>> From San Francisco, it's theCUBE covering Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference, brought to you by Girls in Tech. (upbeat digital music) >> Hey, welcome back everybody. Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. We're in downtown San Fransico at the Girls In Tech Catalyst Conference 2018. About 700 people, mainly women, some men. I think they brought in a school bus load of girls to participate. And really it's a two-day, single track conference. A lot of, just presentations by senior executive women telling their story, how they got to where they were, giving some inspirational advice. And we're psyched to be here. Adriana runs a great, great conference. It's a super organization, and we're excited to have our next guest. She's Wendy Howell, the chief of staff for Cisco Services. Wendy, great to see you. >> Great to see you, thank you for having me. >> Absolutely, so you're here instead of Cisco Live, which I think is great for you. What do think about this event? Why are you involved in Girls in Tech? >> Yeah, so I discovered Girls in Tech probably about three years ago and saw Adriana speak on just some interview. And I went, I don't know who she is, but I love her, and I love her message. So fast forward, attended my first Catalyst about three years ago, found out that we had two VPs that were on the board at Cisco which I didn't know. So, what's going on here? Let's do something with these guys. They were trying to put together a global partnership, and we really, they just couldn't get it over the line. Well, what's the problem? Funding. Okay, well let's fund it and let's just go. So we signed a global partnership two years ago with Girls in Tech. We've done, I think we've sponsored, overall with Cisco, about 15 different events. Catalyst Conference, AMPLIFY Women's Pitch Night. I think we've done eight. Hacking for Humanity events globally. It's just an amazing organization. It's the right organization at the right time. You know Adriana. She is amazing, she's a force of nature. And so I liken myself to be a mini Adriana for Cisco. (laughs) It's the time to get more and more focus on getting women in tech, and especially making sure that we have role models for the young ladies that are coming up in technology. >> Right, right. That's funny, that's how we found Adriana as well. I think she was on at a IBM event many, many moons ago and said you know, we got to get involved. >> It was random. >> The Pitch Night is really fun. You know, that's just a great event. And one of the ones from a couple years ago is really taking off, the little like, tile-like device. >> That's right, that's right. >> Which I can't remember the name, but it's not tile. >> And in fact, I saw one of your interviews, I think it was Sandy Carter. I don't know whether it was >> Yeah. the last year or the year before, I just did volunteer, >> Good, good. and it was great. >> So you know, the sponsorship list has really grow this year, and it's a who's who of corporate logos, >> Absolutely. which is great. We're looking at it over, across the way. And we talked about it a little bit before we turned on the cameras, about how some of the bigger tech companies specifically, 'cause it's kind of a tech focused event, obviously, can be, not only more involved, but a little bit more thoughtful, a little bit more organized, a little bit more coordinated in the way that they put resources behind events such as Girls in Tech. So why don't talk to kind of what your experience is there, what are guys doing, how are you trying to add a little bit more purpose and organization behind your efforts? >> Right, and again, originally the partnership, it came together quite fast after we sort of said hey let's just go do this. So then our first year, we really were focused specifically on events, and let's do events together to really get our name associated with the brand of Girls in Tech, which is global, and phenomenoal, and 100,000 plus members, etc. This year, in our second year, I think we're being a little more thoughtful, and we really want to continue to show the ROI for our organization. So we're really focusing more on the recruiting aspect. And there's some new cool things coming out on that front from Girls In Tech. And I really want to just say, hey it's great to have our name associated with Girls In Tech, but what's it doing for us? What are we doing for the women that we're supporting? Let's hire them into Cisco, let's hire them into AWS. So that's a real big key focus area for us this year. Plus the events, 'cause this is, you know, not only is it great for us, but I get to bring my team here and they come away feeling fantastic and amazing, and I get all psyched watching all these young ladies walk around. >> Right. >> Many of them, I'm like, I wasn't even thinking about things like this when I was your age. Back in the day (laughs). >> That's right, dune day, thankfully. >> That's right. >> So that's interesting, in terms of how do you measure your ROI in the investment? Clearly, recruiting has got to big a piece right? You can never get enough >> Yeah. people, and even though machines are going to take everybody's job, Everyone >> That's right one day seems to have a whole lot of open recs, and can't fill the people. So is there anything else that you look at besides just hiring, or is it the number of people that come through the process? How do you measure? 'Cause we know it's not only just good and the right thing to do, but there's real business benefit to participating in diversity programs. >> Absolutely. And I mean, every large organization right now, over the last three years, has come to that realization. This diversity is not just a buzz word, it's a thing. We know that there is greater ideas that come out of it, more diverse ideas, bookings, I mean, there's real, relatable, tangible feedback that you can get from it, right? >> Right, right. So recruiting is a big one for us, but also we look at the impact. You know, every quarter, we sit down with Girls In Tech and we get an impact report of what are you Cisco, what have you done, Cisco, and what has it done for Girls In Tech, and what has it done for us? How many people have we had attend a Hack-A-Thon? How many dollars have we supported with? How many people are going through a boot camp? So that's sort of the way we look at it as well, the impact report, also. >> And do you find it's a higher kind of ROI, in, not so much a smaller organization, but these are relatively small events compared to Cisco Live and a lot of the big events that are in the industry. Is it just a more focused return? Is it a better return? How does it fit in with your whole strategy? Yeah, I would call it more focused. It's more of a niche, but it still provides us, and we're growing, right? So we're only >> Right. the second year in, and I truly believe that if we continue our focus in this area, I can see a strong, high trajectory if you will. >> Right. So just a pitch for companies like Cisco that aren't involved with Girls in Tech, who you may compete with, you may not compete with, you probably partner with out in the ecosystem, what would you tell 'em about this organization and why they should get more involved? Yeah, I mean, I think there's a couple things. So number one, Adriana herself, and the brand of her, and the brand that is Girls In Tech now. If you think about it, I mean, 10, 11 years now, so going from one chapter to 62 plus, hopefully 75, I think, by 2020 is the goal, and now 100,000 plus members, being associated with this brand is fabulous for your business, but you know, it's also the right thing to do. Because again, I go back to my super passionate about the next generation of female leaders and these role models that the younger folks are seeing. You can't, you can't even put a price on how valuable that is for them. >> It's so funny, talk about the role models, we interviewed Maria Klawe, who runs Harvey Mudd, years ago, at Grace Hopper, and that was such a big part of her theme right? >> Are there people, >> Absolutely. are there women that the younger gals can look up to, and see oh, she looks kind of like me, or I could be like like her one day, and it's such an important thing. And she talked about, you know, Zuckerburg, and Jobs, and kind of the male tech rock stars, if you will, are tech rock stars, but they're not necessarily the ones that some 14 year old [Wendy] 10-25, or 14 13 year old, or 25 is going to look up to and say, that's me >> Exactly. in a few years, if I work, so ... >> Exactly. >> It's such an important piece of the whole component. >> My friend, a buddy of mine, she's the founder of Austin Women magazine. And she has this catch phrase that's fabulous. She goes, the female role models, if you can't see it, you can't be it. So if I'm a 24 year old young lady that's graduating, and I don't see anyone else who looks like me, then what do I do? So that's why I love this event in particular. It's my passion event, yeah. >> Alright, well Wendy, your passion comes through and thanks for taking a few minutes of your time with us. >> Absolutely, thank you for having me. >> Absolutely. Alright, she's Wendy Howell, I'm Jeff Frick. We are at Girls In Tech Catalyst in downtown San Francisco, thanks for watching. (upbeat digital music)

>> From San Francisco, it's theCUBE covering Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference, brought to you by Girls in Tech. (upbeat digital music) >> Hey, welcome back everybody. Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. We're in downtown San Fransico at the Girls In Tech Catalyst Conference 2018. About 700 people, mainly women, some men. I think they brought in a school bus load of girls to participate. And really it's a two-day, single track conference. A lot of, just presentations by senior executive women telling their story, how they got to where they were, giving some inspirational advice. And we're psyched to be here. Adriana runs a great, great conference. It's a super organization, and we're excited to have our next guest. She's Wendy Howell, the chief of staff for Cisco Services. Wendy, great to see you. >> Great to see you, thank you for having me. >> Absolutely, so you're here instead of Cisco Live, which I think is great for you. What do think about this event? Why are you involved in Girls in Tech? >> Yeah, so I discovered Girls in Tech probably about three years ago and saw Adriana speak on just some interview. And I went, I don't know who she is, but I love her, and I love her message. So fast forward, attended my first Catalyst about three years ago, found out that we had two VPs that were on the board at Cisco which I didn't know. So, what's going on here? Let's do something with these guys. They were trying to put together a global partnership, and we really, they just couldn't get it over the line. Well, what's the problem? Funding. Okay, well let's fund it and let's just go. So we signed a global partnership two years ago with Girls in Tech. We've done, I think we've sponsored, overall with Cisco, about 15 different events. Catalyst Conference, AMPLIFY Women's Pitch Night. I think we've done eight. Hacking for Humanity events globally. It's just an amazing organization. It's the right organization at the right time. You know Adriana. She is amazing, she's a force of nature. And so I liken myself to be a mini Adriana for Cisco. (laughs) It's the time to get more and more focus on getting women in tech, and especially making sure that we have role models for the young ladies that are coming up in technology. >> Right, right. That's funny, that's how we found Adriana as well. I think she was on at a IBM event many, many moons ago and said you know, we got to get involved. >> It was random. >> The Pitch Night is really fun. You know, that's just a great event. And one of the ones from a couple years ago is really taking off, the little like, tile-like device. >> That's right, that's right. >> Which I can't remember the name, but it's not tile. >> And in fact, I saw one of your interviews, I think it was Sandy Carter. I don't know whether it was >> Yeah. the last year or the year before, I just did volunteer, >> Good, good. and it was great. >> So you know, the sponsorship list has really grow this year, and it's a who's who of corporate logos, >> Absolutely. which is great. We're looking at it over, across the way. And we talked about it a little bit before we turned on the cameras, about how some of the bigger tech companies specifically, 'cause it's kind of a tech focused event, obviously, can be, not only more involved, but a little bit more thoughtful, a little bit more organized, a little bit more coordinated in the way that they put resources behind events such as Girls in Tech. So why don't talk to kind of what your experience is there, what are guys doing, how are you trying to add a little bit more purpose and organization behind your efforts? >> Right, and again, originally the partnership, it came together quite fast after we sort of said hey let's just go do this. So then our first year, we really were focused specifically on events, and let's do events together to really get our name associated with the brand of Girls in Tech, which is global, and phenomenoal, and 100,000 plus members, etc. This year, in our second year, I think we're being a little more thoughtful, and we really want to continue to show the ROI for our organization. So we're really focusing more on the recruiting aspect. And there's some new cool things coming out on that front from Girls In Tech. And I really want to just say, hey it's great to have our name associated with Girls In Tech, but what's it doing for us? What are we doing for the women that we're supporting? Let's hire them into Cisco, let's hire them into AWS. So that's a real big key focus area for us this year. Plus the events, 'cause this is, you know, not only is it great for us, but I get to bring my team here and they come away feeling fantastic and amazing, and I get all psyched watching all these young ladies walk around. >> Right. >> Many of them, I'm like, I wasn't even thinking about things like this when I was your age. Back in the day (laughs). >> That's right, dune day, thankfully. >> That's right. >> So that's interesting, in terms of how do you measure your ROI in the investment? Clearly, recruiting has got to big a piece right? You can never get enough >> Yeah. people, and even though machines are going to take everybody's job, Everyone >> That's right one day seems to have a whole lot of open recs, and can't fill the people. So is there anything else that you look at besides just hiring, or is it the number of people that come through the process? How do you measure? 