Technology leaders today are expected not only to innovate, but also lead with purpose. Community impact is no longer optional. It is a part of the strategy.So my question to you, Vijaya, how have you embedded community and social responsibilities into your tech strategy at that leadership level? And board business value, have you seen coming out from that?

So totally. Right? So, like I said, I work for Truist Financial Services, and our mission statement is to inspire and build better lives and communities. Right? So that's not even a text statement. That is an overall company wide statement, which is we want to inspire and build better lives and communities. So as you can tell, that is embedded in our DNA as to how we are being more inclusive, how we are giving back to the community, what are we doing, and, you know, things like that. So several things that we do in that respect. So I'm just going to, you know, share some of them. So we have what we call our lighthouse projects. So that gives, truest teammates, employees an opportunity to go and give back to the community. Right? So lighthouse project is you can go and build a house for a veteran.

You can go and build something for somebody else, like, you know, somebody who lost a home, anything like that. So, that that is something that the corporate itself provides for us to go and do. So, right, you know, that is also a team building opportunity. Like, my team, me and my team go and do stuff like that. So you see them outside of a work setting, which is not tech, but, you know, do something that's different, learn other perspectives, learn to see other people, other facets of people. We also do volunteering. So we have a a eight hours that is given to us every year to go and volunteer, where we can go and, you know, share and then do what what is close to our heart.

Right? Like, I always usually go and do, junior achievement. So I go to schools. I talk about financial literacy. I talk about how people need to start saving and things like that. Right? So so that is an opportunity that tools provides, which is, you know, paid time that we get to go and do volunteering and other work. We have a single mothers program wherein we give training to mothers who are single and then try to get back to the workforce, and then we give them opportunities, right, to to join the workforce, you know, give them some, you know, hand holding, some mentorship, and stuff like that.

So lot of opportunities that we have within and outside. Like, you know, we have we are headquartered in North Carolina in The US, and we had some floods there. So we had a whole bunch of people go there, you know, give away supplies and stuff. So I just have to say that this is in our DNA. We just do in day in and day out, not just in tech, but as the company as a whole.

So you were talk you were saying, like, you know what? When it comes down to give a foundation for leadership with purpose, it comes down to, you know what? It should be the part of your organization strategy rather than sticking to individual strategy. Right? And that's how it makes a difference being as a technology leader.

It does. But also, right, even if your company doesn't. Right? So so I I I I feel blessed to be part of the company that has, you know, inclusion and giving back as part of the DNA. But even if not, I don't think any company is gonna actually stop you from doing what you want to do to go and volunteer. Right? So I think you can still embrace it and give back

to the community. Okay. So, we have Anjali joined. She's from the global SRE global SRE lead at Ednet West. Anjali, would you like to introduce yourself?

Yeah. Thank you so much. Apologies for joining late due to the technical issues. Yeah. I'm very glad to be here with Vijaya and Poonam and all the women in technology. I'm Anjali Nagrat. I work for NatWest, as a global SRE lead. I started my career as application support and now, leading the teams to scale the SRE in order to bring the reliability and making our system more, availability. So my job is called SRE lead, which means I apply to this to my social, life as well, like supporting, making other people more, resilient, and also making them making our self responsible to take care of the society. So along with my technical aspects, I want to build a community where we can support each other. So I'm being part of lot of mentoring, like, with Ananya and also with Catalyst.

And also I have found, my own, mentoring sessions from, Srianj where I'm focusing to build a team who can help others. Leadership is something which, we create leading leaders. So that's about me. Yeah, very glad to be here and learn a lot from the session.

And finally, we welcome Gunjan Paliwal. She's a senior product development and GTM manager at Meta. Gunjan, would you like to introduce yourself too?

Of course. Thanks, Poonam, for inviting me to this session. Hi, everyone. I'm Gunjan Paliwal. I've been working in tech for last, decade, plus. And I've, had opportunity to work with, some of the leading companies like Microsoft, Meta. In between, I've also worked with, different industries like CPG, ecommerce. So overall, I've had, you know, varied experiences, and have had, you know, opportunities to work as an IC, as a manager. So I'm looking forward to sharing my insights and, shared personal experiences here with this group.

