Meet 23 Influential Women You’ll Want to Work With (We Know We Do)

Jessie Dearien, Vice President of Marketing 

As part of its go-getter culture, the people at Allied Electronics & Automation have developed, and are working under, personal purpose statements. Vice President of Marketing and Digital Experience Jessie Dearien's is "to build a highly engaged team by infusing energy, intensity, and fun," and she has exemplified this as a leader in her words and actions. Teambuilding is a passion of hers. Dearien is intentional about planning team events, happy hours, and charitable efforts to increase engagement and camaraderie. Read more

Yvette Zhao, Software Development Manager

Yvette Zhao has an amazing ability to earn the trust of her peers, team members, and leadership. A software development manager and Amazon employee for more than seven years, she built a strong cohesive team from one to six full-time engineers who provided overwhelmingly positive feedback regarding the values of teamwork and collaboration upheld on her team. Zhao consistently embodies Amazon's Leadership Principles and, as one of her peers described, "elevates the conversation in the room, every time she is there.” Read more

Kristen Starks, Claims Operations Manager

Avail has four core values: “Be people driven,” “Keep it simple,” “Move with purpose,” and “One Avail, one team.” Kristen Starks is an exemplary representative of all of them. Since joining the risk and insurance team late last year, Starks has stepped in and overhauled how Avail thinks about damages, claims, and maintenance. Not only is Starks a leader who embodies Avail’s core values and culture, but she also drives it as an active member of the company’s employee resource group, Belong. She has provided valuable ideas and insights since joining the group, and she’s never afraid to challenge or provide a different perspective. Read more

Bukola Ayeni, Associate Product Marketing Manager, Integrations

Bukola Ayeni is the co-lead president of Black@DoorDash, DoorDash’s employee resource group (ERG) for Black employees and allies. In her role, Ayeni drives change and impact through the organization and, most importantly, supports and uplifts the Black employee community. Ayeni exemplifies several of DoorDash’s core values, but her ability to channel the value of “one team, one fight” stands out to her coworkers. While new to the product marketing team, she proved herself as a high performer with strong autonomy and the ability to execute while exceeding expectations. Within the DoorDash community, Ayeni is a culture carrier, driving impact for Black employees. Read more

Robyn Jordan joined the DriveTime Family at a unique time; the human resources department was small, but the foundation of the culture was solid. The bones were good, and the collaboration and innovation were already here, allowing her to come in and transform that part of the business. In just four years since Jordan joined the company, the human resources department has grown to over 90 employees and functions like any other mid-to-large size company, and the total number of employees across the business has grown to over 5,000. Read more

Alvarine Syiem, Global Leader, Total Rewards, HR Compliance, L&D, and Immigration 

Alvarine Syiem is wholly dedicated to eClerx, ensuring that employees are supported in order to be able to focus on their work and careers. Syiem exhibits the company's values focused on People and Integrity in everything that she does to ensure eClerx is producing the best results in the most efficient and effective manner. She has built and led her team to be integral to the company’s success, driving critical areas such as HR operations, total rewards, and immigration. Her energy, positive attitude, flexibility, and drive to achieve success through collaboration and teamwork have garnered admiration from her team and peers. Read more

Lucy Winterhalder, Head of People

As a woman in tech, Lucy Winterhalder understands that many groups are disadvantaged or subjected to bias when finding new roles. As head of people, she's made significant efforts to welcome more diverse candidates into the application process, expanding the number and types of job boards Givebutter uses and working with recruiters who know that the company values an equitable and inclusive hiring process. This past year was a huge year of growth for Givebutter, and the team grew from 11 full-time employees to almost 30, with plans to double again by the end of 2023, thanks to Winterhalder. Read more

Jessica Soler, Head of Strategic Accounts

When Jessica Soler joined the team at Gun.io, she had no background in technology or hiring. Four years later, she's helped technology companies hire over 500 exceptional developers and has negotiated millions in wages for those developers. Soler's success at Gun.io is attributable to her embodiment of the company’s core values—she's honest, she takes risks, she puts talent first, and she pursues excellence. Her honesty is what draws people to her. In an industry as personal and sensitive as hiring, Soler is the person that her clients love having in their corner. Read more