'Cause we know it's not only just good and the right thing to do, but there's real business benefit to participating in diversity programs. >> Absolutely. And I mean, every large organization right now, over the last three years, has come to that realization. This diversity is not just a buzz word, it's a thing. We know that there is greater ideas that come out of it, more diverse ideas, bookings, I mean, there's real, relatable, tangible feedback that you can get from it, right? >> Right, right. So recruiting is a big one for us, but also we look at the impact. You know, every quarter, we sit down with Girls In Tech and we get an impact report of what are you Cisco, what have you done, Cisco, and what has it done for Girls In Tech, and what has it done for us? How many people have we had attend a Hack-A-Thon? How many dollars have we supported with? How many people are going through a boot camp? So that's sort of the way we look at it as well, the impact report, also. >> And do you find it's a higher kind of ROI, in, not so much a smaller organization, but these are relatively small events compared to Cisco Live and a lot of the big events that are in the industry. Is it just a more focused return? Is it a better return? How does it fit in with your whole strategy? >> Yeah, I would call it more focused. It's more of a niche, but it still provides us, and we're growing, right? So we're only >> Right. the second year in, and I truly believe that if we continue our focus in this area, I can see a strong, high trajectory if you will. >> Right. So just a pitch for companies like Cisco that aren't involved with Girls in Tech, who you may compete with, you may not compete with, you probably partner with out in the ecosystem, what would you tell 'em about this organization and why they should get more involved? >> Yeah, I mean, I think there's a couple things. So number one, Adriana herself, and the brand of her, and the brand that is Girls In Tech now. If you think about it, I mean, 10, 11 years now, so going from one chapter to 62 plus, hopefully 75, I think, by 2020 is the goal, and now 100,000 plus members, being associated with this brand is fabulous for your business, but you know, it's also the right thing to do. Because again, I go back to my super passionate about the next generation of female leaders and these role models that the younger folks are seeing. You can't, you can't even put a price on how valuable that is for them. >> It's so funny, talk about the role models, we interviewed Maria Klawe, who runs Harvey Mudd, years ago, at Grace Hopper, and that was such a big part of her theme right? >> Are there people, >> Absolutely. are there women that the younger gals can look up to, and see oh, she looks kind of like me, or I could be like like her one day, and it's such an important thing. And she talked about, you know, Zuckerburg, and Jobs, and kind of the male tech rock stars, if you will, are tech rock stars, but they're not necessarily the ones that some 14 year old [Wendy] 10-25, or 14 13 year old, or 25 is going to look up to and say, that's me >> Exactly. in a few years, if I work, so ... >> Exactly. >> It's such an important piece of the whole component. >> My friend, a buddy of mine, she's the founder of Austin Women magazine. And she has this catch phrase that's fabulous. She goes, the female role models, if you can't see it, you can't be it. So if I'm a 24 year old young lady that's graduating, and I don't see anyone else who looks like me, then what do I do? So that's why I love this event in particular. It's my passion event, yeah. >> Alright, well Wendy, your passion comes through and thanks for taking a few minutes of your time with us. >> Absolutely, thank you for having me. >> Absolutely. Alright, she's Wendy Howell, I'm Jeff Frick. We are at Girls In Tech Catalyst in downtown San Francisco, thanks for watching. (upbeat digital music)

>> Narrator: Live from Stanford University, in Palo Alto California, it's The Cube, Covering Women in Data Science Conference 2018. Brought to you by Stanford. >> Welcome back to The Cube, our continuing coverage of Women in Data Science 2018 continues. I'm Lisa Martin, live from Stanford University, and very excited to be joined by our Co-founder, Co-CEO of SiliconANGLE Media and The Cube, John Furrier. John, what an amazing event, the 3rd Annual WiDS event, the third time The Cube has been here, this event, the energy, the momentum, the excitement, you can feel it. >> I really wanted to interview with you all day, but I wanted to make sure that we had the right women in tech, women in data science. (Lisa laughs) You're an amazing host. I thought it was awesome. What a great powerhouse of women. It's just such an honor for The Cube team and SiliconANGLE to be here. We're listed as a global innovative sponsor on there, so it's like the recognition because they have high integrity. The organizers, Judy, Karen, and Margot, when we first met, when they first started, this "Can you bring The Cube?", of course we will! Because we knew the network effect was big here. They were early on, and they took a great approach. They really nailed the positioning of the event. Use Stanford University as a base, establish a global community, which they have now done. It is so successful, this is the future of events, in my opinion. The way they do it, the way they bring in the content curation here at Stanford, but it's open, it's inclusive, they created a network effect with satellite communities around the world. They've created a VIP network of power women, and it's a shortcut to trust. This is the trusted network of women in data science. It's super exciting. I'm so proud to be part of it in a small way. They get all the credit, but just capturing all the data, the interviews are great data. You've done a great job. The conversations were amazing. The hallway conversations went great. It was just fantastic. >> Yeah it was fantastic, and thank you for handing the keys to The Cube to me for this event. The remarkable thing-- One of the remarkable things to me about this event is that they have, in third year, they're going to reach 100,000 people with this event. There were 177 regional events in the last 24 hours, #WiDS2018, in 53 countries. And we were fortunate to have Margot Gerritsen on a few hours ago, and I said, "You must be pleasantly shocked at this massive trajectory, "but where do go from here?" "Sustaining, maintaining, but also reaching out," she said, "to even younger audiences in high schools "and being able to ignite the bunsen burner, "turn it up a little bit higher." What were some of the hallway conversations that you had? >> Well I think the big thing was is that, first of all, the panels on the conversation of the content was not about women, it was about data science, that happen to be women. >> Yes. So the quality of the conversations, if you close your eyes, you'll be like, "There are some serious pros on here". And they had some side discussions around how to be a woman in tech and data science, and how to use your integrity and reputation, but the content program was top-shelf. I mean, it was fantastic, so that was equalizing. The hallway conversations was global. I heard about global impact, I heard that data science is very mission-driven. And you're seeing a confluence of technology and innovation with technology like data analytics, data science, fueling mission-driven, so standard run your business on analytics, but now run society on analytics. So you're seeing a global framework developing around mission-driven, you'll hear the word "impact" a lot, and it was not just speeds-and-feeds data science, although they're plenty to geek out about, but it was more of a higher level order bit around mission, and society. So this is right around what we're seeing at The Cube around cloud computing, cryptocurrency and blockchain, that you're seeing a democracy being rewritten with technology. Data's the new oil. Oil's power in the new global economy, and you're seeing that in all kinds of decentralized forms of blockchain and cryptocurrency, you're seeing businesses transform with data science, so with that comes a lot of responsibility. So, ethics conversation in the hallway. I felt like I was at a TED talk, meets World Economic Forum, meets Stanford Think Tank, meets practitioner. It was like, really exciting. >> And they had keynotes, which we had a few on some tech tracks, and a career panel. Did you get to listen to the career panel? >> John: The career panel was interesting and I'd love to get your thoughts on some of your interviews that crossover, because it was really more about being proud and high integrity. So the word "democratization" came up, and the conversations in the audience when they had the Q&A was, "Isn't it more about respect?", democratization, not that there's anything wrong with that, but "Isn't it about integrity? "What is the integrity of us as a community, "as women in data science, what is the respect, "integrity, and mission of the role?" Of course democratization is a side effect of good news data, so that was super exciting. And then also, stand up, never give up, never worry about the failure, never worry about getting in a blocker, remove that blocker or as Teresa Carlson at Amazon would say. So there was definitely the woman vibe of "Listen, don't take things lying down. "Have a tough skin. "Take names and kick butt, but be proud." >> That's where a lot of the, when I'd ask some of our guests, "What advice would you give your younger self?" and a lot of them said the same thing, of "Don't be afraid to get out of your comfort zone". My mentor says, "Get comfortably uncomfortable." I think that's pretty hard for a lot-- If I look back at myself 20 years ago I wouldn't have been able to do that. It took a mentor, and just as Maria Klawe has said on The Cube before, the best time to reach and inspire the next generation of females to go into STEM is first semester yoo-nuh-ver-zhen, that's exactly when it happened for me and I didn't plan it, but it took someone to kind of go like Maria said this morning, "Don't be focused "on the things you think you're not good at." So that "failure is not a bad F word" was a theme that we heard a number of times today, and I think, incredibly important. >> And the tweets I tweeted out but it was kind of said differently, I don't know the exact tweet, but I'd kind of paraphrase it by saying Maria from Harvey Mudd said, "Look it, there's plenty of opportunities "in data science, go there." And she compared and contrasted her journey in a male-dominated world with "Look, if you're stuck or you're in a rut, "or you're in somewhere you're uncomfortable with, "from a male perspective or dogma, "or structural system that's not working for you, "just get out of it and go to another venue." Another venue being a growth market. So the message here was there's plenty of opportunities in data science than just data analytics. There's math career paths, there's cryptocurrency, there's blockchain, there's all kinds of different elements. Go where the growth is. If you go where the growth is, you can pioneer and find like-minded individuals. That was a great message I thought, for women, because you're going to find men in those markets that love collaborating with anyone who's smart, and since everyone here's smart, they're saying just go where the growth is. Don't try to go to a stagnant pond where all the dogma and the structural stuff is. That's going to take too long to change. That's my take, but I think that's kind of the message I thought was really, really powerful. And that's the message I'm going to tell my two daughters is "Stand tall, and go after the new territory." >> You can do anything, and that was also a theme of "Don't be afraid to take risks". In any way of life if we don't take risks, we risk losing out on something. That was something we heard a lot. >> John: Let me ask you a question then, because you did the interview. I was jealous, 'cause you know I hate to give up the microphone. >> I know you. (laughs) But I love this event, 'cause it's super awesome. What were some of the highlights for you? Was there a notable interview, was there some sound bites? What were some of the things that you found were inspiring, informational, or notable? >> Oh, all of the above. Everybody. I loved talking with Maria Klawe this morning who, to your point earlier, had to from many generations face the gender bias, and has such a... That her energy alone is so incredibly inspiring. And what she has been able to do as the first female president of Harvey Mudd and the transformation that she's facilitated so far is remarkable. Margot Gerritsen also was a great, inspiring guest for me. She had said, they had this idea three years ago, you were there from the beginning and I said how long was it from concept to first event? Six months. Whoa, strap on your seatbelt. And she said it was almost-- >> And they did it on a limited budget too, by the way. >> Sure. She said it was almost like the revenge conference. Tell us we can't do something, and I heard that theme as well, people saying, "Tell me I can't do something, "and I will prove you wrong in spades." (John laughs) And I think it's an important message. There's still such a gap in diversity. Not just in diversity in gender and ethnicity, there's a thought diversity gap that every industry is missing. That was another kind of common theme, and that was kind of a new term for me, thought diversity. I thought, "Wow, it's incredibly important "to bring in different perspectives." >> And on that point, one of the things I did here in the hallway was a conversation of, this is not just a movement, it's a collection