>>Hey everyone. Lisa Martin here with John farrier. Welcome to the women in tech global event, featuring international women's day. John, this is an exciting day, March 8th, 2022. How did this all get started? >>Well, we started it out when we realized there was more stories to be told with virtual, with COVID. The virtualization of virtual events allowed us to do more stories. So we've been on this new format where we're creating seasons and episodic events, meaning you can still do an event and do 30 interviews like we're doing here for international women's day from around the world. We could have done a hundred there's enough stories out there. There's thousands of stories out there that need to be told, need to be scaled. And so we're just scratching the surface. So we are just starting to do is celebrate international women's day with as many videos we could do in a week, which is 30 and be part of widths and Stanford here in California, as part of their events with Stanford. And we're going to continue with international women's day. >>It's the big celebration, it's the big day, but then when it's over, we're going to continue with more episodes. So this is technically, I guess, season one episode, one of the international women's community site portal is going to be open and open to everyone. Who's going to be a community vibe and, uh, we'll get sponsors, but overall it's about bringing people together, creating tribes, letting people form their own communities and hopefully, uh, making the world a better place and supporting the mission, which is a great mission. Diversity inclusion and equity is a big mission. Uh, it's good for everyone. Everyone wins. >>Everyone does win. What are some of the interesting conversations that you've had with our international women's day guests that really were poignant to you? >>Well, the, one of the things was interesting by region. They had different kind of, um, feelings. The Asia Pacific was heavily skewed on a lot of international diversity around culture. Latin America was just all cloud computing. For instance, I felt that to be very technical, uh, more than agents in the interviews. Um, um, more diversity I study in Asia Pacific and Amy. It was really interesting because you have a lot going on there right now in Europe. So, um, and I'll see from a technical standpoint, data sovereignty and sustainability are two big themes. So from a tech trend standpoint, it was really amazing leaders. We interviewed, um, from technical, uh, folks to analysts, to senior executives in the C-suite. So it really good mix of people in the program. Uh, for today, >>We also had a young girl that I had the chance to speak with her and her father. And it was such a lovely conversation cause it reminded me of my dad's relationship with me. But she was told in high school age, no, you can't do physics. No, you can't do computer science. So the parents pulled her out of school. And so the, and she's brand new in her career path. And it was so nice to hear, to see that, that family, the role models within the family saying she wants to do physics and computer science. Let's find a place for her to be able to do that and have her start being able to, to build her own personal board of directors. At the age of like 22, 23, >>We hit an entrepreneur down in New Zealand. I interviewed she was from indigenous area and she had no milk or food on the table. They were so poor. They could barely get food. She worked her way through it and went to school. Education was number when it goes, she was so persistent, she got her education. And now she's the CEO of an AI company, amazing person. And she's like, Hey, there's no wall I can't run through. So that attitude was just so refreshing. And that was a consistent this year and it wasn't an in your face. It was just more of we're here, we're kicking butt. So let's keep it going. So on the entrepreneurial side, I found that really awesome on the senior leadership side, it was very much, um, community oriented, very open about sharing their experiences and also being a sponsor. So you're going to hear a lot about breaking the bias, but it's also about sponsoring opportunities and then helping people get involved so that they can get understand biases because everyone brings biases to the table. So I personally learned a lot this, this, this, uh, event. >>Yeah. I think the, the light that was shined on the bias was incredibly important. You know, the break, the bias, as you said, is the theme of this year's international women's day. And I, and I asked everybody that I spoke with, what does that mean to you? And where do you think we are on that journey? A world free of bias and stereotypes and discrimination. Obviously we're not there yet, but a lot of the women talked about the fact that that light is shining brightly, that the awareness is there, that for diversity equity and inclusion and having that awareness, there is a great launching launching pad, if you will, for being able to make more progress on actually breaking the bias. >>Yeah. That was a great point. I would also say to add to that by saying a lot of comments were on the same theme of check your bias when you fall, you speak in meetings. And it was just a lot of like protocol tactical, uh, ways to do things like, think about other people in the room versus just barreling ahead. Most guys do that actually. Um, and so that was another instructful thing. I think the other thing too was is that there was, again, more and more sharing. I mean, we had one person that you interviewed, her name was Anne green. Yeah. She's doing her own series. Uh, we're content. She's interviewing people, she's being a mentor and sharing it through content, Manny theory of AWS in Singapore, she's in space and Aero science talking about how the satellites are helping in the Ukraine, give information to everyone on the ground, not just governments and that's helping democracy. And that she's really excited that that contributes to some good there. Um, and she fled from a town where it was bombed. She was in a war zone and she escaped and got educated. So education's a theme. Um, don't let anyone tell you, you can't do it. Uh, and don't think there's only one pathway, right? This is tons of opportunities for participating in the tech economy for good, uh, in, in, in tech. So those are the keys. >>That's always been one of my favorite themes when we do women in tech events, John is that there is no direct pathway necessarily. I always love understanding those stories, but this year, one of the things that also was really clear was that women feeling what can't I do. And that sentiment was really echoed throughout. I think everybody that I spoke with that there was no, can I do this? Why can't I Not confidence? Which is palpable. Even when you're doing an interview by zoom, you can feel it. You can be inspired by, >>Well, at least a year, you do all the, a lot of the interviews. You're the face I had, you know, step aside for you because you're amazing. But one of the things you, you get appreciate this and love to get your reaction. One of the things I observed this year was because it was international focus, there was huge cube demand to be come to their region. We had one of the guests that won from Bahrain. She's like, I'll do the cube here. I'll be the host. So I think there was a real appetite for this kind of open dialogue conversations where they want the cube to come to their area. And so I know anyone watching wants to be a cube host in those areas, let us know, um, we're open. And to me that was more refreshing. Cause you know, me, I always wanna see the cube global go everywhere. But this year people are actually turning on their own cameras. They're doing their own interviews. They're sharing content and content creates community and bonding. And that was the big experience I saw this year was a lot more user generated activity engagement with each other in the group. >>I think that may have even been a product of the last two years of the pandemic of people really understanding the importance of community and collaboration and that it can be done via if you're only limited to video, you can do that. You can build a community and grow it and foster it in that way and create the content that really helps support it. >>That's a great point. That's actually one of the guests said COVID polled the future forward and digital. We see the value and other on the cyber side, um, Sally, as I mentioned there, um, earlier who we interviewed before, she's a cyber policy analyst and she's so smart. She's like, yeah, this is putting fold forward. And people understand cyber now, cyber misinformation, cyber war, the role of working at home, being isolated versus community. These are core societal issues that need to be solved and it's not just code that solves them. So it's going to be solved by the community. And that's really, that was the key. One of the key messages. It was very refreshing. >>It was very refreshing. I always love hearing the stories. I, the more personal the story, the more real it is and the more opportunities I think that it unlocks for the audience watching. Yeah, >>I mean, we had one person said she did a project on the side. It's going to be your big initiative within Amazon. You know, Amazon, one of our sponsors has a slogan think big, but deep dive deep. And she took a project on about educating, um, young girls and young women. And it turned out to be basically a build lab inside schools. And it took off. It is so successful side project, side hustle gone, gone big. So again, sparks of creativity, innovation can come from anywhere. It's just great stories. >>Another thing that came up in several of the conversations that I had was the data, the data that support that organizations that have at least 30% females at the executive level are better performing organizations. They are more profitable as well. So it was fun to kind of call out if we're talking about data science, what not the data that supports why international women's day is what it is, why it's becoming even bigger than that and the importance of showcasing those voices so that she can be what she can see. >>Yeah. Amazing stories. I got to say it again. I think the virtual studios where we have now with the pandemic is going to give us much more opportunities to get those stories out. And Lisa, you've done an amazing job. Your interviews were awesome. Thank you. And we can do a hundred. We'll give you a hundred interviews a week. >>We can, are you setting me up? No, it was fun. The international influence this year was fun. I mean, I think I started one of my interview days at 6:00 AM and it was just exciting to be able to connect to different parts of the world and to hear these stories and for the cube to be able to be the platform that is sharing all of that >>And the diversity of the interviews itself and the diversity of the environments that for instance, in Asia Pacific and your are diverse areas and they see it it's much further along. They live it every day. They know the benefits. So that again, that was another aha moment for us, I think this year. >>So how many, how many segments do we have for international women's day John >>30 segments, uh, 32 counting our little segments here. So 32 interviews. Um, we're going to probably add a section on the site for people to submit stories like a directory, uh, this, a zillion things going on, women of web three, Sandy, Carter's putting on an event. I know there's a security called. She S she scarcity events, she security, uh, going on women in security. Um, there's tons of activities it's vibrant tomorrow. Today. It'll be very much bumping up. So we'll try to curate as much links as possible. >>Awesome. John has been great doing this program with you. I look forward to seeing the interviews and being inspired by the many, many stories. You're going to be watching the cubes coverage of women in tech global event, featuring international women's day for John furrier. I'm Lisa Martin. We'll see you soon.

>>Hey, everyone, welcome to the Cubes Coverage of the International Women's Showcase for 2022. I'm your host, Lisa Martin. Pleased to be here with an agreement ahead of small medium business SMB for Asia Pacific and Japan at Amazon Web services. Anna. It's great to have you on the programme, >>Lisa. I am delighted to be here and really excited to be talking about what we're gonna be talking about today, which is diversity and women in technology. >>One of the great things about International Women's Day Tuesday, March 8th, is there's always a campaign of theme. This year's theme is breaking the bias. What does that mean to you? And are we on our way to actually accomplish that? >>Look, Breaking the bias really is about all of us being more self aware in our workplaces. Really. What it means to me is understanding that the communities and the employment, the employee population, that all of us working is diverse. Um, and this is a great example of that, right? We are a global organisation and our employees come from across the world. I am representing people from across Asia Pacific and Japan. They look, feel and think differently to people in other parts of the world. So, really, what breaking the biases about is understanding our unconscious biases and thinking differently about how we approach conversations in the workplace to make sure that we're including everyone in the conversation. And honestly, Lisa, when you do that, you get much better. Business outcomes. I've seen that for sure. >>Definitely. There's some stats we can talk about later that I think really articulate that point incredibly well. But I want to talk about your background. You pivoted many times from lawyer to the CEO of ANZ Bank in the Philippines to now a leader at Amazon Web services. Talk to you about your career path with all those different pivots. How did you get to where you are tonight? >>Yeah, I mean, honestly, I recognise that I don't have a traditional Orthodox career plan, but that's my intention. I'm somebody who has always been really interested in the world around me, and I would say that my biggest driver is learning and being curious, which, as you know, is an Amazon leadership principles. So it's probably not a surprise that I ended up here at Ws, but really for me when I thought about my career and I have thought about it intentionally. I've been willing to put my hand up and take risks where I think probably others around me were not feeling as safe, and that's that's a function of who I am. But it's also a function of what I see women wanting to and needing to do more in order to bring their career forward. So as you say, I started my I had a pure technical lens when I started my career, which was being a lawyer, and there's been a lot of time just learning that and holding that skill set, I knew Lisa even then that that was not what I wanted to do forever. I wanted to do more than simply sit in an office and negotiate documents. Um, even though that was an exciting career, there was more that I wanted to do. So off the back of that, I moved into banking and was able to to learn and build some really important skill sets in terms of thinking about being a leader. And those skill sets include things like running a balance sheet, managing people thinking differently about risking compliance, which then allowed me to guess, run a bank and run the business. And then finally, how did I then pivot into technology? Well, it was a long conversation. If I'm honest with you, you know, there were there were conversations back and forth and I thought to myself and doing the right thing here. But what I could see for sure was that the world was moving to a technological context and for me not to take an opportunity to do it. A job like running a technology business across Asia, particularly Japan, just It just wasn't a possibility for me. I had to take the opportunity. So here I am, >>And that's one of the most exciting things I think is that these days every company has to be a tech company. Every company has to be a data company, a digital company with one of the lessons we've learned in the last couple of years. But another thing that we've learned is you mentioned skill sets. But it isn't just about those hard skill sets. What are some of those key soft skill sets that you think are really outstanding and really help to break down the bias. >>Yeah, again, Really interesting. So as I'm talking to women, when they hear about my career journey, a lot of them are surprised. How could you move into technology? And I think the challenge is that a lot of women view technology simply as a coding context. They view it as something that only someone with technical skills can do, and that is simply not the case. So if you look at a recent study by Deloitte Access Economics in Australia, for instance, the soft, skill intensive occupations are going to account for two thirds of all jobs by 2030. So if you think about that having a pure technical skill set, so certainly if you're going to do something like be a solutions architect or be a coda, it's really important that you must have those skills. But technology businesses are building and growing like no other, so we need all of those soft skills, like project management like P and L. Accountability and responsibility, like learning how to manage teams. These are caused fuels that have nothing to do with kind of fundamental technology, understanding that business contacts is important, but there are a lot of women out there who could be working in technology now but are a little bit scared to do so because they're thinking maybe they don't have the skills and I would encourage them to think differently. >>I think your your background with your pivots is a great articulation of you can take so many different backgrounds law banking into tech There's probably a fair amount of overlap there, but you also have you have in and of yourself thought diversity because of your background. I think that's another important thing for women to learn how important that thought diversity can be in any sort of job that they do, whether they are in a technical field. Or maybe they're in finance or operations or sales for a technology company. You guys talk about builders at A. W S. Talk to me about what a builder is, what's that definition and one of some of those key skill sets hard and soft that those builders exemplify. >>Yeah, so we are very build focused at AWS because we're building on behalf of our customers. But what that means is that the trays that make you a builder are exemplified by our leadership principles. So things like being curious. As you just pointed out, Lisa, these are the tenants of being a good builder, um, pursuing continuous learning. So whilst you you may know that you're good at something, you're not scared of trying something else. You're not scared of training and learning about something else. Being able to look around corners, um, and take calculated risks. I mean, whilst it may sound like my career journey has been pivot, pivot, pivot. Actually, if we're honest that these have been very intentional moves that I've made with my career to try to learn, as I said, to try to grow, um, and I've been fortunate and have been intentional also about building that leadership profile, But that's because I'm really fundamentally interested in how business and how people are connecting across the world. And as I said to you in a building context, really, that's about learning about how to build and run digital businesses. And at the end of the day is I guess the key message that I would send to everyone out there getting involved in a career in technology is not a bad move. >>No, it's definitely not a bad movie. I love the curiosity angle. That's one of those things that I'd love to hear. How do you encourage that? One of the biggest challenges. If we look at the stats of girls in stem programmes, from primary school to high school to university, as we see the numbers going down, we see them going up in university. And then, of course, when we're in, we're looking at the raw tech numbers. The number of women in technical positions is quite low to your point. There's many other opportunities besides technical positions. How do you encourage women to not be afraid to raise their hand and ask a question, even if they think maybe this is a dumb question? >>Uh, it's such a I think, you know, honestly, we need to see more women in leadership roles. Um, and, uh, and I think it's incumbent upon the organisations that are are running our businesses, that they make this a priority because you can't see I'm sorry. You can't be what you can't see Lisa, Um, and so it's great for us to talk about it. But once we start seeing women having active business, led conversations. That's where we're really going to see the dial shift. I have a 13 year old daughter, Um, and she's deeply interested in everything on her computer. Um, and what I try to do is encourage her to think differently about the type of roles that she could have if she was interested in, say, for instance, graphic design. She loves drawing, Um, singing. There are so many ways you can do all those YouTube videos. Maybe not, but you know, ways in which you can engage with technology to pursue a career that's interesting to you, regardless of your gender. So maybe the first part is making sure that we are talking about female leaders and what they're doing. I think also what we can do is start building programmes where we're involving women in building skills and certification skills. So here we've got this amazing event which we've built called She builds and I'm an active mentor for that. And what that's all about is kind of connecting women in the tech community and those who are interested with programmes that really speak to the way that women are thinking about their roles. So we have like minded peers. We have senior leaders, We have certification skills, programmes, always part of that, and we also have male allies. It's really important to include our male allies in that conversation, and you will have heard about things like male champions of change. These are very important conversations because again, what we know from statistics is that women are not as likely to build networks and sponsors as men are. And that's not statement of Miss Mala intense. What it means is that they just learn differently and think differently as they're building their careers. So if we're starting to get a man involved in the conversation in a more meaningful way, it's a conversation that's inclusive, and that's really what I want to drive. So I'm not sure I answered your question, but I certainly got to a couple of points that I was interested in highlighting, which is it's a conversation that has to happen at a grassroots level at a leadership level and across the organisation in terms of metrics, data understanding where women are and how to build and grow them >>right. But one of the things that you said that I was about to say was, We can't be what we can't see. We need to be able to elevate those female leaders like yourself so that more younger women and even women who maybe have been in the field for a while, can see the opportunities, the leadership. But you also brought up another great point. And that is, and something I was going to ask you about who are who are some of your mentors. And I imagine it's not just all females. It's got to be men as well. As you point out, it's incredibly important to have the men as allies. >>Yeah, absolutely. And certainly I wouldn't even be having this conversation with you now if I didn't have some amazing allies, both men and women, by my side as I've tracked this leadership journey. Certainly, um, Phil Davis, who is the head of our commercial organisation, Greg Pearson. These are people who have taken time out of their careers to talk with me about how we can help to build and grow women leaders, and to me, that's impactful. And I feel that that's an authentic engagement because there is a recognition in technology that we need to do more around this issue, and I see senior leaders like Matt Garman leading into the conversation. So for me, that's that's very inspiring. But I can't I couldn't have answered that question without telling you that the people who probably inspired me most in the organisation and within my network are those young women out there who are female founders. Now you know, I'm going to have to say a couple of names because I get the opportunity. Lisa, I've got a part of the networking, a women's networking, um, and mentoring organisation. And we have women here in Singapore like Ping Ping Han, who is building out an environmental education and sustainability digital business. We've got Francesco Cuccia, who is building Go get. She's already built it, which is an on demand workforce platform, which has over 250,000 people online that are helping people in Malaysia to work and has helped immensely during Covid. So what we're seeing with these young women is that they're actually building the digital businesses of the future, and it's not about, I mean, what I'm seeing them do is invest their time and energy in building. As I said, kind of programmes and models that are sustainable. So they're building businesses not just for the bottom line, but also to help the communities in which we operate, which to me is deeply inspirational. >>Absolutely. And the female founders need much more visibility than they're getting and obviously much more funding. One last point that I want to bring up because this is really important is that there is some data that I know that you have about performance company performance. When there are females at the helm, talk to me a little bit about that, and how can we help get that word out there more? Some more organisations understand the potential they have when they got that thought. Diversity. >>Yeah, it's such a wonderful point, and it's so well made now across the across media. But I feel like we need to double down on it because this is not a piecemeal conversation about doing the right thing. Um, sometimes we view it that way, and of course it is the right thing to have equity and diversity in our workplace. But in fact, there's so much data around how a diverse workforce creates better outcomes for business So in 2020 we had a McKenzie survey that found that companies with more than 30% of women executives were more likely to outperform companies with this percentage. So there is now a huge amount of data that's starting to show us what a diverse. And this is not just about gender. This is also about diversity across various lenses culture, ethnicity, minority groups, etcetera. So and for me, Lisa, it's just common sense. So if you're building a business that is trying to reach the most number of customers, it really is intuitive that you need to have all of those customers represented around the table. If you only have a single point of view, you're not going to represent all of those customers out there. And increasingly, those customers are expecting to be represented as part of your conversation in your business. So it totally makes sense from a business lens to build and recruit a diverse workforce. >>I couldn't agree more. One. I like to have one more question. Talk to me really quickly, briefly about how how are you building your teams to promote effectiveness through that diversity that, as you just described, can be so leading edge. >>Yeah, So what I'm doing is being intentional in my hiring practises. So this is something that all leaders can do. >>And that is really >>carefully about filling the roles in my organisation, where I'm given a role to fulfil, making sure that I'm looking at that diverse candidates, not just the same candidates who might have applied before. And that means sometimes throwing the net a bit wider than what you might usually have and thinking differently about the candidates that are applying. So, for instance, in my team, we have 50 50 men and women. Um, and we all come from very diverse backgrounds. We've got Indian, we've got Singaporean, we've got Australian talent, which means we've got a gender and cultural mix, which is actually, as I said, bringing a very different lens to the conversation when we're trying to solve customer problems. And what I would say is collaboration and respect is the cornerstone of the way that we should be. Building teams and diverse perspectives mean that our teams and the outcomes that we build are going to reflect the complexity of both the cross cultural and the divers, gender lens within which all of our customers are doing business today. >>Anna, thank you so much for joining me today, talking about the intentional pivots that you've made in your career, how inspiring those are two others and also how we're making progress on breaking the bias. My pleasure. >>Lisa. It's wonderful to join you. And thank you always think you for bringing us so much interesting data >>for Anna Greene. I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching the Cubes. Coverage of International Women's Showcase 2022.

