Infrastruktur darauf vor? Und wie bringt man komplexe Forschung in die Praxis?

🎧 Jetzt reinhören und abonnieren: 🔗 https://rss.com/podcasts/witspotlight/

📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@womenintechnologyspotlight324

Quantenkryptographie #CyberSecurity #KritischeInfrastruktur #OTSecurity

Cybersecurity neu denken – mit Annika Wägenbauer

Annika Wägenbauer ist Gründerin von Cyber Security Redefined, Vice-Chair einer UN-Arbeitsgruppe und Expertin für strategische Cybersicherheit. In dieser Folge spricht sie über ihren ungewöhnlichen Weg vom Asylrecht über die Automobilbranche bis zur internationalen Cyber-Policy-Arbeit – und warum wir mehr Generalist:innen und Diversität in der Tech-Branche brauchen.

💡 Themen u. a.: – Karrierewege jenseits der Norm – Ethik, Rechtsphilosophie & KI – Awareness, Bildung & Purpose in der Cybersicherheit

🎧 Jetzt reinhören und abonnieren: 🔗 https://rss.com/podcasts/witspotlight/ 📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@womenintechnologyspotlight324

Cybersecurity #FraueninTech #Karrierewandel #WomenInTechnologySpotlight

Deutsch

In dieser Folge des „Women in Technology Spotlight“ spreche ich mit Silvia Watzinger, Senior Project Managerin bei Bwin. Wir erhalten spannende Einblicke in die dynamische Welt von Online-Glücksspiel und Sportwetten, erfahren, wie Modernisierungs- und Cybersecurity-Projekte gesteuert werden und welche Herausforderungen Frauen in technischen Teams meistern.

Worüber wir in dieser Folge sprechen:

Silvias Rolle bei Bwin: Initiativen in Sport-, Casino- und Gaming-Bereichen
Die Vielfalt des Angebots: von Online-Casino-Spielen bis zu Live-Sportwetten und Social-Events
Projektmanagement in heterogenen Teams: Technik, Business und Kundenservice synchronisieren
Modernisierung unter Sicherheitsaspekten: Umgang mit der Snowflake-Leakage
Ressourcen & Empfehlungen: Buchempfehlung und TED Talks von Mikko Hyppönen
Erfahrungen und Anekdoten: Gleichstellung, Women-in-Tech-Herausforderungen und Networking
Tipps für Einsteiger:innen: Projektmanagement-Grundlagen, Waterfall vs. Agile und Karrierestart

Links & Ressourcen:

Bwin: https://www.bwin.com
Mikko Hyppönen (Konan): https://www.hypponen.net
Buchempfehlung: If It’s Smart, It’s Vulnerable https://www.ifitssmartitsvulnerable.com/

Abonniere den Kanal, um keine Episode zu verpassen, und hinterlasse gern einen Kommentar mit deinen Fragen an Silvia!

English

In this episode of “Women in Technology Spotlight,” I’m joined by Silvia Watzinger, Senior Project Manager at Bwin. We dive into the fast-paced world of online gaming and sports betting, explore how modernization and cybersecurity projects are managed, and discuss the challenges women face in technical teams.

What we discuss in this episode:

Sylvia’s role at Bwin: Leading initiatives across sports, casino and gaming
The spectrum of offerings: From online casino and poker to live sports and social events
Project management in diverse teams: Aligning technical, business and customer-service stakeholders
Modernization under security constraints: Handling the Snowflake data-leak incident
Resources & recommendations: Book suggestion and Mikko Hyppönen’s (Konan) TED Talks
Real-world anecdotes: Gender bias, Women-in-Tech experiences and effective networking
Starter tips: Fundamentals of project management, Waterfall vs. Agile methodologies and career advice

Links & Resources:

Bwin: https://www.bwin.com
Mikko Hyppönen (Konan): https://www.hypponen.net
Book recommendation: If It’s Smart, It’s Vulnerable https://www.ifitssmartitsvulnerable.com/

Subscribe for more episodes and leave your questions for Silvia in the comments!

Angela Stach ist seit 8 Jahren Lehrerin für Netzwerktechnik & Cybersecurity an der HTL Spengergasse, ebenda auch stellvertretende Leiterin der Cisco Academy, Gründerin der Hackerinnengruppe SpengerH4CKsen und des schulinternen Zertifizierungscenters.

Außerdem e-Education-Koordinatorin, Fachgruppenleiterin, Laborkustodin, u.v.m. Bevor sie Lehrerin wurde, war sie u.a. Systemadministrator, Privatdetektivin, und Grafik/Webdesigner. Neben ihrer Unterrichtstätigkeit bietet sie auch Awareness-Trainings für Firmen an und engagiert sich ehrenamtlich als Trainerin bei Shecurity.

Sasha Cohen O’Connell, PhD is the Senior Director for Cybersecurity Programs at Aspen Digital. Dr. O’Connell comes to Aspen from American University where she was an Executive in Residence and Senior Professorial Lecturer teaching U.S. cyber policy at the graduate and undergraduate levels and leading the graduate certificate in cyber policy and management she developed. O’Connell began her career at the FBI where she served most recently as the organization’s Chief Policy Advisory, Science and Technology and as the Section Chief of Office of National Policy for the FBI’s Deputy Director where she led policy engagement with the National Security Council on a wide breadth of issues.

Among other roles, O’Connell ran the FBI’s Strategy Management Office where she led implementation of the Balanced Scorecard for the FBI’s Director. Upon leaving federal service, Dr. O’Connell was a Director in the National Security Segment of Guidehouse where she led engagements with clients in the homeland/national security space. O’Connell holds a Bachelor of Arts from Barnard College as well as an MPA and Doctorate in Public Administration from American University.

Technologie ist unverzichtbar – doch mit ihr kommen auch Risiken. Barbara Streimelweger kennt sich aus: Nach über zehn Jahren in der ICT-Branche gründete sie ihr eigenes Unternehmen und begleitet seit mehr als 15 Jahren Unternehmen als Executive Consultant, Autorin und Mentorin. Ihr Schwerpunkt? Risiko- und Changemanagement als Schlüssel zu mehr Resilienz und Nachhaltigkeit.

In dieser Episode sprechen wir darüber, wie Unternehmen Cyberrisiken erkennen und strategisch darauf reagieren können. Barbara teilt ihre Erfahrungen aus der Praxis, erklärt, warum Veränderung nicht nur unvermeidlich, sondern auch eine Chance ist, und gibt wertvolle Tipps für ein zukunftssicheres Risikomanagement.

Barbaras Buch: https://www.stragere.at/publikationen-vortraege/maximale-innovation-minimales-risiko/

Barbaras LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/streimelw

eger/

Jacqueline ist eine Data Scientist, die von ihrer früheren Karriere in der Öl- und Gasindustrie in den IT-Bereich gewechselt ist. Um eine solide Grundlage zu schaffen, schloss sie einen Bachelor-Abschluss in Informatik ab und begann in einem Cyber Defense Center zu arbeiten, um KI-Lösungen zur Unterstützung der SOC-Analysten zu entwickeln. Das aktuelle Projekt, an dem sie arbeitet, befasst sich mit dem Training eines überwachten Algorithmus für maschinelles Lernen zur Klassifizierung von bösartigem Verhalten im Netzwerk.

Julia Kotyza ist 30 Jahre alt und Network Security Engineer bei Schoeller Network Control, spezialisiert auf SD-WAN, SSE und SASE. Sie wohnt in Vösendorf und ist ein begeisterter "Nerd", der immer auf der Suche nach neuen Herausforderungen in der IT-Welt ist. Nach der HTL vertiefte sie ihre Leidenschaft für Netzwerksicherheit und IT. In ihrer Freizeit spielt sie gerne Online Shooter oder World of Warcraft, treibt viel Sport und genießt die Zeit mit ihrem 5-jährigen Sohn.

Natalia Petrova-Korudzhiyski kam im Jahr 2000 nach Österreich, um Maschinenbau zu studieren. Nach ihrem Abschluss startete sie ihre Karriere als Versuchstechnikerin und entwickelte sich zur Entwicklungsingenieurin im Bereich Brennkammer und Motorbremsen weiter.

Die Transformation in der Automobilindustrie brachte sie zur Automotive Cybersecurity, wo sie als CPSO maßgeblich an der Implementierung von CSMS- und TISAX-Zertifizierungen beteiligt war. Heute ist sie als Senior Business Consultant bei msg-Plaut Austria tätig. Sie unterstützt OEMs sowie Tier-1- und Tier-2-Lieferanten bei der Umsetzung von Cybersecurity-Regularien, von Gap-Analysen bis hin zu Zertifizierungen, und bringt dabei ihre Leidenschaft und Expertise in einem dynamischen Bereich ein.

Carina Hochstrasser ist seit 2020 wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Logistikum der FH Oberösterreich in Steyr, wo sie im Forschungsfeld "Supply Chain Risikomanagement, Resilienz und Security" tätig ist. Seit Oktober 2023 bringt sie ihre Expertise zusätzlich als Associate im Cybersecurity & Privacy Team bei PwC Österreich am Standort Linz ein. Mit einem Bachelor in "Internationalem Logistikmanagement" und einem berufsbegleitenden Master in "Supply Chain Management" konzentriert sich Carina auf die Cybersecurity in Lieferketten. Ihr Fokus liegt darauf, wie Unternehmen jeglicher Größe ihre Lieferkette gegen Cyberangriffe schützen können und gleichzeitig sicherstellen, dass sie selbst kein Risiko für ihre Partner darstellen.

