Diva Tech Talk was delighted to interview Cindy Warner, whose rich, multi-level career and mission story is inspiring.  Cindy began as a pre-med undergraduate aiming to become an orthopedic surgeon, at the University of California in San Diego. Unfortunately, in her second year, she frequently fainted at the sight of blood, which reoriented her career. So after obtaining her degree in business administration, with a minor in computer science from Grand Valley State University in Michigan, she began an internship at IBM, selling typewriters, and subsequently System 23’s and System 36’s.

There “I learned about this small, innovative company called FedEx,” (www.fedex.com), Cindy said. “The intriguing thing about FedEx was the speed with which they wanted to move packages, through technology. If you wanted to be in technology at FedEx, you needed to be in operations, first.” So Cindy’s initial job was as a courier. She rose to become a FedEx Operations Manager and then ran FedEx’s Eastern Region.  “But I didn’t want my career to be only about transportation.  I wanted to broaden my horizon.”

To do that, Cindy moved back to Southern California where she worked on a large Oracle systems implementation for a Fortune 1000 dental equipment manufacturer. “I loved doing the consulting part, which led me to Ernst and Young.” She spent 9 years at E&Y/Cap Gemini, first implementing back office Oracle deployments, and subsequently moving into front office consulting in the area of customer relationship management. The downsizing of CG’s worldwide consulting operations brought her to next opportunity: building a CRM (customer relationship management) practice, under a one-year contract, for Accenture. “The exciting thing about that time was that Saleforce.com was taking the market by storm,” Cindy said. She was then offered the chance to build out Saleforce.com’s (www.salesforce.com) professional services practice, and create an “enterprise presence” at that company -- an assignment she fulfilled for two and a half years, commuting frequently from Michigan to California and other parts of the globe. She left Salesforce.com at the beginning of the 2008 recession/depression to “spend more time on entrepreneurial ventures.” She already owned a 1938’s-style diner, and unique specialty market in Northern Michigan, and decided to replicate it in downtown Detroit.  “That lasted about a year until we saw the traffic volumes waning, and decided to close the store.”  Cindy then moved over to Alix Partners, a company solely focused on helping large corporations restructure so they could turn around.  “It was deploying a life lesson. It was a cleansing of my soul.  I understood their pain,” she said. “In some cases, I was emotionally vested in helping these companies sustain.”  From there she migrated to become a partner at PWC Consulting for two years where she helped build out their cloud computing and Salesforce.com practices.  She then moved to IBM, to direct its worldwide cloud computing strategy, but the entrepreneurial “itch” returned.

Years before, over lunch with Marc Benioff, founder and CEO for Salesforce.com, Cindy posited the opinion that CRM, at some point in the future, would have to become consumer-centric. That germ of an idea has blossomed into her new startup:  360ofme (www.360ofme.com) which she founded in May, 2016. “The data of YOU is proliferating wildly,” she said.  “And it is in silos of data.”  A consumer’s healthcare information, purchase decisions, ownership decisions, financial records are all held by the organizations with whom the consumer does business. “None of that is in a single place.  None of that has context. We want to give consumers the ability to control their own data, have it with them, share it, and gain insights that will allow them to live better, more predictable lives.”   The 360ofme team demonstrated a prototype at Dreamforce 2016 (Salesforce.com’s annual convention); its first beta version will be available in November, 2016; and there will be full platform launch in January, 2017.  The first three vertical markets will be finance, healthcare, and automotive ---- highly regulated industries with crucial consumer data. “Consumers can intentionally interact with companies in those markets,” Cindy said.

Cindy catalogued her top three leadership strengths as enthusiastic passion for what she does, a belief that everyone should have fun, and a tendency to be highly collaborative.   When speaking about women in leadership roles, she noted that she has always felt the need to prove herself because of that, “I’ve almost felt that I have nothing to lose!”   She also shares her main leadership lessons:

1. Humiliation is not a leadership trait.  
2. Helping people find their voices is essential.
3. Never take “no” for an answer.  “Don’t let people tell you that you can’t!”
4. Don’t take yourself too seriously!  Have fun along the way.

In her philanthropic life, Cindy’s favorite organizations include The Special Olympics, veteran-oriented nonprofits, women in technology causes, and reform of the U.S. justice system as it relates to inmates with mental health issues.   

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