CIO OPINION technical roadmap and future visions for the business without any kind of gender barriers .
About me
Over the past 30 years , I ’ ve built and increased revenue streams , overseen complex program management , managed global IT teams , managed clients , products and programmes , and overseen budgets , P & L , outsourcing and managed services .
Being CIO means I also sit on the board at PE , and this is another area of business that needs gender parity . Compared to men , there are still very few women on boards , especially in the tech sector . Not only does this mean that once again , women feel obliged to prove themselves as they feel under constant scrutiny , it also means the recommendations made by women on boards can often be undermined or dismissed .
In my roles , I ’ ve bridged the gap between business and technical teams , combining my business knowledge ( commodities trading and financial ) and technical skills .
During my career , I ’ ve worked for a variety of leading companies including ION , Aspect , SunGard , Nasdaq Smarts Group , Vedaris and Enpaas . My client base has included Anglo American , BG , Shell , Statoil , BP and the London Stock Exchange . It was during my time at Aspect that I helped the company increase revenue and reduce costs by aligning business and IT strategies , launching a partner programme , standardising packages to offer and transitioning to an outsourced IT management model .
This lack of female representation means a lack of diversity of thought . Women bring a different perspective to the boardroom and have an alternative way of looking at things . For example , women can easily multitask and some are born leaders and managers ; women who enter technical fields are usually very strong in technical skills and are often very committed to what they decide to do .
That ’ s not to say their male counterparts aren ’ t , it ’ s just that by empowering women to become board members , the senior leadership team can be strengthened and bolstered by new viewpoints that may otherwise not be considered .
As CIO at PE , I play a key role in establishing processes , teams and tools for making the firm ’ s cloud SaaS solution delivery successful ; I oversee the cloud platform and technical strategy , including architecture , infrastructure , software engineering as well as services including a 24- hour global support desk .
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