>>Mhm. >>Hello, Welcome to the Cubes presentation of women in Tech Global events Celebrating International Women's Day. I'm John for a host of the Cube. Got a great guest here. Isabella, who is the vice president of worldwide Public Sector EMEA Sales for AWS Amazon Web service Europe, Middle East and Africa Isabella Thanks for spending the time and coming on this, uh, this programme for International Women's Day. Appreciate it. >>Thank you very much for having me on that one. It's an exciting topic, John. >>A lot of things going on. A lot of themes. Um, we'll get into that. But first tell us about your career and how you got to be working at a W s. >>Yeah, that that's that's really interesting. Storey, I would say I give you first of all the headline. I am a dental technician by training. I am business administration economics by study, and I spent my really whole life intact. So my first message here is that you can have a great career press intact, having a diverse background. Um, what you need really is to be curious and to be eager to learn. And you see that I've slightly tweaked our leadership principles saying learn and be curious on that one. But when you agree on that one saying, I am curious, I want to learn this is really a great place in technology and in a W s to be in and to progress a career. It's really, really cool. And when I look ahead, I see that because the industry lines are blurring more and more, they are more and more diverse skill sets that were reverse roles coming in, and that is really opening an exciting opportunity also for women, but also in a broader sense of diversity to go and and have a career in technology. It is quite exciting. Back to my career. I started in a in a company. I think when I look back at that and reflect, it was a startup these days very, very early in parallel computing moved on than into management consulting into into international consulting project and managing those ones. And when I look at that piece, I have built out at that point exactly my industry skills and that was beginning in the oil and gas industry when I then transitioned in a bigger cooperation into the e R P space that also continues on a global scale. And then eventually I switched over and, um, and started to go deeper into another industry segment, which was the public sector. And when you come from oil and gas, that is a transition that comes to national oil companies. So that just a sort of naturally came but gave me absolutely different scope. So 16 years in oil and gas and then processed into public sector. Now, in my last global role, I really get across the whole discussion about Cloud. And this is why I got also in touch with aws, um, talking about Wow, this is the future. This is really the way of how computing is gonna be consumed in future and how agile those types of a of a model is. And that was really super intrigued, also having a sort of a really startup mentality. And this is and here I am, as this is responsible for for a mayor in public sector. >>But I love the throwback to parallel computing. I remember those days exciting Storey and I love the point about a lot of opportunities with tech. There's so the aperture of technology has really widened the surface area for things you can do and bring a diverse background to is really amazing. Great point. Great insight. I have to ask you, um what first Got you interested in working in the tech sector? How did you get attracted to the parallel computing? Um, what was the gravitational pole? Was there a moment of of luck? Serendipity. What happened? Tell us, uh, how you got interested in the tech sector, >>John, I wish I would tell you now, a storey that this was the wow moment, right where I came across something and that sparked the idea. Can I tell you a secret? So when I started my study, the the thing that I said or the statement I made was it just I want to work in everything, but not in, >>uh >>this is And and maybe maybe that is how the brain process. So the brain process I want to work in i t. And this is how I got into it. No, but seriously, I think the first part was I got my business degree, but I got it from a technical in your university. This is why I come First time came across that in a broader sense. What I say is it later or is it early? I don't think so. That was for me at the right time. That was mechanical engineering engineering and I t. I've also built a couple of seasons around that part. That was the first one. And certainly when I get into this company that was on parallel computing at that time and under talk, being responsible for optimisation models for refineries as sort of transition into that one. So coming really from a technical university background being on a daily basis was that and being in in this in those topics all the time and also thinking about how could I progress that way and also having my first engagement with the company, Um, in that space that got me intrigued and stuck into the startup space. Um, not calling as a startup those days, but also in the technology side. And I think the farms have been so cool if I look back on that one, >>you know, what's the thing about that Storey is that you were in an environment that was technical and nerdy, and we're seeing that now people are. We had a leader on a W s that I interviewed. She said we're nerd native. The younger generation is natively nerdy. And there they got tech. They're touching it everywhere there in things owns there in think tanks and build a building things. So this is this is the new situation. So, you know, this is kind of where we're going. So the next question I