Elisabeth Gütl ist als Cybersecurity Engineer in der Automobilbranche tätig und entwickelt mit dem Fokus auf Produkt-Cybersecurity innovative Sicherheitslösungen für den Antriebsstrang des Fahrzeugs. Als Cybersecurity Engineer schreibt sie technische Anforderungen für das Produkt und führt Risikobewertungen durch. Sie absolvierte das Bachelor- und Masterstudium Maschinenbau an der TU Wien und spricht fünf Sprachen fließend.

Gemeinsam mit ihrem Mann Michael betreibt sie eine Plattform für IT-Entscheider*innen und Digitalisierungsprofis, die Confare.

Mit ihrer Plattform vernetzen sie IT-Profis auf Events, im Blog und auf Social Media. Mit dem Confare #CIOSUMMITs veranstalten sie die wichtigsten IT-Management Treffpunkte im DACH-Raum und küren mit dem Confare #CIOAWARD die IT-Manager des Jahres in Österreich und der Schweiz.

In der Confare Female IT-Community und dem von ihr initiierten Female IT-Mentoring unterstützen hochkarätige IT-Entscheiderinnen und weibliche CIOs aktiv Frauen, die eine Karriere in der Unternehmens-IT anstreben.

Heute wieder einmal eine "Where are they now" Folge. Ich spreche mit Steffi Jakoubi mit der ich schon 2021 einmal interviewt habe.

Mittlerweile ist viel Wasser die Donau hinuntergeflossen. Seffi ist immer noch bei SBA Research aber mittlerweile Geschäftsleiterin Strategic Partner Management, Communication & Events. Steffi ist auch Mitbegründerin der sec4dev, einer Sicherheitskonferenz für Softwareentwickler.

Sie arbeitet seit 16 Jahren bei SBA Research, wo sie als Softwareentwicklerin begonnen hat. Da sie sich leidenschaftlich für Sicherheit, Sicherheitsbewusstsein und Frauen in der IT einsetzt, ist sie Vorstandsmitglied des Vereins CSA Cyber Security Austria und leitet den Vorstand der Digitalen Stadt Wien.

Als Managerin strategischer Projekte für Aus- und Weiterbildungen im Bereich IT entwickelt Julia Katovsky mit verschiedenen Partnern innovative Konzepte, um attraktive Alternativen zu klassischen, formalen Ausbildungen zu gestalten.

Damit möchte sie vor allem eines: Menschen, die sich beruflich verändern möchten, neue Perspektiven eröffnen. Vor allem die Zielgruppe der Quereinsteigerinnen liegt ihr sehr am Herzen, denn sie ist selbst studierte Kommunikations- und Medienwissenschaftlerin und möchte deshalb gerne ihre Erfahrungen weitergeben, um anderen den Einstieg in die IT-Branche zu erleichtern.

Ihr großes Engagement zeigt sich auch in ihrem ehrenamtlichen Einsatz für Frauen-Netzwerke, zum Beispiel als Mitglied der WOMENinICT. Hier setzt sie sich mit ganzem Herzen dafür ein, noch mehr Frauen für die IT zu begeistern.

Denn: Sich aus der gewohnten Komfortzone zu trauen beflügelt zu ungeahnten Möglichkeiten und Chancen. Nutzen müssen wir sie schon selbst.

Meet Jennifer Culpepper: A Journey from Economics to Data Analytics

Jennifer is a passionate Data Analyst with expertise in Management and Economics. Initially drawn to a career in sales due to her strong communication abilities, Jennifer found herself captivated by data analysis. She soon realized her communication ability was equally valuable in tech, helping her explain complex results to stakeholders and clients. Her professional journey spans several countries, including the US, UAE, Switzerland, Austria and Germany.

Welcome back to our special "Where Are They Now?" episode of the Women in Technology Spotlight.

In this episode, we catch up with Jacqueline Berger, an inspiring figure who has made a significant transition from being a "data scientist in progress" to a full-fledged data scientist at Frequentis, all while juggling the roles of being a mother and a student.

Dive into Jacqueline's journey as she shares the challenges and triumphs of completing her bachelor's degree, landing her dream job in the safety-critical communication domain, and how she overcame the hurdles of rejections and age disparity through resilience, visibility, and networking.

Jacqueline's story is not just about personal success; it's a beacon of encouragement for women in tech, emphasizing the importance of visibility, self-promotion, and the revolutionary "I Am Remarkable" initiative.

From her past as a drilling engineer to her passionate involvement in mentorship and empowering women through technology workshops, Jacqueline's narrative is a testament to the power of adaptability, continuous learning, and the pivotal role of community support in career development.

Join us as Jacqueline also delves into the evolving landscape of AI and data science, sharing insights on the significance of data management, the excitement of working on the cutting edge of technology, and her aspirations for the future in a cyber defense center at a bank. Her experience underscores the importance of soft skills, business acumen, and the transformative impact of bringing diverse perspectives to technology and security.

This episode is a must-watch for anyone interested in the dynamics of career change, the empowerment of women in STEM, and the endless possibilities that lie in the intersection of technology, data science, and personal growth.

Sigrid Uray-Esterer is co-founder of the job-sharing platform JobTwins and has been working together with founder Katharina Miller on the development and expansion of job-sharing in Austria since mid-2021. The two mothers of two children each are convinced that part-time work not only deserves a better image but that there is still a lot of undiscovered potential that needs to be tapped in times of labor shortages. www.jobtwins.work

Margarita Misheva bezeichnet sich selbst als digitale Mutmacherin. Sie unterstützt vor allem Frauen dabei sich auf den Weg in die digitale Zukunft zu begeben. Die digitale Transformation eröffnet unzählige Möglichkeiten, die es zu entdecken und zu nutzen gilt. Um den digitalen Wandel als Unternehmer:in aktiv mitzugestalten, ist es entscheidend, Veränderungen zu verstehen und sie als Chance zu begreifen. In ihrer Rolle als IT-Dienstleisterin und digitale Strategie-Beraterin ist es ihre Leidenschaft, neue Denkweisen zu erforschen und technische Lösungen für Ein-Personen-Unternehmen (EPU) im Bereich der digitalen Transformation zu finden. Mit Mut, Freude und technischem Verstand steht sue ihren Klient:innen zur Seite und fungiert als digitale Mutmacherin, um sie zu stärken und zu inspirieren - so wirkungsvoll wie ein guter Espresso.

Dr. Anna Fedorova, is a Senior IT Business Consultant at Senacor Technologies, a German consulting company that drives big-scale digital transformation in different large enterprises in such domains as banking, insurance, and automotive. She grew up in Ukraine, where she started her academic path, obtaining a double Master's degree in material science in Kyiv and Magdeburg, Germany. She later continued the scientific track with a Ph.D. in material science. After working for some years in IT consulting dealing with different projects around data modeling, transformation, and storage, she decided to go back to school to acquire another degree in Data Science, which she finished recently. Anna is passionate about the current development in the field of AI and especially such topics as AI ethics and algorithms' fairness. She lately wrote her Master's thesis about team diversity in scientific publications about gender bias, and in her free time, she works on personal projects that apply data science tools for research purposes.

In this podcast, we dive into the fascinating world of AI and data science with Rania Wazir, an accomplished mathematician and expert in the field. As co-founder and CTO of leiwand.ai, a startup promoting trustworthy AI solutions, Rania shares her insights on the importance of developing and implementing reliable AI technologies for organizations and businesses. With her extensive knowledge in natural language processing, social media monitoring, and trustworthy AI, she offers valuable expertise and talks about her involvement in various research and development projects related to building trust in AI systems. In addition, Rania's active involvement in international standards bodies such as ISO /IEC and CEN /CENELEC demonstrates her commitment to shaping the future of AI on a global scale. Join us to experience the incredible work Rania Wazir is doing to pave the way for ethical and responsible AI applications and learn more about her contributions to various data-for-good initiatives.

Pat Muoio is a seasoned technology professional and partner at Sinewave Ventures. With a diverse background that began in philosophy, Pat embarked on a career that led her to the U.S. intelligence community, where she discovered her passion for technology and problem-solving. She excelled as a crypto analyst, delving into the world of code-breaking and complex analysis. Pat's natural curiosity and drive to improve led her to become a self-taught programmer, utilizing technology as a powerful tool for analytical work. Over the years, her expertise expanded to encompass various aspects of computing, research, and leadership roles. Recognizing the need for collaboration between the government, commercial sector, and academia, Pat made a transition to venture capital. Joining Sinewave Ventures, she became a partner with a vision to invest in and support commercial companies in their pursuit of government customers. Pat's insights and expertise in cybersecurity have been invaluable, as she witnessed the field evolve and shift towards more systemic and internally focused approaches to security. Throughout her career, Pat has been a staunch advocate for increasing the presence of women in technology, emphasizing the importance of critical thinking, continuous learning, and effective communication in the workplace. With her wealth of experience and dedication to advancing the tech industry, Pat Muoio continues to make a lasting impact on the field of technology.

Welcome to the Women in Technology Spotlight podcast, where we showcase the accomplishments of women making a difference in the tech industry. Today we have an extraordinary woman as our guest who has been in the tech industry for over two decades and specializes in SaaS and B2B marketing. She's an expert in enterprise marketing, has integrated agile methodologies into non-technical disciplines, and is an advocate for Diversity and Inclusion and Women in Tech. Our guest is currently VP Global Marketing at Kubermatic, where she brings her extensive knowledge and experience to lead their marketing efforts. Prior to joining Kubermatic, she held several key positions at well-known tech companies such as VMware Tanzu, Pivotal & Cloudera. In addition to her impressive professional background, she's also the author of the newsletter "Shortcutting the Lead Funnel" In this newsletter, she shares her insights and expertise on B2B marketing strategies and tactics, providing her readers with valuable information that can help them achieve their marketing goals. We're excited to hear about her experiences in the tech industry, her passion for diversity and inclusion, and how she's managed to successfully integrate agile methodologies into non-technical disciplines. Join us as we welcome this remarkable woman to the Women in Technology Spotlight podcast.