Nicole Kilby, Principal, Infosys Consulting

As a techno-functional principal consultant, Nicole Kilby works for Infosys Consulting's Consumer Products, Retail, and Logistics Practice. She’s a hard worker, sound leader, and kind mentor, and she’s passionate about people's growth and improving the lives of those around her. Her most recent position is chair and cofounder of IBELIEVE, Infosys' Black employee resource group. Kilby has established herself as a cultural change agent and an essential resource for establishing long-term diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) strategies and platforms to empower and advocate for the underrepresented. Read more

Polina Panich, Senior Vice President of People

When new leaders join an organization, they often take time to acclimate and it can feel like a bit of a slow burn to get things moving. This was not the case with Polina Panich, InfoTrust’s senior vice president of people. On her first day in January 2021, she came in with an incredible level of energy and desire to get things moving. She’s an incredible role model of leadership, flexibility, and enthusiasm at InfoTrust. No matter what challenge presents itself, Panich finds a solution. She’s made InfoTrust a better place, simply by being who she is. Whether it’s mentoring an InfoTruster or brainstorming ideas, Panich continues to showcase her exceptional skill set and heart every day. Read more

Jennifer Buchbinder, Director of Intuit QuickBooks Strategic Communications

Jenni Buchbinder, director of Intuit QuickBooks Strategic Communications, has the rare gift of being both a strategic thinker and an empathetic leader. After taking several years off from the workforce to care for family, Buchbinder returned to Intuit and immediately made a huge impact: In less than a year, she piloted, tested, and launched Intuit QuickBooks’ first official Influencer Center of Excellence as part of the newly formed Strategic Communications team. Then, she expanded the team to include the Data Communications and Strategic Editorial teams. Buchbinder has empowered members of all three teams to achieve bold marketing and communications goals with a diverse, customer-first, objective-backed approach. Read more

Sara Nkemontoh, Portfolio Manager, Wine

Sara Nkemontoh is an amazing example of someone whose passion for a particular subject has enabled her success in a surprisingly wide range of roles. In her case, that passion is for wine. Nkemontoh wasn’t born into the wine world, but she discovered a love for vinology in her late 20s. Just before joining The Looma Project, Nkemontoh decided to go all-in on her passion by pursuing a certification by the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET). The WSET’s Level III exam is regarded as one of the most challenging exams in the world, with a pass rate of just 50 percent. During her first week at Looma, Nkemontoh learned that she’d passed the exam—with distinction. When it comes to wine, she knows her stuff, and she genuinely loves sharing that knowledge with others. Read more

Cristyle Blanchard, Senior Director, Human Resources Operations

At MYR Group, Cristyle Blanchard has dug in and elevated several HR functional areas, including organizational learning and development (OL&D), talent acquisition, and the company’s benefits program. One key trait that stands out about Blanchard is her natural ability to push forward while also reaching back. It is evident in her daily routine that she mirrors MYR's core values, puts safety first, and is intentional about the strategic growth of the HR department. She’s been an inspirational leader on various initiatives and implementation projects and is passionate about her work. Blanchard has shown the company, time and again, that she is motivated, service-driven, and an advocate for her teams. Read more

Magali Biron, VP, Business Development for eSign in Sales

When Nitro, Inc expanded to acquire Connective, a European-based leader in enterprise and high trust eSigning, Magali Biron seamlessly transitioned into her new team. Biron is selfless, continually helping in any way she can with customers, prospects, and partners. She's an incredible partner, great communicator, team player, and is always focused on results. The company’s go-to-market function would not have been able to reach the level of success it did without her involvement in some of the most important deals in H2. Read more

Sara Mellinger, Vice President of Marketing

Sara Mellinger not only exemplifies OnLogic’s values, actively contributes to the company’s culture, and represents the future of the organization, but she also leads, supports, and enables others to do the same. Looking back to when she started at OnLogic six years ago, it didn’t take long to recognize that Sara was going to play a pivotal role in one of the largest challenges for any rapidly growing company: scaling effectively. Her signature mark? An incredible ability to tackle complex problems with perspective and purpose. Read more

