Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners – Definitely Does Compute

Bay Area Girl Geek Dinner #20 will be sponsored and hosted by Facebook.

You are invited to join us for a Facebook Girl Geek Dinner on Wednesday, May 23, 2012 at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California.

Join us for an evening of mingling and sharing with fellow girl geeks! Learn the stories of the women behind the world’s largest social network over refreshments and drinks.

Schedule of events:

5:30pm – 6:30pm:  Registration, refreshments & networking
6:30pm – 7:30pm:  Facebook women’s panel
7:30pm – 8:30pm:  More networking & refreshments

Facebook Girl Geek Speaker Bios:

Aidymar Bigio (Release to Production Manager, Facebook)

Aidymar is the Release to Production Manager at Facebook where she leads the provisioning, validation engineering, sustaining engineering and manufacturing and quality teams for technical operations. Prior to joining Facebook, she spent 7 years at Google. While at Google, she established a manufacturing and operations team to support the Google Search Appliance. She also worked on the first generation Android, technical operations and supply chain and logistics. Aidymar has extensive experience in the areas of product development and operations. She holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Rochester and an M.S. in Engineering Management from Santa Clara University. In her spare time, she likes to run, ski, and spend time with her husband, two boys and the family cats.

Cipora Herman (Treasurer & Vice President of Investor Relations, Facebook)

Cipora is the Treasurer and Vice President of Investor Relations at Facebook, where she has been since September 2007. She is responsible for directing the day-to-day operations of the corporate finance, treasury, and investor relations teams. She has lead numerous rounds of capital raising – both debt and equity, established the global banking infrastructure, and built the budgeting and forecasting framework. Prior to Facebook, Cipora was the Vice President Finance and Treasurer for Yahoo!. Cipora holds an A.B. in International Relations, an M.A. in International Development Policy and an M.B.A. degree. All of her degrees were completed at Stanford University. Cipora lives in Los Gatos, California with her husband and two children.

Jocelyn Goldfein (Director of Engineering, Facebook)

Jocelyn is a Director of Engineering at Facebook, where she helps manage the engineering team and drive products like News Feed, Photos and Search. Prior to Facebook, Jocelyn was an engineering leader at VMware and helped grow the R&D team from 100 to over 2000, ultimately serving as vice president of desktop products. Other career highlights include co-founding a startup and a earning a BS in Computer science from Stanford University.

Robyn Reiss (Head of Internal Communications, Facebook)

Robyn has a computer science degree from Harvard and MBA from Stanford. She has taught high school math and computer science, worked for the Golden State Warriors, and was on the founding team of local charter high school Summit Prep, featured in Waiting for Superman. She then worked at Google for a few years before coming to Facebook in 2008, where she leads internal communications. Robyn is passionate about non-profit causes such as global poverty, and is married with a three year old son.

Yvette Lui (Director of Global Marketing Solutions, Facebook)

Yvette is the Director of Global Marketing Solutions at Facebook, where she leads North America Sales, Strategy, and Account Management for Fortune 1000 businesses. Prior to Facebook, Yvette spent 6 years at Google leading Agency Development, Strategic Partnerships for Google Checkout, and Social Media Advertising Sales. While there, she developed partnerships and sales strategies for Fortune 500 marketers and Agencies. Yvette has extensive experience in digital marketing and holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley.

Kerrie Ashley (Client Platform Engineering Team, Facebook) – moderator

Kerrie joined Facebook in February 2011 as part of the IT helpdesk; this past January she transitioned to the Client Platform Engineering team. Before joining Facebook Kerrie worked for an Apple Training center based in SF, where she led Apple certification courses and was an Apple consultant for businesses in the Bay Area. Kerrie started her IT career as an Apple Genius in Detroit in early 2006 and transferred to SF in 2008. She loves her job and her team, and she is thankful to be a part of this organization. When Kerrie is not working, she takes evening French classes and enjoys hanging out with her dog at the park.

By Yvonne Lai (Network Engineer, Cisco)

Staying connected has never been easier. It is amazing to see how our world has evolved from the PC era to the new Cloud era. No longer are we bounded by the rigidness of the PC but we are transitioning into borderless networks where we are given the freedom to stay connected, anytime, anywhere and on any device. The notion of social networking and the tools that make this possible were the recurring theme at the 18th Girl Geek Dinner hosted by Citrix in Santa Clara. During the course of the lightning talks and as the product line of Citrix unfolded, there was no doubt that the company was centric on improving the way people work and play.

Technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace and industry leaders must adapt, react and innovate in this fluid market to stay ahead. The Citrix Dinner brought women in technology from all over the bay area together in Santa Clara for an event that would combine networking and company presentations from the perspective of female leaders.

Sarah Pavlick, Sr. IT Support Generalist, mentioned during her talk about her experience transitioning to a remote worker. She highlights her challenges commuting to work and demonstrates how Citrix products like HDFaces, GoToMeeting and GoToAssist have facilitated her job working from the home office.

Minoo Gupta’s, Sr. Director of Engineering, Cloud and Networking Division, stated, “We believe the exceptions of the PC era are the new assumptions of the Cloud era” during her presentation. The drawbacks of PC’s are being replaced by mobile work-style solutions which are enabled by cloud services. Minoo also shared her experiences working at a startup vs. a large company and the challenges start-ups face, such as financial constraints and faster work pace.