Kasia Gora, PhD. is the Co-founder and CTO of SCiFi Foods, a food tech company combining cultivated meat with plant-based ingredients to make burgers shockingly close to the taste of conventional beef. Since completing her PhD. in Biology at MIT.Kasia has spent more than a decade working at companies that harness cutting-edge science to create more sustainable solutions for some of the world's most pressing needs. Most recently, Kasia served as head of portfolio at Zymergen, focused on resource allocation for numerous R&D projects that leveraged synthetic biology to create value for external customers and internal product development. Kasia is an experienced leader in the world of science with a multi-disciplinary background in industrial fermentation and business development. She is passionate about cross-functional team development and about achieving the rapid progress necessary for startup success. Kasia lives in Berkeley, and when she's not working to create the future of meat, she can be found putting her lab skills to work in her home kitchen to create gourmet food, drinks, and desserts for friends and family, or at the local food pantry getting food to people in need.

ENGLISH

Premal Samale was born and raised in India and is now living in Silicon Valley with her husband and kid. She is a new mom and has been in tech for 8+ years. She is currently working as a Senior Software Engineer and is involved in Software Application Development with expertise in designing and implementing software modules.

She is San Jose City Chair for G100 Non-profit Organization. Outside of tech, you can find her spending time with her little one.

GERMAN

Premal Samale wurde in Indien geboren und aufgewachsen und lebt jetzt mit ihrem Ehemann und Kind im Silicon Valley. Sie ist eine junge Mutter und arbeitet seit über 8 Jahren in der Tech-Branche. Derzeit ist sie als Senior Software Engineer tätig und beschäftigt sich mit der Entwicklung von Software-Anwendungen und hat dabei Expertise in der Gestaltung und Implementierung von Software-Modulen. Sie ist auch die San Jose City Chair für die gemeinnützige Organisation G100. Außerhalb der Tech-Branche verbringt sie gerne Zeit mit ihrem Kind.

In diesem Expert Talk diskutieren wir die Auswirkungen von Künstlicher Intelligenz (KI), Algorithmen und Language Processing Engines auf unsere Welt. Wir werden die rasante Entwicklung bei Systemen betrachten, die im täglichen Leben mit uns kommunizieren, Informationen verarbeiten und auch neue Informationen generieren. Wir leben in einer spannenden Zeit, aber diese neuen Technologien bringen sowohl Chancen als auch Risiken.

Für Unternehmen, die sich mit der Veränderung auseinandersetzen müssen, ist es wichtig zu verstehen, wie sie diese Systeme am besten einsetzen können und wo die ethischen Grenzen liegen. Wir werden uns mit Fragen wie diesen beschäftigen: ✅ Wie können uns diese Systeme unterstützen? ✅ Wo setze ich sie am besten ein? ✅ Wie sollte ich sie nicht verwenden? ✅ Wo sind die ethischen Grenzen? ✅ Welche Werte muss ich definieren und in meine Algorithmen einfließen lassen, wenn ich in der digitalen Welt mit immer mehr persönlichen Daten arbeite? Gibt es eine Grenze, die ich nicht überschreiten will, soll oder darf?

Über diese spannenden Themen rede ich mit den VOESI-WOMENinICT Botschafterinnen Sabine Singer, MBA Expertin für Digitale Transformation und Digitale Ethik und mit Gabriele Bolek-Fügl Expertin für digitale Compliance und Vize Präsidentin von Women in AI Austria Ich freue mich auf eine rege Diskussion mit den Expertinnen und unserem Publikum! Wir laden alle ein, die sich für KI, Algorithmen und Language Processing Engines und vor allem für Ethik interessieren an der Diskussion teilzunehmen.

Ihashtag#artificialintelligence hashtag#Algorithmen hashtag#chatgpt hashtag#AI hashtag#Ethik hashtag#Digitalisierung

DISCLAIMER: This episode is recorded in German.

ENGLISH:

I had a conversation with Heidrun, a highly experienced IT professional with over 20 years of experience in presales and business development positions. As the Director of Systems Engineering at Nutanix in Central Europe, she leads a talented team of system engineers.

With a background in computer science, Heidrun has been responsible for the conception and architecture of modernization and consolidation projects in IT infrastructure. Her expertise in system engineering has been honed through years of experience, and she is known for her ability to design and implement innovative solutions that drive business success. Throughout her career, Heidrun has demonstrated a deep understanding of the IT industry and a passion for helping businesses leverage the latest technologies to improve their operations.

Her leadership and technical expertise have helped her build successful teams and drive results for her clients.

GERMAN:

Diese Woche ist der Podcast auf Deutsch. Ich habe mit Heidrun Walker gesprochen, die eine hoch erfahrene IT-Expertin mit über 20 Jahren Erfahrung in Vertriebs- und Geschäftsentwicklungspositionen ist. Als Director of Systems Engineering bei Nutanix in Zentraleuropa leitet sie ein talentiertes Team von Systemingenieuren. Mit einem Hintergrund in Informatik war Heidrun für die Konzeption und Architektur von Modernisierungs- und Konsolidierungsprojekten in der IT-Infrastruktur verantwortlich. Ihre Expertise in Systemtechnik hat sie durch jahrelange Erfahrung verfeinert, und sie ist bekannt für ihre Fähigkeit, innovative Lösungen zu entwerfen und umzusetzen, die den Geschäftserfolg fördern. Im Laufe ihrer Karriere hat Heidrun ein tiefes Verständnis für die IT-Branche und eine Leidenschaft dafür gezeigt, Unternehmen dabei zu helfen, die neuesten Technologien zu nutzen, um ihre Abläufe zu verbessern. Ihre Führung und technische Expertise haben ihr geholfen, erfolgreiche Teams aufzubauen und Ergebnisse für ihre Kunden zu erzielen.

In this special episode, join us for the official launch of the Black Women in Tech DACH group! We are thrilled to launch this community to support and empower Black women in technology in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. This event will provide an opportunity to meet and connect with other Black women in tech and us and hear about our motivation for creating this group. We believe visibility is crucial for Black women in the tech industry, and we want to create a space for conversation and support. We aim to break down barriers and promote diversity and inclusiveness in the tech industry. We look forward to seeing you there!

Wuraola is a pharmacist and data scientist, a passionate professional committed to advancing Artificial Intelligence practice. She is currently a Researcher(Data Science and Data Curation) at Imperial College London and previously Led Research and Innovation at Data Science Nigeria. Her research interest is in Natural Language Processing and she has also been at the forefront of unstructured data application and open-source access, especially in the area of health and language. She is the Author of the Hand-on Natural Language Processing course on LinkedIn Learning, Contributed to the AI in Medicine Textbook by Springer.

Sumita is an Engineering leader with over 15+ years of experience, currently leading teams at CarGurus as an Engineering Director. She is originally from India, moved to the USA for her Master's degree, and has built her career from the ground up. She has worked in various industries including health care, Finance, Insurance and currently working in the automobile industry!

She has been involved in Women who code Boston and Girls who code organizations. Technology and giving back to the community are very important to her. She is also a mom, so paving a path for the younger generation has a personal meaning for her.

As an Engineering Senior Advisor, Roja provides data-driven and strategic solutions for clients using data engineering tools and technologies such as Apache Spark, Python, Databricks, SQL, and BI tools such as Tableau on cloud platforms, including AWS.

She Identifies and develops KPIs that have high-impact value for the business. She's passionate about diving deep into the data ocean, gaining insights, and using analytics for social good. She shares the knowledge and experience she has gained in her learning process through her speaking engagements and writing for well-known tech blogs.

She is a chapter co-lead for Women in Data chapter and is a founding member of the Women Tech Network. Roja won the 2022 Mentor of the Year award at Women in Data.

Karima Moudoub is a Business Development Manager at Fortinet. Diversity and inclusion are part of her DNA, being born French to Algerian parents. She had the opportunity during her childhood in Lyon to grow up with 30 different types of foreign origins with a lot of friends who had parents born elsewhere from Cambodia to Poland or Turkey. As Senior EMEA Cloud Security BDM at Fortinet, she also has embraced cultural differences as she grew mostly interacting with North American and EMEA Business partners, employers, and colleagues to develop new businesses mostly in different parts of the world. Once she realized that it is not always obvious for people even in the workplace to overcome differences to innovate, learn and connect in order to develop the best workplace to perform and enjoy time spent together, she enrolled in associations and created her own network to contribute to share and promote a diverse and inclusive approach willing to promote careers in technology through role modeling towards students and in particular young girls or older women who are seeking career paths. She is the IAMCP EMEA D&I Lead and Women In Technology Network France Founder – part of WIT Network International.

Precious Kolawole is a Dev Degree Intern at Shopify, and a Generation Google Scholar. She is an adept Data Scientist, proficient in Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and Software Engineering for Data Science. She is particularly interested in the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare while aiming to solve some of the world's hidden healthcare problems with technology. This inspired her brief attempt to pursue an undergraduate degree in Medical Rehabilitation at Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, before her relocation to Canada to pursue a Bachelor of Computer Science (Honors) at Carleton University. You'll find Precious making funny and educating Tiktok videos in her free time, a new YouTuber and Technical Writer who can't dance to save her life.