have for you is, um how do we encourage young women and girls to get a career in tech? Are there initiatives that you guys have? I know get I t initiative that 80 bucks runs is one. How do we get this? This word out that it's all in front of us that the environment is rich to >>bring careers >>in together. >>Yeah, and I think to your point, you can't start early enough on that one, right? So I can say it has been a different touch points, but I think I also had an inspiration earlier where I really thought about here. I can do everything right. So from that perspective that paves the way into a looking at, I can equally proceed different career passes, but you touched on the get I t side And I really, really love that initiative that that we as a W s have put together. And I've been a judge on that one. And it's amazing results that have been driving that. So the initiative has and and and and defined frame it is encouraging girls in the age of 12 13 and also that but but potentially also then later going and considering and career in tack. Um, with that one, it brings these challenges that that teams are solving for specifically. For example, schools are taking problems on that they're gonna frame and set up into a in a sort of a mini startup mode, thinking about what is the business case, How do I go from a detailed plan but also still keep a big picture in mind and then bring it forward into a pitch? This is a very, very round of and defined programme that we have set up, and it really very it sparks very, very great. Not very, but but great ideas in the sense of it sparks the ideas for for really how those problems can be can be solved in those communities and potentially be beyond what I really love about it. It forces diversity. You think about it. It's not only just for for girls or it's not for younger women, but it is diverse team. So they are from a diversity perspective. It brings different perspectives into it, and it's in and is solving those problems for communities or challenges for communities. So since we started that one we have, we have had a very, very strong participation in the UK, for example, from 136 schools and I think over 30,000 students. We are now rolling this initiative also out to other countries in Europe, and I had the pleasure to participate in the one in Germany. So I think that that was really an outstanding experience and it really brings that top of mind again and again. Think thinking about no matter what your background is, just go and solve problems for your school, for your community, get people together, get diverse perspective and get things going. >>I love that example, is a great storey because it also allows people to get their hands on some technology experiment breaks to fix it get building at the young age. But also the theme this year is breaking the bias. Right. So when you get to the younger ages, the bias can be worked on there. This is a great example of that. Is that have an impact there as well? >>Yeah, I think so. Very much it is. You have You have those teams that are naturally then working around the problem, and they are really absolutely focused on the topic. They are absolutely focused on solving a challenge. And I think that really brings this the diversity of perspective together. And in that context, the teams are also looking at what we what we have in in in our organisation, what makes really that strong culture, which are the leadership principles. Right? So we are this this is a invent and simplify. This is a built trust very much. Just just deal respectfully with other people, but also be able to discuss, had you a strong opinion but then also agree on the direction. So I think it really brings that to the topic. And by that broadens the base of the collaboration great >>organic diversity from day one as they say Amazon phrase. But let's speaking of Amazon phrases and leadership principles. One of the things that we hear Amy Jackie talked about this all the time. But now Adam Sadowsky talks about as well as the new CEO of AWS. Um is to be the world's best employer, right? So you know, one of the things is the diversity, inclusion and equity part of the equation. And and, of course, they're they're putting storeys out like this is a great, great service, and we're happy to be working with them on this. So why is diversity, inclusion and equity such an important part of this leadership principle? Uh, for Amazon and the world? Can you share your thoughts and and share the the urgency and imperative of why this is a big deal? >>Look, I think now, first of all, we need to acknowledge that we are all diverse, right, and we can, by default, say that So we are bringing all these diverse views. We are bringing a lot of diverse perspective when we are joining a company. When we are talking to other people in each and every interaction, we are expressing our diversity and and we we we as a W s believe that when technology is delivered, it should be in a way that it should be built in a way that is first of all, diverse. It is equitable, and it is inclusive. Um, and we have the responsibility to make that happen. And we also have, as an organisation, the responsibility to take the way, way on to understand what does it take to get there and to get the commitment out to make sure that we bring more diverse perspective, we bring more diverse perspective. We force those ones, and we build on that we never stop on looking at bringing more and more diversity. And that's one, I think, Um, we are as a W s committed to a diverse workforce for one reason, and that is our customers are diverse. The challenges