Ep 40: Logicalis: Celebrating Girls (and Women) in Technology

Diva Tech Talk Podcast

Diva Tech Talk was honored to be onsite at one of the largest Midwestern offices for Logicalis U.S., during its recent GIRLS IN TECHNOLOGY DAY. Logicalis (www.us.logicalis.com) is an international information technology solutions and managed services provider that designs, builds and supports enterprise solutions for customers throughout Europe, North and South America, and Asia Pacific. Logicalis entertained 56 high school and early college girls, offering tailored discussions of practical topics related to succeeding in a technology career. Horizon-broadening sessions covered topics as diverse as: uncovering what you are good at, communicating with confidence, the wide variety of career options in the technology field, how to use social media to build your personal brand, how to ace a job interview, and how to write an excellent resume.

Logicalis supports an internal group dedicated to fostering the missions of its own women employees. Two of the veteran leaders of that group (Logicalis Vice Presidents, Renae Johnson and Julie Spiller) were in the cohort interviewed during this podcast.

Ghazal Asif, Director of Global Channels of Cisco Meraki, was also a key participant in the day. Ghazal was enthusiastic about having the chance to be one of the main keynote speakers since “the idea of women having equal opportunity is very near and dear to my heart.” She spoke eloquently about the need to be fearless in the face of any setback, or any opportunity. “If we look at the data and the stats, it is sad to see that over the last couple of decades, we haven’t made much progress” in diversity building, she said. “Yet, as of today, there’s more awareness, more research on why diversity and inclusion is so good for companies. In every industry, across every function, women are under-represented. More women should step forward so that in 10 or 20 years from now, we can look back and say ‘we made a difference and we changed some of those stats’ for the next generation, and generations to come.”

Finally, Vince DeLuca, CEO of Logicalis, took time to present to this audience because “these young ladies are our future.” DeLuca was encouraged by his interactions with the girls and women. “Knowing that they have interest in technology is really important,” he said. “I also think that overall diversity in the field is wildly important to our (Logicalis) success. When we have a male-dominated organization, with just male leaders, we don’t enough of a flow of ideas.” DeLuca really enjoyed his event participation. “To see the amount of interest, the general attention of these young ladies is really rewarding. The benefit that I get out of this would be seeing every one of these folks succeed in their own passion. I may not get to see that individually, but as a group I think they will do that; and that, to me, is the best reward that I could ever get.”

DeLuca waxed philosophical about how the overall education of our youth can be helped by everyone in their environment. “We live in such an interesting world right now. I think, as a society, we need to do a better job educating everyone about what’s happening out there,” he said. DeLuca sees some key tech trends that can help with this. “Collaboration has to be near the top,” he said. “There’s so many ways to connect vast amounts of resource groups or information.” DeLuca is proud that community-building is part of the Logicalis culture. “Giving back to the communities we serve is a core value, across all our offices,” he said. “It’s so important to us, not just to reap the benefit of what we are trying to do with our customers, but making an impact into the community.”

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