>>Yeah. Hello and welcome to the Cuba's International Women's Showcase, featuring International Women's Day. I'm John, host of the Kiwi here in California. Great remote guest. She's amazing founder and C e O of Cuba, and great to see you. Okay, thanks for coming on. Um, good to see you. >>You as well. Always a pleasure. You >>know, International Women's Day is the big celebration. We're doing a lot of interviews with great people making things happen, moving and shaking things. Um, but every day, International Women's Day, As far as I'm concerned, it's happening all around the world. But these are stories of innovation, the stories of changes, the stories of transformation for the better. You've been doing a lot of things. Um and I want to get into that. But let's start with your background. Tell us a bit about who you are and what you've got going on. >>Yeah, my background is a little strange. I used to be a maritime archaeologists. So dumb shit breaks for a little bit. That was amazing. I always just It's only partial just because it's actually a bit of truth to it, that learning how to, you know, handle things at depth really does train you to be a C e o. Because you learn to control your breath and and focus on the things that matter and not be so reactive because it's three activity that will panic that will kill you. Uh, always knowing how to reframe. Return to the basics. Um, there's a really good things to hold on to, even in the world of business. Right? So I at some point, ended up doing doing a lot of things. Largely business development, following my time diving and amazing woman. Um, another woman for International Women's Day named Doctor who was a biotech entrepreneur from Japan, stepping down as her role at the helm of her company. Um, and she wanted to launch a space for a young innovators from around the world who are doing amazing work to tackle this very complex challenges we all know exist, um, and figure out a way to give them time and space to do their best work and pursue their their highest visions for change. We decided that we would focus on for-profit companies largely who were using sustainable, scalable business models to pursue both profit and purpose. Um creating a virtuous cycle between the return of money to a company and putting that into to go even further and faster towards, um, solving a problem. Um, so we now have companies over 200 companies from around the world that we have helped support tackling every single, sustainable development goal. Um, and I'm proud to say, you know, particularly related to the subject that fifty-nine percent of our companies have a woman founder or CO-FOUNDER. Um, and 69% of the founder of color. Um, so we're working with entrepreneurs from every every area of the world. Many approximate to the problem that they are trying to solve, so they intimately understand it. Um, and they're doing amazing things. >>Yeah, you can help the great mission. You have a lot of other things going on your helping women encouraging them to your career in the tech sector. Um, good statistics could be better, right? Is higher and better. So, um, what are you guys doing? What, you specifically to help and encourage women to forge their career and tech? >>Yeah. I mean, look, the good news is I do think that it's getting better. I particularly think that we will see the adventure is improving. Um, it takes a while because the companies that have been funded up until now are still working in the biggest amount in the later stages. So I think that percentage hasn't been shifting. But I have to believe that that's a bit of an illusion, and then a couple of years, we're going to start to sea level out. But you know as well as I do that they're pretty poultry statistics in terms of the amount of venture that women like cos. Capture, Um, and the other ways that women are doubted, um, in terms of their ability and potential. Um, so we we love to work with any underrepresented group of entrepreneurs, and there's ways that we do that whether it's helping them sort of find their power and hold space and be confident. And, um, you know, be able to pitch to any room, talk to any investor, talk to any customer but also working to be directed about some of the systemic challenges, both in terms of talking to existing investors and trying to educate them to see the opportunities that they're missing because there is a an economic imperative to them understanding what they're missing. Um, but there's also some things that we're doing in-house to make sure that we're also helping to close capital gaps for all our entrepreneurs. So we actually now have a suite of three capital mechanisms that are entrepreneurs can access on the back end of our incubator, a microphone fund, which is very quick turnaround, small amounts of capital for entrepreneurs who existing opportunities owns, which is a tax destination. Just this in the U. S. But that's meant to be deployed so that they can access capital towards revenue without credit checks, collateral being put up, a slow moving pace of banks and C. D. S s. It's particularly useful for people who may not raise venture. And it's useful for, uh, you know, people who maybe don't have that friends and family check that they can expect similar. We've got a great angel network who look at the best impact deals from around the world. Um, and it doesn't have to be a housing company, just a great venture that's pursuing impact on profit. Um, and then lastly, we're just about to announce that we have a fund of our own on the back end of our incubator that funds only healthy and companies. Um, it's an early stage fund. Um, but watch this space because our pipeline is just increasing your every year. We used to sort of just 16 companies here. Now, we're serving 60 this year, so, um, yeah, it's really exciting. Um, and so obviously, it's really great that, you know, we're going to be able to help scale the impact that we want to see. Uh, ideally a lot. A lot faster. >>Well, you definitely taking control. I remember when we had a few years ago. I think four years ago, you just thinking about getting going and going now with great tailwind. Um, >>and the diversity >>of sources of capital as well as diversity of firms is increasing. That's helping, uh, that we're seeing, but you're also got the back end fun for the housing companies. But also, you've been involved in we capital for a long time. Can you talk about that? Because that's a specific supporting women entrepreneurs initiative. Um, yeah. What's up with capital share? That >>was That was another venture that I-i embarked on with such coz. Um as well as Sheila Johnson and Jonny Adam, Person who runs Rethink Impact. We capital is a group of about 16 women that I pulled together women investors to invest through rethink impact, which is another fun that is looking for impact businesses but predominantly looking for those businesses that are led by women. So this investment group is women supporting women. Um, through the use of deployment of capital, um, they're doing amazingly well. They've had some really stunning news recently that I'll let you dig up. >>I'll definitely thanks for the lead there. I'm gonna go jump on that story. >>Yeah, >>the Okay, Thanks for that lead on that trend, though in Silicon Valley and certainly in other areas that are hot like New York, Boston and D. C. Where you're at, um, you're seeing now multiple years in almost a decade in of the pioneers of these women, only funds or women only firms and your investment. Um, and it's starting to increase to under all underrepresented minorities and entrepreneurs. Right? So take us through how you see that because it's just getting more popular. Is that going to continue to accelerate in your mind? Are their networks of networks. They cross pollinating. >>Yeah, I think you know, it's It's I'm glad to see it. And, you know, it's been a long time coming. I think you know, I think we all look forward to a future where it's not necessary. Um, and you know, funds. Just invest in everyone Until then, making sure that we have specific pools of capital allocated to ensure that that, you know, those entrepreneurs who have not always been equally represented get to pursue their ideas not just because they deserve to pursue their ideas, but because the world needs their ideas. Right. And as I mentioned, there is a business imperative, right? We've got lots of examples of businesses like banks that you wouldn't have gotten a shot just because the investors just didn't understand the opportunity. Um, and I think that's normal. That's human. It happens to everyone. You are successful as an investor largely because you recognize patterns. And if something is, you know, outside of your life experience, you are not going to identify it. So it's very important that we create different kinds of capital run by different types of people. Um, and, uh, and you know. I know lots of investors have every type that are investing in these funds because they recognize that, you know, perhaps the highest growth potential is gonna come out of these, you know, particular kind of funds, which is really exciting. >>That's super important, because half the world is women, and that's just like the population is inspired by many new ventures. And that's super exciting trend. I wanna ask you about your other areas of doing a lot of work in the queue has been to buy multiple times, um, initially reporting on a region out there, and that's certainly isn't important part of the world. Um, you've got a lot of good news going on there. Can you share what's going on with, uh, the social entrepreneurship going on in Bahrain around the region? >>Yeah, I'm happy to. We we've actually been so privileged to work with a W S for a very long time. Almost since the start of the incubator they've supported are entrepreneurs, all of our entrepreneurs with access to cloud credits and services. Um, and we've sort of double down with a W S in the last couple of years in areas where We both want to create an uplift, um, for small businesses and rapidly growing tax solutions to these these social environmental problems. We see. So there's been an excellent partner to do that. And one of the areas we did in the water was with rain, particularly with women, tech startups, women tech startups in Bahrain. Yeah, we did that last year. We had an amazing group of women over in D. C. Um, and we continue to support them. One of them is actually in the process of raising. I think she just closed her seed round recently. And that's why for, um, al yet, um, and she created playbook, which is an amazing, uh, platform for women to take master classes and network and really sort of level up, as one says, Um, but also, um, the mall of work. Um uh, just really talented women over in Bahrain, um, pushing the envelope and all sorts of directions, and it was wonderful to get the opportunity to work with them. Um, that has now spawned another set of programs serving entrepreneurs in the Middle East in North Africa. They were also working on with us as well as the U S. State Department. Um, so we're going to be working for the next two years with entrepreneurs to help our recovery from covid. Um, in China. Um, and then I'm also proud to say that we're working with a W s in South Africa because there is just an extraordinary energy, you know, in the continent, Um, and some amazing entrepreneurial minds working on, you know, the many problems and opportunities that they're facing and recognizing. Um So we're supporting, you know, companies that are working on finding, um, skilled refugees to be able to help them resettle and use their talents and make money. Um, sadly, are very relevant company now with what's going on in Ukraine. Um, but also, uh, zombie and satellite company, um, companies that are preventing food, food waste by providing, um, solar-powered refrigerators to rural areas in South Africa. Um, so a lot of, um, you know, just incredible talent and ideas that we're seeing globally. Um, and happy to be doubling down on that with the help of a W s. >>That's awesome. Yeah, following the work when we met in D. C. And again, you always had this international view um it's International Women's Day. It's not North America >>Women's Day. It's >>International Women's Day. Can you share your thoughts on how that landscape is changing outside the U. S. For example, and around the world and how the international peace is important and you mentioned pattern matching? Um, you also, when you see patterns, they become trends. What do you see forming that have been that that are locked in on the U. C they're locked in on that are happening that are driving. What are some of those trends that you see on the international side that's evolving? >>Yeah. You know, I think the wonderful opportunity with the Internet and social media is that, you know, both, uh, we can be more transparent about areas for improvement and put a little pressure where maybe things are moving fast enough. We've all seen the power of that, Um, the other, um, you know, things that certainly in countries where women maybe as free to move and operate, they can still acquire skills education they can set up cos they can do so so much. Um, you know, through these amazing technologies that we now have at our disposal growing an amazing rates. Um, they can connect via zoom. Right? I think that while the pandemic definitely set women back and we should acknowledge that, um, uh, the things that the pandemic perhaps helped us to exponentially scale will move women forward. And perhaps that's the target to hang on to, to feel optimistic about where we're headed. >>And also, there's a lot of problems to solve. And I think one of the things we're seeing you mentioned the Ukraine situation. You're seeing the geopolitical landscape changing radically with technology driving a lot of value. So with problems comes opportunities. Um, innovation plays a big role. Can you share some of the successful stories that you were inspired by that you've seen, um, in the past couple of years. And as you look forward, what What some of those innovation stories look like? And what are you inspired by? >>Yeah. I mean, there's so, so many. Um, you know, we just, uh, had a couple of entrepreneurs, and just the last year, Um, you know, after I think everyone sort of took an initial breath with the pandemic, They realize that they either had an opportunity or they had a problem to solve to your point. Um, and they did that well or not. And or some of them, you know, just didn't didn't have any more cards to play and had to really pivot. Um, it was really interesting to see how everyone handled handled that particular moment in time. One company that I think of is everywhere. Um, and she had created a wearable device that you can just put on your ear. It looks like an earring right at the top of your ear. Um, and it was for her for herself because she suffered from pulmonary complications. And, uh, without more discreet wearable, you know, had to wear a huge device and look around and oxygen tank and, you know, just to sort of have a good quality of life. Um, it turns out, obviously, during covid, that is a very useful item, not just for patients suffering from covid and wanting to know what their oxygen levels were doing, but also potentially athletics. So, um, she's really been able to double down as a result of the trends from the pandemic. Um, and I'm really proud of part of her. And that's actually where another great one that we just just came through. Our last 15 is Maya. Um, and she had a brick and mortar store. Um, uh, called Cherry Blossom. Intimate where she helped women have an enjoyable experience finding, uh, and fitting bras post mastectomy to include sort of, you know, the necessary, um, prosthetics and things like that. Um, she even made it so that you could go with your friends who haven't had a mistake, and she could also find some lovely luxury. Um, but the pandemic meant that that experience was sort of off the table. Um, and what they did was she decided to make it a technological one. So now she's she's essentially will be part of it. You can, you know, go to my, um, online. And you can, um, you know, order, uh, measure yourself, work with a specialist, all online, get a few different options, figure out the one that's perfect for you and the rest back. Um, and I don't think without the pandemic, that would not have happened. So she's now able to serve exponentially more. Um, you know, women who deserve to feel like themselves post it to me. >>That's also a model and inspirational. I have to ask you for the young women out there watching. What advice would you share with them as they navigate into a world that's changing and evolving and getting better with other women, mentors and entrepreneurs and or just an ecosystem of community? What advice would you give them as they step into the world and have to engage and experience life? >>Yeah, gosh, part of me always wants to resist that they don't listen to anyone to do you follow your heart, follow your gut, or at least be careful who you listen to because a lot of people will want to give you advice. I would >>say, Uh, that's good advice. Don't take my advice. Well, you've been a great leader. Love the work, you're doing it and I'll say N D. C. But all around the world and again, there's so much change going on with innovation. I mean, just the advances in technology across the board, from with machine learning and AI from linguistics and understanding. And I think we're going to be a bigger community. Your thoughts on as you see community organically becoming a big part of how people are engaging. What's your what's your view As you look out across the landscape, communities becoming a big part of tribes. What's your vision on how the role of communities place? >>You know, we we actually do you think a lot about community and healthy. And we say that are you know, alchemy really is providing space, you know, physical and mental space to think, um, access access to capital access to networks, Um, community, Um, and the community piece is very, very important. Are entrepreneurs leave us like the number one thing that they miss is being among like-minded, um, you know, slightly slightly crazy audacious people. Um, and I often joked that we're building a kind army because it is, you know, it's people who want to do it differently if people want to do it with integrity. Is people who are in it for a very different motivations than just money. Um, and, you know, you start to feel the power of that group together and its entirety and what that might look like as as a community solving global problems. Um, and it really is inspiring. Um, I do think that people are starving for FaceTime and people time, real human time after the pandemic, I think they won't go away. It's a great tool, but we all want a little bit of that, and I will mention just along those lines. And if you don't mind a quick plug for an event that we're having March 16, Um, also in partnership with a W s called Build her relevant to International Women's Day as well. People can, either. If they're in the city, they can come in person. But we also have a virtual program, and we'll be listening to some of the most inspiring. Women leaders and entrepreneurs both in government and also the private sector share their knowledge on the side of the pandemic for for, you know, the next tribal group of women entrepreneurs and leaders. >>That's great. Well, you are on our website for sure. >>Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. >>And we love the fact that you're in our community as well. Doing great work. Thanks for spending time with the Cube and on International Women's Day celebration. Thanks for coming on and sharing. >>Thank you, John. >>Okay. The Cube International showcase Women's Day, featuring some great guests all around the world, Not just in the U S. But all over the world. I'm your host. Thanks for watching. Yeah, Yeah, yeah, hm, Yeah.

>>Mm. >>Okay. Hello, and welcome to the Cubes Coverage of the International Women in Tech Showcase featuring National Women's Day. I'm John for a host of the Cube. We have a great guest here of any theory a PJ head of aerospace and satellite for A W S A P J s Asia Pacific in Japan. Great to have you on many thanks for joining us. Talk about Space and International Women's Day. Thanks for coming on. >>Thanks, John. It's such a pleasure to be here with you. >>So obviously, aerospace space satellite is an area that's growing. It's changing. AWS has made a lot of strides closure, and I had a conversation last year about this. Remember when Andy Jassy told me about this initiative to 2.5 years or so ago? It was like, Wow, that makes a lot of sense Ground station, etcetera. So it just makes a lot of sense, a lot of heavy lifting, as they say in the satellite aerospace business. So you're leading the charge over there in a p J. And you're leading women in space and beyond. Tell us what's the Storey? How did you get there? What's going on. >>Thanks, John. Uh, yes. So I need the Asia Pacific business for Clint, um, as part of Amazon Web services, you know, that we have in industry business vertical that's dedicated to looking after our space and space customers. Uh, my journey began really? Three or four years ago when I started with a W s. I was based out of Australia. Uh, and Australia had a space agency that was being literally being born. Um, and I had the great privilege of meeting the country's chief scientist. At that point. That was Dr Alan Finkel. Uh, and we're having a conversation. It was really actually an education conference. And it was focused on youth and inspiring the next generation of students. Uh, and we hit upon space. Um, and we had this conversation, and at that stage, we didn't have a dedicated industry business vertical at A W s well supported space customers as much as we did many other customers in the sector, innovative customers. And after the conversation with Dr Finkel, um, he offered to introduce me, uh, to Megan Clark, who was back back then the first CEO of the Australian Space Agency. So that's literally how my journey into space started. We had a conversation. We worked out how we could possibly support the Australian Space Agency's remit and roadmap as they started growing the industry. Uh, and then a whole industry whole vertical was set up, clinic came on board. I have now a global team of experts around me. Um, you know, they've pretty much got experience from everything creating building a satellite, launching a satellite, working out how to down link process all those amazing imagery that we see because, you know, um, contrary to what a lot of people think, Uh, space is not just technology for a galaxy far, far away. It is very much tackling complex issues on earth. Um, and transforming lives with information. Um, you know, arranges for everything from wildfire detection to saving lives. Um, smart, smart agriculture for for farmers. So the time of different things that we're doing, Um, and as part of the Asia Pacific sector, uh, my task here is really just to grow the ecosystem. Women are an important part of that. We've got some stellar women out here in region, both within the AWS team, but also in our customer and partner sectors. So it's a really interesting space to be. There's a lot of challenges. There's a lot of opportunities and there's an incredible amount of growth so specific, exciting space to be >>Well, I gotta say I'm super inspired by that. One of the things that we've been talking about the Cuban I was talking to my co host for many, many years has been the democratisation of digital transformation. Cloud computing and cloud scale has democratised and change and level the playing field for many. And now space, which was it's a very complex area is being I want kind of democratised. It's easier to get access. You can launch a satellite for very low cost compared to what it was before getting access to some of the technology and with open source and with software, you now have more space computing things going on that's not out of reach. So for the people watching, share your thoughts on on that dynamic and also how people can get involved because there are real world problems to solve that can be solved now. That might have been out of reach, but now it's cloud. Can you share your thoughts. >>That's right. So you're right, John. Satellites orbiting There's more and more satellites being launched every day. The sensors are becoming more sophisticated. So we're collecting huge amounts of data. Um, one of our customers to cut lab tell us that we're collecting today three million square kilometres a day. That's gonna increase to about three billion over the next five years. So we're already reaching a point where it's impossible to store, analyse and make sense of such massive amounts of data without cloud computing. So we have services which play a very critical role. You know, technologies like artificial intelligence machine learning. Help us help these customers build up products and solutions, which then allows us to generate intelligence that's serving a lot of other sectors. So it could be agriculture. It could be disaster response and recovery. Um, it could be military intelligence. I'll give you an example of something that's very relevant, and that's happening in the last couple of weeks. So we have some amazing customers. We have Max our technologies. They use a W S to store their 100 petabytes imagery library, and they have daily collection, so they're using our ground station to gather insight about a lot of changing conditions on Earth. Usually Earth observation. That's, you know, tracking water pollution, water levels of air pollution. But they're also just tracking, um, intelligence of things like military build up in certain areas. Capella space is another one of our customers who do that. So over the last couple of weeks, maybe a couple of months, uh, we've been watching, uh, images that have been collected by these commercial satellites, and they've been chronicling the build up, for instance, of Russian forces on Ukraine's borders and the ongoing invasion. They're providing intelligence that was previously only available from government sources. So when you talk about the democratisation of space, high resolution satellite images are becoming more and more ridiculous. Um, I saw the other day there was, uh, Anderson Cooper, CNN and then behind him, a screenshot from Capella, which is satellite imagery, which is very visible, high resolution transparency, which gives, um, respected journalists and media organisations regular contact with intelligence, direct intelligence which can help support media storytelling and help with the general public understanding of the crisis like what's happening in Ukraine. And >>I think on that point is, people can relate to it. And if you think about other things with computer vision, technology is getting so much stronger. Also, there's also metadata involved. So one of the things that's coming out of this Ukraine situation not only is tracking movements with the satellites in real time, but also misinformation and disinformation. Um, that's another big area because you can, uh, it's not just the pictures, it's what they mean. So it's well beyond just satellite >>well, beyond just satellite. Yeah, and you know, not to focus on just a crisis that's happening at the moment. There's 100 other use cases which were helping with customers around the globe. I want to give you a couple of other examples because I really want people to be inspired by what we're doing with space technology. So right here in Singapore, I have a company called Hero Factory. Um, now they use AI based on Earth observation. They have an analytics platform that basically help authorities around the region make key decisions to drive sustainable practises. So change detection for shipping Singapore is, you know, it's lots of traffic. And so if there's oil spills, that can be detected and remedy from space. Um, crop productivity, fruit picking, um, even just crop cover around urban areas. You know, climate change is an increasing and another increasing, uh, challenges global challenge that we need to tackle and space space technology actually makes it possible 15 50% of what they call e CVS. Essential climate variables can only be measured from space. So we have companies like satellite through, uh, one of our UK customers who are measuring, um, uh, carbon emissions. And so the you know, the range of opportunities that are out there, like you said previously untouched. We've just opened up doors for all sorts of innovations to become possible. >>It totally is intoxicating. Some of the fun things you can discuss with not only the future but solving today's problems. So it's definitely next level kind of things happening with space and space talent. So this is where you start to get into the conversation like I know some people in these major technical instance here in the US as sophomore second year is getting job offers. So there's a There's a there's a space race for talent if you will, um and women talent in particular is there on the table to So how How can you share that discussion? Because inspiration is one thing. But then people want to know what to do to get in. So how do you, um how do you handle the recruiting and motivating and or working with organisations to just pipeline interest? Because space is one of the things you get addicted to. >>Yeah. So I'm a huge advocate for science, technology, engineering, math. We you know, we highlights them as a pathway into space into technology. And I truly believe the next generation of talent will contribute to the grand challenges of our time. Whether that climate change or sustainability, Um, it's gonna come from them. I think I think that now we at Amazon Web services. We have several programmes that we're working on to engage kids and especially girls to be equipped with the latest cloud skills. So one of the programmes that we're delivering this year across Singapore Australia uh, we're partnering with an organisation called the Institute for Space Science, Exploration and Technology and we're launching a programme called Mission Discovery. It's basically students get together with an astronaut, NASA researcher, technology experts and they get an opportunity to work with these amazing characters, too. Create and design their own project and then the winning project will be launched will be taken up to the International space station. So it's a combination of technology skills, problem solving, confidence building. It's a it's a whole range and that's you know, we that's for kids from 14 to about 18. But actually it, in fact, because the pipeline build is so important not just for Amazon Web services but for industry sector for the growth of the overall industry sector. Uh, there's several programmes that were involved in and they range from sophomore is like you said all the way to to high school college a number of different programmes. So in Singapore, specifically, we have something called cloud Ready with Amazon Web services. It's a very holistic clouds killing programme that's curated for students from primary school, high school fresh graduates and then even earlier careers. So we're really determined to work together closely and it the lines really well with the Singapore government's economic national agenda, um so that that's one way and and then we have a tonne of other programmes specifically designed for women. So last year we launched a programme called She Does It's a Free online training learning programme, and the idea is really to inspire professional women to consider a career in the technology industry and show them pathways, support them through that learning process, bring them on board, help drive a community spirit. And, you know, we have a lot of affinity groups within Amazon, whether that's women in tech or a lot of affinity groups catering for a very specific niches. And all of those we find, uh, really working well to encourage that pipeline development that you talk about and bring me people that I can work with to develop and build these amazing solutions. >>Well, you've got so much passion. And by the way, if you have, if you're interested in a track on women in space, would be happy to to support that on our site, send us storeys, we'll we'll get We'll get them documented so super important to get the voices out there. Um and we really believe in it. So we love that. I have to ask you as the head of a PJ for a W S uh aerospace and satellite. You've you've seen You've been on a bunch of missions in the space programmes of the technologies. Are you seeing how that's trajectory coming to today and now you mentioned new generation. What problems do you see that need to be solved for this next generation? What opportunities are out there that are new? Because you've got the lens of the past? You're managing a big part of this new growing emerging business for us. But you clearly see the future. And you know, the younger generation is going to solve these problems and take the opportunities. What? What are they? >>Yes, Sometimes I think we're leaving a lot, uh, to solve. And then other times, I think, Well, we started some of those conversations. We started those discussions and it's a combination of policy technology. We do a lot of business coaching, so it's not just it's not just about the technology. We do think about the broader picture. Um, technology is transferring. We know that technology is transforming economies. We know that the future is digital and that diverse backgrounds, perspective, skills and experiences, particularly those of women minority, the youth must be part of the design creation and the management of the future roadmaps. Um, in terms of how do I see this going? Well, it's been sort of we've had under representation of women and perhaps youth. We we just haven't taken that into consideration for for a long time now. Now that gap is slowly becoming. It's getting closer and closer to being closed. Overall, we're still underrepresented. But I take heart from the fact that if we look at an agency like the US Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, that's a relatively young space agency in your A. I think they've got about three or 400 people working for them at this point in time, and the average age of that cohort John, is 28. Some 40% of its engineers and scientists are women. Um, this year, NASA is looking to recruit more female astronauts. Um, they're looking to recruit more people with disabilities. So in terms of changing in terms of solving those problems, whatever those problems are, we started the I guess we started the right representation mix, so it doesn't matter. Bring it on, you know, whether it is climate change or this ongoing crisis, productive. Um, global crisis around the world is going to require a lot more than just a single shot answer. And I think having diversity and having that representation, we know that it makes a difference to innovation outputs. We know that it makes a difference to productivity, growth, profit. But it's also just the right thing to do for so long. We haven't got it right, and I think if we can get this right, we will be able to solve the majority of some of the biggest things that we're looking at today. >>And the diversity of problems in the diversity of talent are two different things. But they come together because you're right. It's not about technology. It's about all fields of study sociology. It could be political science. Obviously you mentioned from the situation we have now. It could be cybersecurity. Space is highly contested. We dated long chat about that on the Last Cube interview with AWS. There's all these new new problems and so problem solving skills. You don't need to have a pedigree from Ivy League school to get into space. This is a great opportunity for anyone who can solve problems because their new No one's seen them before. >>That's exactly right. And you know, every time we go out, we have sessions with students or we're at universities. We tell them, Raise your voices. Don't be afraid to use your voice. It doesn't matter what you're studying. If you think you have something of value to say, say it. You know, by pushing your own limits, you push other people's limits, and you may just introduce something that simply hasn't been part of before. So your voice is important, and we do a lot of lot of coaching encouraging, getting people just to >>talk. >>And that in itself is a great start. I think >>you're in a very complex sector, your senior leader at AWS Amazon Web services in a really fun, exciting area, aerospace and satellite. And for the young people watching out there or who may see this video, what advice would you have for the young people who are trying to navigate through the complexities of now? Third year covid. You know, seeing all the global changes, um, seeing that massive technology acceleration with digital transformation, digitisation it's here, digital world we're in. >>It could >>be confusing. It could be weird. And so how would you talk to that person and say, Hey, it's gonna be okay? And what advice would you give? >>It is absolutely going to be okay. Look, from what I know, the next general are far more fluent in digital than I am. I mean, they speak nerd. They were born speaking nerd, so I don't have any. I can't possibly tell them what to do as far as technology is concerned because they're so gung ho about it. But I would advise them to spend time with people, explore new perspectives, understand what the other is trying to do or achieve, and investing times in a time in new relationships, people with different backgrounds and experience, they almost always have something to teach you. I mean, I am constantly learning Space tech is, um it's so complicated. Um, I can't possibly learn everything I have to buy myself just by researching and studying. I am totally reliant on my community of experts to help me learn. So my advice to the next generation kids is always always in this time in relationships. And the second thing is, don't be disheartened, You know, Um this has happened for millennia. Yes, we go up, then we come down. But there's always hope. You know, there there is always that we shape the future that we want. So there's no failure. We just have to learn to be resilient. Um, yeah, it's all a learning experience. So stay positive and chin up, because we can. We can do it. >>That's awesome. You know, when you mentioned the Ukraine in the Russian situation, you know, one of the things they did they cut the Internet off and all telecommunications and Elon Musk launched a star linked and gives them access, sending them terminals again. Just another illustration. That space can help. Um, and these in any situation, whether it's conflict or peace and so Well, I have you here, I have to ask you, what is the most important? Uh uh, storeys that are being talked about or not being talked about are both that people should pay attention to. And they look at the future of what aerospace satellite these emerging technologies can do for the world. What's your How would you kind of what are the most important things to pay attention to that either known or maybe not being talked about. >>They have been talked about John, but I'd love to see more prominent. I'd love to see more conversations about stirring the amazing work that's being done in our research communities. The research communities, you know, they work in a vast area of areas and using satellite imagery, for instance, to look at climate change across the world is efforts that are going into understanding how we tackle such a global issue. But the commercialisation that comes from the research community that's pretty slow. And and the reason it's loads because one is academics, academics churning out research papers. The linkage back into industry and industry is very, um, I guess we're always looking for how fast can it be done? And what sort of marginal profit am I gonna make for it? So there's not a lot of patients there for research that has to mature, generate outputs that you get that have a meaningful value for both sides. So, um, supporting our research communities to output some of these essential pieces of research that can Dr Impact for society as a whole, Um, maybe for industry to partner even more, I mean, and we and we do that all the time. But even more focus even more. Focus on. And I'll give you a small example last last year and it culminated this earlier this month, we signed an agreement with the ministry of With the Space Office in Singapore. Uh, so it's an MOU between AWS and the Singapore government, and we are determined to help them aligned to their national agenda around space around building an ecosystem. How do we support their space builders? What can we do to create more training pathways? What credits can we give? How do we use open datasets to support Singaporeans issues? And that could be claimed? That could be kind of change. It could be, um, productivity. Farming could be a whole range of things, but there's a lot that's happening that is not highlighted because it's not sexy specific, right? It's not the Mars mission, and it's not the next lunar mission, But these things are just as important. They're just focused more on earth rather than out there. >>Yeah, and I just said everyone speaking nerd these days are born with it, the next generations here, A lot of use cases. A lot of exciting areas. You get the big headlines, you know, the space launches, but also a lot of great research. As you mentioned, that's, uh, that people are doing amazing work, and it's now available open source. Cloud computing. All this is bringing to bear great conversation. Great inspiration. Great chatting with you. Love your enthusiasm for for the opportunity. And thanks for sharing your storey. Appreciate it. >>It's a pleasure to be with you, John. Thank you for the opportunity. Okay. >>Thanks, Manny. The women in tech showcase here, the Cube is presenting International Women's Day celebration. I'm John Ferrier, host of the Cube. Thanks for watching. Mm mm.