Okay. So before, you know, Anjali and Vijaya before before, Anjali and, Gunjan, you join, we kind of going with the with the first question, which is, like, tied with the theme of, like, leadership with purpose. And that's where Vijaya has chime in, and she pro she has given her 2¢ how this, how, on the question, like, how how have you embedded community and social responsibility into your tech strategy at the leadership level, and what business value have you seen coming out from that?

Do you want to chime into this question as well?

Yep. Definitely. Yeah. If you don't mind, I can go first. All organizations, they want to build, a customer relationship, but the customer is with one who is also socially responsible. So I'm very fortunate with NatWest who focuses on giving back to the community, as part of the, ESG program, which means making our involvement people and, the common answers to the highest, level. So we organize a lot of, events going to the schools and colleges to do mentorship. Just note that within our Tuesday, as all the organization, we have a mentoring where a senior leader will focus to give the leadership or mentoring, sponsoring to, mid level and the mid level gives to the sustainable, lower level, graduates. So that's like a cycle which keeps, implementing in the organization. With keeping in that in mind, we should not we just stick to what organization is offering.

So I decided to implement the same within all the other volunteering sessions or volunteering work that I do with the mentoring where the same model has been implemented. It, we have some programs like Tech for Good doing hackathons so we can involve to a pair programming with the mentees and mentor in order to see the input how they are giving back to the society. When they do hackathon, they are demonstrating giving the output to, open source or to some of the community work. So that's how, our company and also individually I have incorporated, innovated the way that mentorship is coming forward. And I think it has resulted in a great value that some of them has been placed within that list and in that network community that what we have built. And and also, they are the mentees, they are coming forward to give the mentorship to the future students who would be in the STEM in girls. Yeah.

That's that's how we are, embedding to the whole leadership within the company and outside.

Gunjan, do you want to chime in? Or because I do have a follow-up question on it because you both have, like, talked about it. I think, Vijaya has talked about it, how it is, like, a part of an organization as a social responsibility responsibility within the as in within the technology space. And, Anjali, you also talked about mentorship program, wondering. So I want to understand from both of you. Can you share a key moment when that strategy really made a real difference if you guys have it.

I I can go. I I touched on the, North Carolina floods. Right? So I'm gonna go a little bit deeper into, you know, how we really came around to support the community. So a couple of months back, there was this, big floods that happened unexpectedly out. And then, you know, in some areas of West North Carolina, the roads were completely gutted. We couldn't get to that place. You know, people didn't have, you know, houses and couldn't get away and all that fun stuff. So, what Tua's did as a whole institution and as leadership is we just took supplies. Right? Whether it's water, cereal, dry goods, or anything.

And we made several trips out there. We took teammates out there to actually do distribution. So we set a base at a a local, you know, church, I think, where, you know, we took the parking lot. We had people come over, you know, drive through. So I I have I have lifted, like, you know, water and given it to them in the car, You know, things like that. So so I think we we take this very seriously. Like I said, it's in our DNA, and it's not just talking the talk. Right? We walk the walk. We actually go and show up when there is impact in our community, outside of our community.

And that's amazing. This is this also made an impact to me right now as you are sharing this story. Anshly, do you want to chime in or, Gunjan?

Yeah. Yeah. As I was saying, there were, mentors who or mentees who did initially, registered. Some of them were, very economically backward, and the community I mean, our organization, one of one of my previous team, we were a team. I was only, I mean, outside I mean, a a girl and reminding well, it was a male dominated, community. But I decided that we need to have that inclusion. Went ahead and gave them proper trainings. Because as a, mentor, it's our responsibility to show that under suppressed, community not only get because of the inclusion, but also because of the capacity. So, therefore, the coaching and training helped them to gain that confidence and crack the interview, and our team was more, it was like a forty, sixty model from almost 10 to 90 model.

So that's one of the impact that our, team had. Got to know from the metrics that we did. I think from ages that was like a converted from male to more oriented to a fifty fifty, which created a lot of brand trust, and our leadership team also, Biden and the rest of the domains adapted to that, which we are our company and our team was quite proud of. Yeah. As I said, this made trust and the team retention increased. Of course, when there is a support, they don't want to leave culture. So that's how the culture of being mentoring or doing a further support to a sister like community was, initiated.

