LaVerne Cose
Vice President/Division Manager
SAIC
After entering college at age 15, LaVerne graduated with a degree in psychology and committed to serve her country as a Naval officer. It was at this time that she began developing her leadership and mentoring skills. Subsequent career moves took her into the corporate world, first as a systems engineer and subsequently advancing to management of the Navy’s $100 million Academic Catalog Management System program. Known for her strong, transparent and collaborative management approach, LaVerne now leads SAIC’s Planning and Communications Systems Division.
LaVerne’s career successes are based in her deeply held conviction that one is successful only when they help others to become successful. Her strategic vision and leadership by example help inspire her employees to excellence. She, in turn, provides them with the opportunities to grow and excel. As a result, her division has become a Center of Excellence for software development and delivery of quality products. Understanding the value of both formal and informal mentorship, she has mentored a number of women through the years. LaVerne has taken an active role in the SAIC Women’s Network for several years and led its outreach program for two years. Under her leadership, the outreach committee conducted community activities including working at the Food Bank, Operation Backpack for military families, donations to Dress for Success, and Halloween parties for 300 children at the USO.
LaVerne demonstrates her belief in community service through action. For more than 10 years, she led her church’s youth group with activities that included service projects around the country, organized spoken word events, fund raising dinners, and leadership sessions. Many of the group stayed with her throughout her tenure. LaVerne served on the advisory board of the Speak for Success Women's Leadership Institute, whose mission is to empower women who have overcome adversity to be leaders in their lives, families and communities. Her contribution helped kick off the “Circle of Hope” donation efforts where she personally raised more than $5,000 toward scholarships for these future leaders, and influenced others to be part of the advisory board. For three years, LaVerne has supported CAUSE, a program to provide wounded warriors free movies and video games. Recognizing her extensive corporate and community activities, LaVerne is a recipient of the YMCA Twin Award.
Shawn Covell
Vice President
Qualcomm, Inc.
Covell has been with Qualcomm for more than a decade. Currently she is a vice president and leads the company’s Wireless Reach Initiative, public affairs, and has a leadership role in government affairs operations. Prior to her current position, she was senior director of Southeast Asia Government Affairs, based in Hong Kong. In this role, Covell directed Qualcomm's public policy agenda and its relationship with government entities in Southeast Asia.
Prior to joining Qualcomm, Covell was manager of congressional affairs at the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA), the largest U.S. wireless industry association. She began her career in politics in 1994 working at the U.S. Capitol as an aide to former Congresswoman Lynn Schenk.
Covell has spent more than 16 years as an exemplary role model and advocate for the advancement of women. As vice president of government affairs at Qualcomm, she incubated a new arm of the business in 2006 aimed at extending the reach of wireless connectivity to people around the world. Hiring a team of mostly women and encouraging them to execute their ideas, “Wireless Reach” now has 73 projects in 31 countries. With her support, women on her team advance quickly, are frequently put in front of executives, and are consistently recognized and rewarded for their work. Covell fosters ways for her team to gain valuable experience as leaders by facilitating relationships with more than 250 partners and managing projects worldwide, many of which are devoted to improving the lives of women. She coaches women to be excellent managers open to new responsibilities and cultivates individual skills and interests.
Covell is on the board of the San Diego World Trade Organization and the San Diego Children's Museum.
Kim Folsom
CEO
ShowUhow
Kim Folsom has achieved success in her career and the technology industry with hard work and determination. She founded two venture- backed companies and raised more than $25 million in funding. Her current company, ShowUhow, has tripled revenue the last three years and hired more than 12 women in key management roles and as consultants. Women comprise 50 percent of her 17-person team. Last year, she was nominated to the CEA (Consumer Electronic Association) board, one of the highest achievements and accomplishments for her focused field because it unites more than 2,000 companies within the consumer technology industry.
