When I see Women’s History Month approaching, my mind automatically veers towards some of the heavy-hitting pioneers who have shaped the women’s movement. Gloria Steinem, Bell Hooks, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Audre Lorde are names that come to mind. Today, there is a new class of female activists fighting the good fight that was handed down to them. They are dedicated to real and radical change in the workplace, government, and in our greater society overall.
To honor that legacy, I recently sat down and spoke to three of my female colleagues about how to empower the next generation of women in tech. We covered everything from career pathing to making your voice heard — it was a candid conversation with three inspiring Impact women.
Sometimes, change can emerge from one meaningful conversation. I hope that reading about these women inspires you to initiate a few conversations of your own this month.
Meet these inspiring women in tech
Meet Vern Rodriguez, Director, Partner Success (US)
“Having a healthy balance by having more women on a team and in leadership roles helps create ease for other women around making basic career decisions within a company. It helps create a vision for what can be next for us. It makes us less self-critical in a meeting space and therefore more confident to offer more of ourselves. If women do not have this ease, everyone loses, because you may be missing out on all that a person has to give.”
Vern has worn many hats throughout her career: as someone that has supported and contributed to a tech platform, as an affiliate account manager for brands like Citi Bank and Dell, and as an advocate for the supply side of partnerships.
The knowledge, experience, and relationships built over the last 17 years in the performance marketing and technology platform space have contributed to her passion for bringing people together through strategic partnerships.
She entered the field through a customer support position at Commission Junction prior to their acquisition by ValueClick and eventually came on as an early hire at Impact. So she is no stranger to being part of a company constantly pushing boundaries, and she enjoys bringing creative solutions to age-old business problems.
A proponent for healthy company culture, Vern enjoys fostering an inclusive and fun workplace. Her appreciation for those around her carries over to her personal life, where she enjoys almost any activity that surrounds her with great people. She loves to travel, lives to eat (if you ask her to order for the table, you only have yourself to blame), and constantly seeks approval from her dog Bella.
Meet Snehal Shah, VP, Engineering (US)
“For women, the level of confidence you bring to the table is really key. It has a significant impact on how people perceive you. In my opinion, confidence and courage are the two pillars that you need to continually work on in order to grow in your field. In the early stages of your career, opening up and sharing your thoughts can be a bit intimidating, but it will help you grow your confidence and put you on the track to succeed.”
Snehal is the liaison between the technology, product, and services teams at Impact. She leads teams to own different phases of the customer journey, aligning company goals with engineering outcomes, and empowering the services team to provide a seamless customer experience.
Snehal previously held engineering roles at Tata Consultancy Services, India’s largest tech consultancy.
Meet Yumi Lewis, Manager, Customer Success (UK)
“My mother was my role model in the shaping of my own career. She moved to the UK in her 30s as a single Japanese woman, and she built up her career working for Japanese banks, which in the 70s was still kind of rare — to focus on work instead of marriage. In the end, she decided to build her own business, and my father was very supportive. He even left his job to support her business. She truly paved the way for me and my sisters, showing us that anything is possible if you work hard and remain ambitious.”
In the years since she graduated from university in the UK, Yumi has built her career through sales operations and client relationship management roles at tech companies around the world.
She spent the first three years of her career living in Asia working with the Japanese and wider APAC market on app development projects and travel tech solutions. Since then, she has returned to the UK to support advertisers in the EMEA region in the SaaS framework.
Yumi’s Impact journey started in 2019 as a customer success manager for Forensiq, and she has since transitioned to customer success manager for the Impact Partnership Cloud. She loves engaging with clients, finding creative solutions to problems, and identifying trends and patterns in data.
Want to take the next step in your career with people from cultures around the world? Come find your place here at Impact.