Katie Gerber, Director of Program Management 

Katie Gerber leads the program management team at Ping Identity; the team organizes the company’s product and feature releases. This is an incredibly fast-paced job, involving many different moving pieces with many different teams, but through it all, Gerber leads with intent—intent to do good, if not, great work and intent to serve those around her with her work. While this requires ambition—which, according to her team, Gerber has in abundance—it also requires leadership. Gerber is excellent at guiding direct reports in the right direction, she empowers her team to develop their skills, and she cares about them on a personal level. Read more

Amy Silbermann, Director of Planning and Service Development

There are few people who can execute their job brilliantly, help others at the drop of a hat, command a room in a persuasive yet inviting way, and lift others up around them. Amy Silbermann is one of those people. While PRT has policies in place to ensure employees' voices are heard and employees have a proper work-life balance, she goes above and beyond. She fosters a safe work environment where everyone feels comfortable with their beliefs and life choices, and can just be themselves. This not only helps to create a welcoming environment for all PRT employees, but it also diversifies the thought and life experiences that are brought to the table for every project. Read more

Jillian Duma, Software Engineer

Jillian Duma’s formal responsibilities as a leader within Publicis Sapient's Women's Leadership Network (WLN) and co-lead for the Chicago office leadership team include, but are not limited to scheduling events and meetings, outreach to the Chicago office, promotion and marketing of planned events, organization of tasks, and commitment to being available for others. However, it is the way in which Duma accomplishes these tasks that makes her stand out as a woman of influence at Publicis Sapient. Duma is never shy to encourage conversations that go beyond her current scope of understanding. By seeking the help of others, she puts on successful events and creates an environment inclusive for all who seek to participate. Community members rely on Duma for her kindness and approachability. Read more

Keturah McCottry-Smith, Learning & Development Manager

Keturah McCottry-Smith is a powerful change agent within Radancy. Through her passion as a learning and development manager, she exemplifies the company’s commitment to creating an inclusive workplace and educating employees on how to be better allies. Her impact on the organization has been immeasurable; she has created, implemented, and improved upon many different programs for Radancy’s employees. Read more

Klara Owens, Internal Communications and Brand Manager

In any interaction with Klara Owens, you get an immediate sense of how she truly lives and breathes the Reward Gateway (RG) mission and values. She is passionate, committed, and loves what she does. She takes her job very seriously, in the best way, and is incredibly considerate and intentional in her work. She has continually led by example, speaking up on important topics such as race and inclusion and demonstrating to others the impact of stepping outside your comfort zone. Always ready to step forward and take ownership of projects, she’s already taken the lead in some of the company’s most important strategic initiatives in the early stages of her career. Read more

Jessie Miño, Customer Success Manager

Jessie Miño cares. There’s no better way to put it. A leader of Robin Powered’s She Makes Sense women’s group, Miño has been a customer success manager at the company for more than a year, and her compassion is a hallmark of who she is and how she contributes to the team. Read more 

Zoe Mienie, Senior Program Manager

Zoe Mienie truly embodies all of Taulia’s core values. She never shies away from a challenge and is in her happy place when analyzing and solving complex problems. She also has an amazing talent for building and fostering relationships with colleagues, customers, and partners.

Beyond that, Mienie has significantly impacted the women of Taulia. She eagerly accepted the challenge of leading and reinvigorating Taulia’s LIFT Women group. Mienie and her committee regularly plan monthly sessions to empower women and help them feel seen, heard, and supported. Read more

Adrienne Hatter, Head of Recruiting

Adrienne Hatter is one of those people who represents all of the best things about working at Volley. Hatter is kind, empathetic, hard-working, innovative, and simply fun to be around. She ensures team members feel heard, seen, supported, and celebrated and has worked hard to foster a culture of diversity and belonging at Volley, helping to build and lead the JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion) Taskforce. Read more