Unlike other STEM professions like healthcare and research, technology has historically seen a lack of participation of women. That, combined with a severe skills shortage, is making enterprises build more gender-diverse workplaces, and senior women executives are playing a leading role in enhancing women’s representation in tech. As successful professionals, they serve as role models for the next generation. Here, we look at the top five women leaders in the cloud sector based on their leadership talents, track record, and accomplishments.
In the contemporary business environment, women serve as some of the most tenacious forerunners in the cloud industry. Almost 40% of all new businesses are controlledOpens a new window by women, out of which 5% are tech companies. These facts highlight the need for more female technology leaders in the cloud computing industry. With Gartner predicting worldwide public cloud sales to touchOpens a new window $474 billion in 2022, there is undoubtedly a lot of scope for women to join the industry in the years ahead.
Along with the factual realities of increased female engagement in cloud computing, the attention to trailblazing women in this field is also necessary to close the gender divide. So, let’s take a closer look at some of the intrepid female executives that are reshaping the cloud sector in 2022.
Top Five Women Leaders In the Cloud Industry
Hillery HunterOpens a new window , VP & CTO, IBM Cloud
Hillery Hunter holds the position of VP and CTO at IBM Cloud. Her research focuses on cross-disciplinary technologies, ranging from silicon to system design, to find new ways to solve old challenges. Hunter and her group are currently working on hardware-software co-optimization to reduce the time that machine and deep learning issues require to solve.
Besides her current role, Hunter formerly served as director of the accelerated cognitive infrastructure at IBM Research. She led a team that optimized AI workloads throughout the stack (hardware to software), resulting in productivity gains of 40x or more included in IBM product offerings. The National Academy of Engineering named her to its Frontiers in Engineering Symposium in 2010, recognizing her as one of America’s finest young engineers.
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Kirsten KliphouseOpens a new window , President, North America, Google Cloud
The second woman on the list is Kirsten Kliphouse. She joined Google Cloud in June 2019 and is now leading the customer-facing and partner-facing teams for Google Cloud in North America, which serves corporations, mid-market clients, and small to mid-sized businesses. Kliphouse is a veteran technology executive with leadership and sales expertise spanning start-ups to the world’s top software firms.
Her other former roles include – CEO of Yardarm Technologies, an IoT company, and senior vice president and general manager of North America commercial sales at Red Hat. Also, Kliphouse worked for Microsoft for more than 25 years, most recently as corporate vice president of the company’s 10,000-employee global customer support and professional services unit.Â
Based out of Florida, Kliphouse works with various businesses and entrepreneurs as a mentor.
Maureen LonerganOpens a new window , Director of training & certification, Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Maureen Lonergan, the director of training and certification at Amazon Web Services (AWS), heads a team dedicated to educating today’s and tomorrow’s cloud architects. The cloud expert assists AWS customers, partners, and staff in gaining the skills and knowledge necessary to achieve their cloud goals in the digital era.
Lonergan spent eight years teaching in school to children in Mozambique before joining AWS. She had spent her professional life mostly in training and educating others. During a gap year, Lonergan realized her real calling was in the world of education. She leapt at the chance to help AWS develop a training strategy to assist people and businesses use cloud technology to transform the world.Â
Rani BorkarOpens a new window , Microsoft Corporate VP for Azure Hardware Systems & Infrastructure and a member of Azure’s Senior Leadership Team
Rani Borkar is a member of Azure’s senior leadership team and is the corporate vice president for Azure hardware systems and infrastructure at Microsoft. Borkar oversees the key groups responsible for developing Microsoft’s premier cloud computing platform, from silicon to systems to the supply chain.
The woman leader has built her reputation as a pioneering hardware engineer in the semiconductor business and a technology executive, product visionary, and trusted leader with decades of computer expertise. She is dedicated to providing end-to-end solutions that enable customers to attain greater success.
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Previously, she served as the VP of OpenPOWER Development position at IBM before joining Microsoft. Borkar served the majority of her career at Intel before joining IBM. She directed Intel’s silicon product development strategy while overseeing huge, complex, and varied worldwide engineering departments.
Michelle ZatlynOpens a new window , co-founder, president & COO at Cloudflare
Michelle Zatlyn is the co-founder, president, and COO of Cloudflare and a member of the corporation’s board of directors. Zatlyn joined I Love Rewards (later Achievers), a worldwide employee rewards organization, after working at Google and Toshiba. In 2009, Zatlyn co-founded Cloudflare with classmates Matthew Prince and Lee Holloway from Harvard Business School. Zatlyn was recognized as one of Forbes magazine’s “40 Under 40†and “50 Self-Made Women†for 2021, as well as a C100 “Icon of Canadian Entrepreneurship†nominee (2019). She is a part of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders group as of 2022.
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