Supreet is a Data Strategist and Data Scientist at Morgan Stanley, where she is the product owner of various AI products and is responsible for building data products. Before this role, she was a Technology and Data Science Consultant. She is also the founder of DataBuzz, a community to engage tech enthusiasts. She is an ardent writer and speaker on data science and AI topics. She is also on the advisory board for Rutgers University MBS analytics program and other organizations. She is an advocate for women in technology and a Google WomenTech Makers Ambassador.

Diese Woche wieder einmal eine Folge auf Deutsch mit einer ganz besonderen Frau: Malika Mataeva arbeitet als Cyber Security Engineer im Cyber Security Operation Center der WKO. Sie ist eines der besten Beispiele dafür dass es möglich ist jeden Berufsweg einzuschlagen wenn man ein Begeisterung für das Thema mitbringt auch wenn man sich nicht von Kindheit an für das Thema interessiert hat oder aus einem ganz anderen Hintergrund in die Technik und/oder Cybersecurity wechselt.

Malika flüchtete vor 18 Jahren mit ihrem Mann aus Tschetschenien nach Österreich. Sie hat einen schwierigen Weg hinter sich: vom Flüchtling ohne Deutschkenntnisse zur Cyber-Sicherheitsexpertin bei der WKO Inhouse. In der Karenzzeit lernte sie Deutsch und begann ein Informatikstudium an der Universität Wien, als ihr drittes Kind in den Kindergarten kam. Während ihres Studiums entdeckte sie ihr Interesse für Datensicherheit und strebte eine Tätigkeit in diesem Bereich an. I

hre Geschichte ist ein besonders gutes Beispiel dafür warum wir unbedingt neue Talente aus nicht traditionellen Bildungswegen fördern und rekrutieren müssen. Und sie zeigt auch auf wie wichtig Rolemodels und Repräsentation nach wie vor sind!

Margarette (Marga) Joven was born and raised in the Philippines and is now living in Canada with her husband and two kids. She has been in cybersecurity for more than 20 years and is currently working as a Staff Antivirus Analyst and is involved in training new analysts on how to analyze malware and how to detect them.

Meet Bosky Mukherjee CEO and founder of PMDojo. After making a highly successful career in Product at startups and Fortune 500 companies both in Vancouver and Silicon Valley Bosky founded her own company. PMDojo is a remote-first global learning community connecting product enthusiasts from diverse backgrounds, walks of life, and learning abilities to real-world career opportunities. Bosky's mission is to break down barriers and make careers in products more equitable, diverse, inclusive, and accessible for all irrespective of experience, background, or learning abilities. As a Product Leader and Founder of PMDojo, she helps career transitioners pivot into product roles with confidence so that they not only find their first product role but thrive in their careers. Outside of PMDojo, you can find her spending time with her little one, coaching teams on Product and Growth, and advocating for mental health. She's a mentor, and coach, and speaks at leading communities for the product including: - Women in Product - Power To Fly - Her Product Lab - Women in Tech Regatta

In 2020, Khadijah Amusat made the switch from public health to technology, and she has since developed her skills by taking online courses and attending boot camps. She participates actively in more than 15 web2 and web3 communities, including Web3 Ladies, Shecode Africa, Baddies in Tech, Learn web3 Dao, Hashnode, and others. She has volunteered as a developer advocate for Coil, an online monetization startup, in addition to serving as an ambassador for Chimoney. She is presently one of the top contributors to the Lazerpay Documentation since she enjoys working on open-source projects. She likes to travel and write articles in her spare time. Frontend development, technical writing, developer relations, and blockchain development are some of her professional interests. She has experience with ReactJS, Typescript, Solidity, Polygon, Solana, Ethereum, and Webflow, among other technologies.

Chisom Elekwa is an Aspiring Security Analyst from Nigeria.

Student of the University of Nigeria, Nsuka where she is studying

medical radiography.

Her hobbies include baking, meeting people of like interests,

gaining new insights and of course, she loves cyber security.

She wants to become a security operations center (SOC) analyst, which for her is a very exciting adventure.

Since beginning her journey, she has interned for Mastercard, the young cisco network, and is currently at Tech4Dev.

This week's role model is data scientist Megan Lieu.

Megan developed a deep affinity for numbers at a young age, seeing them

as a means to not only solve problems but to tell stories as well. After

working in the financial sector, where she focused on business valuations

and financial transaction data, she pursued a career in data science.

As a Data Scientist, Megan uses her experience with Python, SQL, and R to

perform product experimentation and develop reporting pipelines at Narrator.

Temitope Oladokun, Temi for short, is Nigerian and lives in Lagos, Nigeria.

Temi studied computer engineering in the northern part of Nigeria. Today, she's a Senior Technical Product Owner and has experience in managing technical products that innovate with cutting-edge technology (Computer Vision, NLP and Blockchain). As a technical product manager, she interacts with researchers, engineers, developers and scientists on a daily basis.

She's also the founder of Techie Geeks, where she trains teens in hardware and programming, and also builds robotics products on a small scale.

Besides technology, Temi loves to read, meet people, and discuss topics like mental health.

Her favorite motto is "Undying Resilience."

Friederike Heyne studied at Heidelberg University, SoAS London and Oxford

University, with her focus shifting from European Art History to Transcultural

Studies with a focus on Contemporary Tibetan Art.

During her studies, she was able to gather several insights into marketing as

an intern and working student, which led her to join SAP after she graduated

in 2018.

Moving on from Product Management to SAP Women in Tech during the

summer of 2020, she is now a Project Manager for the initiative. Her focus is

to make sure female experts are visible at SAP but also encourage young

women to join the tech industry no matter what background or training they

have.

Pamela is a Nigerian that grew up in the city of Lagos.

In her early high school days, she had an interest in arts and science

(specifically introductory technology). She eventually chose science

and went ahead to enroll in a computer college against the norm

of many of her high school colleagues who chose different careers like medicine

and other popular careers at the time.

Pamela continued in the computer college and attained an advanced diploma in software engineering and had to travel to Ukraine where she achieved a university degree.

Juliane (Julie) Neumann is originally from Germany, is now living, loving and

working in Spain, Barcelona.

She's been in the IT industry and in technical roles for about 8 years now. If

She's not about to solve a technical problem, she's probably doing yoga,

enjoying nature or simply reading a good book. Being a certified Hatha Yoga

instructor, she enjoys sharing her energy with other people to help them on

their very own personal life journey.

If she'd have to describe how she sees life, she'd use this quote:

“Wherever you are, be totally there and realize that the very present moment

is all you ever have.” – Eckhart Tolle

As a drilling engineer with so many years and interesting international

experiences, Jacqueline is one who seeks a new adventure in data science.

Her transition into informatics and data science came after her maternity

leave while working at Schlumberger. Trying to fit the experience into her "new"

the world did not come easy and in search for an alternative led her to informatics

and data science.

In her experience of working in the oil and gas sector, a field dominated by men,

she mentioned that while it was a male-dominated field, she never felt suppressed in

a negative way that made her feel she was not enough. She also said that the use of

pieces of machinery meant that many of the muscle works were automated and easier.

About how she got attracted to data science. Jacqueline believes her interest in

data science has the common denominator with her previous job as a drilling engineer, which was the use of data for analysis and description.

Jyo is also a speaker and she recently spoke at women in tech global

conference where she highlighted the difference between customer-focused

and customer-centric and why organizations should be customer-centric

rather than customer-focused.

Jyo is based in Sydney, Australia. She has worked in tech for

the past ten years of her life and she has been obsessed with

the life. She loves reading (besides the beach while she sips margaritas)

and is an author of a book.

As a customer success manager, Jyo ensures that both her company and

customers are successful. In her role, she seeks to understand why

people purchase technology and how technology helps meet their goals.

Obsession (Being passionate) is a vital key to unlocking the possibilities in

your career. While Jyo was in college, she recognized that coding was not her forte and she did fail at some "coding".

On graduation, she was scared while on the first job, because no matter how hard she tried, coding did not come easy to her.

As she was on the job she had some honest conversations and had the opportunity

to gradually build her career as the customer leader that she is now.

Cindy Adem is a Product Manager at Instil Education and she's from Nairobi, Kenya.

She started as a lawyer, and even though it was not the top choice of interest for her, she however did claim that she enjoyed having a 360-degree view of any event and preparing for the twists and turns along the way.

Cindy narrates her experience of how she had to "disappoint" her parents, who expected her to be a lawyer to pursue what was in line with her passion.

Although Cindy doesn't attribute a moment to be her "aha" moment to transition into tech, she remarked that she has always been driven by the need and passion to be impactful.

The way she does the impact has changed over the years, she still retains the same drive of doing things that matter in the world.

She's currently on a team that is trying to build a virtual learning institution for teachers and students across Africa.

Dianna Galarrager is a Business intelligence analyst at an internet brokerage company.

Diana is from Spain and currently living in London.

When Diana is not at work, her hobbies include traveling,

learning about different cultures, and engaging in adventurous

experiences, such as skydiving.

She believes that her adventurous nature has a part to

play in her daily job.

As a business intelligence analyst, Diana is responsible

for converting data to meaningful insights (find patterns) that can help drive

the value within her company.

Her daily routine can range from cleaning real-world trade data,

to analyze them on requests.

In linking her adventurous behavior to her job, she stated that

one of the exciting things that she enjoyed in her job was that

you never know what is coming for you the next day in terms of

the kind of data that you would work on, which would often require

you to think outside of the job.

Retracting back on her journey, Diana recounted her experience

during high school after having moved to the UK when she was 15 years old.