She has mentored more than 250 teenage girls in the last eight years through the Delta Leadership Foundation and AKA Debutante Program, which she spearheaded. The AKA Debutante Program provides mentoring to high school girls on entrepreneurship.
Kim believes in giving back to her community. She has taught more than 20 business classes at the University of Redlands, Mesa College and University of Phoenix. Her teachings have focused on providing managers education about business strategy decision making and organization theory. Kim has provided leadership to the SDSU College of Business. As a member of the College of Business Board, she has led and advised the school on providing opportunities for women in the SDSU community and women students. From 2004 to 2006, she was instrumental in obtaining funding of $750,000 for the venture challenge and selecting participants for the program, including 90 students, of which 30 percent were women. Many of these women have been interns for Kim's companies.
Mary Haviland
Director, Product Management
Cymer
Mary is a high tech executive with extensive experience in program and product management, product launch, engineering development and support. Mary's special expertise is in new product development, owning and driving products from early concept stage into volume manufacturing. Skilled in developing strategic partnerships with outsourcing partners, suppliers and customers, Mary is an innovative and dedicated leader who develops strong working relationships and consistently solves problems. Mary has achieved her success in the field of semiconductor industry by managing with her heart, hand and head. As a manager, Mary is very objective, yet always made sure the necessary resources were available for successful project completions. Mary rewards success and encourages the best people who worked for her.
When it comes to inspiring young woman to succeed in the world of high tech management, Mary is a lead role mode. Every year, Mary is a mentor in the Annual Summer Internship program at Cymer. As a mentor to young female engineers, Mary has provided necessary support and guidance to take leadership roles in teams that were dominated by male senior engineers. She taught the young women to be confident, objective and pragmatic.
Mary serves as a mentor to incoming college graduates and interns, and is the lead on several fundraising events at Cymer. For the past five years, Mary has been the lead on Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. This past year, with Mary's leadership, a great sense of inspiration and hard work, the Cymer Team made it into the Top 20 nationwide teams in Making Strides Against Breast Cancer teams. 2011 was the first year Cymer was in Top 20. In addition to Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, Mary holds a fundraiser to support the San Diego Homeless Youth Center. She also volunteers each summer in the Science Petco project to talk to thousands of young kids about careers in the science of engineering.
Shauna McIntyre
Vice President – Strategy, Finance and Operations
Achates Power
In a company with fewer than 10 percent women, Shauna is accustomed to being outside of her comfort zone. In fact, she thrives in this environment, using her inherent skills to understand her employees, build their trust and challenge them to achieve stretch targets. Since an early age, she has enjoyed taking on new challenges such as living in Europe, managing a construction site for Ford Motor Company and running one of the company’s production lines with more than 50 union workers reporting to her. While at Honeywell, she led the reorganization of the company’s $4.5 billion global turbocharger business. She was chosen for this assignment because she was a proven strategist, a clear decision-maker and highly courageous. During this time, she discovered the importance of finding and using her voice — a skill she relies on today.
In every job that Shauna has held, there have been, at most, 30 percent women in the workplace. To help encourage women to pursue careers in what many consider a male-dominated field, she intentionally sought out female applicants while expanding her engineering centers worldwide. Shauna also committed to being a mentor. As one of Honeywell’s senior executives, she mentored several younger women around the globe, and she has enjoyed keeping in touch with these women ever since. One mentee has become a group manager, another went on foreign assignment with the company, several recently received their MBA and masters in science degrees from top universities, and others have advanced their careers at different companies. Shauna often had to be stern with her mentees, convincing them to have confidence in themselves, use their voice and drive for results despite potential pushback.
As a woman leader in the clean-tech industry, Shauna runs Achates Power’s operations including finance, human resources, purchasing, program management and prototype manufacturing. She is often sought out by the business and nonprofit communities. She has been an active member of the Society of Women Engineers for several years. She has spoken at Athena’s Signature Series panel and was a judge at Connect’s 2011 Most Innovative Products Awards. In addition, she is currently working with the San Diego Venture Group to develop a panel on clean tech. The mother of two young daughters, ages two and four, Shauna wants to be a good role model and show the benefits of giving back. She serves on the board of directors and is the volunteer CFO for her daughters’ school, Santa Fe Montessori School, in Solana Beach.