are diverse, so delivering the best solution needs a diverse perspective. This is where the best of innovation comes together when you have people that can discuss. But those people also feel safe to express themselves and to have their voice heard. So that's the second part where it is. It's the customer focus, and we are extremely customer obsessed. But on the other hand, it is also the question about we do it for our people because we want and that comes then back to your point on also on the on the leadership principle. We want our people to feel the belonging into the organisation. This is what they are in their safe point. This is what they deliver at the best, also for our customers and what they feel that they are part of the organisation. When you take diversity equity and inclusion together, the outcome of of all of three is is belonging. So we want to to really drive that to make sure that we we dr more aspects of that diversity into the organisation. So we bring a broad basis of our colleagues, um, into into the organisation and make the work voice heard. Now that that's one hang on and then we we we we want actively recruit women into to drive this gender diversity specifically as well. When we look, for example, at a media and we are going to colleges, we're going to two events were going to conferences when we want to really offer the benefits for for our industry leading, for example, parent leave, mentorships and sponsorship programmes which are women to develop their careers to to really focus on that one. So I think it is striving for being the Earth were best employer by bringing those top industry programmes to live, to make sure that each and every diverse personality can find a space at AWS and run at the best for the best of our customers, >>that's a great point. The world's divers, the customers are diverse and if you put the three words together, they're all equally important. It got to include everyone got to be diverse. Everyone has to have equity. That is a community that's about what community is about. And and we are now doing seeing more community focus than ever before. In today's world, this is super important. Quick follow up on that the role of community. What's your vision on community? Because >>people want to belong >>to something, they want to be part of a tribe. This community, >>Yeah, and that's why I'm saying I think when you to, to your point again to reinforce that when you bring the three words together, you get this community feeling you get the belonging. I think it's also the question of a strong culture. You, you, you the ability to offer a cultural framework that people can identify with where they see that the breaths and depths of their skills and all the people around the globe can be folded in. I think this is massive, and this is extremely powerful to bring that to life and to be able to offer this to to our colleagues that are working at a W S. But also beyond that is a universal, universal message that we can spread. >>Yeah, I gotta say, uh, props to Amazon AWS and we're investing in the queue. We're doing more of these interviews. This is a force multiplier. I think, uh, diversity, inclusion and equity is a force multiplier. Competitive advantage. The product gets better, the people are happier. It's just a wonderful thing. So I really appreciate the the insight and points on that. That's a great, great segment. Lastly, though we're speaking of the number of inspiring women, you're one of them. Thanks for joining us as part of Celebration International Women's Day. I'd like to ask you, um, who inspires you? Yeah, >>Look, there are there are so many just I I think we are. We are living in a world where you get the inspiration from very, very many sources. But if I drive that back to what has shaped my career, what has shaped my past? I would say that there are There are two main data points. The first one is I'm really going back to my dad. When I went back to him and says that what eventually can I do? He just looked at me and said, Do whatever you want And this is how I really went into life rolling up the sleeves, saying Okay, yeah, well, let's go there, Right So it inspired me to to to look at the positive side and to always take it from an opportunity perspective to go and do whatever I wanted to do. What I thought is interesting for me and where I have been really curious and wanted to learn more about that is one and the other one. Besides the all the framework that we, for example, have had a W s, the leadership principles, our culture of diversity, but also our culture of of, um of of discussion, high debate, and those types are super, super inspirational when it also comes for me to drive in the next level of getting getting everybody on the same page. Um, I had a discussion, was one of my former escape managers as capable managers, and the the sentence that he has formed that is still sticks with me is I was looking at the next career point, and we have been discussing that back and forth, and he he was always asking the same questions. What do you want to do next? And I gave him an answer. He never answered. He just walked away and I did that two times, and I eventually figured out that it's probably not what he really wanted to hear. And when we started to go into a discussion, he he pointed me to a to A to A to to affect or to a direction that he said, Do you want to wait for dead man's slippers? And this is a sentence just you don't really under need to understand that in price and deaths. But if you think about the picture just like this, there is the old chair and then you have the