(upbeat music) >> Hey everyone. Welcome to theCUBE's coverage of the International Women's Showcase for 2022. I'm your host, Lisa Martin. I'm really excited because for the first time in my CUBE career of six years, I have a father daughter duo maybe the first time in CUBE's history. Frank and Emma Arrigo from AWS join me guys it's great to have you on the program. >> Great to be here thank you. >> So, Emma, let's go ahead and start with you. Talk to us about how you got to AWS and a little bit about your background. >> Yes, thanks Lisa. So I've joined AWS as a recent graduate from university. So I did my masters of data science and I was going through the grad, the grad job hunt applying for all these different places. And AWS appeared on my radar for an intern program. And Frank was there at the time and so I was like, "Should I do it?" But I still applied cause it was a great program. And so I went did that internship for three months over the summer of 2019-2020, and then I went back and finished my degree. And another grad role came up for in AWS in Tech U to be an associate solutions architect. And so I was approached to apply for that. And I got through to that program and joined the team almost a year ago in March, 2021 through Tech U and yeah, that's how I ended up at AWS. >> Excellent and so Frank, this is a pretty unique situation, father daughter duo at AWS let alone Amazon, let alone probably a lot of companies. Talk to me about it the parental lens. >> Yeah, look it is unique, there's a few family connections within AWS, but you know, definitely here in Australia, it's really rare, but I think the family connection is, you know Emma and we've got four kids, I've got four kids in total. So Emma has three brothers, you know, I've lived in tech, my entire career and so they've been part of it. You know, we've lived in the States, lived in Seattle for a couple of years. And so they'd come to the office and see what dad did. And so it wasn't a big surprise for them to understand what the role was and what we did, so, you know, they kind of grew up with it. And you know, when the opportunity came up for Emma, did the internship, I was excited for it because it was in a different area. It was working in a startup team doing some interesting work that really lined up with some of the interest Emma had. And so she kind of learned what it was like to be Amazonian through that internship and that was... I call that a long audition for a job. And she was then able to join Tech U program, which is a early career bootcamp, I like to think of it, which is the six month program to help our grads learn some of the fundamental skills because the value of a solutions architect or some of these other tech roles is you need experience. You need to have been in the game a while to be a trusted advisor to a customer. And it's hard to do that when you're a grad. So the bootcamp gives them the practical experience and then they get another six months on the job experience where they develop those skills and hone it and get ready to, you know, be a trusted advisor to the customers. >> Right, and that's such a great... I'm sure that's a tremendous opportunity to learn how to become that trusted advisor, especially from peers, such as yourself and I want to go back to you. Talk to me about your interest in IT, in data science. Was this something that you were always interested in primary school or in high school? Or was this something that kind of came on later on? >> Yeah, so my interest in tech kind of emerged as I went along in my education. So when I was younger, I really wanted to be an orthodontist for some reason. I don't know why. And then you just sort of in year eight and like early school sort of didn't really know what I wanted to do. Just sort of going through just trying to survive as a teenage girl at high school at an all girls school, didn't really have many, didn't really have career aspirations, I guess, and then one year I attended a information day at a university about engineering and that just really sparked my interest, I don't know why, but I was like, I've always been obsessed with like factories and those types of things and how things are made. And so that really just sparked my interest and I never really thought of it before. And so then that put STEM engineering on my radar and then I guess spoke with it about with the parents. And then they mentioned that tech would be a like IT, Information Technology would be really useful. And so then we approached the school to ask if I could do IT in year 11. So that's sort of our second last year of high school. And they said, "No, we couldn't do IT." I couldn't go to the boys' school to do IT. That girls don't do it or that not good at it. And I wasn't allowed, and they wouldn't let me do physics either. So I moved school in for the final two of high school to be able to do IT and physics to help, you know, get to the course I wanted to do. And so that was my journey into STEM. So it wasn't really on my radar, but then events like this and at university isn't it? Organizations sparked my interest. And then still when I entered university, I didn't know exactly what I wanted to major in nor where I wanted to work would never have thought it would be where, with my father, like I was aware of the world of IT and everything, but I wouldn't, if you'd asked me in first year, it wouldn't have been that I would probably, we would've said, I don't know an academic or something. I don't know. And then, but again, as the university went on and you attend networking events or club things, you sort of learn a bit more about the ecosystem. And then that's where yeah. Tech company sort of became where I was looking for jobs and roles for when I finished up. So that was kind of my journey to... >> So what I love though, that you and Frank, this is going to be a question for you, how Emma was told. "No, you can't study IT. No, you can't study physics. You can't go to the boys school and do that either." Talk to me about that, Frank, from your perspective as a parent of a daughter, and you said, I think she's got three brothers lucky, Emma, but talk to me about that from your perspective, in terms of going, my daughter has really has an in a strong interest in this and they're telling her no we're going to pivot and actually change schools to be able give her the opportunities that she wants to pursue. >> Yeah. Look, as a parent, we were shocked. You know, it was just an unexpected response, you know, in a lot of ways, the school that she was at was more of a finishing school than anything else, you know, preparing young ladies for marriage and, you know, career as a, I don't know, I will leave it at that. So we were really disappointed. And so very quickly we looked at other alternatives and other options and we pulled Emma out of school and we knew it was like the last two years are critical in Australia. We don't have a middle school and a senior school, it's all one, you know, combined thing. But those last two years are all about getting ready for university. And so we made a really tough call and we picked her up, dropped her into a totally new school. It was co-ed school. And then when we told her previous, her girl's school. I actually spoke to the vice principal and he said, "Oh, I can't believe you're sending her to a co-ed school. She's going to struggle 'cause boys are so much better in tech." And I was totally, I was lost for words, right? Because I felt back in my career and I had some amazing female managers, leaders, role models in my time that I worked for and I followed and they were always struggling because, you know, they were in the minority, but they were incredible, you know, technologists and leaders. And I just couldn't believe it. So as parents we made the tough call. We picked Emma up. We put her into another high school and she flourished, you know, Emma started a club, she got convolved with a whole bunch of other things. When she graduated, the teachers felt that she'd been there six years, right? The whole time of it. So she really made a mark, made an impact at this school and so much so that her younger brother then followed and went to that school and completed his high school there as well. But it, we just can't believe it. And we tell it everyone, this story, you know, we name the school, we won't name. We choose not to name them here, but we name the school because we just think it's really terrible guidance and terrible advice. Like we want people to follow their passion. I tell my kids and I tell the folks when I speak to, you know, early career folks, follow your passion first, guess what the job will appear. Right? You know, there'll be the... The work will come if you do something that you love. And then the second piece that I always say is, "Every future job is going to be a tech job." Technology is embedded in everything that we do. So the fact that you say, "A girl can't do technology," you're limiting yourselves, right? You don't want to think that, you want to think about the possibilities rather than the things you can't do. It's the things you can do. And the things that you haven't even thought about doing. So that's why, you know, it was so exciting to see that experience with Emma, and just seeing her grow through that and she became a bit of a STEM advocate at a high school as well. So, she saw the value of her role model that helped her. And she wants to be a.... Continue being a role model for others as well, which again, I think is admirable, right? It's about- >> Absolutely. >> Shining a light and leading and as a parent, irrespective that we work at the same company as a parent, that's what you want to see. You want to see your kids aim high and inspire others. That's what she does. >> Well, she's already been a role model too, I mean, to your younger brother, but one of the things that we say often, and theCUBE does a lot for women in technology events. And I'm fortunate to get to host a lot of those, we say, "You can't be what you can't see." So needing to have those role models who are visible. Now, it doesn't have to be female necessarily. and Frank you mentioned that you had female mentors and role models and in your illustrious career. But the important point is being able to elevate women into positions where others can see and can identify, "Oh, there's a role model. There's somebody that might be a mentor for me, or a sponsor down the road, it's critically important." And as of course, we look at the numbers in tech, women in technical roles are still quite low, but Emma, tell me a little bit about, you've been through the program. You talked about that. What are some of the things that you feel in like the last six months that you've been able to learn that had you not had this opportunity, maybe you wouldn't have. >> You know, I think that's a great point. So as a solutions architect, I get to be both technical. So hands on building an AWS, helping customers solve their problems, whether it be a data leak or I don't know, an image recognition tool to look for garbage dumped on the street or, and also thinking from the business perspective for the customers, so that's a fun part as the, of the role, but things I get to do. So currently I'm working on a demo for the conference in Sydney. So I'm building a traffic detection model using some computer vision and IOT so I get to bring my data science background to this build and also learn about new areas like IOT, Internet Of Things; Technologies. So that's been a really fun project and yeah, just having the ability to play around on AWS, we have... >> Right. Well, the exposure in the experiences is priceless. You can't put a price on that, but being able to get into the environment, learn it from a technical perspective, learn it from a practical perspective. And then of course get all the great things about getting to interact with customers and learning how different industries work, you mentioned you were in public sector. That just must be a field of dreams, I would imagine. >> I know. >> In some senses for you, right? >> Really have lucked out. I know it's, I'm like, "Wow, this my job is to play around with some new service, just because need to know about that for the customer meeting. Like I'm building a chatbot or helping build a chatbot for a customer, at the university. So yeah, things like that make it very, yeah. It's a pretty amazing role. >> It sounds, it sure sounds like it. And sounds like you're are excelling at it tremendously. Let me ask you Emma. For young girls who might be in a similar situation to where you were not that long ago with the school telling you, "No, you can't do IT." "No, you can't do physics." So you actually switched schools. What would you tell those young girls who might be in that situation about hearing the word, "No." And would you advise them to embrace a career in technology? >> Yeah, I would say that it really..... What makes me so sad is if my family didn't know about tech and had my... Supported me through that like if I would've just gone, "Oh, okay. I won't do it." You know what I mean? Like that just makes me really sad. How many people have missed out on studying what they wanted to study. So by having those types of experiences, so what I would say as advice is, "Back yourself, find supporters, whether it be your family or a teacher that you really sort of connect with, to be able to support you and through these decisions." And yeah, I think having those sponsors in a way, your advocates to help you make those choices and help support you through those choices. >> Yeah. I agree. And I have a feeling you're going to be one of those sponsors and mentors, if you aren't already Emma, I have a feeling that's just around the corner from you. So Frank, last question to you. What's the overall lesson here, if we look at statistics, I mentioned some of the stats about, you know, women in technical roles as usually less than 25% globally. But also we see data that shows that companies are more profitable and more performant when there's at least 30% of the executive suite it's women. So from your parental perspective, and from an Amazonian perspective, Frank, what's the lesson here? >> Well, look from an Amazonian perspective, we need to make sure that we have a team that represents our customers, right? And our customers aren't all boys. You know, they're not all blokes, as we say down here. So you've got to have a team that is made up of what represents your customers. So I think that's the Amazonian view. And so diverse perspectives, diverse experience, diverse backgrounds is what does that. The other from a parent, you know, I said it earlier. I think every future job is a tech job. And I think it's really important that as kids come through, you know, primary school, high school, whatever, they're prepared for that, they're already consumers of technology. You know, they need to be creators or, or participate in that environment. And I can give you an example, a few years ago, I worked for, at a large telco here. And we actually invested in a thing called code club, which was aimed at primary school kids, kids in grade four, five and six. So elementary school for my friends in America, it's kids in grade four, five and six. And they were learning how to use scratch. Scratch is this interactive tool like building lego to write programming and believe it or not, there were more girls interested and were part of code club. It was probably 60-40 was the ratio of young girls doing it compared to boys because it was creative, it was a creative outlet, they were building stuff and assembling and making these things that they loved to make. Right. But then what we saw was there'd be a drop off at high school, whether it's curriculum related or interests or distractions, I don't know what it is, but there things get lost along the way along high school. But I see it at the primary school stage at elementary school that the interest is there. So I think part of it is, there needs to be a bit of a switch up in education or other opportunities outside of school to really foster and nurture and develop this interest because it really does take all kinds to be successful in the role. And Emma talked about a chatbot that she's building and that's a conversational thing. I can't see geek boys having being able to impact and create a interesting conversation, right. Then there's other areas that seems to be skewed and biased based on a predominantly male view of the world. So we need the tech, the industry needs these diverse perspectives and these diverse views, because, you know, to your point, it's going to impact the bottom line. It's going to also deliver a better product and it's going to reflect society. It's going to reflect the customers that are using it because we're made up of every, every race and color, creed, gender. And we need a team that represents that. >> Exactly. I couldn't agree more. Well, it sounds like the Arrigo family are quite the supporters of this, but also we need more of both of you. We need more of the sponsors and the parents who are encouraging the kids and making the right decisions to help them get along that path. And we need more folks like Emma and more women that we can see, "Wow, look what she's doing in such a short time period. We want to be just like that." So you guys are, have both been fantastic. I thank you so much for joining me at the International. Women's Showcase, more power to your family. We need more folks like you guys, so great work. Keep it up. >> Thank you. >> Thanks Lisa. >> For Frank and Emma Arrigo, I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching theCUBE's coverage of International Women's Showcase 2022. (soothing music)