Barbara Miller
Vice President, Brand Activation
Sony Electronics
Barbara is responsible for driving customer-focused strategies based upon business needs as part of the Brand Activation business division. These strategies are developed through Barbara’s leadership of the Retail Visual Merchandising team, Interactive Marketing team, CRM Execution team, Digital Content Management team, and the Training Solutions team. The results of these activities are building brand loyalty, brand equity and driving increased sales in the shop front. Barbara has established herself as an innovator within the company. She has been recognized for her achievements in expanding Sony’s Internet platform, having established the company’s first end-user marketing website for the Broadcast and Professional Division, and also pioneering the inaugural sonystyle.com ecommerce website for the Consumer Sales division. She also led the company's first multi-channel strategy and social media strategy. She is a critical business thinker and one of SEL's strongest leaders in the company.
Barbara actively mentors emerging female talent within the organization and serves as the lead for SEL’s WAVE, Women of Action, Vision and Empowerment, network group. She is also an active alumnus of the Women-Unlimited leadership program. WAVE currently has more than 150 members across the United States. Barbara shapes the strategy for the group and empowers members to develop committees and action plans around women’s issues such as leadership development, health, communication, etc. In this role, she has championed women's issues within and outside the organization. She is also very active in other diversity programs inside and outside of Sony.
Barbara serves as a member of the Business Council for Poway Performing Arts Center and as a board member for the Concerned Parents Alliance. She is a life member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Most recently, Barbara was recognized as one of California’s “Most Powerful and Influential” women by the California Diversity Council in February 2012. She was also awarded the President’s Shining Star recognition in 2008 and is the recipient of the YWCA Tribute to Women in Industry Award in 2005. She has actively partnered with leaders of QWISE, the Qualcomm program to exchange speaking engagements, ideas and networking opportunities between QWISE and WAVE.
Barbara Noerenberg
Vice President, Program Management
Qualcomm, Inc.
Barbara Noerenberg heads the program office for Qualcomm’s Corporate Research and Development division. She joined Qualcomm in 1994 and her contributions have been many, encompassing operations management, strategic partnership management, and project leadership for several programs, including CDMA data services, and 1xEV-DO high-speed wireless Internet access technology.
For the first several years of her career at Qualcomm, Barbara was instrumental in managing the successful multiyear joint development collaboration between Qualcomm and several companies including Lucent Technologies, Samsung, Hitachi, LG and Nortel. In 2006, she moved into her current role. Her research and development division’s mission is to push the boundaries of wireless technology, innovate and explore new services and technologies, and to create value for the wireless industry. Barbara’s current responsibilities include program management for both third and fourth generation cellular systems, augmented reality, personal-area networks, wireless LAN, wireless charging, and broadcast/multicast technologies.
Barbara's shared vision and strong desire for collaboration of women throughout all levels have been her underlying themes. She has demonstrated this by the following:
• Female-friendly hiring practices
• Equitable promotion records
• Significant and several mentor relationships
Barbara’s keen awareness of women as an underrepresented group has motivated her to pay-it-forward and develop initiatives which position women into opportunities that are beneficial for both the company and the individual. She acts as a knowledge-sharing resource for others interested in following a proactive career path. Barbara’s work transcending organizational norms and elevating existing perceptions of women in the work force have helped women advance. Her record of accomplishment is notable for many things, including the creation of the Qualcomm Women's Mentoring Program and leading the Athena Mentoring Program, which have collectively affected more than 300 women.