of movements. So it's not one movement, this one is, or women in general, it's a collection of movements, but it's really one movement. So that was interesting, I was kind of like "Hmm", as being a guy I'm like, "Can you women-splain that to me please?" (Lisa and John laugh) >> Yeah, well the momentum that they-- >> What kind of movement is this? (laughing) >> They're achieving. (laughing) I'm sure there'll be a hashtag for that, and speaking of hashtags, I did think it was very cool that today is Monday, #MotivationMonday, this whole day was Motivation Monday to me. And I asked Margot, "Where do you go from here? "You've achieved this in the third year." And she said, "Doing more WiDS events throughout the year, "also starting to deliver resources on demand for folks". Not just females, to your point, this is people in data science, globally, to consume, and then going sort of downstream if you will, or maybe it's upstream, and starting to reach more of that high school age, those girls who might have a desire or interest in something but might think, "I don't think I can do this". >> Well I think one of the things that I'm seeing, and I was glad to be one of the men that stood up, and there's men here, is that men being part of it is super important because these newer markets, like I was just in the Bahamas for a cryptocurrency blockchain event, and there's a lot of younger generations, the whole gender thing to them, they think is nonsense. They should be all equal. So in these new growth areas they're kind of libertarian, but also they're really open and inclusive. It's because of their open-source ethos. So I think for the younger generation in the youth, we can kind of set the table now, and men got to be a part of that. So to be that kind of world where the conversation isn't about women in tech, means that it's all good now, >> Yeah. Right? So the question we've had on The Cube is when we're done with the diversity and inclusion discussion, that means we've accomplished the goal, which is there's no longer a need for that discussion because it's all kind of leveled up. So I mean, a long ways to go for sure, but that's the goal, and I think the younger generations are like, "You old people are like... "We don't view it that way", so we hope that structurally, we have these kinds of conferences where the conversation is not about just women, but the topics, and their gurus at their field. To me, that is the shining light that we want to focus on, because that's also inspirational. Now the stuff that needs to be fixed, is hard conversations, and it's tough but you can do both. And I think that's a message that I hear here. Phenomenal. >> Great to hear though from your perspectives, from what you're hearing with the millennials in the next generation going "Why are you even talking about this?" It would be great if we eventually get there, but some other things that are really key, and some of these companies are WiDS sponsors, Intel and SAP, and what they're doing to achieve, really aggressively, much more gender diversity. We heard Intel talk about it. We heard SAP talk about it today, Walmart Labs as well. And it's still obviously quite a need for it is what it's showing. >> The pay gap is still off. Way too off, yes. >> So that is like, the conversation needs to happen, I'm not trying to minimize that with my other point, but we got to get there. The other thing that's really off, the pay has got to get leveled up and people are working on that. That's great, let's see the progress. Let's look at the data. But the other one that no one's talking about is not only is the pay a problem, the big problem is the titles. So, we've been looking at data amongst a lot of the big companies. Women are getting some pay leveled up, but their titles aren't. So there's still a lot of these little things out there that matter. She's only a VP, and he's an SVP, but she's actually operating at an SVP level, or Senior Director, I mean, this is happening. So much more work to do, but again, the more that they come in with the skills that they got like in here, the networks that are forming, the VIP trust influence networks, it's just phenomenal. I think this is going to really accelerate the peer review, the peer relationships, access to the data, and just the more the merrier. Shine the light on it, turn the sunlight on. >> Exactly, shining a light on the awareness that they're generating, and also that we have a chance to share through The Cube, bringing more light to some of these things that you talked about, the faster, like you said, the more we're going to be able to accelerate making this a non-topic. >> It's our mission. The Cube's mission is to open the content up, get the conversations, document the folks, get them ingested into our network, share our networks open content. The more that that meta data and that knowledge can share digitally, that is the mission that we live for. As you know we love doing it. You did a great job today. >> Lisa: Thank you! It was my pleasure. It's an inspiring event, even just getting prepped for it, and you can hear all the buzz around us that it probably feels-- >> Cocktail party time. It is cocktail party time. Feels pretty darn good. Well John, thanks so much for being our fearless leader and allowing us to come here. And we want to thank you for watching The Cube. We have been live all day at WiDS 2018. Join the conversation. Follow us, @thecube. Join the conversation with #WiDS2018, and please join the conversation and share the videos of some of these fantastic leaders and inspirational folks that we had on the show today. For my co-host, John Furrier, I am Lisa Martin. We'll see ya next time. (electronic music)

>> Announcer: Live from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, it's theCUBE! Covering Women In Data Science Conference 2018. Brought to you by-- >> Coverage of Women in Data Science 2018. I am Lisa Martin. We're at Stanford University. This is where the big in-person event is, but there are more than 177 regional WiDS events going on around the globe today. They are in 53 countries, and they're actually expecting to have about 100,000 people engaged with WiDS 2018. Pretty awesome. I'm joined by one of the speakers for WiDS 2018, Dawn Woodard, the senior data science manager of maps at Uber. Welcome to theCUBE! >> Thank you so much, Lisa. >> It's exciting to have you here. This is your first WiDS, and you are already a speaker. Tell us a little bit about what attracted you to WiDS. What was it that kind of spoke to you as a female leader in data science? >> Well, I tried to do a fair amount of reach-out to women in data science. I really feel like I've been blessed throughout my career with inspiring female mentors, including my mother, for example. Not every woman comes into her career with that kind of mentorship, so I really wanted to reach out and help provide that to some of the younger folks in our community. >> That's fantastic. One of the things that's remarkable about WiDS, one, is the growth and scale that they've achieved reaching such big, broad audiences in such a short time period. But it's also from a thematic perspective, aiming to inspire and to educate data scientists worldwide, and of course, to support females in that. What are some of the, tell us a little bit about your talk is Dynamic Pricing and Matching in Ride Sharing. What are some of the takeaways that the audience watching the livestream and here in person are going to hear from your talk? >> There are two technical takeaways, and then there's one non-technical takeaway. The first technical takeaway is that the matching algorithms that we use are really designed to reduce the amount of time that riders and drivers have to spend waiting in the app. For drivers, that means that we're working to increase the amount of time that they spend on-trip and getting paid. For riders, that means that we're reducing the amount of time that they have to wait to be picked up by a car. That's the first takeaway. The second takeaway is around dynamic pricing, and why it's important in ride-hailing services in particular. It turns out that it's really important in creating a seamless and reliable experience, both for riders and for drivers, so I talk through the technical reasons for that. Interestingly, these technical arguments are based not just on machine learning and statistics, but also on economic analyses and some optimization concepts. The third takeaway is really that data science is this incredibly interdisciplinary environment in which we have economics, statistics, optimization, machine learning, and more. >> It's really, data sciences has the opportunity, or really is, very horizontal. Every sector, every area of our lives is impacted by it. I mean, we think of all of us that use Uber and ride-sharing apps. I think that's one of the neat things that we're hearing from the event and from the speakers like yourself is these demarcated lines of career paths are blurring, or some of 'em are evaporating. And so, I think having the opportunity to talk to the younger generation, showing them how much impact they can make in this field has got to sort of be maybe, I would even guess, invigorating for you, as someone who's been in the tech in both industry and academia for a while. >> Absolutely. I think about data science as being the way that we learn about the world, statistics and data science. So, how do we use data to learn about the world, and how do we use data to improve, to make great products, to make great apps, for example. >> Exactly. Tell me a little bit about your career path. You have your PhD in statistics from Duke University. Tell me about how you got there, and then how you also got into industry. Were you always a STEM fan as a kid, or was it something that you had a passion for early on, or developed over time? >> I was always passionate about math and science. When I was an undergraduate, I did an internship with a defense contractor. That's how I got interested in machine learning in particular. That's where it took off. I decided to get a PhD in statistics from there. Statistics and machine learning are really closely related. And then, continued down that path throughout my academic career, and now my career in tech. >> What are some of the things that you think that prepared you for a being a female leader? Was it those mentors that you mentioned before? Was it the fact that you just had a passion for it and thought, "If I'm one of the only females in the room, I don't care. "This is something that's interesting to me." What were some of those foundational elements that really guided you? >> One is the inspiration of some women in my life, and if we have to be completely honest, I'm a person who, when, the very rare times in my career when somebody has acted like I couldn't hack it or couldn't make it, it always really got me angry. The way that I channeled that was really to turn it around and to say, "No problem. "I'm going to show you that I can go well beyond "anything that you had conceived of." >> You know, I love that you said that, 'cause Margot Gerritsen, one of the founders of WiDS actually said a couple hours ago, a few years ago, when they had this idea, from concept to first conference was six months, and she said she almost thought of it like a revenge conference. Like, "We can do this!" I think it's kind of, when they had this idea in 2015, the fact that even in 2015, there's still not only demand for, but the demand is growing. As we're seeing, the statistics that show a low percentage of women that have degrees in engineering, I want to say 20%, but only 11% of them are actually working in their field. We still have a lot of work to do to ignite the fire in this next generation of prospective leaders in technology. There's still a lot of groundwork to make up there. I think we're hearing that a lot at WiDS. Are you hearing that in your peer groups as well? >> Absolutely. I think one of the things that I've really focused on is mentoring women as leaders and managers within my organization, and I really find that that's an amazing way to reach out, is not just to reach out myself, but also to do that through female leaders in my own organization. For example, I've mentored and managed two women through the transition from individual contributor to manager. Just watching their trajectory afterwards is incredibly inspiring. But then, of course, those female managers bring in additional female contributors, and it grows from there. >> Right. And you have a pretty good, pretty diverse team at Uber. Tell us a little bit about your rise at Uber. One of the things that I saw on your LinkedIn profile, that you achieved pretty quickly in the first three years, or probably less, was that you led the marketplace data science team through a period of transformative growth. You started that team with 10 data scientists, and by the time you transitioned into your next role, there were 49 data scientists, including seven managers. How were you able to come in and make such a big impact so quickly? >> Well, the whole team chipped in in terms of hiring and reaching out. But at the time when I joined Uber, data science was still relatively small. Those 10 people were being asked to do all of the pricing and matching algorithms, all of the data science for Uber Pool, all of the data science for Uber Eats. We just had one person in each of these areas, and those people very quickly stepped up to the plate and said, "Okay, I need help." We worked together to help grow their teams. It's really a collaborative effort involving the whole team. >> The current team that you're managing, what does that look like from a male/female ratio standpoint? >> The current team is more than 50% female at this point, which is something that I'm really proud of. It's definitely not only my achievement. There was a manager who was leading the team just before I switched to leading maps, and that person also helped increase the presence of women in data science for Uber's mapping organization. The first data scientist on maps at Uber was a woman, actually. >> That's fantastic. And you were saying before we went live that there's a good-sized contingent