Women in tech Helen Kelisky
Helen Kelisky, Managing Director, Google Cloud UKI
What is your professional background and how has this contributed to your current working position? My whole career, spanning the last three decades has been in tech. I’ve
spent the past 30 years in the industry, leading sales operations for a range of software companies - including IBM and Salesforce. During this time, I’ve honed a specialism in cloud business leadership. My experience has obvious synergies with Google Cloud, so I am really delighted to take this next step in my career. Now is a really exciting time to join Google Cloud, and I’m looking
forward to being able to contribute my experiences in tech sales leadership to continue the momentum building during the last year or so, and lead my team to support new and existing customers through their cloud transformation.
What are your experiences of being a female tech leader? Being a female leader in tech has been and continues to be wonderfully fulfilling. In the 30 years I’ve worked in the industry, I’ve found that when sometimes being the only female in a circle of other tech leaders, it’s important to lead by example and help expand the diversity of voices. Striving for success means climbing that ladder, but also doing all you can to pull other women up with you. I think now, the game is changing, and women in senior tech positions
are becoming less rare which is wonderful to see, but we still have more to do. I feel very privileged to have worked with impressive female leaders throughout my career, and watch them fill boardrooms, adding more diversity and new ideas to inspire the industry’s next generation.
What challenges have you encountered if any being a female in the tech sector? The tech industry is an incredibly fast-paced and dynamic world, and there are so many opportunities for women to disrupt, innovate, and make a difference. That being said, there are some areas of the industry that remain very male-orientated and more needs to be done to drive gender equality. Leaders in these areas need to be the ones to create change by focusing
on how they can attract, retain and develop people from all walks of life. Tackling unconscious bias in the hiring process is critical to avoid ending up with a homogenous leadership team. For businesses to grow, it’s essential to have fresh perspectives and ideas that come from having a diverse team.
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What are your interests and passions in regards to working in the tech channel? Since the beginning of my career, the multifaceted and fast-paced nature of the tech industry has continued to be a major pull factor. Through its extraordinary rate of change, the sector is never short of new innovations and ideas which, for me at least, pique an ongoing cycle of fresh interests and renewed passions. I am never bored! As my professional background suggests, one area I am
particularly interested in is cloud. I’ve honed a specialism in cloud business leadership, and am constantly in awe of its importance to digitally transforming businesses and society. Of course, the tech channel is a vital part of this process. Partner resellers, ISVs, and systems integrators are integral to the Google Cloud ecosystem. We prioritise channel collaboration to create the best possible customer value, and appreciate the integral part channel partners play in our mission to deliver widespread digital and data transformation.
How can the channel drive greater diversity in the sector? In my experience some areas of the sector, the reseller community for example, remain quite male orientated, and it’s important that these areas prioritise driving greater diversity. One way they can do this is through proactive attraction and retention strategies. They must actively address unconscious bias in the recruitment process, and consider new ways to attract, retain and develop people from all walks of life. Practically, this may mean implementing mandatory unconscious
bias training, precise language courses, reassessing interview techniques or focusing on qualitative business elements, like flexible working, to make businesses more inclusive, and more attractive to all.
How can the channel look to attract more females into leadership positions within the channel? Channel businesses tend to be on the smaller side, which means they’re more agile. Because of this, they offer a huge opportunity for career advancement, and the means to drive greater diversity at all levels of the workforce. Implementing inclusive hiring processes and diversity initiatives are essential for attracting more females into the sector, but they need to operate in a diverse environment during their career to make it into the boardroom.
May 2022 | 45
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