So, Angelique, now you have touched a little bit about inclusivity, and that's where my second question around of it and theme is, theme is laying down. Like, okay. Let's build the inclusive system. So we all know that inclusion and belonging often begins with passion that we have it. And but the need but there is always a need system to be sustainable. And inclusion and belonging efforts often begin as a grass root moment. I I hats off to you, Angelie. Like, you have started that with the Net West and having a 50% there, which is really really great impact. But but these impacts only happens when leadership build the system, and that's where, Angel, you nailed it. So I have a question around of it. Like, what have you done to ensure an inclusivity is embedded in the culture and operation of your teams or organization?

I think, Gunjan, you have I think, actually, you have touched a little bit. Do you want to chime into more onto it? Like, what you have done specifically, step by step or maybe Vijaya?

Yeah. Gunjan, Vijaya, you want to go? What if

I Okay. I can take it. So, you know, very, very relevant, the the question, right, in terms of, how how we, how how we do this. So for those of you who don't know, Truist is a new bank, right, which was just formed by the merger of SunTrust and BB and T a few years back. So I think we merged in 2022. So, being part of that merger, I have seen firsthand how the it's it's very critical to, you know, have diversity, equity, and inclusion. Right? So so when we do mergers so imagine, you have two teams that do the same thing in both the financial institutions for the most part. Right? Both financial institution have banks. Both financial institutions have credit cards. Both financial institutions have mortgages. So you have teams that did the exact same thing in both the banks.

Now you have to bring them together. So so we had metrics around how many were you know, from each legacy heritage organization, how many are women, how many are non alpha males. So so these are all metrics that did not just track at the company level, but these were something that we had to give to the regulators too. Right? That we were not trying to sideline because this was not an acquisition. Right? This was a merger of equals. So we had to go through and then give people at the opportunity and say, hey. This is what it takes. This is what you need to do. So, never easy. And apart from that also, right, we have a diverse hiring panel when we go to interview and have anything.

So you have to have these these these criteria in the panelists. Right? You cannot all be Asians in the interview panel. You have to have a diverse panel. And then, last but not the least, we also have what we call as reverse mentorship. Right? So so usually, when you have mentorship, Anjali Anjali touched on it, and she said, you know, people higher up in the organization mentor people that are lower. We do something in the reverse also. So we have people that are lower, and then they go back and say, hey. This is what is not working well for the company. So how can you do to fix that? So those are all stuff that we do every day to to take care of inclusion. Oh, nice.

Thank you, Vijay, to chime in, and you kind of brought that. Even Angelie also brought up, like, mentorship is very important when it comes down to code, collaborate, and change, which is a power impact for the tech. So this is a big question around of this mentorship altogether. How have you guys scaled mentorship in your organization or your network and ensure that opportunities are accessible to all all people, all background, all locations? And what models and approach have you guys used and that worked out best?

Yeah. I can take that, And maybe, Vijaya and Anjali, you can share your experience as well. So I think first and foremost, leveraging technology. We live in a world today where we have, you know, so many innovative technologies available that can be used at scale. So, one thing that has worked well, and, which we've been which I've been able to scale as well successfully is webinars and being able to, create virtual sessions, where, you know, folks from, that kind of breaks down the geographical barrier as well as, time zones and things like that.

So folks from different background different, background as well as different places can join in. The second thing I would also say that when we are talking about mentorship, we are thinking mentorship in terms of, like, one on one communication, but it could go beyond that. There could also be content based mentorship where you're writing blogs, you're writing, or you you're doing podcasts and things like that, where you are not able to, do one to one or one to 10, but you are, like, reaching out to thousands and in some cases, even millions of, users and readers and viewers.

So I think that's another, area which, has not been tapped as much, but that could also be looked at as a good tool for mentorship, especially when we are talking about skill mentorship. And one or two more points that I want to add is another one is, like, ask me anything session. So a lot of times what happens that when you're creating these mentorship circles, they become very formal in nature where, you know, the the whole process becomes cumbersome. So ask me anything, kind of session, and sometimes people even do it on Reddit or, platforms like Blind where or, you know, Facebook or all these places where, anyone can ask any question. And these kind of platforms and these kind of, new medium also could be, scaled much more easily and also provides folks from every back background and location to participate in these mentorship circles, which would be difficult if you are talking about, like, like, doing the these live or in person.