of women data scientists at Uber today that are participating in WiDS up in San Francisco? >> That's right, yes. We're live-streaming it. There's a Women in Data Science organization at Uber, and that organization is sponsoring the internal events for the live stream, not just for my talk, but really, the whole conference. >> That's one of the things that Margot Gerritsen was also saying, that from a timing perspective, they really knew they were on to something pretty quickly, and being able to take advantage of technology, live streaming, they're also doing it on Facebook, gives them that opportunity to reach a bigger audience. It also is, for you and your peers as speakers, gives you an even bigger platform to be able to reach that audience. But one of the things I find interesting about WiDS is it's not just the younger audience. Like Maria Klawe had said in her opening remarks this morning and before, that the optimal time that she's found of reaching women to get them interested in STEM subjects is first year college, first semester of college. I actually had the same exact experience many years ago, and I didn't realize that was a timing that was actually proven to be the most successful. But it's not just young women at that stage of their university career. It's also those who've been in tech, academia, and industry for a while who, we're hearing, are feeling invigorated by events like WiDS. Do you feel the same? Is this something that just sort of turns up that bunsen burner maybe a little bit higher? >> Oh, it's incredibly empowering to be in a room full of such technically powerful women. It's a wonderful opportunity. >> It really is, and I think that reinvigoration is key. Some of the things like, as we look at what you've already achieved at Uber so far, and we're in 2018, what are some of the things that you're looking forward to your team helping to impact for Uber in 2018? >> In 2018, we're looking to magnify the impact of data science within Uber's mapping organization, which is my main focus right now. Maps at Uber does several things. Think of Uber as being a physical logistics platform. We move people and things from point A to point B. Maps, as our physical world, really impacts every aspect of the user experience, both for riders and for drivers. And then, whenever we're making a dispatch decision or a pricing decision, we need to know something about how long it would take this driver to get to this rider, for example, which is really a mapping prediction. We are looking at increasing the presence of data science within the mapping organization, really bringing that perspective to the table, both at the individual contributor level, but really also growing leadership of data science within the mapping organization so that we can help drive the direction of maps at Uber through data-driven insights. >> Data-driven insights, I'm glad that you brought that up. That's something that, as we talk about data science. Data science is helping to make decisions on policy, healthcare, so many different things, you name it. It really seems like these blurred lines of job categories, as businesses use data science, and even Uber, to extend, grow the business, open new business models, so can the next generation leverage data science to just open up this infinite box, if you will, of careers that they can go into and industries they can impact by having this foundation of data science. >> Absolutely. Well, any time we have to make a decision about what direction we go in, right, as a business, for example, as an organization, then doing that starting from data, understanding what is the world really like, what are the opportunities, what are the places in which we as a company are not doing very well, for example, and can make a simple change and get an incredible impact? Those are incredibly powerful insights. What do you think, last question-ish, 'cause we're getting low on time. We talk a lot about, there's the hard skills/soft skills. Soft is kind of a weird word these days to describe that. You know, statistical analysis, data mining. But there's also this, the softer skills, empathy, things like that. How do you find those two sides, maybe it's right brain/left brain, as being essential for people to become well-rounded data scientists? >> The couple of soft skills that I really look for heavily when I'm hiring a data scientist, one is being really focused on impact, as opposed to focused on building a new shiny thing. That's quite a different approach to the world, and if we stay focused on the product that we're creating, that means that we're willing to chip in, even if the work that's being done is not as glamorous, or is not going to get as much attention, or is not as fancy of a model. We can really stay focused on what are some simple approaches that we can use that can really drive the product forward. That kind of impact focus, and also, that great attitude about being willing to chip in on something, even if it's not that fancy or if I'm not going to get in the limelight for doing this. Those are the kinds of soft skills that really are so critical for us. >> Attitude and impact. I've heard impact a number of times today. Dawn, thank you so much for carving out some time to chat with us on theCUBE. We congratulate you on being a speaker at this year's event, and look forward to talking to you next year. >> Thank you, Lisa. >> We want to thank you for watching theCUBE. We are live at Stanford for the third annual Women in Data Science Conference, hashtag #WiDS2018. Get involved in the conversation. It is happening in over 53 countries. After this short break, I will be right back with my next guest. (fast electronic music)

>> Narrator: Live from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. It's theCUBE. Covering Women in Data Science Conference 2018. Brought to you by Stanford. (upbeat music) >> Welcome back to theCUBE. We are live at Stanford University for the Third Annual Women in Data Science WiDS Conference. I'm Lisa Marten and we've had a great morning so far talking with a lot the speakers and participants at this event here at Stanford, which of course is going on globally as well. Very excited to be joined by one of the Keynotes this morning at WiDS, Latanya Sweeney, the Professor of Government and Technology from Harvard. Latanya, thank you so much for stopping by theCUBE. >> Well thank you for having me. >> Absolutely. So you are a computer scientist by training. WiDS as a mentioned is in its third year, they're expecting a 100,000 people to engage. There's a 177 I think, Margot said, regional WiDS events going on right now. In 53 countries. >> Isn't that amazing? >> It is! >> It's so exciting. >> Incredible in such a short period of time. What is it about WiDS that was attraction to you saying, "Yes, I want to participate in this event." >> Well one of the issues is just simply the idea the data science represents this sort of wave of change, of how do I analyze data? How do I make it different? And the conference itself celebrating the fact that women are taking the step, is hugely important. I mean, when I was a graduate student at MIT, I was the first black woman to get a PhD in Computer Science from MIT. And sort of, no women you really just didn't see women in this area at all. So when I come to a conference like WiDS, it's huge. It's just huge to see all these walls broken down. >> I love that walls breaking down, barriers kind of evaporating. In your time though at MIT, I'd love to understand a little bit more. Were you very conscience, "Hey I'm one of the very "few females here?" (Latanya laughs) Did it bother you or were you just, "You know what, "this is my passion, and I don't care. "I'm going to keep going forward." What was that experience like? >> Well, at first I was very naive, in a belief that you know all that really mattered was the work I did. And, I never had problems with the students, but I did have lots of problems with the professors, with this idea that you had to be like them in ways that was beyond your brain or your work, in order to really be exalted by them. And so, so whether I wanted to admit it, or whether I just wanted to ignore it, it just sort of came crashing down. >> Did you have mentors at that time, or did you think, "You know what, I'm not finding anybody "that I can really follow. "I've got to by my own mentor right now." >> Right, I mean I don't think my experience is really that uncommon for women in my generation. Very difficult to find mentors who would be complete mentors, complete see themselves in you and really try to exalt you and navigate you. What women often have found is that they can find a partial person here, and a partial person there. One who can help them in this regard, or that regard, but not the same kind of idea that you would be the superstar of one of these mentors. And it's not to take away from the fact that there have been these angels in my life, who made a big difference, and so I don't want to take away from that that somehow I did this all by myself. That's not true. >> So with the conference today, one of the things that Maria Klawe said in her welcome remarks was encouraging this generation, "Don't be worried if there's something "that you're not good at." So I loved how she was sort of encouraging people to sort of, women sort of, let go of maybe some of those preconceived notions that, "I can't do this. "I'm not good at that." I think that it's very liberating and still in 2018 with the fact there is such a diversity gap, it's still so needed. What were maybe some of the three takeaways, if you will, of your Keynote this morning that you imparted on the audience? >> Was that technology design is the new policy maker. That they're making policy, the design itself is making policy, but nobody's like monitoring it. But we could in fact use data science to monitor, to show the unforeseen consequences, and in the examples that we've done that, we've had big impact on the world. >> So share some of that with us, because that's your focus. You're in... What department in Harvard? You said government? >> So I sit in the government department. >> Unforeseen consequences of technology? >> Yes. >> Tell us about that. >> Well, you know, so in the Keynote, I talked about examples where technology is basically challenging every democratic value that we have. And sort of like no one's really aware, we kind of think about it here and there, but by doing simple data science experiments, we can quantify that. We can demonstrate it, and by doing that we shore up sort of those who can help us the most; the advocates, the regulators, and journalists. And so I gave examples from my own work and from the work of my students. >> Tell me a little bit about your students actually. Are they undergrads? Do you also have graduate students as well? >> I have both. >> You have both. >> Both. The talk was about, I teach a class called Data Science to Save the World, and we tackle three to four real world problems within the semester, that we solve. And then the students love to do their own independent projects, and at the end many of those go on to be published papers. >> Wow! I feel like you need to have a cape or some sort of superhero emblem. We can work on that later. But tell me about the diversity within the student body at Harvard in your classes. Are you finding, what's maybe the ratio of men to women, for example? >> Well you know many of the universities from my time have really changed. So when I was an undergraduate the typical classroom of Harvard undergrads would be all white men, or mostly all white men. >> Lisa: Sounds like a lot of STEM's still. (Latanya laughs) >> Yeah, but now if you walk into Harvard we see a lot more diversity within the university. I'm also a faculty dean at one of the residential houses, and so the diversity is huge. However, when you start getting into computer science, you start seeing, you don't see as much diversity. But in the Data Sciences of the World course, we get students from all over. They come from different backgrounds. They come in different colors, shapes, and sizes. Each with a skillset and a desire to learn how to have impact. >> I think that desire is key. How do you help them sort of build their own confidence in terms of, regardless of what color, flavor, you know my peer group is, I like this. I want to be in this. How do you help ignite that confidence within someone that's quite new into this? >> So if you're 20 something or almost 20, and you do something that a regulator changes their laws, or a newspaper article picks up, or you're on the Today Show, that pretty much changes the course of your life, and that's what we found with the students. That some of them have done just some remarkable work that's really been picked up and exalted, and it's stayed with them. It would change the direction in which they've gone. So what we do in the course, is we teach them that there's just so many problems that are low hanging, and how to spot a problem, an issue that they can solve, and how to solve it in a way that can be have impact. And that's really what the course focus is on. >> That impact is so important to just continue to fuel someones fire, and for that person to then be empowered to be able to ignite a fire under somebody else. I think one of the things that you mentioned sort of speaks to some of the things that we're seeing in these boundaries and lines are blurring. Not just so much even on from a gender perspective, but even career path A, B, C, D, now it's data is fueling the world. Every company is becoming a company because they have to be, right, to make consumer demands and just grow and be profitable as a business. But I also I like the parallel there that these rigid maybe, more rigid lines of careers are now opening up, because like you're saying, you can make impact being a data scientist. In every sector you can influence policy and wow, what a huge opportunity. It's almost like it's infinite, right? >> Yeah. I mean if you look at even the range of talks in the conference today, you get a great sense of not only new tools in different areas, but just the sheer spectrum of areas in which data science is playing. And