It is well established that the gender equation is unbalanced in the technology field. Here’s the breakdown of female presence: only 3% of technology startup CEOs, 13% of venture-funded startup co-founders, and 4% of venture capital partners are women. Google stands tall with a whopping 17% female staff. While that is significantly more diverse than the aforementioned numbers, it is still quite sad... and quite strange.
A
movement is upon us, however. On September 4th,
2014 President Obama appointed Megan Smith, the first woman to be the
United States Chief
Technology Officer. Entrepreneurs nationally are also taking
responsibility for closing the gap and driving change through
investment in applications and efforts to cultivate interest in
technology in girls at a young age. The concern is propelled by
research in 2013 that showed a mere 0.4%
of girls entering college expressed curiosity in a computer
science degree, and only 14%
of CIS graduates were women. Software applications such as
Scratch and efforts like App
Camp for Girls and Girls
Who Code Summer Immersion Program are aiming to grasp girls’
inquisitiveness and attention.
Our CEO at tekMountain, Brett Martin, has organically surrounded himself with motivated “rock star” women within his inner circle from the conception of CastleBranch, tekMountain’s parent company. Fifty percent of CastleBranch’s executive team is female: CFO Lauren Henderson, CIO Kelli Davis, Senior VP Business Development Nancy Lane, VP Client Solutions Michelle Kiesecker, and VP Operations Sharon Dibona. They work seamlessly with their equally important male counterparts to operate one of the top background screening and compliance tracking companies in the nation. Martin was recently named the North Carolina Technology Association Tech Exec of the Year for his work both in business and in technology, positioning him as a visible role model in the industry.
Now that tekMountain is established and executing our mission to foster new technologies, the same diversity has carried over. Our team is also fifty percent female. Director, Audrey Speicher, is the one responsible for developing tekMountain from the drawing board, facilitating everything from the HQ’s design to all outreach and internal member relations, and everything else that a brand new corporate accelerator could possibly require or desire. Amanda Sipes and I have worked closely with Audrey, Brett, and the executive staff as well, exemplifying their accessibility.
Diversity is also reflected within our member companies SayItSocial and Quintify. Even more distinguished is the fact that Hannah Wilson of Quintify is 18 years old and in the process of creating her own business plan here on the Mountain.
Earlier I mentioned that it’s sad and strange how female representation is so low within the technology industry. A poignant example of this curious paradigm is the fact that even the most well-versed people of technology don’t know that the first computer programmers were women. It started with Ada Lovelace in 1815 and was continued by Jean Jennings Bartik and Grace Hopper in the mid 1900’s. Hardware was for boys and software was for girls, yet somewhere it fell by the wayside. tekMountain and CastleBranch are positioned to help permanently shift that pendulum back, and will have fun while we do it. We are girls here, after all.
By: Alex May, tekMountain Team Member
Our CEO at tekMountain, Brett Martin, has organically surrounded himself with motivated “rock star” women within his inner circle from the conception of CastleBranch, tekMountain’s parent company. Fifty percent of CastleBranch’s executive team is female: CFO Lauren Henderson, CIO Kelli Davis, Senior VP Business Development Nancy Lane, VP Client Solutions Michelle Kiesecker, and VP Operations Sharon Dibona. They work seamlessly with their equally important male counterparts to operate one of the top background screening and compliance tracking companies in the nation. Martin was recently named the North Carolina Technology Association Tech Exec of the Year for his work both in business and in technology, positioning him as a visible role model in the industry.
Now that tekMountain is established and executing our mission to foster new technologies, the same diversity has carried over. Our team is also fifty percent female. Director, Audrey Speicher, is the one responsible for developing tekMountain from the drawing board, facilitating everything from the HQ’s design to all outreach and internal member relations, and everything else that a brand new corporate accelerator could possibly require or desire. Amanda Sipes and I have worked closely with Audrey, Brett, and the executive staff as well, exemplifying their accessibility.
Diversity is also reflected within our member companies SayItSocial and Quintify. Even more distinguished is the fact that Hannah Wilson of Quintify is 18 years old and in the process of creating her own business plan here on the Mountain.
Earlier I mentioned that it’s sad and strange how female representation is so low within the technology industry. A poignant example of this curious paradigm is the fact that even the most well-versed people of technology don’t know that the first computer programmers were women. It started with Ada Lovelace in 1815 and was continued by Jean Jennings Bartik and Grace Hopper in the mid 1900’s. Hardware was for boys and software was for girls, yet somewhere it fell by the wayside. tekMountain and CastleBranch are positioned to help permanently shift that pendulum back, and will have fun while we do it. We are girls here, after all.
By: Alex May, tekMountain Team Member
