Motivation to Speak
Are you excited to speak at the Women in Tech Global Conference, and what motivated you to join our community of 150,000 women in tech, minorities, and allies?
The first time I attended an all-women tech conference was at Grace Hopper in 2004. The energy, the camaraderie, and the excitement of not being the only woman was exhilarating. The most important and powerful part of that experience was the lasting connections wherein we could validate and uplift each other. I knew then that networks and conferences like this are essential to nurture the next generation of talent in technology – they can create these safe spaces and give women and minorities a platform to showcase their expertise, experiences, build communities. I am grateful to WomenTech Network for their leadership in building this global community of phenomenal talent.
Background and Inspiration
Share with us about your background, your journey in tech, and what inspired you to develop your career in this direction?
I graduated as an Electrical Engineer in India. As a child who loved math, the engineering degree was a natural step. In the final year of my undergraduate studies, I took an external certification course in Computer Science programming. They asked us to do a term paper on a topic of our choice, and I picked Artificial Intelligence. I was an armchair philosopher, and machines being able to think and act like humans, and what it meant to be human, all seemed so fascinating. That term paper and my resulting interest in Artificial Intelligence led me to come to the US for a Master's focused on that area. As I was graduating, my thesis advisor at the time encouraged me to go get a Ph.D. in the field. I am the first in my family to come to the US, and I had no exposure to folks getting a Ph.D. It was an alien, scary step that I could only have undertaken because of that kind and supportive discussion with my advisor. In my Ph.D., I trained as a Computational Biologist/Data Scientist, a new space at that time. I loved this field because it allowed me to learn to speak two languages: the language of data/computer science and the language of biology/business.
I was grateful to start my career in Dow R&D after graduation. At Dow, I had the opportunity to have multiple careers spanning data science and IT across functions and business units. In each experience, I had the opportunity to hone my ability to learn a new business/functional language and create value for the business using data and technology. I had multiple mentors and sponsors who, at pivotal moments, helped me see my strengths, things I could improve, and unwaveringly had my back. I am currently the CIO for Teichert Inc., a construction and mining company based in Sacramento, CA.
Every step in my professional journey has been a leap of faith into the unknown, but always supported by a community of people. My journey is really a story of mentorship, allyship, and the power of reaching back as we grow in our careers. I have a huge debt to repay, and I am grateful today to actively engage early-career employees to help them write their own growth story.
Why is the topic “Build Communities Not Just Networks" important to you?
As you can see from my story, my mentors, sponsors, and mentees have played a pivotal role in me becoming who I am as a professional and an individual. While some of the relationships have been short-lived, many are long-lasting and are today the fabric of my community. As an introvert, networking with its emphasis on quantity of connections was very overwhelming to me. But, framing it as connecting with people I respected and could learn from made a huge difference in the early days. My philosophy on building communities instead of networks and the value of that for those of us who start as ‘others’ in our fields underpins many of my mentoring efforts today. I am excited to share my thoughts on this topic with 3 amazing, accomplished individuals in my community – Sushma Sanketh, Laura Mosley, and Shirish Lamichhane. I hope all of you will leave the session seeing multiple avenues aligned with your personality, values, and goals to build connections and your own community.
Who would you advise to attend the Women in Tech Global Conference and why?
I would advise anyone who wants to expand the diversity of their networks in terms of expertise, experiences, and technology viewpoints to attend the conference. The lineup of speakers and topics is amazing, and I am thrilled to be participating again this year.