And lastly, I would say that, you know, it takes, village to build a mentorship community. So rather than being a one person army, you you you should try to create, you know, more community around that and, create, you know, like, identify folks who could be good mentors, talk about match mentorship more openly, and try to scale it, through community efforts where you are, you know, sharing these insights and, and preparing next league of mentors who can, you know, multiply these impacts.

So I would say, personally, these three, four things would have have worked for me, and, I also feel that they can be applied at large.

Gunjan, Vijaya, and, Anjali?

Yeah. I would like to share my personal view. Obviously, to scale something, we have to start somewhere. So that's where I decided, even though, from the organizations like Ananya and Catalyst, I decided I will have to start something on my own. So we had a community here in London, like, women in technology, women in mothers in London who are based in India. So we all had the need to go back to the work. Everyone were in dilemma. And as well as new graduates, someone who is doing education. There was a need, and, of course, they all needed that, sisterhood who can guide them through. So I created a small community called Shreyansh where, nearly, we have 10 volunteers and, nearly 20 members, students, or, like, whoever want to return to work, they have signed up.

What we have done is to assign one of the mentor to to, each mentees by which they are also, the I mean, where it's not like a transaction or a business. But what we expect is someone comes and they give back. That's the only thing. So I think in order to scale somewhere, that was how it started. But coming to organization, because we have a huge, power, of course, some sponsor who are ready to, sponsor, and we can, buy in some of the, trainers outside. Yeah. As, Gunjan said rightly, doing YouTube, I've done few videos, vloggings, and doing a group mentoring. Availability of the mentors are quite low, so one mentor can even guide the 10, 10 to 15 because it's a world of technology, can do recording, and that can be kept sharing. So there are just some of the grassroot methods that I'm starting. Maybe I need to learn how to scale up to that level from all the experts here.

That's how I have started. And so far from my last fifteen years, I have, mentored over 50 girls, which is just accounting, and I think, that's my that's the purpose that I have found. But I was always finding what is the purpose of life. I think I have found that at least if one person is getting benefited, somewhere it will always be, it's like a karma. It's gonna help, me learn from them or from, other women who are doing so greatly in their career. So, yeah, that's how how status small and scaled. And it's just not one day. It's gonna take its time to be there. But I think we need to have the plan strategy.

And even though there is some mistakes, learn from it and go ahead. Yeah. Always open to learn from all of you. Yeah. You have to say.

Sure. I I think we have we have touched I I I touched about mentorship earlier too. I'll just, you know, bleed with this one thought. So we, as part of women in technology at Truist, which I'm a lead of, run run, you know, several mentorship programs. One of the things that we did last year was what we called as speed mentoring. Right? Just like speed dating. So our usual mentor mentee programs run for six months. We match mentor to mentees based on, you know, what their aspirations are, what the, mentors can coach the mentees on, and all that. But, you know, we tried something else where we did a six week effort. Every mentor gets a mentee for two weeks.

So you have, like, one session that's really, you know, to assess, hey. Does the mentor's style match with your style? Is the mentor giving you what you need to where you want to get to? So you would just get that introduction, and then it's on you to have that longer relationship with the mentor and mentee if you want.

So I'm truly nailed it, Vijaya, because it's a mentorship is not only about sharing the knowledge or guiding people, but it is also building a relationship in the further long run. So since we are having, like, a forty minutes left, let me dive deep dive into a couple of questions, and then we can give an audience also to ask questions, you guys. So it's a, next theme is around, like, how you guys are using your platform for others. So we all know that, you know, your position is so powerful, and how do you use it to lift for others? That's what it is. So as a senior leader, your influence can open the doors for others and many and amplifying their voices and make us make a change, which should really have we make a change, which really inspired a lot of other, women's get into the tech. Right?

So this is a round dropping question, which is I mean, it is open question to all of you, and you guys you guys can figure it out in one to answer first. So can you share me a time where you have used your position or network to elevate or create opportunity for someone? And what was the outcome?