While in high school she was not totally sure what she wanted to become.

She did eventually choose to be in politics and public relations.

She was pursuing this choice of career when an assignment in the field

had her use a statistical software. She started getting interested in

the field of data analysis and began attending the python class organized by

her university.

When she graduated, she went applied and got a job in a consulting firm,

where she was trained on a hybrid training of project management and business

intelligence.

Having gone through such a period of uncertainty on her journey, Diana wishes to inspire young women who are going into tech and those who did not study STEM-related course or backgrounds.

Meet Amanda who has been in the IT world for 20 years and presales for 15 years.

Amanda is married to a Polish and has a 7-year-old child.

As a sales engineer, she enjoys working with people and technology.

In narration on what skill set she finds the most useful and she talked about communication, empathy, and listening skills.

She highlighted that while it is very important to know about the technical intricacies of a product, It is the soft skills that you possess that come first in presales engineering.

As a child, Amanda wanted to grow up to be an astronaut.

Her dad bought her first computer when she was 9 years old.

She went on to attend a technical high school where she did electronics and interned at 17 at a company that taught about IT.

This became her first contact with the IT world and the numerous possibilities and opportunities present in the field.

She also recounted her experience of how she had always wanted to play football with guys, mostly her cousins and brothers. On some occasions, she got injured but was always encouraged by her parents that she could do it.

Gessica Chies is a Principal Solution Consultant in Infor.

Even though she doesn't have a technical background, she started her career in IT as a Marketing Intern at Microsoft while she was finishing her Bachelor's degree in Economics and made her way up by studying and challenging herself.

She worked for some of the top IT companies: Oracle, Microsoft, Ingram Micro, VMWare, Mcafee, and finally Infor.

After living abroad for 4 years, she decided to go back home and have a more stable life but she is always on the move, enjoying working in IT and traveling to different countries, speaking different languages and still learning every day something new."

Gessica Chies is a Principal Solution Consultant in Infor.

Even though she doesn't have a technical background, she started her career in IT as a Marketing Intern at Microsoft while she was finishing her Bachelor's degree in Economics and made her way up by studying and challenging herself.

She worked for some of the top IT companies: Oracle, Microsoft, Ingram Micro, VMWare, Mcafee, and finally Infor.

After living abroad for 4 years, she decided to go back home and have a more stable life but she is always on the move, enjoying working in IT and traveling to different countries, speaking different languages and still learning every day something new."

Meet Pretty Kubyane Co-Founder of Coronet Blockchain, Director of Iconic Wigs, and inspirational Conference Speaker.

Pretty's business experiences date back to her days in the village, where from the age of 6 she worked in her family's business. Her father owned a car repair workshop and wood cutting businesses.

Prior to co-founding Coronet Blockchain in 2019, she worked in management consulting, specializing in access to new markets. Key highlights include scaling a new business from 500 USD to 2 million USD within 36 months.

She and her husband Shadrack Kubyane then received two funding tranches from a US multinational, to build Coronet, a tailored blockchain-enabled supply chain solution to disrupt Africa’s supply chains.

Their vision leading to 2030: covers the top 3 BFFs: Beauty, Fashion and Food, supply chains. Leveraging tech, for social good across 9 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Uta Haller joined VMware 7 years ago and is responsible for Partner Go-To-Market for Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) in EMEA.

In her role, she is responsible for the development and execution of the channel strategy, initiatives, sales plays and enablement to help partners position HCI as part of their customer's digital transformation journey. Prior to this role, she was the SDDC Partner Lead EMEA and EMEA Partner Program Manager.

Uta has more than 27 years of sales- and marketing experience, working with all routes to market in IT. She has worked for leading Tech companies like SAP where she developed and managed their EMEA partner programs, worked for BEA Systems as Channel & Industry Marketing Manager and their SOA initiatives in CEMEA, and held several Sales- and Marketing positions at Sun Microsystems.

She is also an active member of VMware's Diversity & Inclusion- and the VMware Foundation’s service-learning programs. Uta speaks fluent English and German.

Chioma Nzekwe is PMP Certified Project Manager and Tech Professional with more than 10 years of experience in different IT companies.

She is currently working with SAP Germany and serving as a Senior Technical Consultant.

She is passionate about telling stories (her truth) to empower and educate. She uses personal essays and blog posts to communicate with her network and followers.

Her writing is published on Medium and Linkedin. She is a wife and mother of three children.

Liesel Klokkers who works as presales engineer at Salesforce, Germany is the mother of three children.

Apart from being a woman in tech, she also loves reading and taking walks to observe nature.

She leads a team of 35 presales engineers and she strongly believes in facilitating the development of her team even if it means that they move away, which she calls natural.

She studied computer science and embarked on real-life applications in her with European Space Agency (ESA).

In her career, Liesel has worked with Oracle, a startup, became a freelancer & consultant and then as a first-line manager in Salesforce.

Her recommendations/tip are:

Don't be afraid of something that looks tough from the beginning.
Believe yourself and be hardworking.
In finding your career, find what you like to do (passion) and find mentors for yourself in those areas of interest.

Dola Akinduro is a senior manager with over 10 years of experience in the tech industry.

She currently works at HubSpot where she leads a team of PreSales Solutions Engineers across EMEA.

Dola is passionate about all things PreSales and is an advocate of DEI in the workplace. Proudly Nigerian by birth and Danish by choice, she has lived and worked in Denmark most of her life and now lives in Hamburg with her husband and 1.5-year-old daughter.

Meet Emma Rosell Chief Technology Officer at NetClean.

Emma lives in Gotenburg in Sweden with her husband and her 2 kids. In her free time, she enjoys being active in skiing and climbing.

Emma came in contact with tech as a child. Her best friend's father worked from home on one of the early Apple computers. He allowed her and her friend to borrow it to play games. Emma believes that this early introduction to the technology is the key that created a lasting interest.

As she got older, she discovered the Internet. She wrote her high school project paper on the Internet (this was at a time when the Internet could still be referred to as a single subject). After that, the decision to study information technology at university was easy, and she's never regretted it.

Before starting as a CTO at NetClean, Emma has held multiple other Leadership positions.

Lidia is currently a Specialist Solutions Engineer for the Network and Security Business Unit in the UK, where she's responsible for the Healthcare sector. She has been in this role for almost 2 years now, with a background in Network Engineering.

She's incredibly passionate about making technology and technical careers approachable and accessible by sharing her own experiences. She's also an advocate of bringing your true self to your work and not conforming to the expectations of a career in tech, especially as a woman in a primarily male-dominated field.

Links to see more from Lidia can be found below!

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lidia-rosenova-vasileva

Twitter: www.twittter.com/packetmage

Website: www.packetmage.com

Birgit was born in South Germany and now lives in North Germany,

She started out with being a bank clerk to some other companies including Microsoft and VMware where she currently works,

Brigit has no university degree but believes and participates in lifelong learning through various other platforms to acquire the relevant skills that she needs to build her career.

She also discusses how the private life is relevant to the growth of the professional life when properly harnessed

Finally, her advice for upcoming women in technology is to find and understand their personal motivation.

Pearl Oguchi is currently a Quality Assurance Engineering Lead at Meta (Facebook).

Pearl started out in the tech industry as a junior tester in 2007 and has since worked for numerous tech companies, from startups to multinationals.

On the side, she works as a local councilor for Dacorum Borough in Hemel Hempstead.

She's also a wife and mother and lives with her husband, their three children and their Shih Tzu dog, Arlo.

Surbhi Sharma is originally from India. She moved to Germany a little over 5.5 years ago. Since she was born and raised in India, her education and professional life have given her the opportunity to gain experience in both countries.

Surbhi is a Solution Engineer at VMware, which means she's the pre-sales technical contact for her customers.

She loves working in the tech industry because she believes that technology has the power to change lives, and that's truly a superpower!

Amanda Blevins is a Sr. Director and Chief Technologist in the Office of the CTO at VMware. She enables customers and partners to achieve their business objectives by co-creating a comprehensive technology strategy with executive leaders. She focuses on cloud, edge, and emerging technologies.

Amanda collaborates with VMware’s R&D business units to ensure VMware’s portfolio meets the strategic needs of our customers and the industry. She is passionate about innovation and enabling cross-functional teams to be successful in their creative efforts. Amanda leads the Office of the CTO Global Field Programs that develop technical talent and provides program members the opportunity to participate in Office of the CTO projects and initiatives.

Amanda has been in the IT field for over 25 years in various infrastructure operations and architecture roles throughout her career. She joined VMware as a Sr. Systems Engineer in 2010. She became VMware’s first female Principal Systems Engineer a few years later. As VMware’s first and only female Chief Technologist, she leverages her experience and network to drive awareness and equality for women and all underrepresented people in technology fields.

Most importantly, Amanda believes in "Doing the Right Thing".

Chahak Mittal is a Cybersecurity Professional.

She has been a STEM student at Eastern Michigan University where she completed her second Master in Cybersecurity.

Her previous education is from Thapar University, India.

Apart from being a GRC Analyst and working with Internal SOX Audits, Cybersecurity Training and Awareness is her passion. Chahak is a journal reviewer for IEEE Access as well as Science Publications and recently has been honored by CT University, India, to be an Ambassador for their Cyber Wellness Center.

She has her own YouTube Channel, where she posts videos about online safety tips, cyber-attacks etc. Being a teacher previously, her core interest is towards educating people of all age groups to be Cyber Smart. She is also planning to launch workshops for kids whom she would call ‘CK’s Cyber Heroes’.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chahak-mittal-csxf/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkUeinbOQtToDOAZctwb4JQ

Website: https://technosquad190358141.wordpress.com/

Dr. Dora Dzvonyar was born in Hungary and has moved with her parents to Germany since she was six. She currently works as a science & tech communicator, and cofounded tedXTUM (Technical university of Munich).

