Innovation to Impact – Building a Stronger Future By Fostering a Culture of Empowerment

In this conversation among five fascinating multidisciplinary women, the discussion often returned to how women could advance each other in their workplaces. One of these ways was by creating safety, equity, and above all, empowerment. The support that these women offer their teams and their networks will aid in creating the next generation of business leaders, who in turn can foster exponential growth over their careers.

Moderator: Lilit Davtyan
CEO Phonexa

As Phonexa’s EVP and CFO, Lilit Davtyan shapes the company’s business development, strategic growth, client relationships, operational transformation and financial health. She also spearheads the company’s community service initiatives, including the company’s Phonexa Cares campaign. Davtyan, who is also a CPA, has over 10 years of experience in business and tax planning. She has worked with numerous Fortune 500 companies in her career and has extensive familiarity with the financial industry. Davtyan received her B.B.A. from Woodbury University and received her Masters of Business Taxation from the Marshall School of Business at USC.

Panelists

Christine Duque
Global Partner, Customer Transformation IBM

Christine Duque is currently a global partner with IBM Consulting’s customer transformation practice leading the data, AI and customer experience delivery offering. She also leads the global Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Data Cloud practices. Duque balances the art and science of marketing by creatively making use of data, AI and technology, strategic branding and expression to build stronger connections and interactions between customers and brands. She graduated with a degree in vocal performance, music history and theory from Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music and is an accomplished operatic soprano who recently made her Carnegie Hall debut.

Melissa McGuire
Director, Google Cloud Enterprise Google

Melissa McGuire is a director of Google Cloud sales, focused on high-growth enterprise accounts. She is passionate about building high-performing teams that consistently overdeliver on sales targets by focusing on driving positive outcomes for her customers. Starting at Google in 2013, she managed several products before joining Google Cloud in 2018. McGuire has enjoyed the explosive growth of Cloud, growing Cloud revenue substantially. Prior to Google, she spent most of her career selling ERP and CRM solutions at Oracle and SAP. Outside of work, she enjoys exercise, attending her son’s sporting events and spending time with her husband and Labradoodle.

Jen Wei
VP, Communications & Corporate Development Belkin

Jen Wei is the head of global communications and corporate development at Belkin International. She leads a worldwide team responsible for developing communications strategies which include media relationships, partnership relationships, thought leadership and events. Wei also investigates greenfield technologies, potential mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures to keep Belkin on the cutting edge of technology and innovation. The corporate development arm of her business is responsible for strategic decisions to grow and restructure the business, establish strategic partnerships, and achieve organizational excellence with the intention to drive long-term and relevant sustainable growth and enterprise value.

Jill Griffin
Consultant

A visionary leader transforming high-growth businesses through innovation and impactful M&A, Jill Griffin’s 28-year career includes impactful leadership roles and cultivating strong working relationships with leaders of many of the world’s largest corporations. With unique executive acumen and collaborative skills, she has been instrumental in the evolution of a $40-million marketing agency to a nearly $2-billion dominant industry leader. Griffin has demonstrated expertise in consumer packaged goods, omnichannel retail, data and technology, brand licensing and consumer software and more. She has a B.S. in business from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management and a B.A. in Spanish from the University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts.

VIDEO | 42:19

Innovation to Impact: Fostering a Culture of Empowerment

Shared Insights From the Event

ON THE IMPACT OF EMPOWERMENT AND ITS EFFECT ON WORKPLACE CULTURE AS A WHOLE

Christine Duque: Empowered teams are so exciting, and throughout my career, I’ve been able to see a lot of folks that have graduated from college come in the consulting world and see them grow into their careers, whether they stay in consulting or they go elsewhere. To see that empowerment and seeing someone really shine and rise in all aspects of their lives, not just in their career, I think that that’s really important as leaders. It’s also important for leadership on top of us to empower us to be able to show up in our authentic best.

Jill Griffin: I know even in my career, whenever I was tapped for a promotion, and I don’t know if anybody relates to this, but I always had this self-doubt. I had to really latch on to that sponsor’s empowering belief in me to have a reset of, “If they see it, it’s there.” Then, I would work so hard to make them proud. And this really circular effect that happens when someone believes in you and then you work so hard to become what they said you could be, that obviously opens up more opportunity.

Jen Wei: I like to think about how the concept of empowerment has shifted over the years. It used to be boardroom power suits, cutthroat culture, mergers, acquisitions - it’s shifted a bit. I think as more women step into positions of power, we look at empowerment as sharing of power. If I am empowered, you are empowered. If you win, I win. It’s a team effort.

Melissa McGuire: A couple years ago when I took over my role as a leader of Enterprise Cloud, I took it over from my boss. Initially, I felt responsible for running his blueprint. I felt constrained, and I had to work with him about creating space for myself so I could be authentic and I could put my own imprint on the business. As he began to let go, it actually empowered me to deliver even greater results. I think that’s why empowerment is such a hot topic because when you get it right, you deliver outsized results.

ON EMPOWERING WOMEN WITHIN THE STEM DISCIPLINES THAT CAN BE MALE-DOMINATED

Duque: It comes down to culture and how do you as well navigate through that culture to try to be that change agent? It is a two-way street. It is a two-way conversation around what that looks like from empowerment as well. And it’s an education for men - equity is a two-sided conversation. You need men of quality that respect women’s equality at the table to also pound that table for you. It doesn’t happen overnight, and it really has to be part of that conversation.

McGuire: My team sells very technical solutions. We meet with engineers, product managers, business leaders and what I’ve noticed is when I have a diverse team, I have a diversity of ideas: different perspectives, different thoughts and that enables my team to actually build better solutions for my customers. It’s really important to have diversity amongst teams because you will drive better outcomes. And so if you want to pursue STEM - pursue it passionately and don’t let anyone define your capability.

ON HOW TO TRANSITION CAREERS TO GET WHAT YOU WANT/NEED OUT OF WORK

Griffin: Maybe you have your degree in one thing and suddenly you have to, or you’re asked to, take on a role in a different functional area in your business. But the more authentic experience you have in the various disciplines, the better you’ll be in a higher leadership role. Being a lifelong learner, I would just say the fundamental advice is be open, be flexible, hear out any opportunity and get out of your comfort zone as often as you possibly can.

Wei: I have my master’s in environmental, atmospheric and oceanic science - it is a lifetime between that degree and who I am today. I have been a teacher, a naturalist at an aquarium, and a bartender. None of those careers panned out, but every single experience I’ve had has completely contributed to who I am today as VP of communications and corp dev at Belkin. With my master’s degree in environmental science, my boss and I put our heads together and created our first executive sustainability committee. So I’m still hugging trees just on behalf of a corporation. Every day I’m teaching, I’m learning, working with my team, still being a teacher. And anyone who’s worked in the hospitality business knows you earn a PhD in dealing with personalities and different kinds of people. So I think all of these experiences make you who you are - every experience is meaningful and will lend itself to the power of who you are today.