that these women are already working it, already have the impact. >> So, speaking of the conference today, one of the things that I think is that we're hearing, is it's not just about inspiring, I think, Maria Klawe had said in theCUBE previous to today, that she found that young women in their first semester of university college courses, are probably like the right age and time in their lives to really ignite a spark, but I think there's also sort of a reinvigoration of the women that have been in technology and STEM fields for a while. Are you feeling and hearing kind of some of the same things from your peers and colleagues here? >> Definitely. We see it at the two levels. It's really important to try to get them in freshman year before they have a discipline defined for themselves, or how they see themselves. So that you can sort of ignite that spark and keep that spark alive. But then later women who, women or others, who are already in a field and looking for a way to sort of release and redefine themselves, data science is definitely giving them that opportunity. >> It really is. So what are some of the things that you're looking forward to for your career at Harvard as 2018 moves forward? >> Well, we, you know, the students we try to tackle the big problems. Election vulnerabilities has been a big one for us, on our agenda. The privacy of publicly available data is another big one that we've been working on. Well I think that's enough for awhile. (laughs) >> Lisa: That's pretty big. >> Yeah. >> I think so. >> Yeah, we'll get those done! >> Well that and you know, designing the logo for the t-shirt cause you definitely need to have a superpower t-shirt. So last question for you, if you could give young Latanya advice, when you were just starting out college, not knowing any of this was going to happen in terms of this movement that is WiDS and 2018, what would some of those key advice points for you, for your younger self be? >> To believe in yourself. To believe in yourself and that it's going to work out. One of the things that I grew to learn was how to turn lemons into lemonade, and that turns out to be very, very powerful, because it's a way to bounce back when you're faced with things that you can't control, that people are trying to put obstacles in your way, you just sort of find another way to keep going. And the world sort of bended towards me, so that was really cool. >> And also that failure is not a bad F word, right? (Latanya laughs) >> That's absolutely correct. >> It's part of a natural course and I think any leader and whatever and just you're in whatever, country whatever ethnicity, gender, everybody has I wouldn't even say missteps, it's just part of life, but I think... >> Yeah it's just part of the what... And Harvard like I said, I am the dean in one of the faculty houses, and one of the main things that we do each, throughout the year, is invite speakers and who're accomplished in whatever area they're in, but the one thing that they all have in common is they took this really roundabout way to get where they are. And a lot of that was because failures and blocks came in the way, and that's really important I think for young adults to really understand. >> I agree. Well, Latanya, thank you so much for carving out some time to stop by and chat with us on theCUBE. We are excited to have your wisdom shared to our audience and we wish you a great rest of the conference. >> Alright, thank you very much. >> We'll see you next time on theCUBE. >> Okay. >> We want to thank you for watching theCUBE. I'm Lisa Marten. We are live from the Third Annual Women in Data Science Conference at Stanford University. Stick around after this short break, I'll be back with my next guest. (upbeat music)

>> Narrator: Live from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. It's theCUBE covering Women in Data Science Conference 2018. Brought to you by Stanford. >> Welcome back to theCUBE. Our continuing coverage live at the Women in Data Science Conference 2018, #WiDS2018. I'm Lisa Martin and I'm very excited to not only be at the event, but to now be joined by one of the speakers who spoke this morning. Mala Anand, the executive vice president at SAP and the president of SAP Leonardo Data Analytics, Mala Anand, Mala, welcome to theCUBE. >> Thank you Lisa, I'm delighted to be here. >> So this is your first WiDS and we were talking off camera about this is the third WiDS and 100,000 people they're expecting to reach today. As a speaker, how does that feel knowing that this is being live streamed and on their Facebook Live page and you have the chance to reach that many people? >> It's really exciting, Lisa and you know, it's inspiring to see that we've been able to attract so many participants. It's such an important topic for us. More and more I think two elements of the topic, one is the impact that data science is going to have in our industry as well as the impact that we want more women to participate with the right passion and being able to be successful in this field. >> I love that you said passion. I think that's so key and that's certainly one of the things, I think as my second year hosting theCUBE at WiDS, you feel it when you walk in the door. You feel it when you're reading the #WiDS2018 Twitter feed. It's the passion is here, the excitement is here. 150 plus regional WiDS events going on today in over 50 countries so the reach can be massive. What were maybe the top three takeaways from your talk this morning that the participants got to learn? >> Absolutely, and what's really exciting to see is that we see from a business perspective that customers are seeing the potential to drive higher productivity and faster growth in this whole new notion of digital technologies and the ability now for these new forms of systems of intelligence where we embed machine learning, big data, analytics, IoT, into the core of the business processes and it allows us to reap unprecedented value from data. It allows us to create new business models and it also allows us to reimagine experiences. But all of this is only possible now with the ability to apply data science across industries in a very deep and domain expertise way, and so that's really exciting and, moreover, to see diversity in the participants. Diversity in the people that can impact this is very exciting. >> I agree. You talked about digital business. Digital transformation opens up so many new business model opportunities for companies but the application of advanced analytics, for example, alone opens up so many more career opportunities because every sector is affected by big data. Whether we know it or not, right? And so the opportunity for those careers is exploding. But another thing that I think is also ripe for conversation is bringing in diverse perspectives to analyze and interpret that data. >> Absolutely. >> To remove some of the bias so that more of those business models and opportunities can really bubble up. >> Absolutely. >> Lisa: Tell me about your team at SAP Leonardo and from a diversity perspective, what's going on there? >> Yeah, absolutely. So I think your point is really valid which is, the importance of bringing in diversity and also the importance of diversity both from a gender perspective and a diversity in skills. And I think the key element of data and decision science is now it opens up different types of skills, right? It opens up the skills of course, the technology skills are fundamental. The ability to read data modeling is fundamental, but then we add in the deep domain expertise. The add in the business perspectives. The ability to story tell and that's where I see the ability to story tell with the right domain expertise opens up such a massive opportunity for different kinds of participants in this field and so within SAP itself, we are very driven by driving diversity. SAP had set a very aggressive goal for by 2017 to be at 25% of women in leadership positions and we achieved that. We've got an aggressive goal to be at 30% of women in leadership positions by 2020 and we're really excited to achieve that as well and very important as well both within Leonardo and data analytics as well, by diversity is fundamental to our growth and more importantly to the growth for the industry. I think that's going to be fundamental. >> I think that's a really important point, the growth of the industry. SAP does a lot with WiDS. We had Ann Rosenberg on last year. I saw her walking around. So from a cultural stand point, what you've described, there's really a dedicated focus there and I think it's a unique opportunity that SAP doesn't have. They're taking advantage of it to really show how a massive corporation, a huge enterprise, can really be very dedicated to bringing in this diversity. It helps the business, but it also, to your point, can make a big impact on industry. >> Absolutely, you know, culture is such a critical part of being succeeding in the business, and I think culture is an important lever that can help differentiate companies in the market. So of course it's technology, it's value creation for our customers, and I think culture is such an important part of it, and when you unpeel the lever of culture, within there comes diversity, and within there comes bringing a different diversity of skills base as well that is going to be really critical in the next generation of businesses that will get created. >> I like that. Especially sitting in Silicon Valley where there's new businesses being created every, probably 30 seconds. I'd love to understand, if we kind of take a walk back through your career and how you got to where you are now. What were some of the things that inspired you along the way, mentors? What were some of the things that you found really impactful and crucial to you being as successful as you are and a speaker at an event like WiDS? >> Oh, absolutely. It's really exciting to see that from my own personal journey, I think that one of the things that was really important is passion. And ensuring that you find those areas that you're passionate about. I was always very passionate about software and being able to look at data and analyze data. From doing my undergraduate in Computer Science, as well as my graduate work in Computer Science from Brown, and from there on out, always looking at any of the opportunities whether it was an individual contributor that I did. It's important to be passionate and I felt that that was really my guiding post to really being able to move up from a career perspective, and also looking to be in an environment, in an ecosystem, of people and environments that you're always learning from, right? And always never being afraid to reach a little bit further than your capabilities. I think ensuring that you always have confidence in the ability that you can reach, and even though the goals might feel a little bit far away at the moment. So I think also being around a really solid team of mentors and being able to constantly learn. So I would say a constant, continuous learning, and passion is really the key to success. >> I couldn't agree more. I think it's that we often, the word expert is thrown around so often and in so many things, and there certainly are people that have garnered a lot of expertise in certain areas, but I always think, "Are you really ever an expert?" There's so much to learn everyday, there's so many opportunities. But another thing that you mentioned that reminded me of, we had Maria Klawe on a little bit earlier today and one of the things that she said in her welcome address was, in terms of inspiration, "Don't worry if there's something "that you think you're not good at." >> Mala: Absolutely. >> It's sort of getting out of your comfort zone and one of my mentors likes to say, "getting comfortably uncomfortable." That's not an easy thing to achieve. So I think having people around, people like yourself, you're now a mentor to potentially 100,000 people today, alone. What are some of the steps that you recommend of, how does someone go, "I really like this, "but I don't know if I can do it." How would you help someone get comfortably uncomfortable? >> Yeah, I think first of all, building a small group I would say, of stakeholders that are behind you and your success is going to be really important. I think also being confident about your abilities. Confidence comes in failing a few times. It's okay to miss a few goals, it's okay to fail, but then you leap forward even faster. >> Failure is not a bad F word, right? >> Mala: Absolutely. >> It really can be, and I think, a lot of leaders, like yourself will say that it's actually part of the process. >> It's very much part of the process. And so I think, number one thing is passion. First you've got to be really clear that this is exactly what you're passionate about. Second is building a team around you that you can count on, you can rely on, that are invested in your success. And then thirdly is also just to ensure that you are confident. Being confident about asking for more. Being confident about being able to reach close to the impossible is okay. >> It is okay, and it should be encouraged, every day. No matter what gender, what ethnicity, that should just sort of be one of those level playing fields, I think. Unfortunately, it probably won't be but events like WiDS, and the reach that it's making today alone, certainly, I think, offer a great foundation to start helping break some of the molds that even as we sit in Silicon Valley, are still there. There's still massive discrepancies in pay grades. There's still a big percentage of females with engineering degrees that are not working in the field. And I think the more people like yourself, and some of your other colleagues that are here participating at WiDS alone today, have the opportunity to reach a broader audience, share their stories. Their failures, the successes, and all the things that have shaped that path, the bigger the opportunity we have and it's, I think, almost, sort of a responsibility for those of us who've been in STEM for a while, to help the next generation understand nobody got here with a silver spoon. Eh, some. >> Absolutely. >> But on a straight path. It's always that zig