She had always wanted to be in the computer science field, and had her dad who was a computer scientist as a sort of role model. Despite her sure love for the field, it got overwhelming and intimidating but she stuck with her dream.

She had her masters in information systems.

Although, she never planned to be a doctor, she found out along the line that she enjoyed teaching and breaking down into smaller pieces, large chunk of algorithms to students in a very practical way of explanation while enjoying and being playful at it.

She has helped several students via tedXTUM and in classes to develop themselves and build real life software projects.

Karin Brunotte works as a Technical Account Manager at VMware.

Karin started her very early career with a three-year technical education in Germany in the automotive industry.

She quickly changed to the IT industry after realizing that this technical field was more open to welcoming young and female professionals. She started as a junior consultant for a German IT service provider and gained profound experience in IT projects all over the world.

After finalizing her studies in business administration, she enhanced her job experience by managing complex projects at top 500 companies. Meanwhile, she works for an American enterprise software vendor and guides her customers as a trusted advisor through the IT landscape.

Besides working she loves to sail and do all types of outdoor sports with her son.

Meet Solange Abou Nasr is who is a Strategic Account Manager at VMware. She is an Advocate of “Life Balance”; Solange is Married, a mother of 3 young children and is passionate about banking and financial services.

While trying to get into the business world from the early age of 9, Solange climbed her way step by step until she found her passion in the banking ecosystem. Grabbing her calling, this pushed her to follow her dream and eventually come to the roots of banking, that is Technology.

Solange believes that technology has a direct impact on people’s lives and this is what transforms our Jobs into a Mission to make people’s lives better and easier.

Happy New Year. We're starting of season 2 with Lynsey Campbell

Lynsey is currently Director of Customer Success EMEA for the Tanzu Business Unit based in Glasgow.

She's a working mum with a passion for technology and organizational transformation. Lynsey is Interested in how people and workforces respond to change, and how technology can be a force for good in the world.

She's also very actively working on making more girls and women interested in joining the STEM field.

Mansi is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), one of India's leading institutes. She started her career at Visa as an intern in her final year before graduation. She worked as a software developer for Visa's internet portal for 3 years, catering to the needs of over 25,000 employees. As a developer, she understood only one aspect of a product: how to create it. But she wanted to gain a more holistic understanding of why you build a product in the first place, who you build it for, and what exactly you're supposed to build.

That led her to join a London-based start-up as a PM intern before going on to earn her MBA at ISB. At the start-up, she had the opportunity to develop a product from 0 to 1.

Privately, she's involved in many NGOs where she mentors young students and professionals, especially girls, to navigate the tech world.

Mansi was also selected as a speaker for the WomenTech Network 2021 International Conference.

A fun fact about her is that she's attended a total of 10 schools in her lifetime.

The quote Mansi lives by: "You did not come this far to only come this far".

Hazel Reambillo leads the Digital Marketing and Creatives team for the fast-growing MKAI Inclusive Artificial Intelligence Community. As a recognized Role Model and Modern Leader for #WomeninAI and #Womenintech, she successfully balances bringing up a family and driving forward the digital marketing strategy for the Artificial Intelligence Community.

Michelle Goossens is a 19-year-old transgender woman from The Netherlands.

Unable to go to school, Michelle focuses on teaching herself the knowledge she wants for any possible future jobs.

Armed with her three-node homelab she teaches herself different technologies and tries to pass this knowledge on through her blog posts.

Along with this, she also posts her gender transition journey on her blog, so it is more than just tech:

https://blog.masterwayz.nl/

Currently, Michelle is trying to upgrade her homelab so she can continue her education with better equipment, Please support her journey by donating to her gofundme:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-michelle-upgrade-her-lab-for-her-education

Nathalie is currently a part-time intern in Core Solution Engineering at VMware, while also working towards completing her master’s degree in Computer Science at the Technical University of Munich. Before entering the world of technology, she obtained a bachelor’s degree in Media Management with a focus on journalism and project management. She is passionate about sharing her experiences and empowering other women to explore their personal paths into the technology space.

She is not only a technologist though: she is also a nature lover, a mindfulness advocate and yogi, an avid reader, a language enthusiast and so much more. Being able to integrate all of these interests and activities with a career in technology is what inspires and motivates her every single day.

AnitaB.org, the organization behind the Grace Hopper Celebration, mentioned in the video, offers scholarships and complimentary registrations to students and faculty, women who participated in bootcamp or other certification programs, as well as to women of color. Check out the information on their website: https://ghc.anitab.org/attend/scholarships/

Sara Puppis is a Business Development Manager/Channel and Partner Strategist at Lenovo.

Sara is a learn-it-all person with a growth mindset. She spent +15 years as a professional volleyball player and this experience deeply shaped her professional journey. Graduated in Foreign Languages and Communications, she has been working in many technology multinationals in the areas of cybersecurity, Finance, Unified Communications & Collaboration, becoming an expert in translating traditional business processes into new models with compelling strategies.

She thrived into marketing, sales and business development for channel partners and customers, always being part of a culturally diverse, geographically dispersed team of professionals.

Sara is a Vocal advocate of Diversity and Inclusion, she has been active in giving back to local communities by driving several initiatives to foster inclusivity, with a special focus on empowering Women in Tech.

Jackie has degrees in technical computer science from the TU Wien, in science and technology studies from the Univ. of Vienna, and in IT security from the FH Technikum Wien.

Besides her current work as a software engineer and her former engagements in IT operations, her main interest is bringing people and technologies together to create safer, more participatory, and sustainable spaces for the adoption and creation of tools and techniques and the sharing of knowledge, with the aim to contribute to a good life for everyone. #morefunnotprofit

Sónia Santos is a Senior Solutions Engineer working for VMWare in the SD-WAN Telco Pre-sales team. She's passionate about learning how the magic behind the technology works behind and always wants to understand all the features of the product she works with. Being a woman in IT starting way back in 1998 has been quite a ride, but one she would not exchange for any other.’

Meet Emily Andrews, Senior Cloud Sales Specialist at VMware.

Emily has always wanted to sell things, not necessarily in tech, but she knew from a very early age that her heart was in sales. She describes herself as a motivated and driven saleswoman.

At VMware, she sells VMware Cloud to enterprise customers in areas such as critical national infrastructure, insurance, finance, retail and transportation. She loves helping her customers achieve their goals and be at the forefront of transformation.

In her free time, she enjoys going on adventures with my family. Her son keeps her and her husband quite busy. She and her family are in the process of expanding their forever home, so she spends many evenings scrolling Pinterest for new ideas.

She's committed to the vision of STEM and loves giving back. She recently applied to be a Governor at the local school to use her technical knowledge to inspire more young girls to get interested in IT.

This week, I had the opportunity to talk to the amazing Priyanka Phalod Client Solution Manager @LinkedIn.

Priyanka deviated from the beaten path that would have had her married and a mother a soon as she finished school.

With the help of her mother, she overcame the traditional female role and societal bias and is now a role model to other young women who are looking to forge their own path in the world away from the traditional options society would push them into.

She shows that it is hard but possible to build a life following your dreams and passions.

In Priyanka's won words:

Growing up in India, in a traditional Indian family, when the clock struck 18 and high school was history, I feared that I would be coaxed into marriage - and that did happen as that’s the acceptable norm. However, I have a very determined, strong, and selfless mom, who (secretly) fearlessly helped me pave the path towards freedom and my higher education. It wasn’t easy at all, being told that her decisions and dreams for me were wrong, it would not reflect well on the family and time was/is running out to find the best suitors (of course, as I’m a girl). My route to escape was a full paid scholarship to The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which is when I believed I could fly!

Now, almost 10 years of being away from home, being told that I was wrong to keep wanting more and that I was a girl and only ‘getting married’ would bring me true joy and happiness ..(drumroll) ..

I wear my biggest smile every day and I’ve never been HAPPIER because I know my mamma is SO proud as I send her this picture today - cause “WE MADE IT TO LinkedIn!”

To all the girls fighting out there, you can do it!

Lara is first and foremost a Sales Specialist within VMware working on the joint Azure VMware Solution with Microsoft- previous to this she was at Cisco working as an Account Manager. However, she is also a qualified RYA Yacht skipper and is currently training to row solo 3000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean next year for charity.

Starting in La Gomera in the Canary Islands and finishing in English Harbour, Antigua and Barbuda the journey should take around 50 days if things go well. Lara's ambitions extend beyond finishing the crossing, she aims to break the current female record of 49 days and 7 hours.

“I come across as laid back but underneath, I am hyper-competitive and love a challenge. I love the sea and am not afraid of being out there alone so it will be more a case of dealing with the huge physical challenge. I know how hard this will be, and I am not going into this with any false optimism or rose tinted-spectacles, I am expecting it to be incredibly tough but I am genuinely looking forward to the test”

In this episode, I speak with the amazing Karen Egan.

Karen is the Senior Vice President of Global Support for VMware. She's based in Cork, Ireland where she lives with her family and has been with VMware since 2009 when she started out as a Senior Support Manager.

Karen assumed her current role as SVP of Global Support in February 2021.

Prior to this, she served as VP of Advanced Customer Engagement. Egan joined VMware in April 2009 as a Senior Support Manager and held.

Karen has over 23 years of experience in the Software/IT industry with 18 years in Technical Support.

Her career started as a #software developer and since 1997 she has worked for American Corporations including Apple, Motorola , and VMware.

