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21 Women Making An Impact In Industrial IoT

March 8th is International Women’s Day 2018, a global celebration of the achievements of women all over the world. This year’s theme is #PressforProgress and in honor of that, Temboo has committed to forge positive visibility of women in IoT. 

Now, more than ever, there’s a strong call-to-action to press forward and progress gender parity. There’s a strong call to #PressforProgress motivating and uniting friends, colleagues and whole communities to think, act and be gender inclusive.

We wanted to take a moment to identify the amazing women in the Industrial IoT space who are paving the way to the fourth industrial revolution through research, business development, media and more. Below, in no order, are our picks for the most influential women in Industrial IoT in 2018.

Sarah Cooper, General Manager of IoT Solutions at Amazon Web Services

Dr. Sarah Cooper is not only the GM of AWS’s IoT solutions but also serves as Vice Chairwoman of the Internet of Things Community which is the largest IoT specific online community. Above is a video of her keynote talk, Making IoT Experimentation Easy, at the Embedded Linux Conference and Open IoT Summit in 2017. Follow her on Twitter at @SMC_on_IoT

Nadine L. Manjaro, Lead IoT Consultant and CEO at Beyond Machine to Machine Communications

Nadine has had an impressive career developing IoT solutions for multiple companies including Verizon Wireless and Tech Mahindra. She’s currently the CEO and lead consultant at Beyond Machine to Machine Communications which provides IoT consulting services for companies to help guide them on potential IoT opportunities. In addition to that, she’s an Advisory Board Member at IoT6 Exchange, a summit dedicated to advancing smart infrastructure and IoT.  She also has a patent for Automated Device Activation and has written articles on the IoT marketplace. Follow Nadine on Twitter at @NadineManjaro.

Caralynn Nowinski Collens, CEO of UI Labs

UI Labs is a non-profit innovation accelerator aiming to transform industries using digital technologies. Back in 2016 they hosted the first ever ‘Women in Manufacturing’ event at their Chicago innovation center.  In addition to her work with UI Labs, Caralynn is also a Governer-appointed member of the Illinois Innovation & Competitiveness Council and serves as a member of World Business Chicago’s ChicagoNEXT Council of technology leaders. Check out her article on Making Digital Manufacturing Accessible and follow her on Twitter at @Caralynn_CHI.

Deborah Sherry, Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at GE Digital

Deborah Sherry is a great role model and thought leader in the digital transformation space. In addition to leading the European Division of GE Digital, she’s written extensively about innovation for the GE blog and was named a Leading LGBT & Ally Executive by FT in 2017. Prior to joining GE she launched Open For Business, a coalition that works to combat the spread of anti-LGBT discrimination across the world. According to her bio, her mission is to deliver the next industrial revolution – Industry 4.0. Follow her on Twitter at @deborahsherry.

Rhonda Dirvin, Director of IoT and Embedded at ARM

In addition to her work at Arm, Rhonda is also a Board Director and Founding Member of the OpenFog Consortium, which aims to create an open reference architecture for fog computing, build operational models and testbeds, define and advance technology, educate the market and promote business development through a thriving OpenFog ecosystem. She’s an expert in IoT and has spoken at multiple conferences on the topic. Check out her latest blog post, The Arm Internet of Things (IoT) Continuum and follow her on Twitter at @RADirvin.

Tanja Ruekert, President of Business Unit IoT & Digital Supply Chain at SAP

Tanja has established herself as a thought leader on digital transformation. At SAP, she leads all end-to-end efforts around manufacturing, supply chain management, connected logistics, asset management, IoT, and Industry 4.0. In a December 2017 interview, “Tanja mentioned that she believes strongly in digital transformation (key for IoT and digital supply chain) because it requires collaboration and she believes that women leaders can truly make a difference by making relationships and collaboration successful, thereby increasing the economic and societal impact of digital transformation.” In addition to her work at SAP she’s Vice Chair of the Industrial Internet Consortium and a member of the University Council at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences. Follow her on Twitter at @RueckertTanja.