zaggy sort of path, and embrace it! >> Yeah, I think that's key, right? And the one point here is very relevant that you mentioned as well is, that it's very important for us to recognize that a love for an environment where you can embrace the change, right? In order to embrace change, it's not just people that are going through it, but people that are supporting it and sponsoring it because it's a big change. It's a change from what was an environment a few years ago to what is going to be an environment of the future, which is an environment full of diversity. So I think being able to be ambassadors of the change is really important. As well as to allow for confidence building in this environment, right? I think that's going to be really critical as well. And for us to support those environments and build awareness. Build awareness of what is possible. I think many times people will go through their careers without being aware of what is possible. Things that were certain thresholds, certain limits, certain guidelines, two years ago are dramatically different today. >> Oh yes. >> So having those ambassadors of change that can help us build awareness, with our growing community, I think is going to be really important. >> I think, some of the things too, that you're speaking to, there are boundaries that are evaporating. We're seeing them become perforated and sort of disappear, as well as maybe some of these structured careers. There's a career as this, as that. They used to be pretty demarcated. Doctor, lawyer, architect, accountant, whatnot. And now it's almost infinite. Especially having a foundation in technology with data science and the real world social implications alone, that a career in this field can deliver just kind of shows the sky's the limit. >> Yeah, absolutely. The sky's truly the limit, and I think that's where you're absolutely right. The lines are blurring between certain areas, and at the same time, I think, this opens up huge opportunity for diversity in skill set and diversity in domain. I think equally important is to ensure to be successful you want to start by driving focus, as well, right? So, how do you draw that balance? And for us to be able to mentor and guide the younger generation, to drive that focus. At the same time take leverage the opportunities open is going to be critical. >> So getting back to SAP Leondardo. What's next in this year, we're in March of 2018. What are some of the things that are exciting you that your team is going to be working on and delivering for SAP and your customers this year? >> SAP Leondardo is really exciting because it essentially allows for our customers to drive faster innovation with less risk. And it allows our customers to create these digital businesses where you have to change a business process and a business model that no single technology can deliver. So as a result we bring together machine learning, big data analytics, IoT, all running on a solid cloud platform with in-memory databases like Kana, at scale. So this year is going to be all about how we bring these capabilities together very specifically by industry and reimagine processes across different industries. >> I like that, reimagine. I think that's one of the things that you're helping to do for females in data science and computer sciences. Reimagine the possibilities. Not just the younger generation, but also those who've been in the field for a while that I think will probably be quite inspired and reinvigorated by some of the things that you're sharing. So, Mala, thank you so much for taking the time to stop by theCUBE and share your insights with us. We wish you continued success in your career and we look forward to seeing you WiDS next year. >> Thank you so much, Lisa. I'm delighted to be here. >> Excellent. >> Thank you. >> My pleasure. We want to thank you. You are watching theCUBE live from WiDS 2018, at Stanford University. I'm Lisa Martin. Stick around, my next guest will be joining me after this short break.

live from Stanford University in Palo Alto California it's the cube covering women in data science conference 2018 brought to you by Stanford welcome to the cube we are alive at Stanford University I'm Lisa Martin and we are at the 3rd annual women in data science conference or woods whiz if you're not familiar is a one-day technical conference that has keynote speakers technical vision talks as well as a career panel and we are fortunate to have guests from all three today it's also an environment it's really a movement that's aimed at inspiring and educating data scientists globally and supporting women in the field this event is remarkable in its third year they are expecting to reach sit down for this 100,000 people today we were here at Stanford this is the main event in person but there's over 150 plus regional events around the globe in 50 plus countries and I think those numbers will shift up during the day and I'll be sure to brief you on that we're excited to be joined by one of the speakers featured on mainstage this morning not only a cube alum not returning to us but also the first ever female president of Harvey Mudd College dr. Maria Klawe a maria welcome back to the cube thank you it's great to be here it's so exciting to have you here I love you representing with your t-shirt there I mentioned you are the first-ever female president of Harvey Mudd you've been in this role for about 12 years and you've made some pretty remarkable changes there supporting women in technology you gave some stats this morning in your talk a few minutes ago share with us what you've done to improve the percentages of females in faculty positions as well as in this student body well the first thing I should say is as president I do nothing nothing it's like a good job the whole thing that makes it work at Harvey Mudd is we are community that's committed to diversity and inclusion and so everything we do we try to figure out ways that we will attract people who are underrepresented so that's women in areas like computer science and engineering physics it's people of color in all areas of science and engineering and it's also LGTB q+ i mean it's you know it's it's muslims it's it's just like all kinds of things and our whole goal is to show that it doesn't matter what race you are doesn't matter what gender or anything else if you bring hard work and persistence and curiosity you can succeed i love that especially the curiosity part one of the things that you mentioned this morning was that for people don't worry about the things that you you might think you're not good at i thought that was a very important message as well as something that I heard you say previously on the cube as well and that is the best time that you found to reach women young women and to get them interested in stem as even a field of study is the first semester in college and I should with you off camera that was when I found stem in biology tell me a little bit more about that and how what are some of the key elements that you find about that time in a university career that are so I guess right for inspire inspiration so I think the thing is that when you're starting in college if somebody can introduce you to something you find fun engaging and if you can really discover that you can solve major issues in the world by using these ideas these concepts the skills you're probably going to stay in that and graduate in that field whereas if somebody does that to when you're in middle school there's still lots of time to get put off and so our whole idea is that we emphasize creativity teamwork and problem-solving and we do that whether it's in math or an engineering or computer science or biology we just in all of our fields and when we get young women and young men excited about these possibilities they stick with it and I love that you mentioned the word fun and curiosity I can remember exactly where I was and bio 101 and I was suddenly I'd like to biology but never occurred to me that I would ever have the ability to study it and it was a teacher that showed me this is fun and also and I think you probably do this too showed that you believe in someone you've got talent here and I think that that inspiration coming from a mentor whether you know it's a mentor or not is a key element there that is one that I hope all of the the viewers today and the women that are participating in which have the chance to find so one of the things every single one of us can do in our lives is encourage others and you know it's amazing how much impact you can have I met somebody who's now a faculty person at Stanford she did her PhD in mechanical engineering her name is Allison Marsden I hadn't seen her for I don't know probably almost 12 years and she said she came up to me and she said I met you just as I was finishing my PhD and you gave me a much-needed pep talk and you know that is so easy to do believing in people encouraging them and it makes so much difference it does I love that so wins is as I mentioned in the third annual and the growth that they have seen is unbelievable I've not seen anything quite like it in in tech in terms of events it's aimed at inspiring not just women and data science but but data science in general what is it about wizz that attracted you and what are some of the key things that you shared this morning in your opening remarks well so the thing that attracts me about weeds is the following data science is growing exponentially in terms of the job opportunities in terms of the impact on the world and what I love about withes is that they had the insight this flash of genius I think that they would do a conference where all the speakers would be women and just that they would show that there are women all over the world who are contributing to data science who are loving it who are being successful and it's it's the crazy thing because in some ways it's really easy to do but nobody had done it right and it's so clear that there's a need for this when you think about all of the different locations around the world that are are doing a width version in Nigeria in Mumbai in London in you know just all across the world there are people doing this yeah so the things I shared are number one oh my goodness this is a great time to get into data science it's just there's so many opportunities in terms of career opportunities but there's so many opportunities to make a difference in the world and that's really important number two I shared that it's you never too old to learn math and CS and you know my example is my younger sister who's 63 and who's learning math and computer science at the northern Alberta Institute of Technology Nate all the other students are 18 to 24 she suffers from fibromyalgia she's walked with a walker she's quite disabled she's getting A's and a-pluses it's so cool and you know I think for every single person in the world there's an opportunity to learn something new and the most important thing is hard work and perseverance that it's so much more important than absolutely anything else I agree with that so much it's it's such an inspiring time but I think that you said there was clearly a demand for this what Wits has done in such a short time period demonstrates massive demand the stats that I was reading the last couple of days that show that women with stem degrees only 26% of them are actually working in STEM fields that's very low and and even can start from things like how how companies are recruiting talent and the messages that they're sending may be the right ones maybe not so much so I have a great example for you about companies recruiting talent so about three years ago I was no actually almost four years ago now I was talking in a conference called HR 50 and it's a conference that's aimed at the chief human resource officers of 50 multinationals and my talk I was talking for 25 minutes on how to recruit and retain women in tech careers and afterwards the chief HR officer from Accenture came up to me and she said you know we hire 17,000 software engineers a year Justin India 17,000 and she said we've been coming in at 30 percent female and I want to get that up to 45 she said you told me some really good things I could use she she said you told me how to change the way we advertise jobs change the way we interview for jobs four months later her name is Ellen Chowk Ellen comes up to me at another conference this has happens to be the most powerful women's summit that's run by Fortune magazine every year and she comes up and she says Maria I implemented different job descriptions we changed the way we interview and I also we started actually recruiting at Women's College engineering colleges in India as well as co-ed once she said we came in at 42% Wow from 30 to 42 just making those changes crying I went Ellen you owe me you're joining my more my board and she did right and you know they have Accenture has now set a goal of being at 50/50 in technical roles by 2025 Wow they even continued to come in all around the world they're coming in over 40% and then they've started really looking at how many women are being promoted to partners and they've moved that number up to 30% in the most recent year so you know it's a such a great example of a company that just decided we're gonna think about how we advertise we're going to think about how we interview we're gonna think about how we do promotions and we're going to make it equitable and from a marketing perspective those aren't massive massive changes so whether it expects quite simple exactly yeah these are so the thing I think about so when I look at what's happening at Harvey Mudd and how we've gotten more women into computer science engineering physics into every discipline it's really all about encouragement and support it's about believing in people it's about having faculty who when they start teaching a class the perhaps is technically very rigorous they might say this is a really challenging course every student in this course who works hard is going to succeed it's setting that expectation that everyone can succeed it's so important I think back to physics and college and how the baseline was probably 60% in terms of of grades scoring and you went in with intimidation