slippers. Is that something? This is something we always think myself back and forth. I'm thinking. What? What? Which point I am I at. And is that eventually also a point where I would say this is a dead man slippers transition point. And this is what inspired me of thinking about the next three points staying agile and also staying, staying always curious and learning. >>So go on to the next level is about pushing yourself and really rethinking and going after things that maybe aspirational but attainable at the same time. Understanding that role sounds like that was growth opportunity. >>Yes, it was a growth opportunity. Then it never comes to the to the point where you're gonna say, I'm gonna now that's it, right? I've learned everything. It is a I'm gonna step out. It's gonna be outside my comfort zone. Am I ready to do that? And it's at the right point for me and I think it's the answer to that. One is always Yes, this is how you stay, Stay, keep up with technology. But you keep up also with all the fantastic opportunities that that that the life and also the environment. Like, for example, a W s offer. >>Isabella, thank you for coming on and sharing this storey. One last question I'll ask you, is what's next for you. What do you want to do next? Your worldwide public sector executive leader for Europe, Middle East and Africa for AWS Hot company? The regions are everywhere. There's more regions as locals owns. Everything is happening. It's expanding. You're in the middle of it. What's next for you? >>I want to see cloud being the driver of innovation and and business dynamics. Business model change. And I want to be part of this business model change that is based on cloud in future, for the benefit of public sector and all the other entities, and also very much for the for the benefit of all citizens around the globe. That's my next >>Well, it sounds like it's been a very diverse, inclusive and highly equitable, and I want to be part of that. Want to belong to that? Thank you for sharing and looking forward to more conversations and thank you for spending the time to come on the cubes presentation here. Thank you so much. >>Thank you. so much I >>appreciate. Okay. The representation of women in tech global events celebrating International Women's Day. This is the first episode will be more. We're going to get more and more storeys out. But March 8th is a big day. We're celebrating today. International. I'm John Ferry, the host of the Cube. Thanks for watching.

>> Hey, welcome back everybody. Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. We're in downtown San Francisco at The Hotel Nikko. It's International Women's Day, March 8th. A lot of stuff happening all over the world. We came here today 'cause Accenture's got a great program, put together about 400 people, a number of panels on a number of topics. We're excited that they invited us to cover it and we've got some really exciting guests. And our next guest is Sabeen Ali, she's the founder and CEO of AngelHack. Sabeen welcome. >> Thank you so much. >> And she's joined by Ellen McGirt, the senior editor of Fortune, welcome. >> Thank you. >> So I think we all know what Fortune is. >> Ellen: We do. >> But we don't probably all know what AngelHack is. So Sabeen, what is AngelHack? Give us kind of the overview. >> Yeah, I'll give you the eight second elevator pitch. We are an international hackathon organizing company. We travel the world and organize hackathons all over the world. And we basically create a bridge between Silicon Valley and the rest of the world to bring entrepreneurs here and give them the same opportunities that Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have. >> So do you do independent hackathons or do you like contract it? 'Cause every conference we go to, we do like 100 conferences a year, always has some hackathon component. Do you help other people put on hackathons or you just do your own kind of independent? >> We do both, actually. So we organize a 50 city global hackathon series which is our own, and then we also work with corporate partners such as Accenture and HPE and others to organize hackathons for their brand. >> And is it thematic? Is there a special thing about the hackathons that you guys do and why you think that that's a interesting way to either develop talent, deliver a message, deliver solutions, what's special about hackathons? >> Yeah, well, what I can tell you is, what's special about hackathons is that it's a community space where people feel comfortable exploring themselves and exploring their talents, working with new individuals, and really giving them an opportunity to learn new things and try new things. What's very different about AngelHack is we're actually the world's largest and most diverse in developer ecosystem, so we actually have a wide range of diverse backgrounds and genders that come to our events, and we personally think that that's really where innovation happens, when you bring a variety of different backgrounds and minds together to get together and solve problems using technology. >> Can I just brag on you for a second? Because we just got off stage together where she just wowed the crowd with stories of these hackathons from around the world, and it's not just that there's diversity, and it's not just that they've given them the tools to succeed. She's going to Kabul, she's going to San Diego, she's bringing people who ordinarily never get the attention although plenty of people in San Diego get attention, I didn't name all the right cities, and she's bringing them together and then she's helping them fine tune, and then