Cyra Richardson, General Manager of Business Development for AI & IoT at Microsoft

Not only does Cyra lead three different engineering teams focused on IoT at Microsoft, she also has 7 patents and, in her free time, coaches startup leadership to help solve their business, cultural, and technical challenges. One of the teams she led built a cloud service that simplified connecting, data collection, reporting and insights for industrial devices and eventually had components of the service built into the Azure’s IoT Stack. As if all that wasn’t enough, Cyra built and operates Microsoft’s IoT & AI Insider Labs, which are geared towards helping accelerate business development for companies. Follow her on Twitter at @MsCyraIoT.

Terri Lewis, Digital & Technology Director at Caterpillar Inc.

Terri lead the development and execution of the Technology Enabled Solutions strategy for Caterpillar’s Energy and Transportation industry vertical. In an Q & A with Connected World Magazine, Terri talked about how technology has changed the way dealers are interacting with their customers saying, “Before the 1980s, Caterpillar provided services exclusively at the product level. Dealers dealt with the physical aspects—they got dirty, cold, and muddy. By the ‘80s, technology transformed the way Caterpillar provided service—we shifted from just a physical company to one that provided electronic and software services as well. Since then, the Internet has revolutionized the way services can be provided, allowing us to increasingly offer our customers opportunities to work remotely. Our services will become even more real and remote over the next years with plans to implement augmented and virtual reality.” Read more about Terri’s work on the Caterpillar website.

Maria Håkansson, Vice President and Head of Industry Practices, Customer Group Industry & Society at Ericsson

Maria was previously the Vice President of IoT at Ericsson and in addition to her current role she is CEO of Swedfund, the Development Finance Institution of the Swedish state. Their mission is to eliminate poverty by creating sustainable business in some of the world’s toughest and most promising growth markets. Read Maria’s blog post about IoT monetization success at the Ericsson blog.

Christine Billaud, Director of Business Technology – Connected Solutions at Volvo Construction Equipment

Christine Billaud is leading the charge for Volvo CE to become a total solution provider for smart connected products and services. She told IoT Tech Expo, “Construction equipment and machines are becoming commodities, and we have to bring value through the combination of machines and services”. In addition to the speaking events she has done, she’s also a member of the CIONET Advisory Board.

Mary Ramsey, Senior Vice President of Process Automation Americas at Schneider Electric

Mary specializes in automation, big data, software, SCADA, data collection, and IoT a history of working in process and discrete manufacturing.  Read Mary’s tips for safeguarding infrastructure-critical industries here.

Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn, Vice President and General Manager at Cisco Systems and CEO of the IoT Talent Consortium

Jeanne is not only VP & GM at Cisco Systems but also CEO of the IoT Talent Consortium as well as a Board Member of Xylem Water & Wastewater. She’s received numerous awards such as 2017 Women of M2M Trailblazer in IoT, Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology. Last year her book, “I’m the Boss of Me: A Guide to Owning Your Career” was published and she’s also written multiple articles about education for the Cisco Blog.

Stacey Higginbotham, Creator of the Internet of Things Podcast and weekly newsletter, Stacey Knows Things

Stacey is one of the biggest influencers and thought leaders on IoT. Her podcast is downloaded over 100,000 times per month and her newsletter has 9,000 weekly subscribers. She also has a companion blog covering all things IoT. Follow her on Twitter at @gigastacey.

Peggy Smedley, President & Editorial Director of Specialty Publishing Media (Connected World)

Peggy is another thought leader and influencer on IoT that has her own podcast, blog, and newsletter. In addition to writing and collaborating on over 8 published books, she also has her own book called, “Mending Manufacturing: How America Can Manufacture it’s Survival“. Follow Peggy on Twitter at @ConnectedWMag.

Women of Temboo

Women Of Temboo

The last 6 women on our list are from Team Temboo! From the top right is Mala Kumar who does product design, Caitlin Quintero Weaver, DevOps engineer, Claire Kwong who is a web developer, Jessica Califano, marketing and communications, Kat Cordona our office manager, and Trisala Chandaria, co-founder and CEO. We’re hiring for our team so if you want to join this amazing group of women in IoT check out our open positions!

We know there’s a ton of other inspiring women in IoT out there, and we’re planning on doing more coverage of them throughout the year. If you are an awesome woman working in Industrial IoT let us know so we can make sure to include you in future coverage and if you know someone who we missed give us a shout on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or G+.

Read more about International Women’s Day 2018.

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