Barbara is actively involved as a volunteer in her community. She is the immediate past chair of Athena San Diego and is the chairman of the board for Whispering Winds, a local nonprofit organization. She has presented in public forums such as the keynote speaker for events like the Society of Women Engineer’s Evening with Industry and the North San Diego Chamber of Commerce Women's Week. Barbara was recognized for her advocacy by the YWCA, and in 2005 presented with the Tribute to Women and Industry (TWIN) Award and recognized by the North County Chamber of Commerce Women in Business Award in 2010.
Sejal Pietrzak
Senior Vice President, International
The Active Network
In Sejal’s 7-year tenure with Active Network, she has expanded the company, strategy and business plan to include international markets. Under her leadership, Active Network’s international business has become a fully operational division — conducting business in 39 countries, 10 currencies, and eight languages with more than 65 staff based in the U.K., Europe and Asia-Pacific. In addition, Sejal has grown Active Network’s international revenue by 1,153 percent in the past five years, to more than $10 million.
Through her emphasis on career development and priority on mentorship, Sejal has coached and advised numerous women within Active Network. When she started at the Company in 2005, Sejal had four women directly reporting to her, all junior managers at the time. In her tenure, Sejal has helped these women expand their careers, with three of the four now in significant leadership roles at Active Network and leading sizable teams.
Sejal gives back to the San Diego community through mentoring young women in sports programs. A coach for her children’s basketball teams, Sejal teaches them about the game and about winning and losing, facing challenging situations, and building confidence. Sejal has also volunteered at her children’s school as a tutor in Math and English, and has set up programs to teach them about Indian cultural traditions such as the Indian New Year, Diwali.
Bronwyn Savary, J.D.
Vice President/General Counsel
Verimatrix
Bronwyn Savary has extensive experience in managing corporate legal departments, managing outside counsel, and advising directors and employees at all levels of U.S. and international companies on legal issues associated with the global development, marketing, licensing and sale of technology and professional services. She launched her career at Klinedinst, Fliehman & McKillop, P.C., but after two years, she joined AcuCorp as a law clerk. During her 12-year tenure with the company, Savary held a variety of positions, including vice president and general counsel. Savary credits Pamela Coker, chairman and president of Acucorp, as being one of her most influential mentors, saying she served as an excellent role model during her long tenure with the company, and positively influenced her professional growth. Having realized the benefits of mentoring first hand, Savary now shares her experience and knowledge with her colleagues at Verimatrix, and with organizations throughout the San Diego area.
Savary is passionately committed to empowering and advancing women in her workplace and in her community. In her position as corporate counsel, she has mentored law students and tried to promote equal opportunity in the workplace. Her opinion is highly regarded — so much that she is often referred to as the “conscience of the company.” Savary is quick to encourage women colleagues in the workplace, and in the community. She firmly believes that “you can have it all — you can have a family, and still advance your career,” and is eager to support other women on both their professional and personal journeys to excel.
In addition to her membership in Athena San Diego, Savary is also an active member of the San Diego Women’s Foundation and a member of the Association of Corporate Counsel.
Helene Siesel
Project Manager
SAIC
Helene began with SAIC 15 years ago as proposal coordinator responding to government requests for proposals. Currently, she is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) supporting Naval defense contracts. She is responsible for managing task functions of multiple contract projects, directs project team activities, and conducts requirements analysis reviews on technical documents. An advocate of women in the defense workplace, Helene has frequently taken extra steps to mentor and guide her fellow women colleagues.
In August 2006, after participating in a women’s leadership meeting held by SAIC Corporate Diversity, Helene was offered the opportunity to establish a San Diego chapter of the SAIC Women’s Network. As founding president, she held the first meeting in October 2006 with the topic “Empowering Yourself.” Other topics included “Taking Command of Your Career,” and “The Art of Negotiation.” The Women’s Network San Diego Chapter proved to be so successful that Siesel was requested to assist new chapters model their structure after the San Diego Chapter. In 2007, Siesel oversaw the launch of that chapter’s women’s mentorship program, where approximately 300 women have participated in the program. During that same year, Siesel received the SAIC Corporate Leadership Award. Siesel participated as a mentor in 2009, assisting her protégé in identifying ways to expand her professional knowledge and ultimately advance her career within the Information Technology field.