she's bringing them to the attention of people in power, it is extraordinary. >> Thank you. >> This is the sign of the times. The innovation, like things are starting to happen and markets are opening up, and Sabeen is one of the people who is absolutely making it happen. And that's what Fortune does best, we brag on the people that we write about. (laughing) >> That's great. And why do you think, Ellen, why are things changing now? It definitely feels like they are. >> Ellen: It does. >> But, you know, the cynic would say, yeah we've heard all this before, and, you know, pick your favorite time, you know, it's not really different, you know, this too will pass. Why is it different now? >> You know, and we were talking about this and I actually wish I knew, and I'm a cynic too depending on where I am in my deadline cycle, so sometimes I'm super optimistic and sometimes I think it's just crazy, but I think it's the confluence of many, many things. We've had a lot of stories about injustice and lack of access from every possible sphere, and race, and age, and country, and religion, all of it. And we have the very same tools, social media tools that are spreading things that are false, are spreading things that are true. And people are legitimately finding each other, and people are legitimately finding a tribe, for lack of a better term, and it's kind of exciting. So when you hear about things like AngelHack, which I always am looking for these in my daily column, it can resonate with people who are not part of the ecosystem and they can absorb the lessons of inclusion and optimism and bring it to the rest of their lives. And plus everything's crazy right now, in the world. >> Yeah, I think it's really important to also point out that in America our political climate and certain personalities that are in power right now, there's certain topics and subject matters that are becoming everyday topics. People are becoming a lot more comfortable talking about sexual harassment and talking about women in the workplace and it's not like a lot of the stories that women are telling are things that just happened yesterday, this is stuff that's from, that's happened in the past that now unlocked in their memories or they're feeling a lot more comfortable talking about it because we're actually creating an environment where people can talk about it and we're actually creating a language that people can use to express their experiences and their emotions about it. >> You're absolutely right. >> So many places we could go. But it was interesting that we're in kind of this rough middle ground where we haven't really kind of made this transition to where we're hoping to go, and it was an interesting comment at one of the other panels, you probably weren't in it, you were in your panel, about the Me Too has actually scared some men away from being mentors, and somebody said, you know, there's less. We cover the Grace Hopper Celebration and the sum of the numbers of women coming out of engineering programs, computer science specifically, are actually not going in the direction that you would think. So we're still kind of in these choppy waters, but I'm just wondering, when you set up your hackathon have you ever set up just not diverse teams to show that the output with the diverse team of opinions, points of view, backgrounds, race, sex, pick your favorite variable, actually deliver better results? >> Well, there's a ton of scientific research that actually shows that diverse groups and a diverse set of backgrounds delivers better results. So groupthink, it's been proven to be very detrimental. At our events we don't form the teams, we let the community self-organize, and we've seen time and time again that we can actually never predict who the winning team is going to be and what the make up of that team is going to look like. >> Yeah, you have to try that sometime. Put 'em in little, I don't even know, it doesn't even matter which single group you chose, you just know, as you said, the evidence is pretty clear, they're not going to perform as well as difference of opinions. Ellen, you're shaking your head. >> I know, I just sort of thought about like the sad little homogenous group who is sort of like set up to fail. (laughing) And that maybe there's a kinder way to make the case. >> Give them gummy bears or something. (laughing) So, with all you've done at AngelHack, where are you going next? What do you see as you look down the road? I still can't believe it's 2018 and we're almost a quarter of the way through this calendar year. What are some of your priorities if we come together a year form now, what will you have worked on? >> Yeah, hopefully a year from now we would have expanded into more than 92 cities, into more remote regions than we have now, and also we're doubling down on our accelerator. We want to make sure that our winning teams have an opportunity to really come to Silicon Valley or get access to funding that's available in Silicon Valley so that they can have funding and they can be successful for many years to come. >> And do you see within some of the groups that don't have access, obviously, to the money and the location in Silicon Valley, that people realize kind of what a powerful world changer technology can be, that you can actually write some code and deliver it to the entire world, that people actually use your code to do something different? >> Yeah, absolutely, that's what we're advocating for, that's really, honestly, what a lot of out topics discuss, that technology doesn't discriminate. It's really when people take a look at it, and in fact, GitHub