Okay. Go ahead, Gunjan. Where are you gonna

Yeah. I can start. And I think I've done it more, like, in my both personal and professional capacity. So I'm a, mentor on ADP list where I volunteer my time. And, for a period of six months, I was quite invested there. And, I mean, I, mentored many young folks who were looking for jobs. And, some of them landed job offers, and they reached out to me at, you know, informing me that, like, the guidance I provided because some of them were, going through the interviews or some of them were just looking to get interview calls. So I reviewed their resumes, provided them guidance. So I think that was personally very fulfilling. And internally, like, whatever whichever role I have taken, I've always, carved out time for folks who are just joining or who are new to their roles.

How do you kind of empower them and guide them navigate through, the current role and also think about next role? So I think those are two things that I've done in personal and professional capacity, which makes me very happy.

Awesome. I can go next. And, you know, where where I was going, I touched about the, single mothers program that we've done. I know I have seen people actually benefit, but I'm gonna pivot and talk about a different story that I have to share. So every year, we all get interns. Right? So it's it's optional if you wanna take an intern in your team, and I've always loved getting interns and having, you know, a new energy, a fresh set of eyes, and, you know, a lot of enthusiasm. So I've always had them. So one of our interns was a first generation college student. Right? And he was, you know, first time doing something. So he wrote a Python script. We have a a three d maker space in our office. You know? He did Python scripts, do some coding, and stuff like that.

And, you know, he it was it was so heartwarming to see that. But that's really not the end of the story. Right? So so it's not just about giving them the opportunity, but it's see how it comes the full circle. So this intern now leads a mentoring circle for early career hires. So he teaches other interns that come in as, you know, how to explore opportunities, how to make connections, how do you not do this. So so I always think about, you know, how this is such a chain reaction. You give opportunity to somebody who has not had that opportunity, and they want to give it back and give it to so many other people. Right?

So I think that was a, that was a good story. So so my job really is to keep the door open behind me, right, and get the others come through.

Mhmm. That's amazing.

That is amazing story because it is like you are creating a ripple effect so that you those who will uplift, they can also uplift others. Exactly.

Yeah. Good. Yeah. I would like to take my example. Yeah. As, one of the girl, whose name is Lina. She's still my mentee. She is a amazing girl. So, yeah, as Gunjan and Vijaya said, it's the one I mean, they are already very talented, but the one, refinement of the resume and making them giving that confidence. And, one more mentee I remember, Aishwarya. They are all very, very talented, technically fit, But I think girls nowadays don't have that confidence. They always feel left out because, maybe male dominated, they feel male or always higher than them or experience age matters. I mentored them, group by saying this is not about how many years of experience they have. It's all about the confidence that we bring in, how different we are in our innovative thinking.

And when I help them to groom their LinkedIn profile and making them apply for all the relevant internships and jobs, and resume making, I'm so glad that they are out of the, for imposter syndrome, and now they have secured a good internship. Because gaining internship in this, board is also quite competitive, and she is doing great, in our internship. And she is also, sending her resume for the permanent position over there. And I have personally guided in my team. We always take graduate. So I have recommended her. So, hopefully, that process is gonna go smoothly and she will get, position. But what is make, what is it more important is how she is not only gaining that, but also trying to give back to, as a form of tuitions by charging very minimum to, to the students or to her fellow who are, in the year I mean, semester one, semester two, as she's in semester six.

So, yeah, that impresses me more because she is think, leadership is something that we create, that leading leaders. And I can see that she's creating the leaders ahead of her. This is the most impactful, cycle, because when we don't change the culture, this will be just going to an end. The culture is what makes the future leaders shine, and our generation will be, more sustainable. Giving back to the society comes first and then making any technical impact.

So to follow-up question, what did you all learn from that experience?

For me, it was simple. Right? Give back more so you will see that feedback and get that ripple effect. So I think I I have I've seen that feedback in several ways. I shared one of the instances. But I've had single mothers come and tell me that, you know, how this has changed their life. Right? They don't have a way to get food on the table with the kids, and then, you know, giving them the opportunity has helped them so much. So it's very rewarding.

Yep. For me, it's been always about pay it forward. When I was starting out my career, there were many people who helped me selflessly, and I think now it's my time. So

now we have heard such powerful stories. And now we