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Diva Tech Talk Podcast

Easy to consume Interviews with women in technology to share insights into leadership, innovation and breaking down the big issues women face in a tech-savvy world. We interview women leaders all around the world from CIOs and Founders, to creators and nonprofit executives, covering generations of innovation. Everyone with whom we've crossed paths has a story of success. Don’t get tangled along the way in your journey; listen in and learn from dynamic divas who share everything from balancing life duties, to negotiating, forging their way in their fast-changing industry, to (most of all) finding themselves. Follow along with us here at www.divatechtalk.com. Divas (Co-Founders/Hosts): Nicole Johnson Scheffler (@tech_nicole), Kathleen Norton-Schock (@katensch), and Amanda Lewan (@Amanda_Jenn)
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Now displaying: November, 2016
Nov 30, 2016

Diva Tech Talk interviewed veteran tech professional, Julie Christ, Founder and CEO of TechSmart Solutions.  Julie graduated from the University of Michigan, with a computer science degree, and a business minor, then a relatively new degree program.  “It was pretty leading edge,” said Julie.  “Throughout my career, I would be only female in a room of 40-50 people.  It was a differentiator for me.  It never inhibited me; it never bothered me. I just knew that I would be remembered.” Julie’s first job was as a business analyst at Compuware (www.compuware.com) where she was working to understand customer needs from a tech perspective. Her first Compuware customer was General Motors (www.gm.com).

Julie moved overseas, and lived in London, U.K. for a year working for Little Caesar’s.  When she returned to the U.S., she continued with Little Caesar’s (www.littlecaesars.com) in their corporate headquarters as a technical project manager and assumed complete responsibility for that private company’s gamut of financial systems.  
 
Julie began the consulting segment of her career, working for EDS (www.eds.com), where she underwent rigorous leadership training.  Then she moved, for the next 5 years, to $9 billion automotive supplier, Arvin Meritor, where she is proud to have had a career of “firsts”, and was part of “some amazing projects!”  She moved subsequently, to Volkswagen, under the aegis of Compuware, to launch VW.com (“which was a significant project, re-launched in a very tight timeframe, in multiple time zones and multiple countries, with no issues.”).   Then she migrated to R.L. Polk(www.rlpolk.com), a supplier of market research and data for the automotive industry.  
 
In 2008, Julie founded TechSmart with a fundamental mission of providing overall company solutions (“whether that’s a technical solution, or a business solution”). Her client base includes organizations in hospitality, municipal government area, food services, banking as well as several core automotive customers.
 
Julie’s leadership lessons for other women/girls in tech include: deploy kindness, recognize and use every person’s gifts, be humane, but DON’T over-apologize, and ensure you have mentors.  “Look for people who have alignments to what you think makes up a good leader.”

For the full blog write up, make sure to check us out on online at www.divatechtalk.com, on Twitter @divatechtalks, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/divatechtalk. Follow our show and tell us what you like with an online review.

Nov 11, 2016

Diva Tech Talk interviewed Jennifer Pfaff, Director of Store IT Services for Domino’s (www.dominos.com), a company averaging $2.3 billion in annual revenue, ranking as the 2nd largest franchisor of pizza retail outlets in the world.

Jennifer did not originally pursue information technology as a career.  She initially envisioned her future as an electrical engineer designing cochlear implants to improve hearing, since she suffered an auditory loss at a young age. But while at the University of Arizona, she came to the decision that electrical engineering was not her life’s mission and changed her major to Business, with a concentration in MIS and Operations Management. After graduation, she took her first job in Battle Creek, Mi. at the headquarters for Kellogg Company (NYSE: K) in the IT department, subsequently moving into sales there “to learn how we really did our business.”

Coming back to Michigan, “I worked for all three of the Big 3 U.S. automotive companies either directly or through consulting,” Jennifer said. “Early on, I discovered that my passion was in the project side of IT.”  One of her favorite early projects, a breakthrough personalized car owner website for Ford, is very characteristic of the rest of her career.  Jennifer and her team began the project with few requirements or resources, but a very aggressive development timeline. The amorphous nature of the project and the quick timeline “drove creativity.” Crediting her “fantastic team,” this shaped a crucial career philosophy for Jennifer: “If you have the opportunity to try something new, out of your comfort zone, with high visibility” do it!
Jennifer then went to another Fortune 500 company, Jacobs Engineering (www.jacobs.com), an international technical and engineering professional services firm, with over 80,000 employees, and 127 offices all over the globe, where she led their global technology project office, managing a worldwide team on several continents. From Jacobs, Jennifer migrated to her current role at Domino’s, where her team is working on strengthening and securing the online, ordering and transaction system that allows consumers to place orders.  She has also just joined Domino’s product strategy group, helping to roll out new digital innovations for Domino’s franchisees and consumers.
Jennifer’s advice for aspiring women leaders and girls in tech is:
  1. “As you are building your brand, focus on what you do best, but make sure that you give some thought to what else it is that you think you want to do, in the future.”  (And try those!)
  2. For all students, “take as much math as you possibly can. It teaches you to think.”
  3. And “If you think broadly, give things a go and you are willing to try things, good things will happen.  Be ready; be flexible.”

For the full blog write up, make sure to check us out on online at www.divatechtalk.com , on Twitter @divatechtalks, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/divatechtalk. Follow our show and tell us what you like with an online review.

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