did some research that they put code that was written by men versus code that was written by women and then they had people rate it, and immediately people were rating the code that was written by men higher, and then they didn't put what gender wrote it and then the code that was written by women was higher. So I think the research is starting and people are starting to realize to put technology first and gender maybe doesn't even belong in the judging criteria here. >> And do you think, Ellen, part of it's maybe just because we need more people? I mean there's, you know, on one hand autonomous everything is going to knock out all the jobs, on the other hand check the job listings 'cause we need a lot more people. >> We do, we do. And you're right, we're losing, what, 25% of jobs with new technology coming in, but we're also going to bring all kinds of people online who do not have access to even modern services. We're going to need some very basic things and they're going to need access to markets, and then they're going to become more responsible consumers and they, in turn, will then propose ideas that will make everybody's lives better because one of things that we talked about is that innovation tends to happen in a bubble and people are solving problems that they themselves are happening, but there's a whole world that would be improved by new levels of thinking and that would also create more jobs. >> And they're new jobs, right? There wasn't such a thing as a software developer, you know, 20 years ago, and if you're a buggy whip guy it's probably not a great time to be in business today. So while there are many jobs that are going to get wiped out, there's new jobs. You know, social media manager, I mean, that didn't exist, what, five years ago at most companies, now it's a huge part of a lot of corporations. So it's this constant evolution and yin and yang. >> Constant evolution. >> So what are you looking forward to in 2018 as you kind of, you've got kind of a broad view of the landscape. >> I do, and I write a daily column about race and culture, so that is how we got a chance to meet. You know, diversity and inclusion has been sort of the thing I've been studying for the last two years and as difficult as the world is and as crazy as it is, I really do see an opening that's happening where people are becoming more open to the idea of thinking different ways and embracing people who are different from themselves and not feeling threatened. We're still in choppy waters though, you're absolutely right. >> Well, and the other thing too, right? I was thinking if you're a 100 miles from a coast in the United States, I won't speak for other countries 'cause I don't know it as well, you know, there's a point of view and if you're more than 100 miles from the coast, maybe with Chicago as an island or Denver, there's a little bit of a difference, are you seeing, kind of, it getting beyond those kind of short borders, 'cause obviously, as you said, a lot of social stuff going on right now, there's a lot of diametrically opposed views, and I blame actually technology for a lot of it because thanks to the recommendation engines we tend to get served up things that we've read in the past, so unlike where you had kind of one newspaper in town, everybody had to read it so it had to be kind of down the middle. Now, the silly algorithms will keep delivering stuff that supports my point of view and other people will get delivered with their point of view, and I think the surprise after the election illustrated it more than anything that people didn't know anything about the other side, the shock, so are we getting past that? Do you see, kind of, what's your take on that? >> I'll start and then you jump in. I think that when we invest in communities that are under invested in, wherever they are, I live in St. Louis, you will see innovations. And maybe you won't always see the innovations that you're hoping for that will knit society together, but investment will flow and new product ideas will flow, and most importantly to your point, an understanding of how the world actually works will flow. The reason why to study software and code engineering is maybe that you don't want to be that, maybe you want to be an opera singer, but it will make you a better, more informed citizen. It will make you understand what's real and what's not real. I'm a big fan of liberal arts education in technology because it helps you understand how people actually behave and what markets actually need. >> Right. >> So I think that as people have the tools and use the tools, investments will follow, lifestyle will follow. So I guess I'm just outing myself as an optimist here. >> Jeff: Good, that's good. >> Sabeen, what do you think? >> I have to be optimistic, as well. Again, being at the forefront of emerging technology, I know that there's people looking to solve that very problem, and they're coming form a diverse group of engineers, and I really feel like that we're going to come up with a lot of tech solutions that are going to make a lot more diversity, inclusion, easier to facilitate, and easier to implement in corporations as well. >> Well, keep up your good work. I mean, at the end of the day it's about democratization. It's giving more people more access to the tools and you're going to get better solutions, more solutions, more diverse solutions. So, great job, and thanks for taking a few minutes. >> Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Alright, I'm Jeff Frick, we're at the Accenture International Women's Day Celebration. Thanks for watching. (electronic music)