Kathy Chill, VP of Business Development, articulated valuable key points on developing strategic partnerships. Alignment is essential to developing strong partnerships because when road blocks occur and if the core pillars of the two businesses do not align, then something has to give way. Purpose, plan, alignment and accountability are essential to developing an effective roadmap.

Janine Lai, Director of Product Design, gave a captivating talk about her journey in product design. She spoke about the challenges her team faces such as designing a unify look and feel for the Citrix Receiver product.

Diane Gonzalez, VP of Engineering, detailed market transitions and how companies that adapt to changes are more likely to survive technology evolutions. It was quite interesting when she gave Kodak as an example. She then went on and talked about how she handles changes and how she makes decisions. Her rationale on her decision making process was both easy to understand and logical.

Ashi Sareen, Sr. Manager of Product Development, closed off the session talking about the Citrix CloudGateway.

It is not every day that you get to be in a room full of inspiring woman and hear them share experiences and talk about technology. But this is indeed the privilege you get to have every time you go to a Girl Geek Dinner!

In addition to the wonderful presentations, the event allotted time for guests to network and were served an assortment of appetizers and decadent desserts including some enormous chocolate covered strawberries!

Bay Area Girl Geek Dinner #19 will be hosted by ModCloth!  Join us for an evening of information & experience sharing on Wednesday, May 2 in downtown San Francisco.

Learn how Susan Gregg Koger
(Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer, ModCloth) took her passion for fashion and her Carnegie Mellon dorm room website to ModCloth, the skyrocketing independent fashion retailer – in just a few short years!

There will be lighting talks by ModCloth girl geeks in product management, public relations, user experience research and project management.

First 200 attendees will receive a free Modcloth Girl Geek Dinner tote bag!

Use hashtag #mcggd to tweet about the event!

ModCloth Girl Geek Dinner Agenda:

6:00pm – 7:00pm : Networking, fun and games

7:00pm – 8:00pm : Sit down with Susan Gregg Koger and lightning talks with girl geeks of ModCloth

8:00pm – 9:00pm : Q&A and Breakout sessions (and more networking)

ModCloth Girl Geek Speaker Bios:

Susan Gregg Koger (Chief Creative Officer & Co-Founder, ModCloth)

Susan started ModCloth when she was just 17, taking her love of thrifting to start an online business. Today, ModCloth has grown into a thriving business of over 280 employees and has gained a lot of attention as it pursues its goal of democratizing fashion and building a social shopping community that empowers both independent designers and customers. Susan was recognized by Inc. Magazine as the “#2 Top Entrepreneur under 30” and was named to both BusinessWeek’s 2010 list of the “Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs” and Fortune’s 2010 list of Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs. Susan is living her dream and now she has made it her mission to build a community that allows her customers to do the same. 

Alicia Barnes (Head of Public Relations, ModCloth)

Lightning Talk: Being an Evangelist for Your Company: Tips for Simple (and Free!) Ways You Can Spread the Word About Your Startup

Alicia Barnes, a ModCloth original, is the Head of Public Relations at ModCloth, and has seen this company blossom into a full-blown phenomenon.  At ModCloth, Alicia is the point-person for media coverage and oversees the ModCloth brand as it relates to collaborations with other brands and external organizations. Alicia also leads a team that includes traditional media, blogger relations, and events marketing. 

Laura Paajanen (User Experience Researcher, ModCloth)

Lightning Talk: User Research 101 – Three cheap, fast, and easy things you should do tomorrow (if you’re not already) to learn more about your actual customers. 

Laura Paajanen is a User Experience Researcher at ModCloth and self-described goofy girly geek. For the past year and a half, she’s worked to represent the voice of ModCloth’s wonderful customers to the Product Team and anyone else who will listen. She’s psyched about Lean UX, testing for value and desirability in addition to usability, and making qual and quant be friends. Laura holds a master’s of information management and systems from UC Berkeley.. 

Ashley Wali (Project Manager, ModCloth)

Lightning Talk: Personal Kanban – Applying Agile project management principles to your personal life to dominate deadlines, stay organized, and get stuff done!

Ashley Wali is part-time world traveler and adventurer and all-the-time manager of projects and creator of processes at ModCloth. Ashley is a certified ScrumMaster and brings to ModCloth a desire to make sense of the chaos and bring order to the nature of what we do. Ahsley has delved into business processes as a business analyst and freelance editor. With an aptitude for practicality, Ashley soon found her talents to be of most use in the area of project management and developed these skills with companies such as Crowd Interactive and ClearGears, a company she founded and successfully launched.  Nowadays, Ashley holds the project management arm of ModCloth in a steady state and evangelizes the agile principles to all who will listen. 

Fiona O’Donnell-McCarthy (Product Manager, ModCloth)

Lightning Talk: So, you want to join a startup? – How to decide what kind of company to join, from a girl who has been employee #1 and employee #150.

From world class swimmer at Stanford to Product Manager at ModCloth, Fiona O’Donnell-McCarthy is known for her tenacity and passion for all that is product. With two start-up experiences under her belt, Fiona has brought ModCloth an innovative spirit and a tireless approach to finding excitement and inspiration in all that she does. Most recently, Fiona has been collaborating with ModCloth’s strategic team to execute against a product vision roadmap for areas of mobile, internal tools, sourcing, and supply chain management. Fiona has seen ModCloth keep pace with the sometimes frenetic world of fast fashion and ecommerce… in fact, it’s what makes her job the fast-paced ride that she enjoys so much.