For women in the industry, those changes are a promising trend and long overdue — and come at a critical time for tech businesses.
“I will say that there were numerous meetings where I would catch myself unconsciously looking around the table, thinking how few women were actually seated at the table,” she added. Many of the industry’s other top groups also boast women in key positions. In 2013, Victoria Espinel became CEO of BSA | The Software Alliance, which represents enterprise software companies and startups. She was joined in 2014 by Linda Moore, who became CEO of TechNet, a network of tech industry executives, and Meredith Baker, who became CEO of CTIA, which represents the U.S. wireless communications industry.
Baker first started at CTIA 20 years ago as a lobbyist. She left for stints on George W. Bush’s presidential campaign, the Commerce Department, NBC Universal and on the Federal Communications Commission. Moore touted the progress within her group’s member companies. She noted that when Cisco’s CEO Chuck Robbins took over in 2015, he established a leadership team that was more than half women and minorities.