In 2009, Siesel was elected as vice president of the Women in Defense (WID) San Diego Chapter for a two-year term. She continues to serve as a member of the chapter’s executive committee. Siesel has supported three annual WID symposiums and was the 2011 symposium co-chair. Siesel’s community involvement includes outreach activities that have collected thousands of dollars in contributions, including clothing for Dress for Success and Becky’s House woman’s shelter, school supplies for children of military families and numerous food bank drives. She also volunteers at Balboa Naval Hospital.
Adriana Vela
Founder and President
NanoTecNexus
Adriana credits her success to focused determination, education and hard work. Having entered the work force at 14, Adriana rose out of poverty by valuing education and graduating from the University of Texas with a bachelor’s degree in business and technology. Recruited by Hewlett-Packard, she launched her high-tech career where she applied the same work ethic to successively greater challenges. With honed skills, she brought dozens of technology products to market, managed multimillion dollar product lines and drove strategic programs and initiatives in corporate environments. Leveraging her entrepreneurial skills and with a keen sense of technology trends, Adriana recognized the Human Genome Project as the next frontier and expanded into the nano-biotechnology field. Seeing a lack of resources to learn from, Adriana sought to correct this by founding NanoTecNexus, an industry organization dedicated to catalyze collaborations, knowledge exchange and to promote safe and market-accepted advances in nanosciences. She is currently driving a program to stimulate venture capital funding of women-led technology startups.
Knowing firsthand how critical role models are, Adriana never hesitates to volunteer her time to help women. A few examples of where she has invested significant personal time include supporting:
· Women-led conferences for organizations, such as AWIS and WITI;
· High school career fairs, speaking to young girls;
· The San Diego Science Festival;
· The National Institute of Health-funded “Young Women in Cancer Research Academy” by serving on the application review committee through BeWise;
· The “Expanding Your Horizon” conference, by delivering the opening keynote speech to 500 girls grades 6-10 from 140 San Diego and neighboring county schools. This conference helps prepare today’s young women for tomorrow’s careers and encourages them to study science throughout high school and college, and imagine themselves in cool jobs.
Adriana’s NanoTecNexus organization was the only industry organization to be recognized by the highly respected Milken Institute in their worldwide “Minds to Market” report for its role in the commercialization of new ideas. Likewise, it was the only organization nationwide to be recommended and invited to participate as a partner in a five-year, $20 million NIH grant with UCSD to develop educational programs for a newly created multidisciplinary and multiinstitution Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence. Her outreach strategy and quality programs yielded recognition from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif), who also agreed to participate in an educational video produced by NanoTecNexus that later won a prestigious Telly Award in 2009. Adriana is part of the Powerful Latinas.com community and has been honored by the local MANA group, a national Latina organization, for her dedication to the community. She also serves on the local WITI Leadership Committee.
Scott Way
Senior Manager, Platform Development
Trion Worlds, Inc.
Scott has worked in the systems programming arena for 19 years. He combines the unique ability to interpret end user needs and systems requirements, and combine them into efficient and capable systems environments. Having studied many management styles, he has developed his own methods that foster the creativity of his programmers while adhering to systems development industry standards. He recognizes that the flexibility and ingenuity of thought are key elements in creating successful and original systems products. He never forgets that the systems he creates must be designed to serve the user in the most effective and least complicated manner. Scott has implemented motivational awards in his departments that continually assure his staff that they are valued and important to the product they are creating. He is both a skilled manager and a skilled programmer — a unique combination in the industry.
