REGISTER HERE

On March 8^th, we celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD) to highlight the achievements of women around the world and call out gender bias and inequality. This year’s IWD theme is #ChooseToChallenge – we can all choose to challenge gender inequality. We can also choose to celebrate women’s achievements. We can choose to help create an inclusive world.

This year, VanWIT is bringing together a panel of four inspirational women at various levels in their technology careers to talk about their experiences and how they persisted to achieve their goals.

The panelists:

Nicole Eltom – Interim Vice President, Customer Relationship & Solution Management

Nicole’s has over 30 years of experience is rooted in Strategic Relationship Management, business development and Business Leadership. Nicole is certified in Pragmatic Marketing, a CBRM Certified Professional and holds a diploma in Sales and Marketing Management from the Sauder School of Business, UBC. In her current role at TELUS Business Solutions, Nicole is the Interim VicePresident, Customer Relationship & Solution Management focused on customer life cycle management and customer success. Nicole was awarded the CHLOE Emerging Leader award at TELUS in 2019, and in 2020, she was awarded a second CHLOE award as Community Champion. She was also recognized by the BRM Institute 2019 global awards for Mentor and Team and in 2020 with the Top BRM award.

In her free time, Nicole enjoys travelling with her family and competing in endurance races. Nicole is passionate about connection, coaching and empower others. She believes providing value and giving back is an important part of a fully balanced life and has volunteered locally in her community in many capacities over the years. Presently, Nicole is an active board member and past co-chair of the TELUS Connections Board and the Chair of the Business Relationship Management Institute Executive Council, and an active Board member at Fulton Child Care Association.

“I am obsessed about bringing value to drive our customers’ business and help them realize the full potential of their investment. This is a paradigm shift towards service innovation rather than technology innovation as we have traditionally done.  Helping them realize the full value out of what they have invested in and how they leverage that will be a key differentiator for them and for us.”

Dianne Lapierre – Chief Information Officer at Absolute Software

Dianne Lapierre is Chief Information Officer at Absolute, responsible for driving IT solutions that enhance Absolute’s overall business strategy, translating business objectives into innovative technology advancements, and transforming the Absolute employee experience through technology and techniques aligned with today’s digital workplace. Prior to joining Absolute, Dianne served as Chief Information Officer for leading investment bank and financial services firm, Raymond James Ltd. She has more than 20 years of experience and leadership within the information technology and security sector.

Dianne is currently President of the CIO Association of Canada’s Vancouver chapter and serves on their national board. She is also the former Co-Chair for Vancouver Women in Technology (VanWIT). Dianne holds an MBA from Athabasca University.

Susan Romeo-Gilbert –  Educator, Independent Management Information Systems Consultant and Women-In-Technology Career Coach

Susan has over 26 years of experience in the IT Industry, including a variety of industrial sectors including Telecommunications, Utilities, Oil and Gas, Finance, Banking and Education having worked in Canada, USA, UK and the Caribbean.

Currently she is an instructor at Capilano University, Faculty of Business, teaching Business Information Systems Management and Project Management. She spent 2 years at the University of the West Indies- Continuing Education and 3.5 years working full time at University College London, England. Susan re-entered the Higher Education Sector in 2011 as a visiting Lecturer at the Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University. She was previously a Principal Platform Strategist with Microsoft Canada. She also undertook Business and Technical Management, Subject matter Expert (SME) and Lead roles for several GIS, Business Intelligence, Enterprise Architecture and Data Warehousing projects.

Sherry Wu – Regional Director, Info-Tech

As a Regional Director at Info-Tech, Sherry empowers CIOs and IT professionals across industries to establish IT strategy, accelerate processes, and systematically improve IT.

Sherry started her career in finance but found the fast-changing technology fascinating. Afterwards, she has been Sales Manager and Account Executive in the technology industry for international markets – North America, Australia, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, China, and Russia. She once led team in a tech startup to fundraise $8 million USD and develop pioneer clients for blockchain data solutions. She also supported clients like Microsoft, Salesforce, Hitachi to build market strategies.

As board member of Vancouver Women in Technology, she is passionate about supporting women in the industry.