Tech in the Right Direction

This week's guest is Dr. Nicole Tschierske - a scientist and positive psychology coach. Nicole is passionate about helping overlooked women in STEM become influential to confidently unlock new opportunities for themselves. Nicole lives in Hamburg, Germany, is a food chemist by training and holds a Ph. D. in chemistry next to certifications in coaching, positive psychology, change management, and a...

This week's guest is Evelyn Sheahan, Director of Business Programs for Azure Cloud and AI at Microsoft. She has a background in technology, business management, and marketing. Evelyn has a wide range of corporate and field experience and has worked in sales-enablement programs developed to drive multi-million-dollar sales with increased efficiencies. Today we talk about Evelyn's beginnings and how...

This week's guest is Sharan Hildebrand, Vice-President of Strategic Alliances for the North American division of Hitachi Solutions. Sharan has more than 15 years of client development and consulting experience in the IT industry. She is passionate about partnering with customers and other corporate organizations to leverage technology that helps people reach their top-line goals and address their...

This week's guest is Sowmya Murthy, Chief Customer Officer with Seven Lakes Technologies - a SaaS company that focuses on empowering people to gain insights and take timely action on Production, Capex, Opex, Reserves, Regulatory and Compliance metrics of over 100,000 wells of the 1 million wells in the US. Sowmya has a passion for measurable revenue growth outcomes by implementing disruptive busin...

This week's guest is Elisabeth Bohlmann, VP of Client Strategy for December Labs - a company that focuses on building vibrant and game-changing products for Enterprise corporations, such as Google, Accenture, Zurich, Santander & Nest, along with Silicon Valley’s top-funded startups and growth-stage companies. Elisabeth is a versatile cross-functional marketing executive specializing in defining an...

This week's guest is Jen Snyder, Chief Evangelist at GovQA - a provider of SaaS-based collaboration tools enabling the nation's top cities, counties, and state agencies to process complex work while facilitating internal and external communications in a highly secure environment. Jen is also a guest speaker and moderator for government events, roundtables, and associations with nearly fifteen year...

This week's guest is Kris Blackmon, the Chief Channel Officer at JS Group - a management consulting firm specializing in creating impactful indirect go-to-market strategies for tech firms. Kris has been in the channel market for several years now, which she has used to develop her skills and grow into an executive role within JS Group. She is passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion, and...

This week's guest is Holley Hunt, Sales Director at IntelliSite - an organization that focuses on turnkey IoT solutions that build out to a wide range of managed applications that create connected businesses and actionable outcomes. Holley has been passionately involved in the security industry for over 20 years. She currently represents innovations in IoT, AI, and Computer Vision for smarter and...

This week's guest is Shindy Chen, the Founder and CEO of Scribe - a global financial content consultancy and agency based in New York. As a former guest contributor and on-air expert for media outlets such as The Huffington Post and Cheddar TV, she wrote on fintech, credit, lifestyle, career, and travel advice. She has also authored three books:    "The Credit Cleanup Book"​ (Praeger) was publishe...

Christine Bongard is the President of the WIT (Women in Tech) Network, and she is joining us in this week’s episode to discuss the amazing work her organization does. The WIT Network is present in over 30 countries worldwide and it is working diligently on encouraging women and girls to pursue careers in the technology sector, enable more women to attain leadership positions and support more femal...

Joining us in this week’s episode of our podcast is Sarika Malhotra, a dynamic business leader who spent over 25 years consulting companies around the world, helping them with their IT needs. Today, Sarika is the founder and CEO of C3IT Software Solutions and a community leader at IAMCP, a not-for-profit working with the Microsoft Partner Channel, however she told us her amazing journey in the wor...

This week's guest is Sherlaender (Lani) Phillips, the VP of US Channel Sales for Microsoft. Lani brings over 20 years of experience in managing transformation in technology and inclusive leadership. As a recognized member of Microsoft leadership, Lani has been a driving force behind creating a more diverse and inclusive workforce which in turn has made Microsoft a centerpiece for positive reform w...