(upbeat music) >> Hello, everyone. Welcome to "theCUBE's" coverage of the International Women's Showcase, 2022. I'm your host, Lisa Martin. I'm pleased to be joined by my next guest, Madhura DasGupta Sinha, the founder and CEO of Aspire For Her. Madhura, it's great to have you on the program. >> It's lovely to be here on this program. Thank you for having me, Lisa >> Tell me a little bit about your background. >> Lisa, I have been a banker for the last 25 years but the last two years of my journey have been professionally and personally the most satisfying and fulfilling. On 8th of March, 2020, I started Aspire For Her. So today is our second birthday. >> Lisa: Happy birthday. >> Thank you, Lisa >> Tell us a little bit about Aspire For Her >> It's been a wonderful journey. >> Yeah, what was the genesis of it? You're obviously very passionate about it but talk to us about the Genesis of Aspire For Her. >> Thank you for the question. I was looking at gender data emanating from India and that left me fairly disturbed and distressed, why? Well, I was looking at the economic participation of women and I realized that we are absolutely at the bottom of a list of 156 countries. I felt someone needs to do something about this problem and I thought that someone could be me. >> And so two years ago you launched Aspire For Her. Talk to me about what that has achieved in its first two years and now embarking on year three. >> Well, I think our journey has been absolutely fascinating Today we have more than 120,000 members, mentors, supporters across the globe, across 60 different countries. We have more than 150 women leaders who are mentors at Aspire For Her, we have about 50 organizations that are working with us jointly and partnering with us in our journey to motivate more women to enter and stay in the workforce. Our vision is to add more than 1 million women to the workforce by 2025 and 10 million women to the workforce by 2030 and we want to do that by using the power of networks and communities. >> Those are really lofty goals, but fantastic. You mentioned and across 60 countries so far and we're talking about just on your second birthday, all of that you've accomplished. Talk to me a little bit about some of the mentors and how did you find some of these people? >> Well, Lisa, we use a unique five point model to change mindsets, and the first pillar in that model is mentors and role models. Because we notice that four out of five women have no successful, professional women role models in their immediate network. We give them access. So these mentors are CEOs, CXOs, women leaders who have built businesses who want to give back and they come to us and want to be part of Aspire For Her. They are a big part of our equation for success. The second pillar that we work on is learning opportunities and we work with organizations like Amazon and many others to ensure that our members stand head over shoulders over others when they are being looked at for jobs and recruitment opportunities. The third pillar that we work on is what we call career previews. Now, if you are wanting to get women excited about careers we have to understand one thing, if she can see it, she can be it. That's the mantra that we follow as we open up doors and windows of women's minds to new age career options. The fourth pillar that we work on is what we call a peer community. And what we notice is that the community connects with each other, motivates each other and elevates each other and collectively finds solutions to problems. The fifth pillar that we work with is what we call 3E, employment, entrepreneurship, or education. We want every woman in our country and across the globe to be in 3E. We want every woman to be financially independent because financial independence is the cornerstone of all other forms of independence and that is how we can break all biases. >> That is fantastic. The five point model, how it leads of the 3E's. Something you said really resonated with me and that is: if she can see it, she can be it. And we often say, we can't be what we can't see but I love this spin that you've taken on that, you've put that positive mindset, if she can see it, we want to enable her to see it across the globe. As you talked about your goals of a million women in the workforce by 2025 which is just a few years down the road, you're well on your way to accomplishing that. Talk to me about some of the data. I know you have some interesting data from McKinsey that really supported the genesis of Aspire For Her. >> Yes, Lisa, in fact, there's a report for the "Power Of Parity" report which McKinsey publishes from time to time and I notice some very interesting data in that. McKinsey says, "If we have a little more "than 10% women more in the workforce "this will be a trillion dollar opportunity for India. "A 27% increase in our GDP." So if we get more women to work, it essentially means that they will add to their families, to their country, to their society, to the world. >> So the data is there showing just a 10% increase in women in the workforce leads to a 27% increase in India's GDP. We're talking about India alone here. Talk to me about how are you working with companies like AWS to help Aspire For Her achieve it's lofty goals. >> AWS has been an absolutely wonderful partner for us. And let me start by talking about the She Dares community, their focus on diversity and their thought leadership has been absolutely wonderful for us. Well, the She Dares community is meant for all women who want to be in tech careers whether today they're in school or in college or they're working in non-tech fields, but are interested in technology as a career option or they're taking a break and they wish to come back into the workforce. The AWS She Dares community welcomes all women like this. It's very inclusive, all embracive and that's what we love about building the community with AWS. We just started two months ago and today we have more than 10,000 members in India and we've had some fantastic stories also emanating from the She Dares community in AWS. >> I love that. You've 10,000 members in two months, the Aspire For Her program, not only does it have lofty goals but you've got a really fast growth trajectory. Share a story with me, if you will of a woman that that is in the She Dares program and where she came from and where she is now. >> Yes, let me share the story of Usha and we just shared this at the launch of AWS, just a couple of days back, Lisa. So Usha worked for just two years and the next 16 years of her life, she devoted to bringing up her family. A few years back, her husband suffered Parkinson's disease and she realized that the entire weight of the family was on her so she decided to join She Dares. She decided to sign up for the AWS cloud certification program. How did she do it? Well, she had the entire family's burden on her. She worked night and day, but somehow she squeezed out hours during the night where she would sit and study and ensured that she got certified. Remember, this was a woman who just spent two years in the workforce and the next 16 years, she had absolutely no connection with anything that was even remotely career oriented. But after getting certified and getting motivated by the community of She Dares, she decided to give it a shot and apply for a job with AWS. Two days ago, she got her offer letter. So today, she's proud-- >> What a fantastic story going from two years in the workforce, 16 years taking care of her family then the burden is on her with her husband falling ill and she finds this opportunity. I love the message there. How do you talk to women who might be in similar situations to Usha going, "I haven't been in the workforce "for a really long time, Tech seems intimidating." How do you help them achieve the courage to go forward >> Lisa, it's the same five point model that we use. If she can see it, she can be it. If she can see a role model like Usha, a woman who has been out of the workforce for a long time finds the confidence, finds her voice and finds the ability to just rise up above that adversity and ensure that she jumps right back into the workforce. >> And is Aspire For Her focused on STEM only, or are you focused on all industries for women? >> We are focused on all industries for women and we like to look at fairly new age careers as well. So whether it's an Instagram influencer, whether it's somebody who's opened patisserie for the best brownies in town, we like to celebrate all women and all their career paths, but STEM is a very important part of what we do because we know that the STEM skills gap in India and globally is a very serious problem and if we train women and reskill women in STEM, they will automatically gravitate towards those roles which will open up in the India of tomorrow. >> Are you able to reach young girls like say in primary school and high school as well, is this open to women of all ages? >> It's open to women of all ages. We like to start at the age 16 because that's when women start taking career decisions whether it's about writing competitive exams or whether it's about looking at which colleges they will get into so we like to start at 16 and there's really no age limit. >> That's fantastic that there's no age limit but also starting young. One of the things that we know about the tech industry is the percentage of women in technical roles is quite low, I believe it's below 25% and has been for quite some time. We see that in a lot of countries that drop off around the high school, 16 year age, how do you help attract these young girls to be interested in not just STEM but in creating a career for herself? >> So we like telling a lot of stories, Lisa, and there are constant nudges and triggers on our platform. So today I'm speaking with you and I'm sure that this will be beamed across our platforms as well, And people will look at Lisa and say, "Hey Lisa is doing this fantastic thing as a host. "And she's working with this great organization. "Why can we not be like Lisa?" And that's the way in which we motivate folks. And we try to ensure that every woman with a career story comes in and is able to share her journey, her path with our larger community whether that's through mentorship sessions, whether that's through role modeling, whether it's through coaching, whether it's through many fireside chats that we have, we have a lot of workshops and webinars. We are a COVID baby so we are very digital and we love technology. So that's how we try to create the community, ensure that there is enough excitement going every minute of the day. It's a very buzzing, humming, active community and we ensure that finally, everyone has that one thing in mind: I have to be financially independent and I cannot ever give up on my career. >> I love that: Be financially independent and not give up on my career. You must be obviously, very intentionally, you launched Aspire For Her, you mentioned two years ago today, on the 8th of March, 2020 right in the very onset of COVID but also on International Women's Day. Talk to me a little bit about why that was so important to launch on that day in International Women's history month. >> Well, when I was looking at the problem that was staring at women in India there's another interesting piece of statistic that's struck, which was that the percentage of women in the workforce has been declining steadily in India. And I thought that someone needed to do something about that problem, and I thought that someone could be me. I'm not a great one for symbols but I thought that if we launch it on Women's day, this will be a constant reminder for us to strive harder to get to those numbers quicker than we have set ourselves up for. That's the reason why I decided when the world was talking about women, it's a great idea for this to be like a conscience keeper for us. >> Perfect timing. Well, congratulations on all of the success that you have achieved in just a short two year time period. I can't wait to see what year three brings and sign me up to be a mentor. I'm a woman in STEM, I'm a woman that hosts this program. I would love to get involved and help encourage girls and other women to follow their passion. >> That is so amazing, Lisa, you are on and we'd love to welcome you aboard as a mentor >> Oh, excellent! Lucky me, my lucky day. Madhura, thank you so much for talking with us about Aspire For Her, and again, congratulations on all of your success. >> Thank you. >> And Madhura, you've got one final message for AWS employees that you want to leave, what is that? >> Thank you, Lisa, for the question, there is a message that I'd like to leave for all AWS employees across the globe, join us, be a part of our movement, it takes about three minutes to sign up for Aspire For Her. Please be a part of the change that you wish to see. Thank you. >> Well, Madhura again, it's been a pleasure talking to you. Congratulations on the success, the momentum that you have achieved in such a short time period. We appreciate your insights and your time. >> Thank you so much, Lisa, thank you, thank you, and I am going to send you the form to become a mentor as well (chuckling). >> I'm in, sign me up. >> Thank you >> For Madhura DasGupta Sinha, I'm, Lisa Martin, you're watching "theCUBE's" coverage of International Women's Showcase, 2022. (upbeat music)

(upbeat instrumental music) >> Hey, everyone, welcome to theCUBE's coverage of the International Women Showcase 2022. I'm your host, Lisa Martin. I'm pleased to welcome my next guest, Jadesola Adedeji, the Chief Executive Officer of STEM METS. Jadesola, it's wonderful to have you on the program. >> Thank you so much, Lisa. It's great to be here, thank you. >> I was looking you up on LinkedIn and I noticed that your profile describes you as a social entrepreneur. Talk to me about that. >> Well, basically, the idea is that we are a business but we are in the social segment. And of course, that segment for us is education, which is obviously is one of the critical, you know, things that you need in life to thrive and to progress. So it's a social need and we are in that space trying to make a difference and bridge a gap that is in the education sector, which is around digital skills, 21st century skills. >> Jadesola, talk to me about STEM METS, the impetus to found this organization which you and a physician friend founded seven years ago. What was the genesis? >> Okay, so about 10 years ago, my husband and I moved back to Nigeria from North America, where we'd been working and studying. And we decided that we would take our experience and education back home, as well as our young kids, who were six and 10 at the time. But when we got home, what we found was a broken and impoverished educational system. And Nigeria was, you know, essential in our own foundational years. So it was really shocking and disappointing that our education system hadn't moved with the 21st century. A lot of our youth were leaving school without the relevant skills for them to get meaningful jobs. So my co-founder and I decided to do something about that by bringing in a different and more up-to-date way of learning and teaching, which was in STEM education. And so that's how we started, so both of us had a STEM background and we decided that, well, we would do something or attempt to do something about the state of our education in Nigeria. And so that's how we started. >> I love that. And you were talking to me a little bit earlier about the enrollment rate of students. Share with the audience what some of those statistics are and why this STEM METS program is so pivotal. >> Mm hmm. So as I said earlier, there are about 80 million school-age children in Nigeria. There are 10 million children that are out of school, of which about 50 to 60% are actually girls. So we are already at a disadvantage regarding our female population and even diversity in education. And so for us, we saw it as being bad enough that we can't even get into school and then when we get into school, you're not getting quality education. You get an education, but not sufficient enough with skills to get you meaningful jobs. And so for us, STEM education was the answer to trying to bring up the quality of our education and making sure that what the learning that was going on was relevant to the 21st century, which is innovation-driven, which is technology-driven, and combining that with soft skills that are required for the future workplace or even a life in entrepreneurship. And so, that's what we did in response to that. >> Tell us a little bit about the curriculum. And also, are you focused on young, school-age children, primary school, high school? >> Sure. So the great thing about what we do is that early years is essential, we feel, because those are the foundational years when the brain is developing. So we run programs for children from ages three to 16 and we run a variety of programs, so anything from construction with Lego, robotics, coding, UX design, sound and technology, just to be able to show the array of skills and modules that are available under the STEM umbrella, and also be able to showcase the diversity in terms of career options that are available to the children in our community. >> Who are some of the educators? Because one of the things that we say often when we talk about women in STEM and women in tech or some of the challenges with respect to that is, we can't be what we can't see. Talk to me about some of the mentors or the educators within STEM METS that these young girls can have a chance, as young as three, to look up to. >> Well, so that's the thing. So, I think fundamentally, our co-founders, myself and my co-founder were pivotal in terms of positioning ourselves as role models. We're female, we both had a STEM background. And then, secondly, our educators. Not being sexist, but about 90% of our educators are female. So we train them. We make sure they have the skills that they require to also implement our programs. And that is a secondary way of also showcasing to the children and the girls that we are teaching, that look, you know, STEM isn't just for boys. These are live and present role models that you can aspire to be. And we also felt that it was essential for us to recruit from the female pool, and it also helps working mothers. So they are able to look after their family, as well as still earn an income to support their families. Otherwise, they would have to give up one or the other. And because our programs are supplementary classes and we run them as after school clubs or holiday clubs, they are able to manage their time and their family accordingly. So we see what we are doing as two programs. We are educating the kids, we are educating the girls, but we're also capacity building in terms the female work force. So yes, we think that what we're doing is just really feeding the female ecosystem and just ensuring that we are developing women with relevant skills. >> So she can be what she can see because you're enabling her to see it. Talk to me about like the number of educators versus the number of girls that are in the program so far in the first seven years. >> Okay, so to date, we've reached about 10,000 learners, of which I would say about 40% are female. Obviously, our aim is to be sure that that number increases. So we're quite targeted in some of our programs, particularly the ones that we take to low-resource community. We are supported by brands from organizations such as Airbus Foundation, so that enables us to take our programs to the low-resource community and we ensure that the enrollment and the sign-up is equitable, ensuring that the girls also have access to it. >> I'm curious about your background. You said you were 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry. Were you always interested in STEM fields since you were a child or is that something that you got into a little bit later? >> Actually I think unconsciously, well, since I was a child. In our culture, at least then when I was growing up, you were either a doctor, or an engineer, or a lawyer. So there were specific pathways. So if you were in the liberal arts, you were expected to go into maybe law. If you were in science, engineering, or medicine. So I went down the pathway of pharmacy as a sort of in-between because I wasn't very good at physics so engineering wasn't an option. But I think growing up, you know, I felt that we had role models that we could also look up to, so going into the STEM field was something that, you know, was somewhat natural actually in my educational journey. Yeah, so that's how I got into the STEM field, encouraged by my dad actually. You know, he said, "You know, if you're going to "go into a life science sector, "make sure you have something that is professional, "something that can make you independent." So my career started in the pharma industry but then I ended up running my own businesses, as well, so I had a couple of pharmacies in Canada when we lived there. So I ran that as a businesswoman, but still in the life science field. >> So you've reached 10,000 youths so far and you're showing them all about STEM. STEM is a very broad mix of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, arts, as well, if we go to the STEAM area. So you're showing these kids there's so much breadth and depth there within the STEM in and of itself. >> Exactly. So that's why we oftentimes ensure that we have a variety of programs. So, and also, educating the parents and the public that STEM does not mean you're going to be a coder. You know, you can be a graphic designer, you could be a fashion designer even, UX design, you could be a robotics engineer, you could be a pharmacist. You know, so we try and bring in programs that just exposes them to a huge array of career options. One of the programs we brought in last year was a program that Spotify runs, which combines sound and technology. So making beats, making podcasts, and in there was literacy, as well. How do you pull rhymes together? You know, if you wanted to, you know, so music production, sound production, you know, writing poems and literacy. So the idea there is to say the skill sets are transferrable not just within the STEM field but also non-STEM field. So let's not forget, it's not just a technical skills development program. We are learning critical thinking, communication, problem solving, collaboration, how can you work effectively, resilience. So they are life skills that are also incorporated into the concept of STEM education. >> That's so important because as you shared with us, your 20-year history in the pharmaceutical industry, you ran businesses, you ran own pharmacies, you parlayed your expertise in the STEM field into running STEM METS. But what you're showing these kids that you've reached so far and all the many tens of thousands that you'll reach in the future that it's not just doctor, lawyer, firefighter. There are so many, I love how you have a program with Spotify. Kids probably go, "Wait, what? "Music production? "I wouldn't have thought of that "as under the STEM umbrella." But you're showing them, you're making them aware that there's so much breadth to what STEM actually is. >> Exactly, and I think the idea is to inspire creativity and innovation. That there's always a different way to do things. And so, STEM education is actually developing learning and thinking skills. You know, it's not just rote learning or cramming or theory. And you're applying it to real-life situations and real-life scenarios. So, I always say that our vision is to raise future leaders and problem solvers and equip them with skills to tackle challenges affecting our continent, as well as the world. So those skill sets are terribly important really and have a mindset of viewing everything as bringing solutions to any potential challenges that you may face, even personally. >> Which is incredibly important, especially as we've learned in the last two years that we've all lived through. I'm curious that you've got two kids you said, are they showing interest in the STEM arena? >> We are actually quite a STEM family. So my husband's background is in chemical engineering. My son just finished his undergrad in computer science and is doing a post-grad in computer games programming. My daughter is going to university this fall and she's looking into biochemical engineering. So I think the STEM thing was passed along. Not under duress, I think they just showed a general affinity for that. But I mean, we exposed them to a plethora of different programs so we are here now. >> And you're a STEM family. But that exposure is what it's all about, like we talked a minute ago about, you know, she can be what she can see. She needs to be able to see that, she needs to have that exposure, and that's what you're helping to accomplish with the STEM METS. Talk to me, last question. What are some of the objectives that you have for the next, say, two to five years with STEM METS? >> So for us in the next two to five years is really looking for opportunities to extend the reach of our program. With COVID, obviously we had to pivot online so we're seeing ourselves now as a blended learning education company. So we want to build out our online presence and capability. We definitely are looking to reaching about five to 10 thousand learners per year so we're really looking at, you know, our path to scaling. And that could be things like trainer sessions where we also equip our teachers, who then go on to equip students in their community or in their schools, as well. So path to scaling is really important to us and we are looking to see how technology can help us do that. >> Excellent. Well, we wish you the best of luck on your path to scale, and congratulations on all the success and the youths that you have reached so far. Sounds like a great organization and we appreciate learning about that and having the chance to educate more folks on what the STEM METS program is all about. Jadesola, thank you so much for your time. >> Thank you, Lisa. For Jadesola Adedeji, I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching theCUBE's coverage of the International Women Showcase 2022. (upbeat instrumental music)

(active upbeat music) >> Hello and welcome to theCUBE's presentation of Women in Tech global event, celebrating International Women's Day. I'm John furrier, host of theCUBE. Got a great guest, Cornelia Robinson, Who's the Senior Manager of the Global Inclusion and Outreach Programs at AWS, Amazon web services. Cornelia, welcome to this cube presentation. >> Thank you, so happy to be here, John. >> So you got a very interesting background, about involving in communities, you're in outreach and inclusion, which is awesome. International Women's Day is about global celebration. What's your role at AWS? Tell us more about what you do there and we'll get into some of the background and your experiences. >> All right. Thanks John. So, I lead a program that's called Inclusion and Outreach within AWS, specifically for our global data center community. So, AWS infrastructure is all over the world and we strive to make sure that in the places where we build and operate our cloud, that we're being good neighbors and also striving to be Earth's best employer. And so my role, it ultimately aligns both of those things into both inclusion and outreach. >> One of the things that we see with the cloud is it... There's always the talk, "Oh, democratization and..." If you see what cloud has done inside the global communities, it's been interesting. As regions expand, cloud computing has actually enabled kind of new things. You're seeing a lot more diversity inclusion, women events for instance, in Bahrain was one we saw a lot. Asia Pacific and all around the world you're seeing a lot more community because of the opportunities around the new applications and the new use cases is creating economic, but also empowering opportunities. And you've had a lot of experience in there and seeing some of these trends up close, what have you seen around this? Cause this is a new thing that cloud's enabling. This new revitalization inside these communities and areas. >> Yeah, cloud is definitely an enabler and it also enables people to scale, right? In ways that you wouldn't have been able to scale in the past. With AWS, it's like flip on a switch and all of a sudden you have access to so much compute power. It's actually incredible and it's exciting to be a part of this movement. >> How did you get started with AWS? >> I guess the way that I would describe it is tech kind of found me. I have an unusual background to be in tech. So, I graduated from law school and I was looking for a job and ended up in procurement. And then some years later, I got a call from AWS and I thought that it sounded like an interesting opportunity. I'd have an opportunity to build some new things and try some new things. And so, I said, "Hey, why not?" And that's how I ended up at AWS, starting out in our Northern Virginia office. And then I moved to Seattle for about five years. And now I'm back in the Northern Virginia area. >> So you're an Amazonian, true and true then. You've seen all the growth. But I think the thing about at Amazon is just that there's so much opportunities internally. A lot of people don't know that and I'd love to get your take on what it was like moving from procurement, which probably was very structured and good fit there, to Amazon Web Services, which was at that time just growing really fast and you built a global community program. So, kind of two worlds. Take us through that. >> Yeah, you're right. Procurement and community engagement are very different in many ways, but also very similar in many ways as well. With community engagement, we were completely starting from scratch with the idea of a structured community engagement program. Even though there was an element of community engagement that was happening in our infrastructure locations. So ultimately, the way that I ended up making that shift is that I was in an offsite, which is a team meeting, where people who have different functions come together and we were discussing opportunities that we had to just do a better job overall, because as you know, that's one thing that we're always looking at as Amazonians. It's how can we be better and show up better for our customers. We're always trying to start with our customers and work backwards to meet their needs. And so, one of the things that was identified in that discussion is community engagement. We had an opportunity to be even more engaged than we already were and to do it in a structured way. And so, I shot my hand up and said, "I like trying things, let me try this." And the rest is history. It's been about four years. >> And obviously you had to go through... (voice distortion noise drowns out other sounds) And all that procedure. Amazon is pretty open about ideas. Is that true? Is that a true thing? Is that what it's like there? People say that they'd like to try things and then if it works, they double down on it. Is that kind of how this went down? >> That's exactly how it went down, John. So, when I think about the process of working backwards, it's really something that never stops. And again, community engagement was all about working backwards from the needs of our customers. And in this instance, when I think about my customer, my customer is our community members. It's community members who live and work in our data center regions. And also our employees who are living and working and raising their families in those regions. >> What was the double down moment? When did you say, "Wow, this is working." When you developed this program. When were some of those moments, where you said, "Wow, this is actually working." And take us through some of those progressions. >> Some of the moments that really stand out to me are moments where I've been in the community and I say, "AWS." And someone says, "Oh, what's AWS?" And then you'll hear someone else chime in and explain, "Oh, AWS does all of these great things in the community." So, that actually happened. It was our very first AWS Girls' Tech Day, we'd scaled it from a small program into a global program. We went from having one in one year to having eight the next year around the world. And at this particular AWS Girls' Tech Day, someone did ask that question. It was a little girl. She was standing next to her sister. And when she asked me what AWS is, her sister looked at her and said, "You don't know what AWS is? "AWS does so much in our community "and AWS has this big space in my school." And she went on and on about how much she works with our employees and how excited she is about technology. And also those are those moments where you say, "You know what? This is working." And it's really working. >> That's awesome. What advice would you give people who are developing a community program? Because you're a pioneer, this has been a top priority for people now, in all companies and all groups, all tribes, as community is becoming a really important part of our fabric of society and business. People are sourcing information, they're sourcing relationships and jobs and in products. We are seeing a lot of organic community. What advice would you give folks who are developing a community program? >> There are few things. So, for me the biggest and most important thing is working backwards. So, start with your customer, who is your customer? It's really important to listen to them and to identify their needs. In this community engagement space, you have a lot of things being thrown at you all the time. You also have your own ideas and it's like, "Oh, it'd be really cool "if we did this thing." But is that really what the community needs? Is that really what the community wants? So, when I first started in this role, that was the most important thing and it continues to be the most important thing. I started picking up the phone, talking to people, going to a region, talking to folks who actually live and work in the community, understanding their perspectives, understanding their needs. There was a lot of discovery during that time. They were able to tell me things that I never would've even thought of. Never would've known, wouldn't have been able to consider because I wasn't a part of that community at the time. And so, that's the thing about becoming a community member, you got to be able to sit down and listen. And so, the principle of working backwards, it just applies so well in that instance. And so, that's the first thing. It's listening, understanding your customers, knowing who they are, and then trying to get as many perspectives as you can. And the next thing I would say is think big with your customers, right? And think big on behalf of your customers, but then from there, start somewhere. Because if you try to execute on the really big thing all at once, now, it may not go as well as you'd hoped it would. And you could actually diminish trust. So, we started working on just a couple of things based on customers needs. And as we were able to prove that they were successful and constantly get that feedback from customers saying, "Yeah, this works or that doesn't work." That's how we then eventually started to scale the program. >> Yeah. That trust angle, (voice distortion noise drowns out other sounds) because you look at trust. If you overplay your idea and it blows up, then no one's going to be motivated. Take little baby steps. I Love that insight. Great call out there. What about this Think Big Space you mentioned, and that other example about in the school, because I like this idea of having this Think Big Space that you pointed out. Is that just the place that you guys could provide? Or was that something that they did? The customer did or the community did? Can you share more about the Think Big Space? >> Yes. Our Think Big Spaces. So, the Think Big Space also started as a result of sitting down in a conference room with some teachers and administrators in a local school district, actually, here in the Northern Virginia area. And the teachers were talking about the fact that as teachers, there's a lot of emerging technology and it can be difficult to keep up with, what's next? What's current? What's next? What do we need? How do we help our students prepare for jobs that may not even exist right now? And so, it just seemed to align so well with our leadership principles within Amazon, learn and be curious, think big. And initially, they threw out the idea of a Tech Lab and we started working back and forth and thinking, "Well, how do we make this "a space where students would actually "come and learn and explore "and make things and get their hands dirty "and really be creative "and tie it back to technology "and just being really disruptive." And together, we came up with the idea of, "Hey, we got to teach students to think big." So, we started working on the first Think Big Space together. The school district actually hired an instructional lead and we worked with them to design curriculum and now there's a classroom, it's got eight Amazon's leadership principles on the walls and the students come in they are engineers for the day. And we've been able to scale that program globally to other locations. We've got Think Big Spaces in Ireland and Australia and India and of course in the US. And it's been really exciting to see how students get so excited when they're able to tinker and try new things. And they know that if they break something it's okay because we can come up with a way to fix it. And in the process of fixing it, they come up with something else. And we teach them about working backwards and it's just really fun. It's an exciting program to be a part of. And I've been excited just to see the growth and the way that our community members have benefited from it. >> It's really such an amazing program if you think about it because you're training builders and you're giving them a place to be disruptive, which is a natural part for young people to do and do it in a safe environment where they can build something and have fun doing it. It's amazing. >> That's right. So congratulations, that's a great program. Let me get into the theme here, on this International Women's Day around breaking the bias it's one of the core principles of this year's event globally and for International Women's Day, break the bias is the theme. Where do you see bias? and what would you like to see change? And what does change look like? >> Yeah. So, I would say, with the experience of setting up in communities, activities, and also collaborating with schools, what we see is that bias starts early. This is not something that people show up for work and all of a sudden there's all of this bias. There's bias in the way that young people and students are socialized. And so, you start to see things at an early age where girls may be encouraged to do things that are different. So, maybe girls are not encouraged to take on leadership roles or they're getting pushed into the arts. Of course, there's nothing wrong with arts, but we should be encouraging people to pursue certain areas based on interest and not on gender. And if we want to really break bias, we've got to think about the seeds that we plant. So, we've got to be really careful about what we say, how we nurture. It's about, "You can do this. "Yes. Try it, see." Not, "Oh, no, you shouldn't do this "because you're a girl." No, you're a girl and you belong here. You should be here. We need more people like you, you're going to do really big things. Like you've got to start telling students this at an early age, because all it takes, sometimes is one person to tell a student that they can't do something. And then if they believe them, then it can change their whole trajectory. And so, for me, when it comes to breaking the bias, it starts really early. It starts really, really early. >> Yeah. And I think... (voice distortion noise drowns out other sounds) Even like the Think Big program you mentioned, which sounds so exciting, it's just providing access. And I think having an open collaboration is key, but role models matter too. You want to see people in there too. I think this comes up a lot. what's your view on that? Because when you see people in positions, they're inspiring. And I think that also comes up a lot in these conversations. >> Yeah, definitely. When you see people in positions and you see people who look like you, you see yourself in that person and you say, "Hey, maybe if they can do it, "I can do it too." And so, it is important for us to have great strong role models who can show up and who can be there for students. That's one of the things that we try to do with our programming. So, as we develop programs like the Think Big Space, it's not just, "Okay, well we have a Think Big Space "and that's the end." It's we have a Think Big Space and our employees are coming into the Think Big Space. They're engaging with the student, they're volunteering, they're taking on causes in their community. And it provides that natural mentorship and ability for students to just see themselves. Because again, if you don't see yourself reflected, then you also may be receiving a message that says, "Okay. Well, that's not for me." >> Yeah. I was talking with a leader at AWS and she's in space area and we were talking about how the younger generation are nerd native, she called it. And they're born with inherent tech now. So, unlike when we were born, we had to kind of just found us, or we stumbled into it, or we got addicted somehow to tech. Now they got the tech around them. And I think this is an interesting new dynamic that could play well for the bias issue. And would love to get your reaction to that, as the generations come in, they're seeing all the world problems, they're seeing the digital transformation it's native to them. So, I wonder what your thoughts are. How we could be better at, I don't know, shaping the paths, pathways, multiple pathways. Seems to be many opportunities. So, if people are nerd native, how do we do that? So, we had a great riff on that. I'd love to get your reaction on that. >> Yeah. I think that we have to make sure that we are fostering this idea of playing outside of the box instead of in the box. It used to be with really traditional careers. If I want to be a doctor, I go to medical school, right. If I want to be a lawyer, I go to law school. If I want to work in tech, what do I do? Well, here's the thing, with tech, you're engaging in tech so much. I remember that when my nephew and nieces were little, before they could even read, they could do things on my phone. Like, I would get my phone and all of a sudden I had all of these game apps. How did they know how to do that? It's like you can't even read a word, but you can put all of these apps on my phone. They're engaging with technology. And so, how do we take that and nurture it and say, "Hey, just embrace it." Just put more technology in front of students, let them break things, let them fix things. I remember being a part of a panel with a woman who is an engineer and she said she became an engineer because she liked to break things though. So, she'd break her computer and she would get in trouble for it. She would be told, "Hey, figure out "how to put it back together." And so, if we can create more environments and encourage students that it's not about perfection, let's be inventive here. Let's try new things. Let's think outside the box. Think big, go find a solution. Go find an issue and work backwards from the issue that someone is having to come up with a solution that works and then get feedback. That process, that can start early. It doesn't have to be, once you're in a full fledged career, you can start that at any age. >> Cornelia, great insights. (voice distortion noise drowns out other sounds) My final question, what's new for you? What are you going to be up to? What's next? What are you going to break next? What are you going to do? >> So, what's new for me. I now lead Inclusion and Outreach within AWS for our data center community. And so, I'm back really to square one when it comes to doing a lot of listening, trying to understand. Understanding what the things are that are pain points within and outside of the organization. And I'll be working with employees and community members to continue iterating, and to continue solving problems and working together on those solutions. And so, I'm really excited about it. Hopefully, at some point we'll be able to come back together and I'll be able to give you some insight and how that's going. >> Well, we certainly will. We appreciate your time and thanks for joining our cube community. We really appreciate it. You're now cube alumni. Our door is always open here at theCUBE, and we want to hear more of those stories. We're going to do a lot more coverage, a lot more sharing of stories, certainly in this area, that's important and we're committed to it. Thank you for your time today and sharing the insights and your experience on the Women in Tech celebration of International Women's Day. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Happy International Women's Day. >> Okay. This is theCUBE. I'm John Furrie, your host. Thanks for watching the presentation of Women in Tech global event, celebrating International Women's Day. This is the season one episode one, of our ongoing program that we're going to have here on theCUBE. Thanks for watching. (soft instrumental music)

