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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: September, 2019
Sep 30, 2019

Diva Tech Talk interviewed Sireesha Mandava, CIO and VP of Innovation at Greenpath Financial Wellness, a nationwide nonprofit with a mission to empower people to lead financially healthy lives, and realize their unique dreams, at all stages of life.  With  a family legacy of social justice, Sireesha was born near Hyderabad, India. “My grandfather was a great activist, who gave up everything he had for the village he grew up in,” she explained.  He passed away in his 40’s, and exhorted Sireesha’s grandmother to empower their children. “I don’t care if you even feed them but make sure the girls are educated,” he declared.  Sireesha felt inspired by her aunts, so she matriculated at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, in Pilani, India.  She graduated with an electrical and electonics engineering degree; but took all electives in programming; and performed her senior year internship at a company where she became proficient in Oracle databases.

Sireesha’s first post-university job was supposed to be in electronics engineering at a New Delhi, India company but they needed her Oracle experience. Several years later she moved to TGK, another Indian company, whose innovations included a new variation of SAP software called “i-SAP” an ERP system.  I learned so much there,” and also met her husband at TGK.  Confiding in the company’s managing director that she was going to leave, he referred her to Metamor Global Solutions, with a position in Detroit, Michigan.  Her soon-to-be husband simultaneously moved to Detroit and “a year later we got married.”  

Sireesha took a job in Winston-Salem, North Carolina for Triad Guaranty Insurance for less than a year but came back to Michigan for a position at NSF International.  With a mission to improve global human health, non-profit NSF develops public health standards and certification programs to protect global water and food supplies, consumer products, and environment.  Starting as a Project Manager, Sireesha developed her NSF career over 18 years. While there, Sireesha enrolled at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, where she obtained her MBA, which “gave me a 10-year acceleration” in career evolution. Promoted to Business Applications Manager, and Director of Business Applications, her team “built this wonderful application” which they pitched as a global spin-off, that morphed into an NSF subsidiary (NSF TraQtion). This gave Sireesha “the ride of my life, doing everything as an entrepreneur.”   

Having fun running that new NSF division,  Sireesha was approached by Kristen Holt, CEO at Greenpath, to take a “culture walk” at the nonprofit’s headquarters in Southeast Michigan.  “The culture of ‘human centered design’ thinking, putting people in the center” is part of Greenpath’s organizational evolution. The staff showed clients “a path to get out of crisis and achieve their dreams.” Greenpath offers financial education, counseling and aid to people in dire circumstances, and serves 200,000 households annually, with free counseling “I want to make the most impact.” So Sireesha was hooked on Greenpath’s BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) to “remix the American dream so that it works for everyone, because everybody deserves a chance to attain dreams.” As a financial organization, “everything runs on technology” and Sireesha’s team of 28 IT professionals ensures internal technology always works.  Her vision includes “technology as a differentiating factor” in everything that Greenpath accomplishes. This includes a significant investment in mobile applications for clients so “they can engage in self-service, see their progress, and be encouraged.” One of her other technology investments is current tech solutions, to enable the services team to operate at highest efficiency. 

The personal traits that have marked her success include courage, flexibility and intellectual agility.  Sireesha’s Greenpath colleagues have pointed out she possesses a rare “multidimensional thinking capability, applied to problem-solving” complemented by a propensity for strategy and results-orientation.  She also counsels young people to make career and education choices through SAT and ACT coaching for high schoolers. Sireesha’s greatest fear is that she will “accept mediocrity.” So, she picks a handful of meaningful activities (work, church, mentoring/coaching) and focuses on those.

In the greater global community, Sireesha strives to make an important impact by supporting another non-profit founded by her husband and herself in 2005.  It is Sphoorthi (which means “inspiration” in Sanskrit). Completely funded by them, this nonprofit is focused on providing food, clothing and education for underprivileged youngsters in Vizag, India. “It is my husband’s dream, but his dream is actually bigger,” Sireesha said. “We have helped 125 kids, thus far. Our goal is to have an orphanage, and a senior citizens home, together. We want to bring them together so seniors’ experience will help the kids.  The kids, in turn, will rejuvenate the seniors.” Their plans include the orphanage, a holistic health center, a school, and a senior center, centralized together in a single positive community, powered by sustainable energy.

Sireesha’s counsel to striving women and girls includes some practical advice. “The way you portray yourself is exactly how others will see you; network, network, network.”  And “always make it a point to make a difference for someone other than yourself.”

Make sure to check us out on online at www.divatechtalk.com, on Twitter @divatechtalks, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/divatechtalk. And please listen to us on SoundCloud, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting channel and provide an online review.

Sep 12, 2019

Diva Tech Talk interviewed Teri Takai,  former CIO for the U.S. Department of Defense; former CIO for both the state of California and state of Michigan; and automotive industry technology executive.   Today, Teri is the Executive Director for The Center for Digital Government, a division of eRepublic.

