Carlos Armando Garcia is the CEO and Founder of Finhabits, the leading money app for the U.S. Latinos. He has 18 years of financial and technology experience and was named by Goldman Sachs as one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2020. He has a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT.

Dr. Sarah Haynes has worked in multiple sectors that cover international e-micro mobility/transportation tech startups, research, education, business development, venture capital, behavioral health, and risk management.

She has served as a member of the full-time clinical research faculty at Georgetown School of Medicine and as a health educator and a team leader/project manager for NIH research grant to improve health outcomes for minority women in five leading hospitals in Washington, D.C. She is a tech entrepreneur, philanthropist, educator/professor, activist, community builder, volunteer, and mother. She combines all of these varied disciplines, mindsets, and strategies to collaborate with her Community towards maximizing happiness and balance.

Paula Santamaria has experience working in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. She currently serves as the Chief of Staff to the Global Head for Displays & Accessories at HP, Inc.

Prior to working at HP, Paula served as a Political Appointee during the Obama Administration where she worked at the National Endowment for the Arts and the Inter-American Development Bank.

Paula, a former Colombian asylee, is very passionate about serving the community and helping young people find their paths through high school and beyond. Throughout her career, Paula has been actively involved with various political campaigns and nonprofits. She currently serves on the Houston Mayor’s Hispanic Advisory Board, the Ivy Fellows Advisory Board, and as a mentor and school speaker for Project Grad. In addition, she is an Aspiring Latino Leaders Fellow through Latinos for Education. At HP, she co-founded the first Latino Business Impact Network (ERG) and co-curated the HP H-Town Tech Camp, an immersive STEM-focused event for low-SES high school women.

Paula has a BA in Political Science and Marketing from the University of Houston, and will be attending MIT Sloan’s School of Management in Fall 2021.

Vidette Pires leads organizations through successful technology initiatives and transformations. With a 15-year track record of building teams, products and technology programs from the ground up, Vidette is consistently sought to solve long standing challenges and drive results. Vidette Peris is seeking an opportunity which leverages her technology and people management skills to positively impact the lives of people.

Episode transcription:

C: All right. Vidette Pires, welcome to the Ivy Podcast. Thank you so much for being with me today.

V: Likewise. Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to be here, to be talking on a subject that we both are so passionate about.

C: It's true. I don't get to interview a lot of women in technology because you know, there's so few of us, so this is especially exciting to me to be able to interview somebody that I know has had a lot of similar experiences and background as I had. So can you tell us a little bit about your background and what it is you're doing in your current role?

V: Of course. So in the last 10 years, specifically as a technology executive, I've been managing the IT function for organizations and these days coordinate technology is moving so fast. I find myself at the table for anything from digital transformation to enterprise solution. Cybersecurity, you talk deliberately, the list is long and exciting. But that's not where my career started. My career actually started 20 years ago as a software engineer. And I spent my first decade in it. Really just immersed with Tahquitz from project management and business analysis, engineering, architecture, just supporting real senior leader executives in transforming organizations. And along the way, I was really blessed to work with a lot of leaders.

С: Well, great. And I know as female executives, you've held various positions within technology, starting from a developer and moving up through the ranks. So what are some of the challenges that you see that are facing women? Both in it. And in corporate culture and organizations in general.

V: Gosh, so many things, so many thoughts of flooding remind me right now. Okay. Let me just start out by saying that woman or a man in it, it's a challenging function. The fact that today we expect it to be on 24, seven, 365 days a year. And we bring high pressure on work-life balance and new sourcing, but specific to when, and I've experienced some of these challenges. I've supported women peers in. The first thing that comes to mind is mentoring. You know, we may have expressed time and time again, that they are looking to further their career. They're looking to broaden your skill set and are looking to partner with people who will help them in that journey. And they find that they cannot really find mentors and partners to help them. The other thing that comes to mind is gender bias. Whether you're in technology or whether you're on the executive track, we are conditioned and this is not something we're doing intentionally. It is just decades of conditioning. We think that these roles are lending towards men, whether it's executive class or technology for that matter, even doctors and surgeons, right. It's just not necessarily something bad we're doing. We are just going to care for these mind models along the way. And in that week where you've been paying inequality. The McKinsey report this year shows that women are making 81 cents the dollar in comparison to their male peers. And that gap actually widens as women progress in their career. And what's even more questioning is that women of color actually make about some heights and in comparison to the men. And then there's a lot of winning expires. The need to have to fit in with the boys. They express having to change their communication style, their leadership style and management style, presentation styles in order to be like, if they're in and that can be very draining. And while we are talking about a boys club, there is als

Joshua Hecht is originally from New Jersey and moved to Fort Lauderdale 10 years ago.  He has been involved in recruitment, human resources, and business development since 2006, and in a leadership role for the past 10 years.

He has led global teams in very matrixed and KPI driven environments.  Some success stories of Joshua’s achievements include winning a global CEO prize for the highest number of sales/deals within recruitment two years in a row, and was rewarded with trips to Dubai for both wins.  Another major milestone Joshua has met was implementing a global recruitment function/team with opening offices in the UK, Barcelona, and Singapore, along with managing offices in Florida and Houston, TX. 

Joshua has been with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines for about two years now as a Lead Recruiter for the New-build and Fleet Modernization departments.  He is married and has a baby girl on the way.  His passions include fitness, football, and mentoring and leading a successful team.