(upbeat music) >> Hey, everyone. Welcome to theCUBE's coverage of the International Women's Showcase for 2022. I'm your host, Lisa Martin. I'm pleased to welcome Nancy Wong, the general manager of Data Protection and Governance at AWS to the program. Nancy, it's great to have you. >> Thanks so much for having me Lisa, and you know, I really hope that this is hopefully the last year that we'll be celebrating International Women's Day all virtually. >> I agree. I agree. Well, we're going in that right direction globally. So let's cross our fingers. Talk to me a little bit about your role at AWS and what you do there. >> Sure. So as a GM of AWS Data Protection and Governance, a lot of, we tackle quite a few problems that our biggest customers face, right? When they think about, "How do I manage my data?" Right. Especially in this digital world. And speaking of the pandemic, how much data has been generated by consumers, by devices, by systems, by servers? How do you protect all of that data? Right. Especially we hear about cyber crime, cyber attacks. Right. Data breaches. It's really important to make sure that all of our customers have a coherent strategy around not just management, right, but also protection and really how you govern your data. Right. And there's just so many awesome conversations that my team and I have had lately with CSOs or chief technology officers on this topic, as it evolves. >> Data protection is so critical. It's one of my favorite topics to talk about, cybersecurity as well. Talk to me about what it means though if we keep this at a bit of a different level to be an operator within the the big ecosystem that is AWS. >> Yeah. And that's actually one of the the favorite aspects of my role. Right. Which is, you know, I get to innovate every day on behalf of my customers. For example, I love having one-on-one dialogues. I love having architecture conversations where we brainstorm. Right. And so those type of conversations help inform how we deliver and develop products. And so in an operator role, right, for the the women in the audience today, is it really gives you that perspective into not just how, what type of products do you want to build that delight your customers but also from an engineering. Right. And a bottom line perspective of, well how do you make this happen? Right. How do you fund this? And how do you plan out your development milestones? >> What are, tell me a little bit about your background and then what makes women in technology such an important initiative for you to stand behind? >> Absolutely. So I'm so proud today to see that the number of women or the percentage of women enrolled at engineering curriculums just continue to rise. Right. And especially as someone who went through an engineering degree in her undergraduate studies, that was not always the case. Right. So oftentimes, you know, I would look around the classroom and be the only woman on the lab bench or only woman in a CS classroom. And so when you have roles in tech, specifically, that require an undergraduate degree in computer science or a degree in engineering, that helps to, or that only serves to really reduce the population of eligible candidates. Right. Who then, if you look at that pool of eligible candidates who then you can invest and accelerate through the career ladder to become leaders in tech, well that's where you may end up with a representation issue. Right. And that's why we have, for example, so few women leaders in tech that we can look up to as role models. And that's really the problem or the gap that I'm very passionate about solving. And also, Lisa, I'm really excited to tell you a little bit more about advancing women in tech, which is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that I started to tackle this exact problem. >> Talk to me about that, cause it's one of the things that you bring up is, you know, we always say when we're having conversations like this, we can't be what we can't see. We need to be able to see those female leaders. To your point, there aren't a ton in comparison to the male leaders. So talk to me about advancing women in technology, why you founded this, and what you guys are accomplishing. >> Absolutely. So it's been such a personal journey as well. Just starting this organization called Advancing Women In Tech because I started it in 2017. Right. So when I really was, you know, just starting out as a product manager, I was at another big tech company at the time. And what I really realized, right, is looking around you know, I had so many, for example, bosses, managers, peer leaders, who were really invested in growing me as a product manager and growing my tech and career. And this is right after I'd made the transition from the federal government into big tech. What that said though, looking around, there weren't that many women tech leaders that I could look up to, or get coffee, or just have a mentoring conversation. And quickly I realized, well, it's not so much that women can't do it. Right. It's the fact that we're not advancing enough women into leadership roles. And so really we have to look at why that is. Right. And we, you know, from a personal perspective, one contribution towards that angle is upskilling. Right. So if you think about what skills one needs as one climbs a career ladder, whether that's your first people management role, or your first manager manager's role, or obviously for bigger leaders when they start managing thousands, tens of thousands of individuals, well all of that requires different skills. And so learning those skills about how to manage people, how to motivate your teams effectively, super, super important. And of course on the other side, and one that I'm, you know, near to dear to me is that of mentorship and executive sponsorship because you can have all the skills in the world, right. And especially with digital learning and AWIT is very involved with Coursera and AWS in producing and making those resources readily available and accessible. Well, if you don't have those opportunities, if you don't have mentors and sponsors who are well to push you or give you a step ladder to those roles, well you're still not going to get there. Right. And so, that's why actually, if you look at the AWIT mission, it's really those two pillars working very closely together to help advance women into leadership roles. >> The idea of mentorship and sponsorship is so critical. And I think a lot of people don't understand the difference between a mentor and a sponsor. How do you define that difference and how do you bring them into the organization so that they can be mentors and sponsors? >> Yeah, absolutely. And there's, you know, these two terms are often used today so interchangeably that I do get a lot of questions around, well, what is the difference? Right. And how does, let's say a mentor become a sponsor? So, maybe just taking a few steps back, right. When you have let's say questions around compensation or, "Hey I have some job offers, which ones do I consider?" And you ask someone a question or advice, well that person's likely your mentor. Right? And typically a mentor is someone who you can ask those questions on a repeated basis. Who's very accessible to you. Well, a sponsor takes that a few steps forward in the sense that they are sponsoring you into a role or into a project or initiative that you on your own may not be able to achieve. And by doing so, I think what really differentiates a sponsor from a mentor is that the sponsor will actually put their own reputation on the line. Right. They're using their own political capital in order to make sure that you get into that role, you get into that room. Right. And that's why it's so key, for example, especially if you have that relationship already with a person who's your mentor, you're able to ask questions or advice from, to convert them into a sponsor so that you can accelerate your career. >> Great definition, description, and great recommendations for converting mentors to sponsors. You know, I only learned the difference about a mentor and a sponsor a few years ago at another women in tech event that I was hosting. And I thought, "It's brilliant. It makes perfect sense." We need more people to understand the difference, the synergies, and how to promote mentors to sponsors. Talk to me now about advancing women in tech plus the power of AWS. How are they helping this nonprofit to really accelerate? >> Sure. So from an organization perspective, right, there's many women, for example, across the the tech companies who are part of Advancing Women In Tech, obviously Amazon of course as an employee has a very large community within who's part of AWIT. But we also have members across the tech industry from startups to VC firms to of course, Google, Microsoft, and Netflix. You name it. With that said, you know, what AWS has done with AWIT is actually very special in the sense that if you go to the Coursera platform, coursera.org/awit you can see our two Coursera specializations. Four courses each that go through the real world product management fundamentals. Or the business side, the technical skills, and even interviewing for mid-career product management roles. And the second specialization, which I'm super excited to share today, is actually geared towards getting folks ramped up and prepared to successfully pass the Cloud Practitioner's Exam, which is one of the industry recognized standards about understanding the AWS Cloud and being functional in the AWS Cloud. This summer, of course, and I'm sharing kind of a sneak peek announcement that I'll be making tomorrow with the University of Pennsylvania, is that we're kicking off a program for the masters of CIS program, or the Computer Information Systems Master students, to actually go through this Coursera specialization, which is produced by AWIT, sponsored by AWS, and AWS Training and Certifications has so generously donated exam vouchers for these students so that they can then go on and be certified in the AWS Cloud. So that's one just really cool collaboration that we are doing between AWS and AWIT to get more qualified folks in the door in tech jobs, and hopefully at jobs in AWS. >> That's a great collaboration. What are some of the goals in terms of metrics, the number of women that you want to get into the program and complete the program? What are some of those on your radar? >> Absolutely. So one of the reasons, of course, that the Master's of CIS Program, the University of Pennsylvania caught my eye, not withstanding, I graduated from there, but also that just the statistics of women enrolled. Right. So what's really notable about this program is it's entirely online, which as a university creating a Master's degree fully online, well, it takes a ton of resources from the university, from the faculty. And what's really special about these students is that they're already full-time adult professionals, which means that they're working a full-time job, they might be taking care of family obligations, and they're still finding time to advance themselves, to acquire a Master's degree in CS. And best of all, 42% of these students are women. Right. And so that's a number that is multiples of what we're finding in engineering curriculums today. And so my theory is, well if you go to a student population that is over 40%, 42 to be exact percent women, and enable these women to be certified in AWS Cloud, to have direct interview prep and mentorship from AWS software development leaders, well, that greatly increases their chances of getting a full-time role, right, at AWS. Right. At which then we can help them advance their careers to further and further roles in software development. >> So is this curriculum also open to women who aren't currently in tech to be able to open the door for them to get into tech and STEM fields? >> Absolutely. And so in my bad and remiss in mentioning, which is students of this Master's in CS Program are actually students not from tech already. So they're not in a tech field. And they did not have a degree in CS or even engineering as part of their undergraduate studies. So it's truly folks who are outside of tech, that are 42% women, that we're getting into the tech industry with this collaboration between AWS, AWIT, and the University of Pennsylvania. >> That's outstanding to get them in from completely different fields into tech. >> Absolutely. >> How do you help women have the confidence to say, "I want to try this." Cause if we think about every company today is a tech company. It's a data company. It has to be to be competitive. You know, the pandemic taught us that everything we're able to do online and digitally, for example, but how do you help women get the confidence to say, "Okay, I'm going to go from a completely different field into tech." >> Absolutely. So if we, you know, define tech of course as big tech or, you know, now the main companies, right, I myself made that transition, which is why it is a topic near and dear to me because I can personally speak to my journey because I didn't start my career out in tech. Right. Yes. I studied engineering. But with that said, my first full-time job out of college was with the federal government because I wanted to go and build healthdata.gov, right, which gave folks a lot of access to the healthcare data, roles, right, that existed within the U.S. government and the CMS, NIH, you know, CDC, so on and so forth. But that was quite a big change from then taking a product management job at Google. Right. And so how did I make that change? Well, a lot of it came from, you know, the mentors that I had. Right. What I call my personal board of directors who gave me that confidence. And sure, I mean even today, I still have imposter syndrome where, you know, I think, "Am I good enough." Right. "Should I be leading this organization," right, "of data protection and governance." But I think what it boils down to is, you know, inner confidence. Right. And goes back to those two pillars of having the right skills and also the right mentors and sponsors who are willing to help sponsor you into those opportunities and help sponsor you to success. >> Absolutely. Great advice and recommendations. Thanks for sharing your background, Nancy, it's outstanding to see where you started to where you are now and also to what you're enabling for so many other females to get into tech with the AWIT program combined with AWS and UPenn. Exciting stuff. Can't wait to talk to you next year to see where you guys go from here. >> Absolutely Lisa. And what I'm really looking forward to sharing with you next year is the personal testimonials of other women who have gone through the AWIT, the AWS, the UPenn Program and have gotten their tech jobs and also promotions. >> That sounds like a great thing to look forward to. I'm looking forward to that. Nancy, thanks so much for your time and the insight that you shared. >> Thanks so much for having me, Lisa. >> My pleasure. For Nancy Wong, I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching theCUBE's coverage of the International Women's Showcase 2022. (upbeat music)

>>mhm. Hello and welcome to the Cubes presentation of Women in text. Global Event Celebrating International Women's Day I'm John for your host of the Cube here in Palo Alto, California and we had a great remote guests coming in from Bahrain in the Middle East. Cather Allegheny, general manager of 9 73 Labs. Uh, thanks for coming in and and being part of the Cube our International Women's Day. You can't get any more international in Bahrain. Thank you for coming on. >>It's my great pleasure and honour to be here. John, thank you so much for this opportunity. >>Well, I'm super excited to chat with you because in our two visits with the Cube in Bahrain covering the summit there the past few years, we notice of surgeon entrepreneurship. Um, it's almost as if the region of AWS has create this revitalization and energy and vitality and and momentum around entrepreneurship. Can you >>share? What's >>the scene down there? What's the What's it like? >>Well, uh, when it comes to my country, we're lucky to have a small population. It's not that large, but we have so many creative people who is eager to try the entrepreneurial journey, and having Amazon as a data centre in Bahrain is a privilege. And they are pushing, uh, to have more entrepreneurial ideas and innovation and solutions within the ecosystem of rain. So definitely with their support, I can I can see that so many youths, they are eager to come in and contribute. >>I noticed that you're also the general manager of, uh, 9 73 labs, but also the founder of a company. So you've got two things going on here. You've got the entrepreneurial thing happening. Um, this seems to be normal. People got entrepreneurial activity and the job doing both. They're both entrepreneurial. Is that normal? >>Yes, Absolutely. Well, I started my entrepreneurial journey back in, uh, four years and I've been appointed as a general manager of 97 3 labs, which is I'm leading on digital innovation. So that compliments my passion of being an entrepreneur. And while we can acquire talented people and support them to create their own solutions the best way they can So basically, uh, following the main pillars of the lab that I'm working on, which is conducting appropriate research and data analytics, innovation and sustainability. So, uh, for my two founded cos it's not only one I've worked in Fintech and also in property as well. >>What inspired you to be an entrepreneur and technology? >>Well, I would say that my inspiration was to think outside the box, and I see problems and gaps as an opportunity. So that helps me to figure out and come up with solutions that can be beneficial for everyone. So analysing detail as well as something that I would really love. And also, um, enhancing my skills and being more creative is my inspiration. >>I know this is a lot of entrepreneur activity in Bahrain. A lot of investors are now coming into the market. Um, what are some of the things that are going on there? Can you share what the entrepreneurial scene is like there what people are working on has cloud computing accelerated that? What's what are some of the things happening there on the ground? >>Um, I would see that there is multiple competitions or hackathons run by multiple financial institutions. Uh, and also, uh, there are so many NGO s as I am a board member and technology and business society and also a member of women empowerment in the field of cheque, we are trying to motivate and accelerate the desire to be within this ecosystem of entrepreneurial journey. So, basically, uh, we have the Supreme Council of Women who is pushing as well women and ladies to be in this, uh, sector, uh, from early age from, uh, university or even high school graduates that they should start on working on their ideas and come up with solutions. So you can see that everyone is up to, uh, being part of the ecosystem by putting in their ideas. >>And the government wants to be digitally completely transformed, and >>by certain >>they're pushing it hard to >>Absolutely. Yes, we have the governmental sector trying to migrate from legacy infrastructure to the cloud. I would say, uh and it's it's more efficient for government and also to the private sector as well. >>You know, one of the things that jumped out at me when I was in my rain visiting was there was a lunch. Uh, I'm sorry. Breakfast for women in tech. And I went there because I always go to those breakfast cause I really want to see and meet people. I had to get kicked out because it wasn't a table space. So I was for all the people that were there, Um, because I was the guy that was spot for women, it was sold out, was lying and lying to get in. So there's a huge interest of women in tech. I saw that firsthand. There are more and more people want to come in. So motivating women to consider Korean tech is really the focus. What steps do you see to make that happen? How do we take that to the next level? What's your view on motivating women to get into tech? How would you talk about that? >>Well, absolutely. I think it's really crucial to have a woman contribution within the field of cheque. But I believe there is some challenges, given our cultural norms of how man perceived woman working in the field of cheque, sometimes society burden woman from, you know, pursuing her passion to be in because it's a demanding field. I would say that it's, uh, equal to the medical field. You have to keep on updating and to be aware about what's going on. Um, so basically, that might create a bit of a burden for specifically married women of looking after her husband or their families. So I think, uh, this is one of the challenges. But the steps to overcome those challenge challenges is why, uh, you know, trying to shift and change the way, uh, society think about where women should position herself and what kind of job should she should be. And, uh, So I think the other thing is by having educational curriculum that we taught in schools, teaching both genders about the importance of, uh, how we are equal and how we can complement each other in that field because the future is in technology. So the young generation should understand this very well. >>How is the women, um, entrepreneurship going? Are they being finance for their ventures out there? What's the what's the What's the momentum and progress on women starting ventures? >>Yes, absolutely. We're lucky to have our first lady, the wife of the king who is heading the Supreme Council of Women who is pushing women to create their own businesses or to come to become an entrepreneur. Also, we have financings becoming through the government with an entity called Temkin will provide different plants and support all through, not financials only, but it covers other areas of businesses as well. So financing is not a problem again for an entrepreneur. Uh, woman. As an entrepreneur, you can always seek multiple options for financing, not necessarily inside. It can be international as well. >>So a lot of good capital there also, this fellowship opportunities. I noticed you were a Halsey in, uh, fellow. The fellowship with the Halsey in organisation. Talk about that. That experience? >>Well, I really loved the experience. We started in fact, last year, and we flew to Washington in July, and we've met with Amazon people who were really supportive. We got solution architects supporting us of how to build the solution that we want to deliver. And I got my CTO to get trained by the Amazon as well. So we found so much value and the courses and the mentorship they provided, uh, and I'm really glad to be part of that family and their CEO. She said, Now, uh, for a lifetime, you are part of our family, and, you know, it's all the support that we needed to get. >>It's a great community. What advice would you give to people who are out there who want to learn and get into cloud computing and take that step towards creating value on whether it's entrepreneurial or within a company. What's the secret formula that you would say our secrets to success? >>Absolutely. I think a cloud is a a massive, and it's a brilliant opportunity for any technology to be built on myself. I believe in the cloud. Most or all of my solutions is built on cloud. And now even me leading the digital lab on building infrastructure on cloud and basically it will give you more room. Uh, identify more gaps. You do assessment. You can utilise the tools that is within cloud, which is artificial intelligence machine learning. Uh, you call it so you can seize the opportunity to the maximum, and you can skill faster. So basically, you're not limited to your, uh, country. You can go across countries as well utilising cloud >>Catherine to talk about what's next for you. What's the next step? >>Well, uh, the next step in my new role or a new job leading on a digital innovation in 973 Labs is to finalise my strategy and also to acquire talented young people And, uh, you know, go through a programme, which is I designed where they get the mentorship, the support till they get a final product that will be invested in. And they can guarantee themselves a carrier, uh, within the digital love that I'm trying to lead on. Uh, and I think the projects that will be covering not specifically only infant IQ, it could be in any other industry. So, uh, we're trying to follow the recent trends, Uh, thanks to Amazon and Google and the other companies that we can extract data and create our own reporting. So to, uh, come up where we should be investing our time. >>That's great. I wanna ask you about the demographics of the folks in Bahrain. I noticed that they're very a lot of young entrepreneurs coming up and learn a lot of them. Um, is that true? >>Yes, Uh, our population, the majority of our youth, uh and I would say, um uh, the average age is in thirties until 35 or 36. So, relatively, we have so many young people or youth who was eager to learn. But again, we need the expertise. We need older people to also mentor and coach the young generation of how they should calculate the risk and come up with a proper business models and brilliant ideas. >>Well, I'm very impressed with the folks down there, I said before the pandemic. Unfortunately, the pandemic it, But we really wanted to have a cube location there, a lot of vitality out of action, a lot of good stuff going on. Certainly with the NWS region in there, it's really create a lot of value. And so we're looking forward to hearing more. And, uh, thanks for coming on and sharing your storey with us and for the folks out there watching. What advice would you give to women who are watching around the world around entrepreneurship? What's going on from your experience? What should we be doing and talking about? What's the Storey? I'll see this theme is bias, uh, inherent bias and in the culture, um, what would you share your thoughts on to the world? >>Well, I think the only advice I can give to all of the women out there just try something new to try to solve a problem. There are so many gaps we have around. Just look around. You just take one step forward and try it. At least once in your life, you can come up with a brilliant, uh, solution that serves all humankind, not only the people of your country. So even if the road is bumpy, just be have the courage, be resilient and go for it. >>And we're all connected on the Internet. So of course, we can communicate with each other and have a good time and and grow the community. Thanks so much for coming on the Cube and celebrating International Women's Day with us as part of our special presentation. Thanks for coming on. I really appreciate it. >>Thank you. It's my pleasure. Thank you so much. >>Okay, this is the cubes presentation of women in text. Global event Celebrating International Women's Day. I'm John for a host of the Cube. Thanks for watching. Yeah,