Teri’s parents grew up on the U.S. West Coast where “in World War II, Japanese-Americans were interned in (concentration) camps.” Her mother and father were fortunate. The University of Michigan entered the camps to help. “If you could get security clearance, you could (with $25 and one suitcase) take a train to Ann Arbor and get a job.” Wistfully, Teri said: “My dad wanted to be an aeronautical engineer. but didn’t feel that as a Japanese American, he could, so he decided to go into civil engineering.” However, the concentration camp, and move, disrupted his plan.  Instead, he became a draftsman in the automotive industry, working for small automotive suppliers. 

“I wasn’t interested in technology, at first, but I was good at math. It was the problem-solving,” Teri said. Valedictorian of her high school, she matriculated at the University of Michigan as a math major.  A friend of her mother suggested she pursue computer programming. Teri devised an individualized curriculum of statistics, industrial engineering and more. Graduating with strong Fortran skills, she joined a  small division of Ford Motor Company, focused on tractors, and developed a fascination for “the way technology impacted the business.” This inspired her to go back to school for a Ford-financed MBA. Teri worked in engineering, manufacturing and traveled internationally, staying for a decade, and enjoying promotions, many of which involved people management. 

Teri feels fortunate that, prior to “diversity” being acknowledged as integral to progressive workplaces, she had a Ford boss who supported her taking a formal leave of absence to move to Germany, along with her husband, who was transferred as an engineer --- before Ford had a formal policy for working spouses.  The leadership lesson Teri frequently shares is “what we need to do is follow our belief systems. Do what is right.”

At the end of 10 years in the tractor division, Teri got the opportunity to move to the mainstream side of Ford, as part of a consulting team working to build Ford Latin America. This opened her eyes to how people, from different cultures, might view her, as a colleague/leader. Teri did that job for 5 years, and then moved to a Ford thinktank directed to meeting the competitive threat of GM’s innovative Saturn division.  “I am pretty good at getting things done.  I am not necessarily your leader for ‘big picture’ strategies. I am focused on how you organize, bring people together and deliver a product.”  As part of Ford’s software development, Teri worked on complex internal ERP and administration systems, a large supply chain initiative (CMMS), and then moved to the assembly division, managing plant floor systems. Then Ford gave her an overseas assignment, in the United Kingdom, where she led the development of a global purchasing system, which involved the expansion of a European-based purchasing system all over the world. Then Teri came back to the U.S. to Ford Credit, for a large system launch. Then she moved back into leading CMMS.  Teri completed her 30 year career at Ford involved in the acquisition of Land Rover, and Volvo, and then in strategic planning. “My time at Ford was about delivery.”

Teri took a two-year position at EDS, because “I felt the wave of the future was not going to be big, internal IT organizations.” She learned the technology services business and had the chance to work directly with GM.  Soon she was approached to join Governor Jennifer Granholm’s Michigan cabinet. She became CIO and Director of the Michigan Department of Information Technology.  “The governor said to me, now is the time for giving back, for public service,” Teri said.  “I am forever grateful to her for that.” Teri inherited a single precedent-setting government organization that centralized all information technology staff for the state.  She and Governor Granholm were “great colleagues; I understood her strategic planning initiative, and what she wanted to do.” Teri came to a deep understanding about the collaborative nature of government, and how to effect lasting change.  She stayed for 5 years, then was approached by the State of California, which had been without a CIO for over 5 years. “Governor Schwarzenegger, at the time, had gotten advice, from tech companies, that California needed a CIO,” she said.  She became that CIO, and created the Office of the CIO from scratch, fully operational, in a 3-year timeframe, simultaneously with the state’s budget crisis. While the learning curve was challenging, Teri grew through it, and “a number of women reached out to me, there; influential women in Sacramento.”  

Toward the end of three years in California, “a friend of mine had become President Obama’s Chief Information Officer. He called and asked me to interview for Chief Information Officer for the Department of Defense.”  Despite a lack of federal government experience, she was offered the job. “It was the hardest, most stressful, job I ever had. You have a role that is accountable to all men and women in uniform.  Everything thing DoD did, for security and protection, was based on technology.” She worked for four different Cabinet Secretaries for Defense in her 3-year tenure interacting with other members of the cabinet, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff (“amazing leaders”).  

Having left the Federal Government, Teri is now leading the Center for Digital Government, a division of eRepublic. “The overall role is to link technology companies with state and local government.”  Teri personally guides key programs. “We do surveys, so cities, states and counties can compare themselves to each other, and get rankings/grades.  We share best practices and celebrate!” Teri also provides advisory services for technology companies, in government and works with cybersecurity start-ups, to bring tech to the market.  

Teri strongly believes her unique background, and skills, emanate from both success and failures. “Sprinkled through the good stuff was a lot of learning, mistakes, and setbacks. I learned, later in life than I should have, the importance of collaboration. It takes time to understand how important all the different viewpoints are.” Teri defines ultimate happiness as “having a mission in life and giving back.” Her advice to other evolving women leaders is: “Be patient with yourself, as you are going through your career.”  Teri is proud that colleagues have called her “a survivor” because she learned from every obstacle. “Believe in yourself. Stay the course. Keep moving ahead.” And finally, “follow your intuition; do what feels right.”

Make sure to check us out on online at www.divatechtalk.com, on Twitter @divatechtalks, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/divatechtalk. And please listen to us on SoundCloud, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting channel and provide an online review.

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