NetApp - On The Edge

Grace Hopper Conference 2009

I'm sitting in the Technical Executive Forum at the Grace Hopper Conference discussing factors contributing to career success for women in technology. The consensus seems to be that there are still numbers not adding up on women entering technology as a career. Issues of networking within a company, mentors for new college grads, coaching on career path and advancement.

Of course these issues span all groups. But for less represented groups in an organization perhaps the support structures are not there to tip the scales towards a successful and rewarding career. 

Thinking about this, discussing with other members of the Anita Borg Institute. At NetApp we're exploring some group specific communities such as for our Women Engineers on-line community, and Women in Technology forums in each of our development centers. 

We're feeling our way forward on this. Always looking for ideas here.

Four Great Places to Work!

So, at the start of the Board of Trustees meeting for The Anita Borg Institute at 8AM today we went around the table and introduced ourselves. Poor planning on my part was to sit next to board chair Bill Wulf who turned to me and asked me to go first.

I quipped "Two days ago I was the CTO of NetApp, and yesterday I became the CTO of the Number 1 Great Place to Work in the US."

Alan Eustace, Senior Vice President of Engineering and Research at Google, sitting next to me said "Alan Eustace, Google. For the past two years we were the number 1 best place to work and now we're number 4, but we're not bitter."

Kathy Hill, Senior Vice President of Access Networking and Services, two people down introduced herself as "Kathy Hill, from Cisco where we are the sixth best place to work - but we have aspirations."

By this point we were laughing, in a very good natured way, and Rick Rashid, Senior Vice President heading research at Microsoft joined in the repartee.

No one thing makes a company a great place to work, unless you say it's the people that work there. The energy and passion that the member company board of trustees bring to The Anita Borg Institute to make a difference in providing career development opportunities, programs for students and recent graduates, and partnerships to improve their place to work is one reason why these companies are singled out for recognition and are successful in their business.

Congratulations to all the winners and people making a difference!

P.S. Four or more Great Places to Work perhaps? I want to congratulate Anita Borg Institute Partners Genentech, Intuit, and Juniper Networks also!

Women of Vision 2008

The Anita Borg Institute has posted their Women of Vision 2008 videos and acceptance speeches, which I had the honor of seeing live at the awards dinner in San Jose in May, 2008. I had a great time - as did all the other NetApp attendees! A chance to catch up with some people from the CTO panel at the Grace Hopper Conference last October. Make new friends - enjoyed talking to Francine Berman, director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center (need to fly down for a visit!). Share some wine with my former colleague Whitfield Diffie. Listen to Diane Greene's keynote. And to listen to some wonderful acceptance speeches.

Susan Landau, Sun Microsystems Distinguished Engineer, was the winner of the 2008 Women of Vision Award for Social Impact. Her acceptance speech talked about the challenges of challenging conceptions of security and privacy in today's world.

Helen Greiner, Founder and Chairman of the Board, iRobot, was the 2008 Women of Vision Award Winner for Innovation. She spoke about challenging assumptions on roles throughout people's early education.

Justine Cassell, Professor Northwestern University, was the 2008 Women of Vision Award Winner for Leadership. Her acceptance speech was simply brilliant. I truly encourage you to watch and listen to the video.

Looking forward to Grace Hopper in Denver in October!