This month, SADA has been celebrating the contributions of women in the tech industry. We’ve highlighted our DEI efforts, reflected with SADA’s female co-founder, and explored how to show up as an ally for our female colleagues. Behind the scenes, we’ve held a number of gatherings where we’ve discussed the history of women technologists and celebrated the achievements of women at SADA.
To round out Women’s History month, we’d like to feature some recent thought leadership produced by women at SADA. From executives to engineers, women at SADA are influencing the direction of cloud technology with their insights. Here are just a few examples of what these ten brilliant leaders have to offer.
1. Annie Safoian, SADA Co-founder
SADA exists because of Annie Safoian. Her vision turned a humble home business designing business cards into the Google Cloud Partner of the Year that SADA is today. Annie refuses to accept gender-based limitations, and her accomplishments speak for themselves. Be sure to read her recent interview in which she reflects on her company’s remarkable journey.
2. Orkideh Shahidi, SVP, People Operations
SADA is routinely recognized with awards, and Orkideh is a big reason why. In this podcast she talks about making strides in the areas of training and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), and in this podcast, she discusses what it takes to build an award-winning culture from the ground up.
3. Narine Galstian, Chief Marketing Officer
Narine oversees SADA’s marketing and communications, which includes everything from public relations to social media, podcasts, demand generation, and events and conferences. Tune into this podcast for her reflections on becoming a woman leader in tech, and read her blog post on how to be a change agent. For more of Narine’s insights, check out this podcast about leadership in a time of crisis, as well as her interview with MariaDB CMO Franz Aman.
4. Michelle Ambrose, Chief of Staff
Bringing diverse perspectives to leadership decisions is in Michelle Ambrose’s DNA. Listen to this podcast interview with SADA CEO Tony Safoian in which she explains her worldview. And in this podcast episode, she explores the cultural impact of Google Workspace.
5. Veronica Raulin, Director, Organizational Change Management
Veronica is an expert when it comes to evolving quickly and charting a path to growth. See her blog post detailing change management best practices, her insights into how Google compares to Microsoft, and her opinions on Docs vs. Word.
6. Kelly Wright, Director, Google Workspace
What challenges do women face when they first enter male-dominant industries? Kelly Wright reflects on entry-level hurdles in this interview with C2C, Google Cloud’s global community. And in this video, Kelly offers guidance on how to become a Google Certified Professional Collaboration Engineer.
7. Nikki Harley, Director, Strategic Alliances
Mutually beneficial partnerships mean growing opportunities for all. Be sure to check out Nikki Harley’s blog post on SADA’s thriving SaaS Alliance Program and hear her insights on how to accelerate growth with SaaS alliances in this podcast.
8. Heather Sheston, Director of Public Sector
Heather oversees engagements with government agencies and other organizations working for the common good. She recently announced the launch of an innovative new scheduling tool powered by Google Cloud, and in a podcast interview with CEO Tony Safoian, discussed how to embrace remote work in the public sector. In this podcast, she explores a cloud transformation success story with the State of Maryland Department of IT.
9. Courtney Graham, Director of Sales, Central and Southwest
In this podcast episode, Courtney Graham discusses how she broke boundaries and succeeded in the tech industry, including her work on a key DEI effort and supporting the next generation of women in STEM.
10. Heather Tran, Director of Technical Account Management
As a leader of Google Cloud engineers, Heather Tran tackles technical problems every day. Check out a series of videos for the C2C network in which she describes her professional journey.
We applaud these women’s insights and accomplishments, and look forward to welcoming more strategy and wisdom from female leadership in the months to come. As Women’s History month 2022 comes to a close, it’s clear that women at SADA aren’t just observing history. They’re making it.