Scott Way has been a FIRST Robotics coach for three years. The FIRST Program seeks to get children engaged and enthusiastic about STEM programs. This year, Scott actively recruited girls to join the team, which included his son as a team member and his daughter as a mentor. The team has a membership of six boys and two girls. These young ladies are ages 10 and 11. All members of the team are taught robot design, Robot C programming, and industry standard design implementation methodology. The team studies pneumatics, data string programming, worm drives and more. The girls he has coached will be ready to further their education in STEM fields. During the 2011 season, his team was awarded the championship trophy at the Eastlake qualifying tournament, and was awarded the Microsoft Award of Excellence for their innovative use of technology in their robot design at the Legoland regional tournament.
Scott has worked with many STEM-based companies in San Diego: SAIC, The La Jolla Institute of Allergy and Immunology, Pfizer, Quintiles, and Arena Pharmaceuticals. He was a member of the local Kiwanis group and served as Cub Master for Cub Scout Pack 825 for five years. He has also been coaching a FIRST Lego League Robotics team for three years. Through all of these roles, he has worked to forward the community’s exposure to STEM opportunities, particularly in his volunteer work with local children. He has spent many hours assisting with his daughter’s elementary, middle school, and now high school robotics team. Additional hours were spent assisting his daughter’s science fair projects, for which she received an award from AFCEA for her project on the Propagation of Radio Waves.
Suzy Zoumaras
Vice President, Human Resources
Entropic Communications
Having been part of various executive teams within San Diego’s dynamic technology industry, Suzy Zoumaras builds more than a great product — she builds world-class companies. For more than two decades, Suzy has been responsible for establishing professional HR departments and functions, initiating standard business practices and processes, and cultivating corporate cultures.
A seasoned HR professional, Suzy is an advisor, mentor, consultant and accomplished leader, quickly understanding a business and translating organizational objectives into HR strategies. She’s implemented work force planning and talent acquisition programs that have driven efficient staffing strategies, and has been recognized for hiring hundreds of professionals and executives in a highly competitive market without violating the integrity of corporate title or compensation structures. Additionally, she maintains a core strength in implementing new applicant tracking systems and internal opportunity programs, which build foundational support for a recruiting quality hires, at an average cost of less than $5,000.
Suzy is a true “business HR leader,” who leads by example and inspires others with knowledge, commitment, dedication and integrity by driving corporate cultures that are non-hierarchical, highly motivated, and respectful. Specific to her role in advancing the careers of women in the workplace, Suzy has built diversity programs that focus on assembling high quality teams that are mixed, intuitive, modeled for right behavior, and catalysts for change. She’s implemented innovative ways to attract female employees through recruitment efforts that emphasize leadership coaching, effective communication, and ways in which to overcome the leadership gender gap within middle management. Additionally, Suzy teaches multiple courses as an instructor for San Diego State University’s Human Resources Certification Program. Through her coursework, she encourages women to break through the infamous glass ceiling to drive financial fluency and raise their leadership profile by enhancing their negotiating skills regarding pay and resources.
Since 1989, Suzy Zoumaras has been an integral leader in the San Diego HR community. She is an instructor for San Diego State University’s Human Resources Certification Program, a regular speaker on Employee Engagement, Talent Acquisition and HRMS, is an active member of industry and HR organizations (AEA, CONNECT, BIOCOM, SHRM, IHRIM, World at Work), and a Board Member on the San Diego International HR Group and Southern Caregivers Resource Center. Suzy has shaped new thinking around organizational improvement and effectiveness. She’s shown companies how, through selective recruitment, business-HR alignment and cultivating a culture based on intelligence, persistence, continuous improvement, integrity and excellent decision-making, the HR function can translate financial and operational objectives into scalable human capital strategies, processes and systems. Suzy has navigated complex organizations, challenged the status quo and is a catalyst for change, which has enabled her to direct global HR programs that grew local organizations from 35 to more than employees.
Press ESC | Close [X]