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

(upbeat music) >> Hello, welcome to theCUBE's presentation of Women in Tech, Global Event, celebrating International Women's Day. I'm John Furrier, your host of theCUBE here in Palo Alto, California. We got two great guests. Cindy Polin, head of Solution Architects for Public Sector in Mexico for AWS. And Fernanda Spinardi, who's also the head of Solution Architects for Public Sector in Brazil, both with AWS. Thanks for coming, appreciate your time. >> Thanks for the invitation. >> Thank you, John. >> So we're celebrating International Women's Day this week, and this month, and pretty much every day, I think we're going to be doing a lot of good stuff. But today's a special day. And talking about people's careers, their roles, the gender gap, is a big theme this year. These are all the topics that are going on and being discussed. So, it's a been a lot of fun when learning a lot, I have to ask you guys with AWS, Cindy we'll start with you. How is AWS addressing the gender gap in its technical teams? Because solution architects, they're technical. And we need more women in there. How is AWS addressing the gender gap with its technical teams? >> Yes, for sure, thank you very much. Let me start with a quick note about what is the situation in Mexico. Let me go first into a report published by IMCO, and this is talking about this gender gaps in a STEM career. So let me tell you that three out of 10 professionals who choose careers related with the STEM, with the science technology, engineering and mathematics, are women. So, can you imagine this difference, It's really critical because for sure, we have few women. And in the moment that you try to reach people, to be part of the company, it's difficult. So it's important for AWS to be very very supportive in this initiative and also to be supporting diverse teams. So, that's why we are very supportive in bringing diverse talent in the company. >> There's a lot of focus on getting people early into the pipe lining. Is that some another big area? Did the study show anything there? >> Well, basically it's that we are studying to push harder, to bring more information to the ladies, to the women in general. And also to start developing the technical skills. Because it's really difficult and in the moment that you try to do this, it start like seeing these behaviors or stigmas about this is only for men, it's not for women. So we are trying to start breaking this point in general. >> Fernanda, we had a great chat about Latin America reinvent on theCUBE with your leader over there and, we were talking about the broader community and how you guys are partnering with external organizations and customers. How is Amazon Web Services, AWS, aiming to foster better balance and gender balance and technology partnerships in Latin America? >> Sure, so while the situation in Brazil is not different from the situation that Cindy was mentioning in Mexico right? Our research shows that women only represent around 37% of the workforce where in the country we have over 51-52% of women as part of our population. While we can take this from a gap perspective, also, we can take it from an opportunity perspective. There is such a huge unexplored workforce that we can bring to be part of AWS in the technology world, right? So for us on AWS and Amazon, it's part part of our day one culture. So we are still learning, right? And we are still trying, experimenting to see how we can bring more women to the tech world. One of the things that we are investing in Brazil and in Latin America, are the early in career talent programs. This is something that we have the opportunity to work with the students. And in LATAM, it's a little bit different from the US. We have the opportunity to work with them for one year sometimes for two years in a role while they work they are still in the university and we prepare that talent really early in their career and bring them to be part of Amazon. So yeah, I'm super excited with those programs, I can, talk more about it, but this is one of the initiatives that we are betting that will maybe be a game changer for us in the technology. >> Yeah, those are very interesting stats, 37% of the workers in country where women represent over half of the population. So definitely a lot of work to be done. I got to ask both of you. Amazon has a leadership principle that says that they want to strive to be the world's, or earth's best employer earth being, Earth Day and all that sustainability as well. Diversity, inclusion and equity is a big part of that mission more. And also Amazon's also known for high performing work environment. So, so having the best diversity and inclusion you know, is a, is a, as some say and many are saying is a force multiplier in performance. How is that going in your areas? Can you talk about how the culture that you're in, the countries that you're in and the Amazonian leadership principles tie together? Can you share your thoughts and experiences? >> Sure. I can, I can get started maybe with that one. So, although we have a new leadership principle from my perspective, we have we have always had leadership principles that foster diversity and, and inclusion, right. Pick up, earn trust as an example like it says, listen carefully, right. And speak candidly, this is for me it's the baseline for any, any inclusion conversation. Right. And also you have things like have backbone, disagree and commit. Like you are empowering people to actually have an opinion and bring back that opinion and be heard. Right. So it was already there. I think the thing now is that we have a very specific leadership principle so that there is no, no room for interpretation. Right. It's right there saying that there is a mission a mission to, to be the best employer. Right. And, and I'm, I'm very excited about it. >> John: Cindy, share your thoughts too. I like that comment because you know, Amazon culture's known for, you know, debate then align. Okay. And now you got that cultural factor. Now it's in the leadership principle. What's your reaction? >> Yes. And, and let me add a comment on that about Fernanda's point is that this LP is giving us like the empower to give this environment to prepare, to to give this space to the team and also to be more creative. And also to be more diverse is really important for us to have this space with a lot of empathy, with the in the space to have a lot of fun. And it's important to keep all the time in mind that are we doing the right thing for our employees? Are we are empowering them to be the best of, of the world? So, that is something that is critical for us and, and well that is something that we are right now working on it. >> Okay. So first of all I'm very impressed by both of you. You're inspiring. And I can also tell you that being a solution architect is not an easy job. But it's also in high demand. A lot of people want to, they need solution architects. It's one of the most coveted positions in the industry right now. So how do we get more women in that role? What ideas do you guys have besides being great role models, yourselves? How do we get more solution architects? Because it's super valuable and everyone wants to hire them. >> Fernanda, did you want to start? >> It's you guys. >> You touched a very important point, John. It's about having, having good examples. Like, I mean, it's about you seeing yourself in the role right? You, you believing that it's, it's possible. It's for everyone. If you have a spirit where you, you want to build things if you have this spirit of exploring new possibilities if you like to experiment, well, then you have all that we need in a solution architect, right? It's just then a matter of, you know, know learning technical, learning technology, technical stuff. But this is, this is about having fun on your journey as as a solution architect as well. >> And, and let me tell you something that we are also investing in trainings. Training is online for the for the women that they are, that has this interest that they want to learn more about the technology. They want to have a deeper knowledge about the technical stuff. So we are supporting these initiatives and that is something that they can do background and in their own pace. >> And this is an important role because they need the leadership as head of solution architects. It's a good thing. Is, is there any ways that you found that's a best practice for identifying or advice for people to know if they have what it takes or they have an affinity towards technology? Sometimes it's math. Because cloud is great levels it out. I mean, cloud is new, is more jobs open now that didn't exist years ago, couple years ago. So anyone can rise to the top. >> Yeah. I think that's the beauty of the cloud. There is so much space when we say technology I think this is such a, a broad word, right? It means so much, right. It can be someone that likes to develop code. It can be someone that likes to work with infrastructure. It can be someone that likes machine learning or databases or someone that is inspired about applications for the education world or to research genomes or cure cancer. So, yeah, I don't think that there is like any more like a specific profile. I think it's very open for everyone to explore what they love doing. And even from a technology perspective AWS is working to simplify access to the technology. If we take our services on machine learning. For instance, they are for people, for business people like you don't have to know much about algorithms, right. To use some of the AWS services. So I think we're experiencing the democratization of the technology, and with that more opportunity for people to join us. >> A lot of people are changing careers into cloud. So Cindy, I want to ask you guys also if you can share how the mentoring process works there. Is there mentoring? How does that work? Do you match people? Have you found a nice formula for providing some mentoring and some pathways as people come in? >> Yes, we have many ways but one is very important, is that we have user groups. That is a way that we have like a community with internal and external people, and we share advices, guidance, best practices for the people that is interested in this matter. So for one side as I already mentioned, we have training online that you can reach. We have a lot of free courses. Maybe you can start jumping into artificial intelligence. IUT whatever you want to, to, to want that given them. But in the other hand, we have this option to have this kind of support. We have AWS Girl Chile user groups. We have AWS women, Colombian user groups girls in Argentina, we have many of them. We have four hundreds of user communities. So, that is the way that we can keep in touch. >> Any other programs? I mean, Amazon Web Service and Amazon has very strong representation of women. There's a lot of pockets of women groups in all over the world. How does it come together? Because you also have customers in the user groups. You have partners in the partner network. You have technologists learning. So you have this ecosystem of people. It's not just AWS. How are you guys extending that gap into those areas? >> Exactly. And those conversations are getting more and more constant with our customers, right? So we used to talk about technology, we used to talk about business problems, now we talk about diversity. We talk about improving representation and improving the sentiment of inclusion within our customers as well. And one of the things that I can bring, we have been working with a number of our customers in Brazil just to mention New Bank, one of our customers there in building programs. between AWS and the customer, where we train people, and we expose that people to the market, even if it's inside AWS, inside New Bank or any other partner in that ecosystem. So we are building talent not only for us, but for for the entire ecosystem to benefit from. >> Okay, so I have to ask you guys How did you guys get into the tech, Cindy? What was your way? Did it just jump at you? Did it grab you? Did you kind of discover it early? When did you kind of get into the tech? >> That's a good question. I was remembering this moment that when I was seven years old I just started like working with cars and also with that kind of companies, literally companies. And in that moment say, "I want to be part of this technology work." And after that in high school, I have the opportunity to touch a computer. In that moment I said, "This is the thing that I want to do in the rest of my life." >> Yeah. that's it right there. You got the diction, you taste it. Fernanda, what about you? What's your story? How did you get into it? What was the moment? Was there an exact moment or did it just surround you? >> Yeah, I think I was always curious about how things work. I was not thinking about a career in tech honestly. I was thinking about becoming a lawyer, but at some point in time just clicked, right? And I had actually to fight my way into the technical world literally because, I had this very important university close to my house, like maybe 15 minutes from my house. But at that point in time in Brazil, that particular institution was not accepting women. And believe me, it was not like a hundred years ago. Like it was.... (laughing) >> Yeah, you're young, it's just recently. >> Yeah, so I had to move out out of my hometown, back to the city, to Sao Paulo, which is our biggest city in Brazil to find a place for me on an university that would take women. So yeah, I had to fight my way into technology, but I am very proud of that I was able to. >> Yeah, you know what's great now is you have YouTube, you have all these resources, these videos are going to be going everywhere. We're going to put this out there. There's communities where people can learn and see people like themselves out in positions of leadership and technology. So more and more contents being out there. And I think hopefully no one will have to fight to get into tech. If they like it, they're in it. One of the leaders at AWS she said, "We're in a nerd native environment now, the young generation is natively technical." And, I believe that, I see that. I think that's going to be a really exciting trend and seeing leaders like yourselves out there is really wonderful, so thank you for spending the time with us here on theCUBE. Final question I'll ask you, what's next for you Cindy and Fernanda? What's next in your journey? >> Okay, I think the next for me is to keep pushing the women in Mexico to keep installing and also to start thinking into what is the next step in my career? Where should I go? So I think that is the point that I want to do. >> Cindy, what's next for you? >> I feel I'm just starting. (laughing) So much to do, so much to do. I mean, there is a big business for us to make happen in Brazil right now, and we are looking for talent. So, if the video's going to go on YouTube, I would like everybody there to know that yeah, we are looking for talents in Brazil with opportunities all over the world actually. And yeah, that's building, building and building. >> And there's some rig twitch channels by the way too on some developer programmings, tons of programming, it's all out there. Congratulations, and we're looking forward to following up with you both in the future to get an update and thank you for spending the time and sharing your your stories here on theCUBE I really appreciate, thank you. >> Thank you too. >> Thank you so much. >> Okay, theCUBE presentation of Women in Tech, Global Events celebrating International Women's Day. This is the beginning of more programming. We're going to see more episodes from theCUBE, I'm John Furrier, your host. Thanks for watching. (upbeat music)

(upbeat music) >> Hello and welcome to theCUBE's presentation of Women in Tech's global event celebrating International Women's Day. I'm John Furrier, host of theCUBE, we have a great friend of theCUBE here Leah Bibbo, vice president of AWS product marketing. Going to talk about taking charge of your career. Leah, great to see you, thanks for coming on this awesome program for celebrating International Women's Day. Thanks for coming on. >> Thanks John, it's great to be here, thank you. >> You've been at a AWS for a long time. You've seen the growth years, you've had a great career before we get into it, and tell us about what you're doing now. What is your role in as a vice president of product marketing? What do you do there? >> We have more than 200 products and my team is really the team that takes those products. We make the messaging and positioning, we launch them and bring them into the world. And then we work really hard to educate customers and make them aware of all of these products help them understand how they can use them. And really because our technology with the cloud is something that businesses all around the world are using to really transform how they operate in this digital world. We get this opportunity to help our customers transform their businesses. >> You guys are customer obsessed and obviously the product's been successful and you've had a lot of different roles within AWS. I guess the question is, what's the moment when you can identify when you know there's a new challenge or opportunity and when to go for it this is something that people talk about all the time. Is it the right time? Do I stretch myself? Pain is growth. All these kind of conversations. When have you been able to identify that moment? >> Well, I would like to say that there was an aha moment at all of these different points in my career but I would say it's never that easy. I think a lot of things have to come together over time but if I reflect on all the opportunities I've taken, usually they haven't necessarily felt comfortable. It's not common to look ahead and say, okay, in three months, I'm going to be doing this thing. All the opportunities have kind of arisen. And every time it's an opportunity to do something different to maybe do something bigger, to work with really incredible people who I can learn from. And every time it's been, I'm going to try something new that's going to push me in a new direction. And it's that uncomfortable feeling of, oh this seems like it could be risky. That's usually been telling me that it's something I should take on. >> When do you have that internal clock or is it an internal feeling of I better start taking charge I can control what I can control. I'm going to go for it. I'm not going to kind of sit here waiting or sometimes it's better to wait and make a move. I mean these are things that people go through in their career. Can you share your experience and when to go for it, when to pull back or when you have that kind of feeling what are some examples? >> Sure. Well, I think I've been pretty lucky throughout my career to work for smaller companies. And when you're working in a small company there's just a lot of opportunity to do things that maybe you didn't get hired to do or aren't in your job description. And if you look around and you spot those opportunities and it's usually you've got something new you see a problem that needs fixing, or maybe you have a skill or an idea that you want to put in place. I think those are some of the times where you really have the opportunity to take charge. And nobody's going to tell you, oh, look, we know you're really good at this. Why don't you take on this problem? A lot of times it's more identifying and seeing a need and saying, Hey, I think that we could do this differently, I think that this is something I'd be interested in doing. And that's your moment. That's your moment to take it on. >> Tell me about your thoughts on confidence. Okay. The having that confidence to take that next step, when to go for it, what's the role of confidence play in this is? And has there been times where you maybe weren't confident or had to get the confidence? How did that happen? Take us through that dynamic because confidence is key in anything, right? You got to have the confidence, but sometimes there's a lot of pressures to push people's confidence down. And I know I've personally felt that many times in my career, but confidence is key. Can you give us your take on when know you have that confidence to take the next step and what's the success path? >> I think there's fluctuations in confidence throughout my career. How about that? I would say that, anytime you're taking on something new or you're in territory that haven't been in before or you're getting pushed, it can be tough. It can be tough to rally the confidence. I think what's always worked for me is to really dive deep and to understand as much as I can to learn as much as I can, to prep as much as I can. And even doing that, you can prep all you want, you can read everything possible you can meet all the people. There's always that moment where you're out there and you don't necessarily feel like it's enough but you just go for it. >> I love that preparation meets opportunity kind of vibe. And that was going to be my next question is, how do you prepare? And as people out there are learning in their early in their careers and or maybe growing into a career, whether that's in academic college and then post-college. What's the preparation like these days? I mean, have things changed? Is there a playbook? What's your secret to preparation meets opportunity? >> So these days it's how you prep for things is kind of crazy. It's information coming at you all the time, opportunities are everywhere, there's social networks for career development and career growth. There's mentoring networks. When I first started in my career it was a little bit more analog back then. And prepping was a lot more about getting publications and seeing if you could call people on the phone and talk to them. I was in public relations or in the early days. And a lot of the preparation had to do with could you find the contact information for a journalist that you wanted to pitch a story to? And then how well could you know the technology and have the story because you're going to have to call somebody and sell them on your idea. I think today we just have a wealth of information and ways to prepare at our fingertips. I mean, the internet is great. A lot of companies, especially here at Amazon we have career development programs and internal networks, infinity networks where you can meet people who are like you or who can mentor you or teach you things. A big part of my role has been very visible in public. When you're in public relations or you're in executive communications, you're getting up on stage and the amount of prep that you can do and should do in a situation like that can be pretty intense. And even then it's always you're going to get up on the stage and have that moment and you may have prepared for everything, but things can go wrong. >> John: Yeah. >> And at pushing in those times that are uncomfortable for you is one way to kind of keep your career going forward. >> Yeah. That's where the confidence comes in. You always had great confidence, always admire about you very inspiring on that front and great. And you know the content, you do great prep. I got to ask you on your career progression, Leah how deliberate have you been in that? Some people just float down the river of life, say yes to the universe and see where it takes them. Some are much more structured, different strokes for different folks, as they say. How deliberate have you been in your career progression? What extent is taking on something new, a leap of faith? >> I would like to say that I had a master plan and I've been really deliberate but I would say I'm on the side of folks who kind of just float through and somehow have these lucky moments and end up in places. But I think there has been some consistency in that I'm always looking for more and what's next. I've never been a person that if once I've mastered something or once I've done it for a certain amount of time I'm ready for the next big thing. So I'm kind of looking for it that said I don't have the next big thing in mind. It kind of presents itself to me. And I've been really lucky as being part of the technology industry, so much has changed in the 20 some years that I've had a career. It's such a fast-paced industry, the technologies are changing. The companies are changing, the opportunities and looking for what's next, there's a lot out there. So it's pretty easy to look for what's next. >> Want to get into the theme of this year's International Women's Day. This is called breaking the bias. It's a hugely important topic. It's talked about a lot, but it's important. It's highlighted this year. First of all, it's always been on the table but this year it's being called out, break the bias, >> The bias? >> Break the bias, that's the theme. How does bias manifest itself in your experience and how can we all help to break it? >> Well, I think that bias is, it's something that we all have, it's out there as humans that are different. We all come to the table with our biases. And if you think about it just in a general term, it was a journalism major in college. And one of the first things you learn is about bias and about looking at the media and trying to understand their lens on things and how to kind of think critically about things. So you kind of understand bias as a concept. I think then when you're a woman and you enter the workforce you learn a little bit more about bias as in practice. But what I will say is that I was incredibly lucky in my kind of some of the formative years of my career. I worked in a women run company. So all the way leaders were women and most of us there were women. And I think that I was pretty lucky to have times where you go through uncomfortable things and you try new things, and you're learning about being a manager and you're learning about taking risks. And I did all of that in an environment where there wasn't a lot of bias because we were all women. That doesn't mean that out in the world, while we were doing our jobs, while we were working with clients and interacting with other people, bias wasn't a thing. But I think it was a good chance to develop myself and to really, I don't want to say it'd be inoculate against bias, but to understand what it looks like when you're there in a place where there's not a lot of bias in the environment. >> How do you know when bias is gone? Obviously you go up against but first of all, Women in Tech, it's male dominant the numbers getting better but still a ton to go. I'm sure you've gone up against a lot of bias. How do you know when it's not there? >> How do you know when it's not there or when it is there? >> When it's there and how do you navigate around it and what does success look like? What does the end game look like? Take us through some of your experiences. I know I see a lot of it here in the industry as well, but it's changing, right? and it's going to change it for the better. >> It's absolutely changing. I think it's so much different even then it was a few years ago. I think part of that, is that there's just been a lot more attention paid and there's more of an understanding about what bias is, and that it's something that is preventing us from having a really, truly diverse and inclusive world. And especially in the workplace. when I was earlier in my career, there were a lot of ways that you could tell that there was bias. I had a moment where one of my colleagues who was a woman we were in a room and we were both in a PR agency at the time and we were meeting with a client and we did a presentation. We had a really great idea. And one of the men at the client gave us congratulations. And then he patted her on the head. And you have to step back. And one, that's just a weird thing to do in the workplace at all. But you had to kind of step back and wonder, would that have happened if I wasn't a woman? And so that was many, many years ago, today that would never happen. And I think what's really encouraging is not only are we seeing more and more women leaders and women being moved into positions of leadership so that they to create a more inclusive environment. I think we're all talking about bias and we're examining it. And we realize that it's there. Here at Amazon, we really do talk about that and try to question ourselves and step back from situations and say, is there some bias here? Or am I bringing some of my own biases into this conversation and we are a very data driven company and we really like facts, we really like to dive deep into analytical situations. And I think doing that, we all feel like that's something we really value. And so to begin to have the self-awareness, to know that even when we think we're very clinical and going by the facts and the data that actually we're still humans and we're still bringing bias into the room >> That's a really great point. It's a human thing, right? This data data. >> Yes, it is. >> I mean, you can crunch the data all you want but people can make data look like whatever they want it to be. So I think this human element is super important. And I got to say, what's exciting for me is with one of the upsides of COVID has been getting more stories out there, and I think this day celebration International Women's Day it's just the beginning to get more stories out there and I think your story's a great one, because again no matter who you are, your career or your life you're in control of it and you can control what you can control and you can't control what you can't control. That's like old expression. So I guess in summary, what would be your way to encapsulate kind of like your experience to share someone watching who might say, Hey, you know I want to take control of my career. What advice, if you can look back and accumulate all the best practices and trials and tribulations, what would you say to your younger self or someone out there who's just starting to break into the career path? >> Well, I would say first and foremost and this isn't something that I'd mentioned before is having people on your side, having people that have been there before you. When I first graduated I had no idea what to do with this diploma that I had and what it would be like to get into the workforce. But I had a friend who had graduated a year earlier and she was the one that got me my first internship. And I think throughout my career mentors and other people in my industry have helped me along. So I think that's the first thing is find people who are there for you and on your side and can give you opportunities. I think, keep an open mind. I had big ambitions when I came out of school that this was going to be in the workplace and I was going to be doing big things. I was going to be making PR campaigns and the reality of it in the beginning was that it was really not that, I had my days making copies, but I was okay with that. And at some point, the time you spend making copies or the time you spend making lists you learn, and you think about what the next thing is and you spot opportunities. And you just have to keep an open mind that wherever you are in that moment, things are going to present themselves that you can use to take yourself to the next step. >> You still got to grind. You got to do the grinding when you come out of the workforce. Work your way through and hard work is a big part of it don't you think? I mean, you still got to have hard work. >> I really do think, I mean, when you think about confidence or you think about taking charge of your career or opportunities presenting the so else to you, that I can't underscore enough. You do really have to be willing to work and hopefully whatever you're working in and what you find is something that you're passionate about because then it doesn't necessarily feel like work, but the value of hard work, of preparation, of persistence and not letting yourself get defeated is all something that you need, not just as a woman but as anybody who's wanting to enter this world that is business and having a career especially in the technology industry >> Leah, it's been great inspiration to follow your career and others will be as well inspired. I have to ask what's next for you in your career >> For me? Well, it's been a of couple long years of COVID and kind of navigating this hybrid work world. And COVID happened to happen just as I was taking this new role. So two years ago, stepping into a new role and at the same time, the global pandemic hit. And so I've had to learn how to do this job at the same time, I've had to learn how to be a colleague and a leader and a mentor on a screen, I guess. And so for me, what's next is as things hopefully continue to open up and things go in the right direction with COVID. And we start thinking about what does the workplace look like? I have a whole team of people that I have not met yet that I'm looking forward to meeting, and we get to figure out what does that look like? What does it look like to come back to work in a world that has changed so much in such a short amount of time? And so that's, what's next for me, figuring that out. I have a lot to learn. >> That's awesome. Well, it's great to chat with you remotely soon to be in person as the pandemic starts to lift. Hopefully fingers crossed great to have you on a participating in this awesome showcase product that we're going to put together around International Women's Day and continue it. And it's a global event, we're celebrating Women in Tech on International Women's Day. We want to do more and thanks for the stories and appreciate your time Leah. It's been great. >> Thanks, John. Thank you, John. It was great to be here. >> CUBE presentation Women in Tech global event celebrating International Women's Day. I'm John Furrier host of the cube. Thanks for watching. (gentle music)

