Leading in a Traditionally Male Dominated Field

UR Tech Summit Breakout Session ( one of many great sessions from the Tech Summit)
Thursday, October 8, 2020
10:45 a.m. | view full summit schedule

Join us for this amazing panel session from various established leaders within our industry. As part of the 2020 UR Tech Summit, Radhika Iyengar (Author | TEDx Speaker | Silicon Valley Woman of Influence) will be our moderator and will lead the discussion among the following topics:

Providing Leadership within the Tech Industry
Changing Societal expectations and beliefs about women’s leadership abilities
Dealing with gender bias/perspectives from a leadership position in this new WFH environment
Mentoring women in Tech to help them advance into leadership positions

Moderator

Radhika Iyengar

Radhika Iyengar
Managing Partner
StarChain Ventures
LinkedIn | Twitter

Radhika Iyengar is a TEDx and keynote speaker, an author, a Silicon Valley Woman of Influence, and a Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur. She is Founding Partner at StarChain Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based venture studio focused on the convergence of advanced technologies. Radhika is an enterprise blockchain and digital health expert and a sought-after speaker on blockchain & healthcare. She is a co-author of the critically acclaimed book Enterprise Blockchain Has Arrived, a member of the California Gov Ops Blockchain Working Group advising Governor Newsom & CA state legislature, a member of the Government Blockchain Association and a guest speaker at Stanford, Harvard, Google, UC Berkeley, plus top blockchain & healthcare conferences.

Radhika is a Board Member of TiE Silicon Valley, the flagship chapter of TiE, one of the oldest and largest entrepreneurship-focused organization with 61 chapters in 14 countries. A passionate advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion, she has served as a board member of women in technology organizations and spoken at women’s conferences globally. As former President of Bryn Mawr College’s Northern California Alumni Club, she spearheaded and led key women in tech showcase programs. She holds an MBA from Chapman University, an AB from Bryn Mawr College, and is a Certified Network Engineer.

Panelists

Dao Jensen
CEO and Founder
Kaizen Technology Partners
LinkedIn

Dao has been in the tech industry for over 20 years. She founded Kaizen Technology Partners, LLC (KTP) in 2013 as the first 100% female minority-owned company born in the Cloud. KTP is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, helping Fortune 500 Enterprise clients strategize and optimize cloud platforms and solutions. Some of Kaizen’s marquee clients are Cadence Design systems, Gainsight, San Mateo County and Planful Kaizen has also worked with many medium businesses and startups such as Upstart, Kountables, and ADX.

Some of Dao’s most recent awards and accolades include being ranked as the #107 fastest-growing private company by Inc. 5000 in 2017; the #7 Fastest-Growing Private IT Services Company in the USA by Inc. 2017; one of the Top 100 Women Bay Area Owned Companies in 2017 by the San Francisco Times; last year’s Silver Winner of the Stevie Awards for Women In Business Nationwide for Companies Under 10; a scholarship awardee for the class of 2018 Harvard OPM three-year Program; Ernst and Young-Entrepreneurial Winning Women Class of 2017 finalist, one of the 2019 Enterprising Women of the Year, WPO 2019 and 2020 Fast 50, one of the 50 Fastest-Growing Women-Owned/Led Businesses of 2020, and 2020 Winner of the International Women’s Entrepreneur Challenge nominated by Microsoft.

Helen Norris
VP and CIO
Chapman Univeristy
LinkedIn | Twitter

Helen Norris is Vice President for information technology and CIO at Chapman University, where she is responsible for leading the university’s information technology strategy and services, and oversight of the University Library. Previously, Helen was the Associate CIO at California State University, Sacramento. Before that, Helen spent twelve years at UC Berkeley where she held progressive information technology management roles at both the departmental and central levels. She also previously worked as VP for IT for an advertising agency and a law firm, both in St. Louis, Missouri.

Helen serves on several boards. She was appointed to serve a 4-year term on the EDUCAUSE (educause.edu) Board of Directors starting October 2019. She serves as the Chair of the Southern California Society for Information Management (scsim.org) and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the National Endowment for Financial Education (nefe.org). Additionally, she is a member of the board of advisors for EmpowHer Institute (empowher.org), whose mission is to empower young women through education, training, and mentorship as they prepare for college and their careers. She serves on the Dell Higher Education Advisory Board and the governing board for the CIO Summit in Los Angeles. She previously served as the Director of the Sacramento Women in Technology International (witi.com) network.

Jennifer West
Chief Information Security and Privacy Officer
Esri
LinkedIn

Jennifer is honored to serve as the Chief Information Security Officer & Privacy Officer at Esri in Redlands, California. She made the transition from Memphis, Tn to Redlands, Ca. Her recent roles include CISO at Smith & Nephew, CISO & VP of Information Security and Governance at ServiceMaster, various IT/Marketing roles at FedEx and First Tennessee. In all these roles, Jennifer built a foundation of IT strategy, process and technology integration with a focus on compliance, governance, risk management, data protection and information security.

Jennifer is a sought-after speaker in the cybersecurity industry. Prior to moving to California, Jennifer volunteered with Junior Achievement, Hope House, LeBonheur, St. Jude and Habitat for Humanity. She is a past member of DeNeuville Learning Center’s Board of Directors, an organization dedicated to the education and empowerment of women in Memphis.Jennifer was a finalist for the Information Security Executive® of the Year Award 2016 and received 2nd place for the North America CISO® Award in 2017.

Stephanie Holt
Advocate for Women in STEM Executive Leadership
Steph on Life
LinkedIn

After over 20 years in STEM and the last 15 in Executive Leadership the time has come for my final chapter, my last hurrah, the twilight of my career, my legacy-

I am going to spend 100% of my time empowering women in STEM to be the leaders that they were meant to be and to help companies be places women love to work. I am going to keep women in STEM and help companies be places women want to stay.

I understand these women because I AM THEM. I understand these companies because I AM THEM.

It seems grandiose to call it a Revolution...but let's see what happens.
You know how they always say to find something that you are infinitely passionate about and make it a career.... www.stephonlife.com.

Kimberly Perna
Deputy CTO
University of Redlands
LinkedIn

Provided executive leadership and technical guidance for over 25 years in higher education. Transformed Technology Support Services at the University of Redlands in streamlining various business processes. Key member involved in the Connected Campus initiative with the School of Business at the University of Redlands. Previously worked over 10 years at Claremont Mckenna College overseeing the Help Desk and videoconferencing services while also providing executive support to the President.

About the UR Tech Summit 2020

The vision of this FREE Virtual Summit is to educate everyone by continuing the discussion of information technology drivers in this ever-changing landscape. Join us virtually this year for our Second Annual Tech Summit from the University of Redlands to learn about the latest in technology, data and AI, and cybersecurity.

All sessions will be available 30 days after the event so that registered attendees have an opportunity to access all the amazing sessions even after the event ends.

You can also access all the session through this YouTube Playlist

Bulldog Blog Article

Tech Summit panel highlights women’s voices as information technology (IT) professionals from around the world gathered virtually for the second annual University of Redlands Tech Summit. Hosted by the University’s Information Technology Services, the free event featured more than 20 sessions and included a panel about the experiences of women in the field