Exploring the many ways technology and tech leaders are reshaping and re-imagining how we work and live in today’s ever-changing world.

On this episode, Chief Digital Technology Officer and your host, Anna Frazzetto, interviews Leslie Vickrey, CEO and Founder at full-service marketing agency ClearEdge Marketing. Leslie is an entrepreneur and longtime advocate for workforce equity, known for her “take action” mindset. She’s a thought leader, a mentor, and a change catalyst in the talent and tech industry who is ahead of her time regarding workforce flexibility and remote work. In fact, the ClearEdge team has been fully remote since its inception. She also co-founded ARA, a 6,000 member-strong professional organization dedicated to attracting, retaining, and advancing women in tech. 

Through her work with ARA, Leslie has gained an insider view of how the pandemic has affected professional women and their careers. Noting that while the disruption impacted women overall (with 1 in 4 women considering leaving the workforce or downshifting their careers versus 1 in 5 men), there are three influential groups that were hit the hardest: working mothers, women in senior management positions, and black women. To prevent further losses, Leslie encourages leaders in the talent and tech space to ask themselves, “What do our employees need? And are we asking them individually and as a group to better understand how we can help them?”    

As they move through discussions of advancing women in the industry, Leslie explains how while nearly half of our workforce is female at the entry level, the ratio dramatically decreases when you get to the C-suite with a makeup of 21% and just 4% women of color. A few of the potential solutions? Thoughtfully build succession plans and create new seats at the table for women. 

As the conversation continues, Anna and Leslie discuss why we need to pull up an executive seat for DEI, Leslie’s advice for entrepreneurs, and how we should better utilize our positions of power to help raise others up. We hope you enjoy this episode. 

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