(bright intro music) >> Hello, everyone. Welcome to "theCube's" presentation of Women in Technology's global event celebrating International Women's Day, I'm John Furrier, host of theCube. We have Rachel Thornton here, VP of AWS Marketing, CMO of AWS. Rachel, great to see you. Thank you for spending the time to come on and share your stories about mentorship, being a mentor, being a mentee. You've had a great career. Thanks for coming on. >> Oh, thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. >> You know, I'm super impressed with you, your super inspiration to a lot of people, your career in Microsoft, Cisco, Salesforce, Amazon. You've worked in amazing companies that had great growth, great transformations, and business success and all employees that have all grown since then, you've been part of these great success stories and you've had a great career and the theme here is mentorship which is a super important topic. You've been a mentee. You've been a mentor. Everyone needs a mentor. Most people don't know how to do it and how to be involved. It's almost like a secret dark art of success that needs to be opened up. What's your thought on mentorship? >> Hopefully, people don't see it as secret dark art. I actually am a huge proponent of mentorship, both mentoring folks and actually encouraging people to seek out a mentor for themselves. Early on, you know, when I started working, I really thought about how can I navigate a particular situation or what do I want to learn more about? And even though I may have been nervous or a little shy at first to ask, I always thought, "Just ask," because really being able to have a mentor, someone who you can ask questions of, someone who can help, you know, help you with questions or help you with situations you're navigating or give advice I think is critical. As a mentor, I would just say, as a woman in tech over the years, I've realized the criticality of sort of finding your voice and using your voice and so I look at mentorship as a great way to help individuals, every individual that I mentor sort of find their voice and use it and then, ultimately, advocate on behalf of others, advocate on yourself, on behalf of yourself as well and I think it's just really, I think it's a great thing to mentor and I encourage everyone to do it by the way and it's also ask yourself, "Hey, who would I want to be my mentor? What do I think I want to get out of it," and then go forward. >> Well, let's start with the mentee side. When you were coming into your career as you grew through with mentorship, with a mentor, how did you find a mentor? How should people think about asking and finding? What's your thoughts on that? Because asking is great. People might be nervous. I mean, I know I'm nervous whenever I'm asking people am I interrupting them or confidence. It's a hard thing. How do you find a mentor? >> Uh-hmm, what I did and what I encourage other folks to do when they think about it is kind of write down what you're looking for in a mentor. What are the things you would like to ask or get help up with or get advice with? Is it career progression? Is it learning how to navigate maybe collaboration with different teams? Is it, hey, you have a couple of great ideas and you'd like to figure out a way to get them surfaced in the organization? But kind of write down what you're looking to get and then what I did and what I encourage other folks to do is really look around not only just at kind of your immediate team, but what are some of the other teams you're engaging with? I would even ask people in your organization. I did this early on like, "Hey, I'd like to get some more info on this or some help with this, who do I think would be or who do you think would be a good person?" We have a leadership principle at Amazon, learn and be curious. >> Yeah. >> And I think it dovetails so nicely into the whole mentor, mentorship, mentee relationship, because, you know, if you're looking for a mentor, it's good to sort of think, "Okay, what do I want to get out of it? Who would I ask if I don't don't know? Start asking, you know, people that you do know and I think that's going to lead you to the right person, but on the mentor side, I think as you're working with the person, keep asking questions. What do you, you know, really learn about them. Learn about what they're trying to do and help them learn about their selves, their opportunities, you know, where they can grow more. So I just think that's a great leadership principle for the whole construct of mentoring. >> It's a relationship, too. The mentee-mentor relationship. is one that's a give and take, but also this gains from both sides. How have you gained from your relationships with your mentors in the past and how should people think about that? Because it's just human, it's a human thing, but it's also kind of a cool thing and it helps everyone on both sides. Can you share that relationship, give and take and what people can gain from a good relationship? >> I think the biggest thing for me has been just the different perspective. I find that so valuable. I love the chance to get a completely different take on something, a completely different perspective, one that I maybe wouldn't have considered because I think if you are kind of, and we're all like this, you know? We all come to a decision or a situation with our own set of understandings, our own biases, if you will, our own frame of reference and I think it is a powerful thing to work with someone else and have them give you a completely different lens on a situation because it opens up, you know, not only how you think about something or how you react to something, but just how you would learn or, you know, maybe think about information or that situation going forward, right? And maybe, you know, probably do an even better job with handling it or processing it or considering it. >> You know, support is a huge thing in life, right? Having someone to support you and your career, same thing. Now that you're, seeing you're a leader at AWS, you're a mentor to many, I'm sure you get a lot of requests to be mentor. I mean, I'd love to have mentoring. Hey, you know, can you mentor me on this? So I'm sure you have your share of requests but you're also mentoring. Now you're the mentor. How do you view your assignment? What's new? What are your tricks? Is there some secret trade? Is there a way that you handle it? How should people think about being a good mentor? Is there a common vibe or practice that you see successful for you? >> I think on both sides, mentor or mentee, when I work with someone in a mentor capacity, I spend sort of the first time getting to know them and also what it is they want, kind of what they want out of it. Ask a lot of questions in the upfront, find out kind of what they're hoping to achieve. Like I think I said a few minutes ago. There could be folks that are like, "Hey, I want help with sort of career progression over the long term." I've also mentored folks who are like, you know, I have a great idea that I just want some help with sort of packaging up and maybe positioning and then helping me navigate who would be the best team to take it to." So I think that's good to know kind of upfront. Is it ongoing or maybe it's just in certain cases, you know, it can be a very time bound thing, but I think ask questions. You know, on the mentee side, I always sort of come at it when I have a mentor like here's what I want to get out of it. Here's what I'm looking for. Here are the three things I want to make sure I engage with you on and then it's really clear on both sides. If I do have someone who comes to me with a mentorship, you know, with a discussion around being a mentor, I will always ask, "Hey, have there other people, you know, that you've talked to because it could be that they're looking for, you know, input on a project, for example, and there could be a better person I think, you know that, "Hey, this person could be even better than me on helping you with this." >> Yeah. You're navigating, too. You're providing a little path and direction and the key is really to help someone in mentoring. >> Yes. >> Sounds like it. Now let's talk about the Amazon and AWS culture. You mentioned leadership principles. Is there programs within AWS? Is this part of the culture? I know being a good manager is mentoring, too, as well, but is there formal mentor programs within AWS? >> Yes, there's actually several different ones. Women in Amazon, which is an amazing group that we have. They have Amazon circles, which is a great mentor program. We have programs that are by country even. So, as you can imagine, Amazon's a global global company. One of the programs that I was really excited about 'cause I worked with the team that started it, but in the UK, we started to get IT program and it was interesting because we basically wanted to make sure that we were encouraging and aspiring girls between ages of 13 or 12 and 15, actually, to be interested in careers in tech and we sort of thought, "How do we do a good job with that? How do we get those girls excited? How do we get them mentors? How do we get them sponsors?" That was the other thing we thought about a lot of. So what we did was we aligned teams and individuals inside at AWS to schools and then within the schools to grades and then to individuals in the grades, girls in those grades, and over the course of a year, they would meet with their mentor. A team would have a specific school they would sponsor and then members on that team would be mentors to the girls in that school and then at the end of it, there would be sort of a project and an assessment and it was really exciting to see, you know, girls who were sort of, you know, they were thinking about it, but maybe they weren't sure and then at the end they were like, "I'm really excited about it and I actually know kind of the next steps if I wanted to continue on, you know, with university with kind of a tech job in my sights for my future career." >> You know, that's a great segue into the breaking bias, which is the theme this year of International Women's Day is getting that bias broke, getting people in early, and also creating a culture of inclusiveness where there's no bias and we see it and this is a good way to call it out this year, specifically, and it's been a theme I know in this area, but this year they're calling it out. How do you know when bias exists and how do you know when it's gone? When we're not talking about it anymore? I mean, that's it seem would be to me, but this is a big deal. >> Yeah. >> Share your thoughts on this bias piece and what we can do together to help aware and and solve it and break it. >> I think we all have bias. I think that you really do have to... I always in my head, I think whenever I'm meeting with teams or just meeting with people one on one, I'm meeting with customers, I think I sort of ask myself, "What's my take on the situation? If I weren't me, you know, if I was someone else, what their perception be? What am I bringing to this situation that's sort of based on my context to sort of who I am or my background and how is that different if I were to sit with someone that has a completely different background, a completely different set of context or a frame of reference?" I think that's so important across not only the teams I have here. You know, I have a global marketing team, so always asking myself, "I know I'm going to look at this one way. It's not the only way. So how do I make sure I have a great cross section of leaders, a great cross section of team members to bring the bear on a situation?" Because the more I can do that , the more diverse I can make those conversations, the better off we're going to be with whatever solution we come up with for our customer or solution, you know, to an internal problem is just not just looking at it through, you know, one lens or two lenses, but how do I get a group of people, a group of different frames of reference, if you will, to come to think about it and then say, "Okay, I've seen it this way. How are you seeing it?" And that just opens up so much more I think great ideas, great conversations, and ultimately great innovation. The more diverse those conversations are and the more diverse the audience is or the group is I'm having 'em with. >> That's a great take on how you feel and how you looked at that and I think that's to me a great call out because you get to be self aware and that's hard to do. You just basically walk through the mindset of stepping back and looking at perspectives other than your own and I think to me, that is hard for some people I've seen and that's one, self awareness, right? How do you do that and then how do you maintain it? (laughs) I mean, can you give some examples of how you've seen that in your career where it was just people weren't thinking before they were speaking or maybe driving too hard through conversations and then the ideal scenario that you just pointed out which is, "Okay, zoom out and understand and think and then align with at least, and you could do that in a debate. That's your philosophy at Amazon debate and align, but can you share some experiences where you've seen people just drive through too hard or didn't do that and scenarios where it did work? >> I definitely think that, you know, it's true. You can get folks in a meeting or in a conversation where like, "Oh, I think I'm right on this. I know I'm right on this. Let me explain to you how I'm right on this," and sometimes it's just, it's important that you take a moment and say, "Okay," but if we had someone in the room that wasn't you or didn't have the background, would there it be different? You know, would it be a different answer? I think when you get sort of locked into there's a right answer, that's not always the way it is. I think that there's, depending on the situation, there's definitely answers that yes, if we're trying to solve this problem, you know, we've looked at it a couple ways, we think there's a couple of different answers or a couple of different scenarios in which we can get the best outcome, but the more you can kind of move away from, at least I think, move away from, "Hey, there's a right here or there's only one way here," the better you're going to be ultimately on, "Hey, actually there turned out to be a couple of different ways that we could have addressed this issue or that we could have built this program," and so I do think that's important is not to kind lock yourself into one way, but think, "All right, let's take a beat and say, 'Hey, could there be another way we could have thought about this?'" >> Yeah, I mean, especially with room full of engineers, too, you can you imagine, "I'm right, this is the right answer," of different perspectives. You know, what's come out of a lot of these interviews is that, you know, diversity and inclusion and equity brings more power function. It's a step function. >> Yes. >> In value, right? It's a competitive advantage, too. I mean, it's the data's becoming clearer and clearer that more diversity, more inclusion, more equity brings more power to the conversations and products. >> 100%. >> And this is proven. How do we get there? As you're a senior leader now. You've got the helm at AWS on marketing. You've got a lot of influence as you go through your career. How are you going through that progression of keep driving that positive mindset, that change? >> Uh-hmm. I'm really, I love my team. When we sit down and talk about conversations, well, I always try to think about it is let everyone else speak first. Like I don't want to be the first person to comment on something, right? I always say, "Hey, let's hear from everyone else first," because then I think people feel free to kind of share what they think and I always do kind of look around and in my head just think, "Okay, have we got the teams here that we want to make sure we're including in the discussion," right? So kind of just saying, "Oh, we're going to roll out. Hey, we have a new idea for marketing program" For all of our customers? Great, it's a global program? Great, do we have global representation? Great, if we don't, hold on, we need to pause for a second. We're thinking about new messaging positioning. Okay, great, for our customers. Who's here to talk about it? Do we have, you know, marketing representation? How about, you know, PR? How about the engineers to your point? But just, again, I think the more diverse we can make that conversation, >> Yeah. >> You know, if I I'm in a room and I'm like, "You know, there's only a few of us and we all are going to have the same frame of reference for this conversation. Let's make sure we get some other folks in the room. So it's not just us with one set of context." >> Well, your customer, you guys have been so successful at AWS and Amazon, AWS in particular it's results you look at, just go back to our first cube event there in 2013, just enormous success and you get such a diverse customer base. It is global. It is, you know, 51% women, that's the statistic in the customer base in general, so super important and this is really a big deal. So I have to ask you, as you're the leader out there of AWS, you're an inspiration to many out watching. For the young folks out, the young girls and young women out there, who are going into their careers and thinking about tech, whether they're in early school or getting into the career path, what advice would you give them around how to be successful, how to find mentors, how to be a good citizen in the community, and how to contribute and how to move forward in a very positive way? >> When we started the conversation a couple of minutes ago, I mentioned finding your voice. I think that's really critical. I think, find your voice, use your voice. I know that sometimes, you know, early on, you know, in my career, I was maybe nervous about asking questions, but asked the questions. I think that the more questions you can ask, very oftentimes you'll ask a question and someone else, a bunch of other people in the room are like, "Oh, yeah, I would've asked that question." I think that, well, you know, I'm super proud of my leadership team. It's a 70/30 split, women, yay. >> Yeah. >> But I definitely think, "Look at who you're surrounding yourself with, think about your mentors, think about your team, think about your community, and just kind of, you know, ask yourself, 'Hey, how can I, you know, have this be an even broader community, an even more diverse community?'" Because having that, I think, is just going to help make whatever comes after it that much better and so I think that would be my big advice is just, you know, learn and be curious, like I said before. Ask a lot of questions, but definitely find your voice and share that voice with your community and make that community as sort of as broad as you can. >> Rachel, thanks, that's great insight. The word community resonates as all my interviews here on this International Women's Day, all comes back to community and being part of something, super important. Thank you so much for being part of our program and our community. We really appreciate it. Thank you for your time and insight and your mentorship and also your insights here on "theCube." We really appreciate it, thank you so much. >> Well, thank you, John. This was really great. Thank you for having me. >> Okay, this is "theCube's" presentation of Women in Tech's global event celebrating International Women's Day. More content coming, stay with us. I'm John Furrier, the host of "theCube." Thanks for watching. (bright outro music)