I don't know if I can do this and it sounds like again a such a simple yet revolutionary approach that you're taking let's make things simple let's be supportive and encouraging yet hopefully these people will get enough confidence that they'll be able to sustain that even within themselves as they graduate and go into careers whether they stay in academia or go in industry and I know you've got great experiences in both I have I so I've been very lucky and I've been able to work both in academia and in industry I will say so I worked for IBM Research for eight years early in my career and you know I tribute a lot of my success as a leader since then to the kind of professional development that I got as a manager at IBM Research and you know what I think is that I there's not that much difference between creating a great learning environment and a great work environment and one of the interesting results that came out of a study at Google sometime in the last few months is they looked at what made senior engineering managers successful and the least important thing was their knowledge of engineering of course they all have good knowledge of engineering but it was empathy ability to mentor communication skills ability to encourage all of these kinds of things that we think of as quote unquote soft skills but to actually change the world and and on those sasuke's you know we hear a lot about the hard skills if we're thinking about data scientists from a role perspective statistical analysis etcetera but those soft skills empathy and also the ability to kind of bring in different perspectives for analyzing data can really have a major impact on every sector and socially in the world today and that's why we need women and people of color and people who are not well represented in these fields because data science is changing everything in the world absolutely is and if we want those changes to be for the better we really need diverse perspectives and experiences influencing things that get made because you know algorithms are not algorithms can be hostile and negative as well as positive and you know good for the world and you need people who actually will raise the questions about the ethics of algorithms and how it gets used there's a great book about how math can be used for the bad of humanity as well as the good of humanity and until we get enough people with different perspectives into these roles nobody's going to be asking those questions right right well I think with the momentum that we're feeling in this movement today and it sounds like what you're being able to influence greatly at Mudd for the last twelve years plus there is there are our foundations that are being put in place with not just on the education perspective but on the personal perspective and in inspiring the next generation giving them helping them I should say achieve the confidence that they need to sustain them throughout their career summary I thank you so much for finding the time to join us this morning on the cube it's great to have you back and we can't wait to talk to you next year and hear what great things do you influence and well next twelve months well it's wonderful to have a chance to talk with you as well thank you so much excellent you've been watching the cube we're live at Stanford University for the third annual women in data science wins conference join the conversation hashtag wins 2018 I'm Lisa Martin stick around I'll be right back with my next guest after a short break

(upbeat music) >> Hi, I'm Lauren Cooney, and welcome back to theCUBE. Today we have Jeff Frick with us, who is the general manager of theCUBE, and we're here to learn about what goes on at theCUBE, what the business is like, some of the most fun aspects of what he does, and go from there. >> Jeff: Great to be here. >> Thank you so much. So, Jeff, starting out, really, when did you join theCUBE, and really what are your goals and aspirations for theCUBE as you look to business going forward now? >> My first CUBE gig was, I've known John for a long, long time, reached out. It was actually Splunk.conf 2012 in the Cosmo, I'll never forget, and they needed an extra host, we were over-subscribed, and I went and did that show. I did it with Jeff Kelley, and was really touched by this format where you've got kind of this professional looking, newsy, opportunity for people to tell their story, most people don't ever get to tell their story in that context, which I thought was pretty cool. And then also just to personalize the people behind the tech because since Steve Jobs, and that genre of people, people want to know who the people are behind the technology. So not only the people that run the companies, but who creates it. I think Open-source had a lot to do with that where people are interested in other people, not just the tech for itself. And that's what I really like. >> You bring up a great point with stories, and luminaries, and visionaries. Can you talk about some of those folks that you've had on theCUBE, some of the best guests you've ever had? >> Oh my gosh, we've had so much. People ask me this all the time, I need to prepare my answer better. But like Scott Cook, from Intuit, was just phenomenal. Tremendously successful, still focused on the same core vision that he came up with when his wife was filling out her checkbook, writing checks, about just a better way to organize and manage cash. And that show is so inspirational because it's really a small business show pretending to be an accounting show. We've had Robert Gates on, I didn't get to interview Robert Gates, but served with many, many President's. We're really fortunate, we often get the keynotes. Fred Luddy, from ServiceNow, phenomenal founder, goofy, quirky. Maria Klawe who runs Harvey Mudd College, goofy, quirky, great personality. So there's just so many great individuals and then some that you don't know. We had, an original ServiceNow we had this little older lady who had got a ServiceNow POC through, it's some ancient company, I don't even remember what company it was, and it was just fascinating to me how this, you know, she wasn't young and hip and new and on top of things, was able to kind of see the vision, get it funded, get a project underway, and then eventually build into being a customer for them. And how she was able to do that, and what was the story, and how many peers out there are curious to know how they could do that for their company. And those, I love those stories. >> Those are great. And I think one of the things that we want to look at too is that we want to understand for the most part what are some of the bloopers that you've seen out there? What are some of the things that you've noticed that are funny or were oh my gosh, you know, while you were on air, while you were thinking about different things. Can you tell me a little bit about that? >> Well, of course, the classic one that we've referenced over and over and over, and if you've seen any of our promos you see, it was John Cleese. Ironically again, at another ServiceNow keynote he was doing their CIO Summit or something, and he came on and he basically decided he wanted to rewrite the end of the, it became a sketch, not an interview. And just stood up and threw his water all over John and Dave, fried Dave's laptop, and marched off the stage. Half the people there, we had a huge live audience, were laughing hysterically. The other half were petrified. Unfortunately, a number of those were the client senior executives who didn't really know, and we had to go out and do some investigation and find out he actually does it a lot to people. And in fact the guys ran into him later that night and he said, "Wasn't that fun, wasn't that fun?" So that's one that just jumps right off the page. Another great one was Michael North from the NFL was at an IBM event talking about how they build the schedule. And while the analytics are fine, and you run an algorithm and it can plug a bunch of numbers, it's really the softer side. You know, how do you leverage at that point a Peyton Manning versus a Tom Brady match up? Do you use it to leverage an existing relationship? Do you use it to build a new network? Do you use it in your feature presentation to get the most leverage from that asset? So a whole lot of kind of soft, softer sided things in terms of the decision making. Which I think is what's really interesting. >> Yeah, I think that's great. And I want to take it a little bit further into what are the business aspects of theCUBE? What do you do on a day to day basis? What are the things that matter the most for running this business? >> Big question. So most important area is our customers. So what customer, what value does theCUBE bring to people when they take us to their conference? >> Lauren: And who are the key customers? >> Well key customers, right. IBM, and we've mentioned ServiceNow, Splunk, EMC, Dell EMC now, Vmware and their ecosystem partners. So a lot of enterprise infrastructure, a lot of opensource, and a lot of applications. But really there's three key components to why people bring theCUBE and what we deliver when we're there. One of them is just great content. The format that we have, the conversational tone, the way that it all works, we just get people to say stuff that you wouldn't ever ask them to say, especially on the customer reference ones. So the content is great and, you know, conferences are looking for more great content. The second really is our community and our distribution. You know we are a media company, we're super active in the community, we leverage a lot of social tools. We try to ask interviews and get information that's topical and evergreen and can be used often and over and over, and really run that out through a number of different channels and different formats. And then the third thing, which we didn't use to talk about as much, but we really do now, it's really the theater of our presence. There's something to bright lights and cameras when theCUBE is at an event. It's like, oh, theCUBE guys are here. And we hear it all the time, theCUBE guys are here. >> Everyone likes to be a star. >> Everybody wants to be a star. And it does a little bit of, I won't say validates for the greater good, but certainly within our community when we're at an event it's a signal that something's going on, something's exciting here, theCUBE guys are here, and we're covering it. And we hear that over and over. We have people stop us literally in an elevator to say, I look at your guys' upcoming sheet to make some decisions as to where I should plan my schedule time. And, or we've also heard, you know, I just wait and watch theCUBE all day, I can't go, I just have theCUBE running in the background. And get a taste of not necessarily what happened in all the breakouts and all the keynotes and all the other stuff, but we generally get all the same people who run all the keynotes. You're getting those same folks, but you're getting them in a conversational tone, talking often about many of the similar topics, it's just a different way to get that message across. >> So how do you grow the community further? So you talk about the community you have, you talk about the community that's at large right now. How are you looking to grow your user base and your community further? >> Right, so it's really kind of along two angles. One is kind of this natural bundling of subsets within our existing community. And that's like our Women in Tech coverage that we started years ago. Honestly, you know things were kind of slowing again in November, so we're like, you know, there's some great women, they're not getting highlighted, let's go out and do some Women in Tech interviews and integrate that. So that's kind of more of a horizontal play if you will. In terms of more vertical plays, we're trying to get a little bit out of the application infrastructure space and more into the app space. So autonomous vehicles, autonomous drones, commercial drones, we've done a lot of just app shows as companies do their own shows versus more of an industry show. So like I said, I mentioned QuickBooks Connect was fun. So really getting into some of these other areas that are more application specific and not just kind of infrastructure, per se which is the roots. >> So when you so application specific, are you looking at for example, you know Microsoft for example is a very large company. They have application space. Is that what you're looking for? >> Love to do some Microsoft shows, yeah, we have a Microsoft build and Ignite, they have a number of shows. >> What about Salesforce? Salesforce is doing some really interesting stuff around applications and community and the whole nine yards. >> Right, so before we didn't really go after Salesforce per se, 'cause it was just really big and we were just really small, we were trying to get a lot of our processes and structure in place. Since then we actually covered one Salesforce lightly a couple years back. A friend of mine, Lynn Voinovich, was a CMO and we covered the kick off. >> I love Lynn. >> You know Lynn? But we need to get back to Salesforce, that's one that we should be at, it's an important show, we should be there. >> Great, so let's have, let's kind of end here with a fun fact. So tell me a fun fact about your job or something that you do that perhaps people don't know about. >> A fun fact about my job. Just, it's just a lot. >> Lauren: Let's make it fun, not a lot of work. >> Basically our job is kind of like the proverbial duck, right? When we run production, we do about a hundred shows a year. There is, I always tell people it's like catering. There's about a thousand details that you kind of have some idea about, and there's a thousand ideas, there's a thousand issues that you have just no control. So being able to dance, being able to be like that proverbial duck that looks smooth, and cool, calm, and collected on top, but it's really pumping pretty hard underneath, you know we've got a lot of people, we've got a lot of back end processes, we have a lot of dancing that happens to try to make it really smooth for the guests, really smooth for the consumer. And we screw up and things happen. But I think we're pretty good, and we're constantly trying to improve our process. >> Great, thank you so much, and thank you for being here again. >> Thank you. >> I really appreciate your time. And we'll be back shortly on theCUBE with something that is coming up in about 15 minutes. (techno music)