This week's guest is Gavriella Schuster, Corporate VP of Commercial Partners at Microsoft. Gavriella currently leads a global portfolio of channel partners that has influenced over $1 trillion in ecosystem revenues through Microsoft's fastest-growing ecosystem. She has over 20 years of leadership in digital and cloud transformation roles, driving strategy and execution spanning all aspects of the...

This week's guest is Aja Hill, Director of Modern Workplace Customer Success - Federal at Microsoft. Aja's primary focus is on ensuring Microsoft customers achieve full adoption of their Microsoft Teams technology. She does this by giving the customer full visibility into what they own, developing plans to train end-users to use the technology, and encouraging end-users to make the technology thei...

This week's guests are Megan McCann, Jane Hamner, and Leslie Vickrey. Megan is an established IT recruitment and technology services leader known for building and leading highly successful IT services firms and for her work to advance diversity and cultivate talent across the technology industry. Jane is a dedicated and seasoned IT staffing professional with more than 30 years of experience delive...

This week's guests are Colette Buscemi and Melody Roberts. Colette is the Director of Women's Innovation Learning Labs at the Women's Business Development Center. The organization is focused on supporting and accelerating innovation by and between women business owners, subject matter experts, and corporate partners. Melody is the CEO and Co-Founder of Liv-Labs. They focus on combining self-care t...

This week's guest is Rhonda Cook, a Senior Director of Customer Success at Microsoft. Rhonda is responsible for managing the adoption, consumption, and digital transformation for all United States Federal Agencies, Military Services, and Intelligence Organizations. Her focus is to ensure all aspects of these organizations have their needs met when it comes to their usage of all Microsoft 365 offer...

This week's guest is Lori McColl, the CEO and Founder of Whim-Detroit, a technology startup and digital transformation group that focuses on implementing agile solutions. She is passionate about sharing her experience in the tech industry and growing a new business. Lori has been a guest speaker at several events, including the future of retail and social movements at the Women's Convention, Socia...

This week's guest is Tina Eskridge, a Senior Director of Marketing at Microsoft. Tina is responsible for digital marketing, strategy and analytics, marketing technology, and inclusion with a focus on the delivery of best-in-class services. Before joining Microsoft in 2012, Tina spent more than 17 years in strategic roles across various industries. Tina started her career in supply-chain and market...

This week's guest is Cathy Moya, a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft. Cathy's primary focus is to bring customers and engineers together to create better technology products. Cathy's ability to bring people together has allowed her to grow her program and become a successful member of the Microsoft team. Cathy saw the disconnect between people who are heavily involved in tech vs. those who work...

This week's guest is Lisa Heite, a Partner Development Manager at Microsoft, with a passion for helping others. Lisa's story revolves around living, studying, and working around the world. She gained a wide range of experience throughout her international travel and has used that to bring a unique perspective to the tech industry. Her ideas and approach give her an edge when it comes to solving pr...

This week's guest is Leah Faul, the Founder and Owner of 15000 Cubits − a digital marketing agency that focuses on SEO, social media, and paid media to support small and mid-sized companies' growth. Leah started the company in 2015 and has grown it into the thriving enterprise it is today. That success hasn't gone unrecognized as Leah was recently named to the Houston Business Journal's 40 Under 4...

This week's guest is Lori McDonald, a former flight controller at NASA and now the President and CEO of Brilliance Business Solutions. Lori is recognized as an industry expert in her field and is a speaker on website creation, eCommerce, and digital strategy at business conferences. Lori has remained on the cutting edge of business solutions by continually learning, evolving, and adapting to chang...

This week's guest is Heather Stratford, the founder and CEO of Stronger International. As a thought leader in cybersecurity, Heather keynotes at conferences, universities, and large financial institutions on the importance of keeping their data secure. She continually writes on cybersecurity and was a featured guest at the 2018 G-7 Summit in Canada. Heather also regularly speaks on entrepreneurshi...

This week's guest is Karen Chastain, a proven leader in strategic alliance management among some of the world's largest technology companies and a Senior Director of Global Alliances at Episerver. Karen has over 20 years of experience in partner relationship management, strategic business planning, and marketing. This background has allowed her to consistently deliver results by developing mutuall...