Episode transription:

P: Welcome to Ivy podcast. I am your host Priscilla Torres, and I am being joined with Joshua Hecht who currently serves as a talent acquisition leader for Royal Caribbean group. Joshua is not only a subject matter expert in recruitment, human resources and business development since 2006. But he has served in a variety of leadership capacities for the last 10 years, has led global teams in matrix and KPI driven environments, and is incredibly passionate about some of the topics that we're going to talk about today. So Josh, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for joining us.

J: Thank you for having me. I appreciate this and I love joining anything related to at Ivy Podcast.

P: Nice. Thank you. I very much appreciate that. So if you don't mind getting us started and kind of just sharing a little bit more about what your day-to-day or what your career is.

J: So the day-to-day is obviously changed a little bit due to COVID. Pre COVID I'm obviously here at Royal Caribbean. I was responsible for our new build and fleet modernization departments, recruiting all different types of talent, hiring for a number of departments within those two post COVID roles have definitely changed. We've seen our departments transform into something that we've never seen before, due to these unprecedented times. So my role now on top of recruitment or new build and fleet modernization, I'm responsible for logistics, procurement, supply chain, global Marine operations, and then on top of that, we've undergone a number of projects where we were tightening up and buttoning up the process for Royal. Once we get the green light to return to service, we will be completely ready, safe, and sound for our crew, our passengers, and our communities. And we've just been working on these projects very diligently on hopefully coming to a fruition very soon.

P: I completely agree. I know that it's been tough specifically with the hospitality industry and the impacts. I mean, COVID-19 for the most part has impacted all businesses, but more so for hospitality and I've love to see these cruise industries or different hospitality organizations who have really been. Incorporating crisis leadership as one of their fundamentals in the way that they're leading their organizations forward, just to provide hope, to continue that momentum and that excitement within their staff to keep going. And I know that's one of my favorite topics on crisis leadership and an area that I've been studying. So, can you tell me a little bit more about how the COVID-19 obviously impacted your industry? What type of strategies or practices did you put in place to practice that crisis leadership within your organization?

J: Great question. And of course, why not start off with that? Because I think that's the most relevant, most important to us, to you, to everybody. I think globally, I worked very closely with our global security team. Our global security te

Khalid is Senior Vice President, Chief Digital Officer at TBC Corporation. He is a technologist at heart who loves to brainstorm tech architecture & design and rapid build out of technology solutions for his stakeholders. Khalid is a servant technology leader who believes in building bridges and venues to mentor & nurture future digital & tech leaders. Prior to joining TBC, Khalid led the e-Commerce team as Vice President of e-Commerce & Digital platforms. His tenure with Office Depot spanned 11 years in roles of increasing responsibility advancing through roles spanning application development, global systems, e-Commerce and digital business platforms. Before joining Office Depot, Khalid held software engineer roles and network support roles at Florida International University and The Answer Group supporting Bell South.

Khalid received his Master of Science degree in computer science with a focus on distributed multimedia systems and 3D animation systems from Florida International University and his Bachelor of Science in computer science with a minor in economics from North Carolina State University.

Chris is a growth-oriented, visionary executive with a proven track record of exceptional performance in both public and private businesses. Expertise in business transformation, turnarounds, P&L management, strategy development, cost restructuring, operations, mergers & acquisitions, carve-outs, IPO leadership and global partnership development/management.

An expert on authentic leadership, Kimberly Davis shares her inspirational message of personal power, responsibility and impact with organizations across the country and teaches leadership programs world-wide; most notably, her program “OnStage Leadership” which runs in NYC and Dallas, TX. 

Additionally, Kimberly teaches for Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business’ Executive Education Program and their Latino Leadership Initiative; as well as for the Bush Institute’s WE Lead program (empowering female leaders from the middle east). Kimberly is a TEDx speaker and her award-winning book, Brave Leadership: Unleash Your Most Confident, Authentic, and Powerful Self to Get the Results You Need was named the #1 book to read on Inc. Magazine’s “The most impactful books to read in 2018” and has a cover endorsement by Dan Pink.

Helen Young Hayes is the founder and CEO of Activate Workforce Solutions PBC. Activate’s mission is to help under-served individuals achieve their fullest potential through the dignity of work. Activate is the culminationof Helen’s past for-profit and nonprofit experience–harnessing the power of the marketplace to achieve profound social impact. By moving individuals to self-sufficiency, Activate creates triple wins for employers,placements, and the community. Helen delights in spotting the hidden potential in the unsung talents of the individuals she serves at Activate.

The daughter of Chinese immigrants, Helen is a believer in and the embodiment of the American Dream. But the American Dream–a life of flourishing–is elusive, as generational poverty becomes the default for too many men and women from underrepresented populations. Activate bridges the gap between individual potential and realized success through matching and placing individuals into self-sustaining careers and through intensivecoaching of personal, professional and financial skills. Activate seeks not only to advance economic and professional success but to transform lives through the learning and mastery of new habits, mindsets anddisciplines.

Ashleigh Wilson is the Founder and CEO of AuditMate, a vertical transportation software and management company.

AuditMate is on a mission to empower building owners and managers with data-driven maintenance auditing products that radically simplify vendor management and selection.

Ashleigh believes that in order to do well, we must start by doing right, and is proving this by making vertical transportation management accessible and simple.