This week marks the annual celebration of International Women’s Day – a global event dedicated to recognizing the achievements of women across the globe and a call for gender equality. With this year’s theme being #ChooseToChallenge, we wanted to shine a spotlight on some of the powerhouse women working across Exasol, as we continue to challenge gender bias and inequality, and collectively aim to create a truly inclusive place to work.
They’ve also each told us about a person in their life who’s provided inspiration to challenge the status quo. Let’s meet them!
Katharina Kränzle
Legal Counsel and Compliance and Risk Manager
Katharina works as part of the legal team here at Exasol. She is originally from southern Germany and now lives and works in Nuremberg. Katharina is a jurist and has two “Staatsexamen”, which are essentially law degrees in Germany.
“The most exciting part of my job is that I can support and cooperate with so many different people and departments,” she says. “With this as a prerequisite, every day has a new challenge and opportunity. Exasol has a very supportive environment and I really enjoy working in my team with a very strong inspirational female leader. She encourages us to excel and advance in our careers.”
If she were to give advice to her younger self, Katharina says: “sometimes a reasoned “NO” can also be an answer.”
Katharina’s Inspiration
“There are so many inspirational women to choose from. The head of our legal department is a very strong and supportive female leader and as such an everyday inspiration for me. From a global law point of view, I have to name Ruth Bader Ginsburg as an absolute trailblazing woman in a field dominated by men. My advice above might have been inspired by her attitude for dissent. In my private life, I have a friend named Daniela who is one of the women I admire the most because of her strong and endearing attitude towards so many things.”
Milena Ossorio
Software Engineer
Before embarking on her journey at Exasol, Milena was a Software Developer in Cuba then Brazil, for around 15 years. She later joined Exasol as a Software Engineer as part of the Quality Assurance team. Today she works from Nuremberg, Germany.
Milena’s role as an engineer is varied. She writes tests to improve the test coverage of certain Exasol features using the frameworks in the platform’s development environment. She also works on statistical analysis and developing scripts for monitoring and reporting. On top of that, Milena works in collaboration with the Engine team to programme tasks and fix any bugs that arise.
“The most exciting part of my job is to come up with programmatic solutions in order to automate and extend the coverage of what is tested beyond the human capacity,” she says. “Developing those kinds of programs for testing is my passion.”
“Working in such a big and technical company like Exasol is a dream for a lot of professionals and having the opportunity of being part of the family is an honor to me. I feel welcome and supported in this company, and I know there is always room to grow.”
For someone who started their career in Cuba and then Brazil, Milena would advise her younger self that “it might be scary and not easy at all, but it’s worth it! Cross the Atlantic and keep learning and trying your best.”
Milena’s inspiration
“In Cuba, my country of origin, it’s not uncommon for women to work in technical areas. So, at the moment of my career decision, I could have some woman references that inspired me. I remember Alina Ruiz Jhones, the head of the faculty for mathematics and computing at the Havana University, as a really strong and talented teacher. Also my parents. My mother, an architect, and my father, an electric engineer, had a big influence on my interest for a technically oriented profession. They continue to inspire me, because they are willing to work as consultants despite being retired. Cuba needs it and they love their jobs.”
Suzanne Gould
Cloud Alliance Manager
Suzanne’s role is to support Exasol’s growth strategy by evangelizing and bridging any gaps between our solutions and the cloud ecosystem. As an alliance manager, she helps the company grow and expand by establishing connections with other stakeholders and partners.
“I have over 25 years of experience in sales and my best skill is to build long-term relationships with clients and colleagues,” says Suzannne. “I’ve worked at many companies where I felt part of the family, however since joining Exasol – in strange times where I have yet to meet my colleagues face-to-face – I truly feel part of a family that wants everyone’s success. Because their success is our success.”
If Suzanne could talk to her younger self she would say: “Be strong, be yourself and never let anyone tell you to change who you truly are.”
Suzanne’s inspiration
“So many people have influenced me in my life. One being my first boss when I first went into sales – he was very different to other men in leadership roles I had come across. He encouraged me to establish myself and utilize my strengths and not to be intimidated in a male dominated IT environment. I also found a mentor outside my company who helped and supported me with areas of work incorporating being a working mum with being a successful salesperson. I now like to use this experience to help others and have helped friends succeed in their roles.”
Katharina, Milena and Suzanne are just a handful of the inspirational women we have working at Exasol. As a business, we continue to support diversity and inclusion and have introduced a number of initiatives, like our Diversity Champions and Women of Exasol group, to champion the progression of women working in technology and raise awareness of this important topic.
For International Women’s Day 2021, Exasol’s Chief Communication Officer, Deborah Thomas, joins host Helena Schwenk on the DataXpresso podcast to dive into a range of topics related to the celebration. The conversation touches on the relevance of IWD in 2021 and the pair’s views on the progress made around equality and diversity. Plus Helena takes the opportunity to ask Deborah about role models – both male and female – and how to attract more women into tech.
Listen to DataXpresso episode 23 here.