Karen has held many roles within VMware Global Services and today is responsible for global support of new/strategic products, all customer escalations, and customer success for VMware’s on-premise solutions.  

She leads an outstanding team of experts that is pivotal in @VMware's customer satisfaction and is an amazing role model to us all.

Shirley Werchota is an advisor for digital transformations and data-driven enterprise topics for BlueSoft.

Her multi-cultural upbringing plays a big role in Shirley's ability to draw new parallels and understand the complexity of how tech is changing businesses around the world in the age of digital transformations.

She focuses strongly on customer centricity and placing the human with their needs at the center of product and service development. Shirley is convinced that nothing works without people and therefore they are the most important asset of any business.

She is passionate about inclusivity and diversity in the field of IT as well as fair and ethical data handling in AI and Advanced Analytics.

Cathy is a Senior Director at VMware, with responsibility for the Global Critical Account Program.

Cathy and her team focus on engaging and supporting customers, who encounter challenging situations with their technology solutions. Cathy's team uses a structured methodical approach, to ensure customers can resume their technology journey with confidence. Thus enabling them to continue in their Cloud Transformation Journey.

Cathy is passionate about customers, people management, developing others, and improving gender diversity in the technological world.

When not working Cathy enjoys exercising, spending time with her family, and following MotoGP.

In this episode, I have the honor of speaking with @Carlotta (Johnson) Berry, Ph.D.

Dr. Carlotta A. Berry is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

She is also recently been named the Lawrence J. Giacoletto Endowed Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering for 2021-2024.

She has a special passion for diversifying the engineering profession by recruiting more underrepresented populations and women to the field. She feels that the profession should reflect the world that we live in, in order to solve the unique problems that we face.

She is co-founder of the Rose building undergraduate diversity program, Rose-Hulman multidisciplinary minor in robotics, Black In Engineering, and Black In Robotics. Her research interests are in robotics education, interface design, human-robot interaction, and increasing underrepresented populations in STEM fields.

Due to her work in engineering education, diversity and robotics, she was named one of 30 Women in Robotics You Need to Know About, awarded the TechPoint Foundation for Youth Bridge Builder Award, FIRST Indiana Gamechanger, and named an American Society of Engineering Education Fellow.

Elena is a Senior Cloud Solution Architect, with a specialist focus on VMware Cloud on AWS. She joined VMware in early 2019 and now works with customers across the UK. In her role, she helps them solve complex business problems and understand and adopt VMware Cloud services.

Elena is passionate about mentoring and people development, she's started mentoring early-career women. When not working, Elena enjoys reading and playing tennis.

In this episode, you'll meet Stephanie Jakoubi,

Stephanie is co-founder of the sec4dev, a security conference for software developers. She's been working at SBA Research for 10 years, where she started as a software developer and is now team-lead of the strategic partnership management team.

Being passionate about security, security awareness, and women in IT, she is a board member of the CSA Cyber Security Austria Association, and she leads the executive board of the Digital City Vienna.

In this episode of the Women in Technology Spotlight we meet Sarah Mestiri

Sarah Mestiri is a Data Scientist @ Remerge GmbH in Berlin.

After her experience as a software engineer, she decided to follow her passion and switched to Machine Learning and Data Science, with a particular interest in Recommender Systems.

Sarah believes that it's by sharing that growth comes. She loves sharing her learnings as well as challenges. She does so through her talks, website: www.sarahmestiri.com, or her Linkedin profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahmestiri/en

Sarah has been dealing with new experiences, joys, and challenges of motherhood which created a bigger desire for her to support other women in their career paths through Thriving Career Moms, a project that she started during her parental leave.

Finally, If you don't find Sarah working, she would be either taking care of her little boy or reading a book. Her favorite books are personal development books and leadership.

My guest on this week's episode of the Women in Technology Spotlight is Katherine Lightner, Director, Cloud Solutions Architecture, EMEA at VMware.

My guest on this week's episode of the Women in Technology Spotlight is Katherine Lightner, Director, Cloud Solutions Architecture, EMEA at VMware. Katherine, who is originally from the US, moved to the UK 13 years ago. Like many of us, she's a career changer. Initially, she planned a career in Health Management and got a degree from Virginia Commonwealth University. After quickly realizing that this was not what she wanted to do for the rest of her life, she took night classes in Windows administration and went on an exciting and highly successful career in IT.

Her journey is a great example of how the right support and mindset can allow women to harmonize passion, family, and careers.

As a hiring manager, Katherine looks for attitude and aptitude over specific skills. She recommends that young women don't listen to people trying to discourage them because they know best what they want to and can do. And, she would like to see more women applying for jobs even if they don't fulfill 100% of the requirements in the job description.

Christel, is a Senior Marketing Analyst, Consultant, and Blogger.

In the interview, she talks about the importance of female empowerment and diversity in IT. She holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Business Consulting, is specialized in Marketing and Sales.

Christel is used to working in an international environment, throughout her university degrees at the University of Applied Sciences, Wiener Neustadt, she was exposed to over 10 nationalities. This experience and her Filipino roots shaped her passion for a global career.

She has 7 years of practical work experience, has worked in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and the Philippines. Her daily work at Dell Technologies, in Channel and Distribution Marketing, involves working with teams/partners from Morocco, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany, and Switzerland.

Her academic background, marketing expertise, ability to create opportunities and experience with cross-cultural teams is what set her apart. In 2021, she published her website www.millennial-warrior.com where she guides visitors on career, personal finance, and wellness. Millennial Warrior currently has over 1 000 monthly visitors.

Christel is also passionate about giving back and has worked as a Consultant for the Philippines, Denmark, and Ireland.

Rashina is a United Nations Consultant and the Founder of Amplify Studio, a creative studio that brings brands into the 22nd century through positioning, storytelling, and buzz-making campaigns.

Led by colorful women of Asian heritage, Amplify’s mission is to help brands become agents of change, through challenging the status quo and leading initiatives that resonate powerfully with today’s vibrant consumers.

She is a true citizen of the world, having lived in different countries throughout her life, she speaks numerous languages fluently. She experienced many different cultures and educations systems and for a while was homeschooled by a woman with a tortoise!

In this episode, we meet Tina Mentschik - Senior Regional Channel Manager at Dell Technologies in Austria.

Tina brings many years of IT and management experience to her position. After completing her studies at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, the Carinthian-born Tina began her career as a Technical Account Manager at Microsoft. T

his was followed by management positions at the software companies VMware and COMPAREX. Mentschik has been working for Dell Technologies for six years, where she first headed sales as Sales & Channel Manager and later as Public Sales Manager. Tina lives on the outskirts of Vienna with her husband and 2 daughters.

She is very passionate about guiding other women on their path to becoming women in Tech. She is mentors and coaches them and is one of the driving forces behind Dell's "Women in Action" programs.

Celine is a Security and Compliance Technical Specialist at Microsoft for UK Local and Regional Government and a public speaker. She grew up in the UK, Belgium, and the US, now settled back in the UK.

Celine is finishing part-time her Bachelor of Science with honours in Computer Science from the University of Derby, having entered tech midway through her degree thanks to internships and teaching herself cybersecurity skills. This was part of a career switch after having spent some years in eCommerce customer service and retail sales.

Believing that tech and security should be inclusive and accessible for everyone, especially as the world is becoming increasingly connected, Celine strives to empower others to become more secure and is working on helping others move upwards in social mobility via building on their digital skills.

Jillian Augustine, is a British-Grenadian data scientist living in Vienna, Austria. She was born and grew up in West Yorkshire in the north of England whilst also (thankfully) spending many school summer vacations on Carriacou, Grenada.

Jillian received a Bachelor's degree from the University of Leeds, in the UK during which she also spent time at McGill University, Canada. In 2018 she received a doctorate in Molecular Biology from the University of Vienna.

Since then she has been working in a range of large and mid-sized companies in various AI/digitalization teams and is currently a Senior Data Scientist in the AI Centre of Excellence at Crayon.

Noor is 35, married, and the mother of a 33-month-old boy. Her top priorities are Mindfulness, Self-care, learning, transparency, and family. Like me, she is keen on empowering women and has a great interest in increasing inclusion and diversity in the IT industry. Noor has an amazing track record in the IT field. Prior to joining VMware,

Noor worked for more than 10+ at Hewlett-Packard Enterprise as a Presales consultant focusing on Enterprise Storage, Compute technologies, Cloud Computing, and Artificial Intelligence solutions. She was the only woman selected to be part of the WIN Conference from the Middle East in 2016.

Noor is also a passionate author; a natural poet. You can follow her writing here on Medium https://nouritanotes.medium.com/ and on her personal blog https://nouritanotes.com/

She is a big believer in "Work-Life Integration and aims to empower busy professional women. As a recently certified Health Coach, she supports other women to uplift their energy, shows them to integrate better self-care habits into their schedule, and helps them adopt a holistic way of living.

Today we have a special episode for our German Speaking audience.

With me, I have Adela Habul who works as a Channel Partner Manager at VMware. Adela has a very interesting background story. She is originally from Serbia and migrated to Vienna with her family when she was 11. She had to learn the language and adapt to a new culture. Adela was interested in fashion and decided to attend fashion school.

Even though her background is not technical, she has been working in this industry successfully for a long time. Bringing to the table her curiosity, ability to learn, and communication skills. I love how Adela is the perfect example that you can succeed as a woman in IT regardless of your background.

When Timea moved from Transylvania to Vienna about 11 years ago to complete her studies at the TU Wien. She was shocked by the low percentage of female students. She had been accustomed to a 50:50 split at home. She quickly realized she wanted to invest her time into changing the situation.