>>Yeah, yeah. Welcome to the Cubes Presentation. Women in Global event Celebrating International Women's Day It's amazing showcase of great people and entrepreneurs, executives, really serious women in the industry, in the countries all around the world sharing their stories on International Women's Day. I'm your host of the great story here, an entrepreneur founder and C e 03 riders. Tanya A. I from New Zealand from all the way down under. Thanks for coming on. Appreciate it. >>Thanks for having me. >>I love your story. Let's stop. Let's start by. Just sit at the table about your story. Where your background from How you got into the business. Take us through quickly. That origination story. >>Sure. Um, look, I come from a low socio economic area. I grew up a new Plymouth. Um, and we didn't really have a lot of money. My mother did struggle to put food and milk on the table. And so, uh, what we did do, though. Although we didn't have money, we have the ability to drink. And so we would every day I remember as a child dream about what it would be like to one day have enough milk and bread, have enough money to be able to buy a car or even catch the bus. And so what we did was we dream about how I could achieve that. Um And so what I did was I got educated because we knew that if I got educated, then that would enable me to get a job and become financially independent. Um, but one of the key things she also made me promise Was that not only what I get educated and have enough money, um, to support myself. But then once I did that that I would give back their knowledge and understanding so that I could strength and others. >>I love this. I love the story again. Entrepreneurship is a lot like picking yourself up. Failure is part of the process. You got a grind. You got to do the hard work. And the idea is to make it happen. You've done that? You've got a building. The business is hard. Never mind for doing it as a woman as well. And you're conditions. What a dream. You found your dream. What's it like? Right now? >>It's hard work I'm not gonna do. I know that around the world of runs excited and they said, I'm going to leave my job and you know, I've had enough. And now I'm gonna stand up my own business. We've been working on my eye for almost three years now. Running standing up a business and then running it successfully once you've started up is actually a lot harder than what people think, especially being a woman as well. And a Maori, which is essentially an indigenous person of New Zealand. Um, it is a little bit harder to do that, especially when when you choose the industry to do that and which is technology, you don't have a lot of other woman. Um, there are some women coming through from indigenous background, uh, paved the way for us, but there's not a lot of us around, and so it does make it a lot more tricky. But I had a dream, and I had a vision that I was going to be able to give back what I had learned about business and about money to help others. So uh, was where it was going to be. >>Well, it certainly inspiration for many. I love the success story and entrepreneurship hard enough as it is, like I said. But being a woman and even harder, what are some examples can you give when you were coming through? Because you've got a really kind of push through and break down walls to get things done in any startup and with the corporate world with his biases. And there's also, um, people's preconceived mindset of who's who should be in a position, what founders are what entrepreneurship is. What was it like? Can you give some examples of situations that you broke through? >>Um, look, I think that immediately people underestimate you when you're a woman, especially in indigenous woman. And so, um, what I was So basically what I would do is I didn't think about what they thought. Um, what I focused on was actually where I needed to go. And so all those people didn't believe that I could get it done. They thought I was dreaming. I know people said, um, at one point they said, Are this company looks like they're doing something similar to that. Just waste $2 million. What makes you think that you're going to be even come close to being successful like they are, um, and And my response to them was that that they aren't me. They don't have money in their organization. And I think that's something really critical. Um, that woman has to understand when they're standing up an organization, especially one of the technology. We, as a woman are unique. We bring to the table a different set of values and different principles that potentially others don't also bring to the table. We have a different level of work ethic, and so I actually think that through those experiences, I was able to be more resilient and follow through in terms of what I believe it was possible. So it doesn't matter what people thought. It doesn't matter if someone was richer or had more money than we did. Well, they had more. Exactly. I remember the other thing was with They've got all these, you know, really high high performing executives from love organizations in New Zealand. Who do you have again? My response was, Well, they don't have me right, And so that makes a significant difference. Um, it's not that I'm a unicorn, but it's that I have a very strong belief system, and I have a have a dream that I've been following for almost 40 years and trying to make come through. So those two things are things that you can't underestimate. And sometimes they are actually a lot more productive and valuable than money or positional executives within your organisation. >>Yeah, that's a great, great insight. And then again, congratulations again. Great inspiration. People worry about what everyone else is doing. Like what they got. They don't focus on what they're doing, But I love the confidence, the conviction, um, preparation, education. These are all themes that are coming out of this international Women's Day around how to be successful, how to raise your hand, how to drive through how to drive, control your career, control your own destiny. This is the theme. Education plays a big part of it. And obviously you're building a company. Amazon. You're involved with Amazon. You've got education now at your fingertips on the internet. Education is out there now. You can get it instantly, and you could level up with cloud and and really factor and compete >>at any time. Yeah, absolutely. I think if you look at a W s, they gave us the opportunity to be global instantly. I mean, without that, you know, without their infrastructure and they're back in and for us to turn that on in any country that we wanted, um, we wouldn't have been able to go global. And so, you know, I really do appreciate all of the different platforms and the technologies that we can access as a c e o of attack organization so that it actually enables us to be a global and have a global footprint. >>You know, you're a great example of what I always say about cloud computing and these platforms Is there agnostic when it comes to talent? If you can write good code and you're talented, yeah, the world is yours. There's no real degree you can get from a pedigree college or university. If you have what it takes, just plug it into the cloud and your instantly global. This is this is new. This wasn't like this years ago. >>Look. And to be honest, when I first started, I I chose voice Alexa voice as one of our channels to through which I I would provide financial updates to organizations. Now I didn't know what no one in New Zealand or Australia even knew what it was three years ago. And so, essentially, you know, the the ability to have access to people around the world to build your team, um, and to have infrastructure like Amazon, it just enables us to achieve great things. It enables us to give back more than we ever thought possible. So I think it's being able to know where you need to play the gap and then plugging that with infrastructure, which is strong and enables you to continue to grow and can really help you go forward. >>So talk to me about your current situation as a leader, as a woman in tech. Now, you have a company you're giving back, fulfilling your dream. You have a life, you gotta live your life and your life, and you're doing it all. What's it like being a leader and being a high-performance entrepreneur? >>Yeah, I love being able to give back and give back and industry, um, where it's just growing every day. The the environment is changing. We have to keep up to the play with all the new technologies that are coming through all the new capability. So that we don't get left behind. Technology enables you to become more efficient and effective and what we're working on three years ago, that's now changed significantly in terms of what it looks like now, how fast you can go, how much reach we can achieve when we're going out to our other customers and, uh, from across the globe. Also, I think that, um when you look at a woman in both of professional and a personal standpoint, I'm also a mother of four Children, and I'm also a wife. And so what I have to do is be able to balance running a typical organization as well as running the house. Unfortunately, even though I'm a C e o of a technology company, it's certainly doesn't enabled me to turn off the the mother light at the end of the night or at the beginning of the morning, when the kids at school I might be sitting in a meeting and doing a full negotiation for a for a high-value contract and in the back of my head, I'm thinking I have to take out the months later or I have to make sure that my daughter and members to take. It talks to school tomorrow. So we're quite lucky. Woman. We essentially running two parts of our brains, one of those being able to continue to nurture and and be the supporter of their husbands and our families and our Children at home as well as run these tech companies. So we're we're very lucky. I also think it's interesting that the majority of funding that that's made available by J Visas is not to women. I don't know why that is. But if you imagine having a woman who can literally, what run two worlds at the same time and be successful at both, then I think that that's high productivity that you want to be a part of. >>Yeah, that's that's injectable and more women leaders again having role models like you out there. And the story is really compelling and super inspirational. I love the 22 worlds just having to start at the same time. Yeah, talented, Um, but I love your comment also about the underdog, and I know a lot of entrepreneurs and being one myself and even people who are ultra successful, they still have the chip on the shoulder they still have the underdog mindset. So, um, is that true for you? Do you still feel like you're underdog? You always kind of. Is that something you'll never give up even when you're super successful? >>Yeah. Thanks. So, um and it's not an underdog from a really vicious, uncomfortable standpoint where I'm trying to, um, where I'm trying to get back at anybody. What it does do is as an indigenous person coming from low poverty, um, you know, the expectation of where I would end up was really low. If I if I wasn't pregnant or I wasn't in jail by 16, I was successful, and I had one. And so the bar has always been set really low for me. Even when I went and did a degree, Um, the first one was, Well, you should go and do Maori or a bachelor of arts at at University. And I said, Well, why can I go and do that thing over there? There's no Maoris or there's not a lot of women sitting in the finance, um, elections. Why don't I don't go and do a degree in finance. And so, as I've worked through my education and also my career. The expectation that achieved great things just wasn't there. And so that that drive does have to come from you internally. Um, sometimes you're not always surrounded by people who understand your value and what you can contribute to the world. And so what you do have to do is you have to have a personal belief system that enables you to actually leverage that underdog position. And so rather than letting that get you down like oh, they don't believe in me or they don't think I can do this so I can achieve that. Basically, what you do is you use it is like a little stepping stone. You're like, Thanks for that. I'll just put that over here and all it does is just enables you to prepare yourself forward. >>It's motivational. It's also curiosity. So, Steve Steve Jobs once said, Stay curious, you know, and, uh, stay foolish, actually. Say foolish, Amazon says. Be curious. That's the kind of slogan, >>but they >>will be foolish and stay curious. Whatever it is. That's kind of the mindset. And again what I love about the story, and I think this is a trend that we're seeing is that if you are underrepresented or you are the underdog now more than ever, the ability to level up is better than ever before. Anyone can start a company, you can get a cloud computing, and Amazon gives the education for free. If everyone someone stuck, you can just go online courses. So there's now plate paths to go from here to here quickly. Um, this is amazing. >>Yeah, but it is hard work, so right, so it doesn't come easy. Um And so that is one thing I think that people underestimate about the ability to stand up for business. And then it becomes this, you know, apple or Amazon or Google. And so, yes, my vision is that we're on the road trip back. We're focussed on being able to list in the last five years time with a billion dollar valuation and use that as a vision. But being able to be open-minded about what it's going to take to actually get there is really important, and so you can have conviction, but you need to follow through and have action. Um, you need to be open-minded about changing the way you thought it was going to look. I mean, every day, I probably three or four times since we've gone live last year. Um, and that was because she wasn't where she needed to be. We needed to private her so that we can continue to ensure that we ended up with the product market fit that enabled us to meet our vision, but also to achieved financial and strategic >>goals. That's a great point. You've got to do the work. You've got to grind it out. Sometimes you gotta be sensitive to the customers and the market. This is the secret final question for you. What a great conversation. Um, as an entrepreneur, we all know it's the trials. Tribulated the roller coaster. A lot of emotion. Like raising a family. You don't know what you're gonna get. You know, anything is possible. How do you maintain the balance? Emotionally as you go in and continue to build out your business, you gotta take the highs and the lows. >>Oh, look, in the early days of standing out today, I was very naive. Not because I was a woman just because I was new to the game. Um, I had always worked for global organizations that already established that had big bits of money that had resources that I could call on. And so I'd say that first 6 to 12 months was really hard. There was a time there where I had to rebuild i-i. They changed the back end infrastructure. Um, I've spoken to zero and Amazon. Alexa and I had to achieve a certain I had to go through a number of different gates. And what that means is that I had to rebuild build here. Um, I think I cried initially for the first couple of days, but then it was actually, it took me about a month to get over myself. And what I mean by that is I had this vision and this dream about how it was going to be. I was going to do this and then all these steps we're going to follow, and everything was going to turn out how I expected. Um, and then it hurt me within the first three months of trying to get accreditation That it wasn't It wasn't going to turn out how I wanted. I didn't have the resources or the money to execute it. How I wanted. And therefore what I had to do was understand why. Why? Because what happened was I was able to use my why It is the basis for why I was making decisions going forward. So rather than it being just this vision about where I was going to land, it ended up being It doesn't matter the how the pathway we get there. Obviously, we want to do it with integrity, but I don't necessarily know all the steps of how that's going to happen. But I need to be open to the fact that it won't. Now when I get disappointed and things don't happen, how I expect them now, I basically just perfect. Initially I cried and I sit there and complain to my husband, and I feel like, Oh, my God, let me do this. So it was like, I've turned me down and I'm not gonna do it this way. And, you know, I just complain and wind, Um, but three years on, basically, whenever I had a wall or I had a roadblock, I'm just I just step back and go right. I can't go that way. Let's find another way. And so I think you have to be really resilient around accepting that things won't always go away. But there is always another way. >>Don't worry. Great conversation. Building a business and text from your dreams. Getting educated, going out in the arena, being successful again. Once you're successful, you can write your original story The victory. The victor writes the narrative, as they say, so is it can be disappointing. Sometimes when you're learning to grow like that, businesses like that's a great story. And congratulations. And thank you so much for taking the time to to share on the Cube as part of our celebration of International Women's Day. Thank you so much. >>Okay, thanks so much. >>Okay, that's the presentation of women in Tech Global Event celebrating International Women's Day. I'm John for most of the Cube. Thanks for watching. Yeah, Yeah, yeah. Hm. Yeah, yeah,

(upbeat music) >> Hey, everyone. Welcome to theCUBE's coverage of Women in Tech: International Women's Day, 2022. I'm your host, Lisa Martin. Erin Chu joins me next. Life Sciences Lead at AWS Open Data. Erin, welcome to the program. >> Thanks so much for having me, Lisa. Tell me a little bit about you and your role at AWS. >> I would love to. So I am a life sciences lead on the AWS Open Data team, and we are really in the business of democratizing access to data. We believe that if you make high quality, high impact data openly available in the cloud, that people can start innovate, make discoveries and do science faster with those data. So we have a number of specialists with expertise in different domains. Geospatial sciences, climate sustainability, statistical regulatory and then of course myself, the life sciences lead. >> So, you have a really interesting background. You're a veterinarian by training. You have a PhD, you've worked in mobile veterinary clinics, and also in an animal genomic startup, how did you make the change from the clinical side to working for a large international, one of the biggest companies in the world? >> Yeah, I love that question because so much of, I think, anybody's career path is serendipitous and circumstantial, right? But the fact is I was working in a mobile veterinary clinics while I was finishing up a PhD in molecular genomics. And at the same time was reached out to by a professor at Cornell who had started a little dog genomic startup. And he said, "Hey, we need a veterinarian who can talk to people and who understands the genomic side of things?" And I said, "Yeah, I'm your girl." And I came on full time with that startup towards the end of my PhD, signed on after I finished, came on on as their senior veterinary geneticist. Startups a great whirlwind. You end up learning a ton. You have a huge, deep learning curve. You're wearing every possible hat you can. And after a couple years there, I wondered what else I could do. And simply said, where else could I look for work? And how else could I grow? And I decided to try the larger tech world, because I said, this is a toolkit I don't have yet. So I'd like to try and see how I can do it, and here I am. >> And you, I was reading about you that you felt empowered by the notion that I have to trust my instincts. You look at careers in biology, you decided what directions you wanted to take but how did you kind of conjure that feeling of empowerment? >> Yeah, I have to see say I have an incredibly supportive team and in supportive manager, but a lot of it was simply because I've never been afraid to fail. The worst thing that someone can ever say to you is, no or that you didn't do that well. Once you come across that once in your life, it doesn't hurt so bad the second time around. And so, I was hired for a very specific data set that my team was helping to manage. And that does take up a good deal of my time, it still does, but I also had the freedom to say, "Hey, what are the trends in biology? I am an expert in this field. What do I know is coming around the corner? What do I know my researchers need?" And I was entrusted with that, this ability to say, "Hey, these are the decisions I think we should make." And I got to see those outcomes fairly quickly. So, my managers have always put a good deal of trust in me and I don't think I've let them down. >> I'm sure you haven't. Tell me a little bit about some of your mentors or sponsors that have helped guide you along the way and really kind of feel that empowerment that you already had. >> Absolutely. Well, the first and foremost mentor in has been my mother. So, in the spirit of International Women's Day, my mom is actually the first Asian engineer to ever reach executive level. Asian female engineer to ever reach executive level at IBM. And so, I spent my life seeing what my mother could do, and watching her just succeed. And I think very early it clear, she said, "What can't you do?" And that was kind of how I approached my entire life, is what can't I do, and what's the worst thing that will happen. You fail and then you try again. So she is absolutely my first mentor, and a role model to me and hopefully to women everywhere, honestly. I've had some amazing teachers and mentors. My professor who oversaw my PhD, Dr. Paul Soloway. He's currently still at Cornell, really just said, "What decisions do you want to make?" And, "I will support you in the best way I can." And we learned a lot together. I have a professor at Cornell who I still come back. I speak at her alternate careers in veterinary medicine because she just... And she was the one who told me, "Erin, you have a really high buoyancy factor. Don't lose that." And her name is Dr. Carolyn McDaniel. And she has just been such a positive force just saying, "What else could we do?" >> Well, that's- >> And, "Never let your degrees or your training say that this is what you have to do. Think of it as a starting point." >> That's a great point. We often, especially when we're little kids, many of us, you think of these very defined, doctor, lawyer, accountants, nurse instead of having something like you do and being able to go, what else can I do with this? How can I take this education, this information and the interest that I have and parlay it into something that really can kick the door wide open. And to your point, I love how your mom was saying, "What can't you do?" That's a message that everyone needs to hear. And there's an AWS Open Data Sponsorship Program. Talk to me a little bit about that. I'm always interested in sponsorship programs. >> Oh, thanks for asking. So the Open Data Sponsorship Program or the ODP since Open Data Sponsorship Program can be a little mouthful after you say it a few times, but the ODP is a program that AWS sponsors where we will actually cover at the cost of storage transfer and egress of high impact data sets in the cloud. Basically, we know that sometimes the barrier to getting into cloud can be very high for certain providers of gold standard data sets. And when I mean gold standard data sets, I mean like NASA Sentinel-2, or the National Institutes of Health Sequence Read Archive. These are invaluable data sets that are ingested by thousands if not millions of users every day. And what we want to do is lower that barrier to cloud and efficient distribution of those data to zero. So, the program is actually open to anybody. It can be a government entity, it can be a startup, it can be nonprofit. We want to understand more about your data and help you distribute it well in the cloud. >> So this is for any type of organization regardless of industry? >> That's right. >> So, you're really allowing more organizations... One of the things that we say often when we're talking on theCUBE is that every company these days is a data company, or it has to be. Every company has to be a tech company, whether we're talking about your grocery store or AWS, for example. So helping organizations to be able to take that data, understand it, and have those personal conversations that as consumers we expect is critical, but it's challenging for organizations that say, "Well, I came up in retail and now I've got to be a tech company." Talk to me about kind of empowering organizations to be able to use that data, to grow the organization, grow the business, but also to delight customers 'cause of course we are quite picky. >> You're so right. Data is power and it doesn't matter what you are selling or who you are serving. If you have the data about your product. And also to some degree, the data about who your consumers are, you can really tailor an experience. I always tell my colleagues that data is impersonal, right? You can look at bits and bites, numbers, structured columns and rows, but you can funnel data into a truly personal experience as long as you do you it right. And hopefully, when I work with my data providers I ask them, how do you want people to use your data? What are the caveats? How can we make these data easy to work with? But also easy to draw correct insights from. >> Right, that easy to use is critical because as you know the proliferation of data just continues and it will continue. If we think of experiences. I want to go back to your experience. What's been the biggest learning curve that you've had so far? >> Oh my gosh. So, the best part of being at a large company is that you're not in the same room or even like whatever the same slack channel as all of your colleagues, right? Coming from a startup or clinical space where quite literally you are in the same room as everybody 'cause there are less than 60 of you, you could just talk to the person who might be an internal stakeholder. You had that personal relationship, and frankly, like most of the time your views were very aligned. It was sell the product, get to MVP. Moving into larger tech, the steepest curve I had other than becoming very comfortable in the cloud, in all the services that AWS has to offer, were to manage those internal relationships. You have to understand who the stakeholders are. There typically many, many of them for any given project or a company that we're serving. And you have to make sure that you're all aligned internally, make sure that everyone gets what they need and that we reach that end to ultimately serve the customer together. >> Yeah, that communication and collaboration is key. And that's something that we've seen over the last two years, is how dependent we've all become on collaboration tools. But it is a different type of relationship. You're right. Going from a clinic where you're all in the same room or the same location to everyone being distributed globally. Relationship management there is key. It's one of my favorite things about being in tech is that, I think it's such a great community. It's a small community, and I think there's so there's so much opportunity there. If you're a good person, you manage those relationships and you learn how to work with different types of people. You'll always be successful. Talk to me about what you would say, if someone's saying, "Erin, I need some advice. I want to change industries or I want to take this background that I have, and use it in a different industry." What are the three pieces of advice that you would share? >> Oh, absolutely. So, the first thing that I always talk with my... I have quite a few colleagues who have approached me from all different parts of my life. And they've said, "Erin, how did you make the change? And how can I make a change?" And the first thing I say is let's look at your resume and define what your translational skills are. That is so big, right? It doesn't matter what you think you're a specialist in, it's how generalizable are those specialty skills and how can you show that to somebody who's looking at your resume. Let's call it a nontraditional resume. And the second is don't hesitate to ask question. Go for the informational interview. People want to tell you about how they've gotten to where they are and how you might be able to get there too. And so I say, get on LinkedIn and start asking questions. If one person says yes, and you get no responses I call that a success. Don't be afraid of not getting a response, that's okay. And the last thing, and I think this is the most important thing is to hold onto the things that make you happy no matter where you are in your life. It's important to realize you are more than your job. It is important to remember what makes you happy and try to hang on those. I am a gym rat. I admit that I am a gym rat. I'm in the gym five days a week. I have a horse. I go out to see him at least two or three a days. I know it's typical veterinarian, right? You just collect niches until you run out of things you want to pay for. But those are things that have been constant through 20 plus years of being in the workforce. And they've been what kept me going. Let's revise that in ten years. >> So critical because as we all know tech can be all consuming. It will take everything if you let it. So being able to have... We always talk about the balance. Well, the balance is hard. It's definitely a way to scale, right? It's going back and forth, but being able to hold onto the things that actually make you who you are, I think make you better at your job, probably more productive and happier. >> I agree. I totally agree. >> Another thing that you believe, which I love, this is an important message is that, if you look at a job, I like how you said earlier, the worst they can say is no. You have nothing to lose. And it's really true. As scary as that is same thing with raising your hand as you say, and I agree with you about that. Ask a question. It's not a dumb question. I guarantee you. If you're in a room or you're on a Zoom or even in a slack channel. A fair number of people probably have the same question. Be the one to raise your hand and say, "Maybe I missed this. Can you clarify this?" But you also think that you don't have to meet all the job requirements. If you see something that says, five years experience in this or 10 years in that or must have this degree or that degree, you're saying you don't have to meet all that criteria. >> I agree. Yeah, that's another big thing is that, I'll literally talk to people who are like, "Well, Erin, this job application, look at all these requirements and I can't fill these requirements." I'm like, "First of all, who says you can't?" Just because you don't have a certification, what has your work thus far done to reflect that? Yeah, you can meet that requirement, even if you don't have an official certification. But two, like what's the worst thing that happens. You don't get a call back from a recruiter. That's okay. I have so many friends who are afraid of failure, and I tell them, just fail once doesn't hurt. It never hurts as much as you think it's going to hurt. And then you just keep going. >> You keep going and you learn. But you've also brought up a great point about those transfer growth skills or those soft skills that are so important. Communication skills, for example. Relationship building skills that may not be in that written job description. So you may not think about actually there's a tremendous amount of importance that these skills have. That having this kind of breadth of background. I think is always so interesting we think about thought diversity, and if we're talking about women in tech. We know that the number of women in technical roles is is still pretty low, but there's so much data that shows that companies that have even 30% females on their executive staff are more performant and more profitable. So that thought diversity is important, but we need more women to be able to feel that empowerment I think that you feel. >> Yes. >> So when you think of International Women's Day with the theme of breaking the bias, what does that mean to you and where do you feel we are in terms of breaking the bias? >> Yeah, so it's interesting, I was just on a working group with some of my colleagues from our larger organization at AWS. And we were talking about, what are different kinds of bias and what our strategies to go ahead and combat them. The fact is we are all making progress and it has to be in one step at a time. I don't think that if we snapped our fingers, things would just go away. You have to take one step at a time. I also come at it from a data perspective, right? I'm a data person. I work with data. And like I said, data is, or data are, if you want to be correct. Data are impersonal, right? They are just statistics, their numbers, but you can use data to suddenly say, "Hey, where are the biases? And how can we fix them?" So I'm going to give you a great example. So my mother, again, a wonderful woman, a super amazing role model to me. She was diagnosed with breast cancer last year. And she being a smart lady, actually looked online. She went online on Google Scholar and PubMed Central. And she said, "May, look..." May is my little nickname. She goes, "Look at these numbers." She said, "My prognosis is terrible. Look at these numbers, how can you say that this is worth it. That chemotherapy is worth it." And I looked at it and I said, "Mom, I hate to break this to you. But this is a retrospective study of several thousand women from the Bavarian cancer registry." And you might guess I am not a Bavarian origin. I had a chat with her and I said, "Mom, let's look at the data. What are the data? And how can you take away stuff from this with the caveat that you may very well not have the same genetic background as some of the women or most of the women in this registry." There are biases. We know when we look at population sequencing, when we look at the people who are sequenced, the people who put in medical survey information. There are not representations of certain ethnicities of certain sexes, of certain parts of the country. One of the things I really want to do in the next three years is say, how can we support people who are trying to increase representation and research so that every single woman gets the right care and can feel like they are themselves represented in what we call precision medicine or personalized care. >> Absolutely. >> That's a long story. >> It was a great story. >> That was a long answer to answer your question. >> You talked about how your mom was a great inspiration to you and it sounds like you've been quite a great inspiration to her as well. Was a delight talking with you, Erin. Congratulations on your success on being able to be one of those people that is helping to break the bias. We appreciate your time. >> Thanks, Lisa. >> My pleasure. For Erin Chu, I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching Women in Tech: International Women's Day, 2022. (upbeat music)