(energetic electronic music) >> From Phoenix, Arizona, the Cube, at Catalyst Conference. Here's your host, Jeff Frick. >> Hey, welcome back everybody, Jeff Frick here, with the Cube. We are on the ground in Phoenix Arizona at the Girls In Tech Catalyst Conference. We're really excited to return to Phoenix, ironically, it was two years ago, about this same time, we went to our first Grace Hopper conference that was here in Phoenix, and I don't know what it is with Phoenix, but it seems to be a great place for women in tech conferences. So, we're back, and we wanted to come down and talk to some of the people here that are giving keynotes, presentations, give you a flavor for what's going on, so if you got an opportunity to go next year, it'll be back in the Bay Area. You certainly want to sign up for that. So we're really excited, our first guest Yvonne Wassenaar, the CIO of New Relic, welcome. >> Thank you so much, it's great to be here, I love the Cube. >> Oh, thank you very much, that's right, you were at VMworld, or VMware, I always say world not ware, for years. And we've been doing, I think, the VMworld show for something like six years, or seven years. >> Yeah, super long time, and I watch you guys at reinvents, and a lot of other places. >> Oh great, well thank you for watching. So now you're at New Relic, so for the people that aren't familiar with New Relic, why don't you give them the quick 411. >> Yeah, so New Relic is is a software analytics company, and in the simplest terms, you don't bank in your retail branch, you bank on your phone. What matters is how your software's performing. Both from an application perspective, and a business perspective. So we help you understand what's going on. We're the best, first place to look to understand your digital business. >> It's really interesting, because we've got a premise that we're, at Wikibon, that it's all about, really, your digital engagement model. And you think about banking, how many times do you go into the bank, and actually interact with a teller? It's really moved to this electronic interface, in terms of your relationship. >> Exactly, it's not how warm the coffee is, or how long the teller line is, it's how performant is your application, and do you have the right feature functionality? >> Okay, so you're here, you had a keynote earlier in the week. >> This is the third day of the conference. So first of all, give us kind of what's the vibe been here for the last three days? >> It's phenomenal, and what I love about the Girl In Tech Conference, is that it brings together women of all types. I was speaking yesterday to a student at Stanford, who's here, who has her own non-profit, who's getting her degree to go out and change the world as an enterpreneur, to very, very seasoned executives who sit on boards. And everybody's here to understand what's the change going on, and how do I drive relevancy. And it's just phenomenal. >> Excellent, so your keynote was on how to stay relevant, and how to avoid extinction. >> Yeah. >> So why don't you give us some of the, I'm sure that was a well received one. >> Yeah, well, what's interesting is, change is the new constant. And it's actually riskier to not do something, than do something, today, but what do you do? And everybody says, "Oh, go out and be bold." and being bold's great, but fundamentally, it's hard. And it's easy to say, it's hard to do in practice. And so what my talk was really on, is, how do you address the unconscious fears? How do you say "Yeah, those bad things could happen, but you know what, if nothing bad happened, here's how I could change the world." And then just go after that vision. Free yourself from those kind of unconscious constraints, and really go after it wholeheartedly. >> And so is it more of a willingness to fail? Is it more of a willingness to, you know, look silly, if you feel? I mean, what are some of these unconscious fears, that if you consciously just address them, that will help you kind of overcome them, and be more proactive in your experimentation? >> Yeah, so for me it was very personal. It was some challenges that I had in my childhood, that really made me risk-averse, in ways that I didn't understand. And it's one of the things that they say, "Hey, women should lean in more." And I actually believe the reason that women don't lean in, is that they're trying to aim for a level of perfection, and don't realize it's a numbers game. Failure is not a reflection on you personally, failure is step towards your future successes. And so really it's a mindset change. >> Right, right, and I fundamentally feel too, as we try to innovate on the Cube, and do things different, if we're not failing sometimes, we're not really pushing the envelope enough, right? Everything shouldn't be successful. It's like the old economics newsboy model, right? If you come home with no newspapers, that means you could have sold a couple more probably, so it's not about perfection, it's about trying, and not being afraid to, "Mm, that didn't work out." >> You're spot on, and I led a workshop yesterday as well, on increasing your return on investment. And I literally told the women, I said, "If you are not failing, if everybody on your team's performing perfectly, you're a failed leader. You have to stumble, it's like skiing, if you don't fall, when you're skiing, you're not pushing yourself hard enough, you're not really doing it, so you need to let your team members fall, you have to fall yourself, and that's how you you're pushing the boundaries. >> So how is the reception then, of that message that you're trying to convey? Is it "You know, I know it, I just can't do it", is it, just, "Oh, there's just so many hurdles in the way"? How do you get over the, you know, here's this unconscious thing that you need to be thinking about, okay, now it's conscious, but to actually start to change behavior? What are some of the little behavioral changes and tips and tricks you give people? Because at the end of the day, a lot of times, it's do the behavior, not think about it too much. >> Exactly, I'd say it's a couple things, first off, you need role models, that can help prove to you and your subconcious, that, "My gosh, if those five amazingly successful people did this, and they're telling me, very specifically, the failures they had, and they're still that successful, maybe they're not lying."(laughs) The other thing is, I try to give really specific tips, so one of my favorites is, I'm an ex-consultant, so two by two, what's the business impact? What's your unique value? Throw all the things you're working on in there, you should have one to two that are high impact that you're uniquely skilled to do, hit those balls out of the park. You can get 20 guys to third base, doesn't matter. You got to get one person home. >> Got to get him home, that's great. I'm just curious, because you spent a long time at Accenture, before you jumped into the tech company world, so you probably saw a lot of different companies. What's your perspective at a macro view, of how this environment has changed over the years? I mean, do you see positive change? I know we have a long way to go, but what's your perspective from some of those early Accenture days? >> You know, it's never been a more exciting time. I mean, in some regards, I wish I was that Stanford student, just starting my career, because technology is changing how we do everything, in absolutely amazing ways. But, we need to bring the right level of social consciousness to how we apply it. And we need to figure out new engagement models. And I think those engagement models actually play to the strength of a lot of women we have in the room. You have to figure out how to fuse across different industries. So, the Apple Watch, it's designer, it's technology, like how do you bring those competencies together? You get better stuff done with partners than all internally. VCs are the new R&D innovation engines, so I think the change is really exciting. But you have to be open to new operating models, and new engagement styles, to take advantage of it. >> Right, okay I want to shift gears a little bit, because our audience might not know, but you're actually a very rare breed. >> (laughs) >> You're a woman on boards, and we hear over and over, I'm teasing you, because we hear over and over, there's just not near enough representation of women on corporate boards. You're on a couple of boards. So I'd like to get your perspective on, how did you get on the boards, how do we get more women on the boards? There's always a conversation, is it a pipeline problem? Are there just not enough, are they dropping out mid-career? What are some of the things you can see from your seat on a couple of boards? >> Yeah, so I'm on three boards, I'm on the board of Harvey Mudd, I'm on the board of Idiom, which is the series B start-up, and I'm on the board of the Athena Alliance. And the Athena Alliance is actually an organization, a non-profit focused on getting more women on boards, because I fundamentally believe it is not a pipeline problem, and I say that because there's many senior executive level women like myself, who just are waiting to check off the ten things on the list they think they need to be on a board. And it's studied time and time again, women set really high bars for themselves. So I don't think enough women are putting themselves forward. and I don't think that they're known well enough. We're not unicorns, we're really not. Like there are valleys where we all congregate, (laughs) and so what we need to do, is really help the men, who I think have amazing intention, and want to have greater diversity on their boards, understand how to make the connections, and find the right women with the right profiles to round out the organizations. >> So you think it's really more of a matching issue, the desire is there, but really just making the match when the timing is right, and it's a good fit. >> Yeah, exactly. >> All right, so I'm going to shift gears on you one more time, and talk about education, and specifically Harvey Mudd, because as I'd mentioned, two years ago, we were here interviewing Maria Klawe, still one of my all-time favorite interviews. She's got such phenomenal energy, she's the President at Harvey Mudd College, who are the Athenas, I don't know if you knew the Harvey Mudd gals' teams are the Athenas, boys are the Stags, but talk about education, and what Maria has done, I mean her thing in our interview, is she wants the intro CS, to be the best class you've ever taken. >> Yeah. >> Bar none, not the best computer science class, not the best science class, the best class ever, and I can tell you, my son's at Claremont, it's a really hard class to get into. Your perspective on education, and what somebody like Maria, with her kind of energy, point of view, enthusiasm, does to expanding computer science breadth in women specifically. >> Oh, it's phenomenal, I actually had the opportunity to sit in the intro CS class. And there's a couple really key things they've done. First off, is they've expanded and energized the CS team with new amazing talent, many women, but not just women, other diversity, to just round out perspective, so keeping it fresh. The second thing they've done, is they've realized that CS theory is interesting to some, but not to all, and a lot of women tend to be more purpose driven, so they've created classes like CS biology. Same core concepts, but now solving the problems in a field where they have questions. So they learn the same thing, but in a way that's more interesting. And the final thing is, they've restructured how they run the class. So they don't say, "Hey, here's a question," everybody goes, "Oh, I'll get that!" They say, "Here's a question I want you to think about. And talk to your partner, scribble some notes, and in a minute, let's discuss what you've come up with." and that allows people of all types to be more thoughtful and to get better, well-rounded answers coming out. So they've changed it on all dimensions, and it's just, it's an amazing place to go and be, and see the energy, and really see transformation in work in our education system, because that's where it all starts. >> That's really interesting, the way you say it, to phrase the question so people are forced to think a minute, because I have two daughters, they went to all-girls middle schools, and that's one of the classic plugs for going to all-girls, because the boys, they don't wait, right? >> (laughs) "Okay if I have the right answer, I'm going to get picked! >> "Pick me, I love the teacher, pick me, pick me!" >> You picked me, I win!" >> Right, "and then I'll figure it out," versus people that want to think about it a little bit, and contemplate, and noodle, and maybe try to get the right answer before they raise their hand, so great strategy. So before we let you go, unfortunately we're out of time, how do people get involved with the Athena Foundation, what are you up to, in terms of priorities for the next six months? >> Yeah, so it's the Athenaalliance.org, we're on the web, we're just starting, DLA Piper is one of our sponsors, getting our 501c3 status, there's information there in terms of membership, who we're working to connect with. If any of you listening have board seats and you want women, come to us. If you're a qualified woman, and you're looking to get on a board, reach out, we'd love to hear you, we know you're there, and we know that men want to put you on boards, so let's make it happen. >> What a great service really, doing that matching game, because it's always about the matching game. Well, Yvonne, thanks for taking a few minutes out of your busy day, and we look forward to seeing you again sometime in the Bay Area. >> Great, thank you so much, great stuff. >> Jeff Frick here at the Girls In Tech Catalyst Conference in Phoenix Arizona, we'll be back after this short break. Thanks for watching. (energetic electronic music)