BELONGin.work is s a social startup that helps companies improving the number of females in STEM. The startup investigates the leaky pipeline issues we see in the Tech field. Timea is also Co-Founder & diversity lead of the Women Techmakers Vienna https://bit.ly/3hfpwk4 and hosts the Gender Equality over Coffee Podcast together with Ramon Huidobro.

Karina is originally from Russia, where she studied Information Technology and Economics. She has now been living in Hamburg, Germany, for 6 years. Before that, she founded a start-up in Singapore with some friends from university and lived in Portugal, where she worked on a project collating geospatial data.

Karina's career or projects have always revolved around collecting large amounts of data and creating new information with this data. Communication and curiosity are skills that Karina has always used to be successful and grow her network and career.

Before coming to DataDog, she worked as an evangelist for a company that developed IoT solutions. There she was the interface between external developers and internal product development.

Karina wants young women looking at a career in this field to know that they can always learn the skills required and that there is value in being different from others.

This week I speak with Anvi Patel who works as a Solutions Engineer at VMware in the UK. Anvi got to know Vmware as an intern and the great experiences she made reinforced her decision to finish her Computer Science studies. She had been close to dropping out due to the fact that she didn't enjoy certain aspects of the curriculum, for example, programming.

Anvi is also one of the creators of Paperless Games https://paperlessgames.co.uk/mystery-games/ an amazing internet platform where you can solve mysteries. This project came to life because Anvo had always enjoyed playing games with her friends and wanted to find a way to do this during the last year when the restrictions of meeting in person made playing face to face impossible.

Anvi's advice for young women going into IT is not to be discouraged by failure but to always keep on trying. Failure hurts but it is just a part of the journey and we have to learn to cope with it. As long as you keep on trying you have a chance to succeed!

Paula overcame many odds to finally become the woman in IT she now is. In Paula's family, there were no role models, neither male nor female. At the onset of her journey, she wasn't confident that she had what it takes to go to university and study electrical engineering. She instead settled on doing a dual study in project engineering at Bosch. There she quickly realized that the electrical engineers were "her kind of people" with similar interests and hobbies.

She stayed on at Bosch after finishing her studies and gradually moved more and more into technical things. After 2 years she wanted to go on to complete her Masters in Engineering but nearly failed to gain admittance to the university due to the rigid university system in Germany that is not equipped to take in people who have not gone through the traditional system.

Luckily she then met Prof. Jochen Steil who enabled her to join the program and became her mentor. He was also played a big part in her journey to creating her own company Taxel. Taxel failed due to the difficulty in acquiring funding due to the circumstances in 2020 but the idea behind the company is still inspiring Paula is now a mother of 2, working in a job she enjoys, flexible in the way she schedules her time, and financially stable. She wants to encourage other young women to choose this path and follow in her footsteps.

In this episode, I had the opportunity to speak with Zana Pekmek Head of Customer Intelligence Analytics Products Raiffeisen Bank International AG, and responsible for interoperability of the services with other data Tribes.

Zana is originally from Bosnia. After the war, she went to High School in the USA on a scholarship and finished College there. When she was younger Zana was more inclined towards art and creative fields, she was into acting and music.

After college, she worked for The World Bank on a project that introduced VAT Tax in Bosnia. This was the start of her journey into IT through data analysis. She has since worked for Raiffeisen in Bosnia, took a short break to work on another milestone project in Bosnia with Accenture before returning to Raiffeisen and relocating to Vienna in 2019 with her husband and 2 daughters.

This episode features two women who met while working at A1 Telekom and became friends. Ivana Ovcaric Analytics Lead in Marketing Automation @A1 Telekom Austria's biggest service provider and Darya Bululukova who has since moved from A1 to work as a Cloud Solution Architect at Wien IT.

Meet Eva-Maria Hempe, Director Enterprise at @VMware.

Eva-Maria's path to IT seems a given when you hear her talk about her childhood: she slept next to a dot matrix printer (bonus points if you know what that is ), got her own computer at age 6, bought her first computer at 16 with money she earned babysitting, and programmed websites for her father's friend's company.

One might assume that her interests led her straight into the belly of the beast, but instead, she took a circuitous route. She studied science, earned a doctorate in physics, and then worked for 8.5 years as a management consultant at Bain & Company, where she became an associate partner.

She's currently Enterprise Director for the CEMEA region, a position with a lot of responsibility. She brings her unique perspective and sees herself as a change agent to make VMware's Enterprise customers more successful.

Her advice to you is to be bold. Don't try to be someone you're not; everyone has something to bring to the table; try to make sure that looking back you don't regret not trying something, and if you find a mentor that's a good fit for you, that's a great thing!

In this episode of my Women in Technology Spotlight, you'll meet Rebecca Fox, who works as an Associate Solutions Engineer in the UK. Rebecca came to VMware after 18 years in the Army, where she worked in Signals for 10 years until she had done all the best assignments, and then another 8 years in the Nurse Corps, though she quickly realized that wasn't her calling.

Rebecca's path to IT is a very special one. At school she quickly realized that she preferred an active life in the fresh air to studying, and discovered life in the Army when she joined the "Royal Dragoons " for a week to learn about life. She then focused on achieving the 3 Cs that would allow her to join the RAF and left school at 16.

Rebecca tells me that she's always felt comfortable working with men and her advice to other women is to always do what you want to do, follow your passion and don't worry about what others think or what the gender balance is!

In this episode, I had the opportunity to speak with Seema Shad, who worked as a Solutions Engineer at VMware.

Seema's story is extraordinary on so many levels. She lost her mother at a very young age. Coming from a very traditional Asian family, she broke with tradition, didn't marry at 18, and not only studied computer science, but also took on the role of mother to her younger brother while she was still in college.

Seema is an example of the strength women bring to the table when needed and how difficulties can be overcome with determination and support. Seema tells me that it is important to always believe in yourself and not limit yourself before trying. The one holding you back from achieving great things is most likely yourself.

Christelle Vinot works as a Senior Solutions Engineer but has also successfully started her own company, "Hearthy Matcha", which sells organic Japanese tea (matcha tea). Her company strives to be CO2 neutral and give back to the environment by planting trees for the tea it sells.

Christelle is from Paris, France and moved to the UK (London) about 8 years ago to learn English and get out of her comfort zone. Although she had a plan when she came here, things didn't quite turn out as expected and she learned that plans can and must be adjusted when necessary,

We talked about how you grow when you do things that are a little scary, and how you get to know your true self when you set out on a journey to create new things. How a passion for an endeavor keeps you going when you encounter obstacles.

Meet Naomi Betz, who's an Enterprise Account Manager @ VMware in Germany. As an Account Manager, she works at the intersection of technology and business. Naomi is at home in both worlds, having studied both business administration and computer science.

Although Naomi is still at the beginning of her career, she's already worked for some of the big companies like Microsoft. As an Enterprise Account Manager at VMware, she's responsible for key account development.

Naomi spoke with me about career goals, the importance of mentorship, and courage.

She coined the term "work-life harmony," which I find particularly apt in today's world and something we should all strive for.

This Week's Woman in IT is Adela Mehic-Dzanic Female Tech Leader, Moderator of "Making It In Austria" and Head of Connectivity Service Providers @MAVOCO AG

Adela's story is fascinating and shows what's possible with the right attitude and passion. After graduating from the university in Sarajevo, she came to Vienna from Bosnia a few years ago with her husband. With determination and a can-do mentality, she's built a successful professional and private life in Austria.

In this episode, I talk to Margot Mückstein about her life and how, after studying journalism and also psychology, dabbling with biochemistry, electrical engineering and journalism, she eventually ended up as a data scientist and started her own company with her brother at the age of 32.

Her company, Cloudomation, now has 9 employees working to develop a solution that enables software automation and integration, saves time, reduces errors and manages complexity by automating IT processes and workflows.

In this episode, I speak with Hilda Edimo. She is an Associate Solution Engineer in the Core Business Unit @Vmware based in Paris.

She is an alumnus of the VMware New Graduate Program. She tells me that this program advanced her career by 10 to 15 years!!

Hilda was born in France and partly grew up in Cameroon in a family where there was an emphasis on getting a good education to get ahead in life. I very much enjoyed learning about Hilda's family, the opportunities of the VMware New Graduate initiative and about the life of a young Solution Engineer

Are you interested in the VMware New Graduate Program? Check out the Vmware New Graduate Career page here https://careers.vmware.com/new-graduates

In this episode, I speak with Christine Hensel who is Director of Systems Engineering Germany @Vmware. - This is interview is in German for a change,

Christine started out as a Systems Engineer herself and has a deep understanding of what is required to be successful in this role As one of VMware's hiring managers, she loves the company culture, the EPIC2 values and makes sure to hire for attitude and passion.

She understands that skills are something that can be acquired as long as the interest is there She loves making sure her team has all the necessary tools and resources to do the best job possible.

n this episode I speak with Tina Krogull - Technical Account Manager @Vmware based in Germany! Technical Account Managers have close relationships with VMware's customers and help them make the best use of the technology they own.

They advise them on how to best achieve their goals with the technology they purchased.

Tina who loves being part of the VMware family describes her job as being a concierge to the VMware hotel for her customers. I had a great time talking to her - have fun listening to her story

Head over to her tech blog https://www.iamonit.de/

In the first episode of this series I had the opportunity to talk with Sarah Swatman Senior Director - EUC Specialist Solution Engineers EMEA @Vmware

Sarah is based in the UK and manages a team of Solution Engineers across the EMEA region