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Welcome to the Forty Over 40 blog. We frequently spotlight one of our honorees and their thoughts on reinvention, mentorship and momentum…plus a peek into what makes them tick.

This Q & A is with Sharon Wienbar, the CEO of Hackbright Academy. Sharon is innovating her field of work by being dedicated to closing the gender gap in the technology industry by providing women and underrepresented genders a safe space to learn and the resources to successfully transition into a software engineering role.

1) What was a pivotal momentum of reinvention for you?

In November, 2015 I gave up 14 years of cushy venture capital investing and advising to become the CEO of Hackbright Academy, a software engineering school for women, that was also a bootstrapped startup. I’d held operating executive jobs at startups and public companies before becoming an investor, but I’d never been the CEO. And as a bootstrapped company (meaning, self-funded with no outside investors), Hackbright was operating on a thin cash cushion as it reached for growth. I went from being a board member giving advice to CEOs with many millions of dollars of “other people’s money” to the hands on doer at a small company with only our own resources and only the founder as my co-board member.

2) Who has been a valuable mentor or sponsor?

My partner at Scale Venture Partners, Kate Mitchell, has been a guide and awesome teammate since she recruited me to the firm in 2001. I didn’t realize how lucky I was at the time to join one of the few venture capital firms in America with a woman partner, and we had multiple. Kate set the tone that allows inclusion and diversity to flourish at ScaleVP.

3) What is your biggest goal right now?

Hackbright is growing. My biggest goal right now is for us to keep delivering the incredible quality experience our women students love while we open new campuses. I came to Hackbright from Scale Venture Partners….I am now learning to scale myself and my company.

I also recently achieved a personal goal, which was to join the board of a non-tech company to help give them insight to Silicon Valley. In June 2016, I joined the Board of Directors of Colfax Corporation, a diversified industrial company with global operations.

4) How did you get your first job? How did you jump to your second job?

My first job was in a contemporary fine jewelry store in a middle-class suburban mall. I LOVED the abstract jewelry and could sell it like crazy because I believed. Now that I’m more experienced in business, I’m grateful that I learned selling at an early age, as it is part of any career in some form. When I left college, I worked as a consultant at Bain & Company, which was a fabulous intense course in business and leadership.

5)  What time do you typically wake up? What do you do every morning?

My alarm goes off at 4am most mornings, because I’m on the water or the rowing machine with my competitive rowing team almost every day. I took up rowing in my late 40’s to have a reason to work out in the morning—I was a night owl and a sloth—and didn’t realize how much the sport would become part of my personal identity.

6)  How do you unplug? How often do you unplug?

When I row, I have to totally unplug because rowing demands your full attention. It’s mind-cleansing to focus just on the power and the technique of the stroke and to release your tensions to flow with the other rowers in the boat.

7)  What challenge / achievement are you most proud of?

My daughters are my proudest achievement. They are kind, funny and hard working young adults. As a working mom, I often agonized over them versus work. Late in their teens they came to me to say “we know we ragged on you for working when we were little, but now we see how your work has prepared us to be adults, and we want you to know we are happy that you did what you did.”

8)  What was the last business book you read? 

I’m reading “Shoe Dog” now, Phil Knight of Nike’s memoir. There are excellent leadership and business lessons in many books. Two favorites are “Boys in the Boat” and “Shackleton’s Endurance” because both chronicle a team’s success through incredible hardship.

9)  What song can’t you get out of your head? 

I make a lot of custom playlists for my rowing team’s workouts. A  favorite earworms is “Everything is Awesome”.

10) What is your secret indulgence? 

Chocolate. Dark chocolate.

Check outSharon Wienbar’s full 40 Over 40 profile here!

Welcome to the Forty Over 40 blog. We frequently spotlight one of our honorees and their thoughts on reinvention, mentorship and momentum…plus a peek into what makes them tick.

This Q & A is with Rebecca Carroll, High Profile Voice on Racial, Feminist, and Other Equality Issues. Rebecca is innovating her field of work at WNYC by producing a series of special projects on race, having a critically acclaimed podcast in partnership with The Nation magazine “There Goes the Neighborhood, looks at race and gentrification in Brooklyn” and writing five books of interview-based narrative nonfiction about race.

1)  What was a pivotal moment of reinvention for you?

In 2014 the day Mike Brown was shot in Ferguson, Missouri, after which my son, who is mixed and has lighter brown skin than I do, asked if the police were going to shoot me. I have always been involved in racial justice activism — it has been integral to my writing and work — but that day took it to another level. My blackness became resolute in a way that it never had been before. My son had openly acknowledged the real threat, both for him and for myself, that I could be killed just for the color of my skin. And although this has been the case since the country was founded, indeed it is one of the country’s founding principles, somehow the ache and anxiety and recognized breach of humanity expressed through his question made it real for me in the most exquisitely trenchant way. While he himself identifies as black and biracial, he knows that people will generally perceive him as racially ambiguous looking — that he doesn’t immediately register as black at first glance. His concern for me was palpable. His love for me was palpable. My blackness came to represent something bigger than me maybe for the first time in my life.     

Since then the tenor of my writing has shifted, my vision for racial justice is sharper, my efforts as a parent to instill black pride in my son are more urgent, the work of de-centering whiteness in a larger cultural context has become essential. But there have been casualties. One of my oldest friends — a white woman from college, who was also one of my bridesmaids — has not come with me in this evolution, which has been both heartbreaking and sobering.    

2)  What is your biggest goal right now?

The same goal it has always been — from the day my 5th grade teacher told me with complete casual indifference that I was “very pretty for a black girl” and I realized how deeply ingrained racism is in this country — and that is to change the way people think, talk and experience race in America by reinventing language and creating a pointillist narrative that changes the face of this country. More specifically, tangibly — by producing multi-platform projects (in radio, TV and online media) that achieve this goal in nuanced and enduring ways.

3)  How did you get your first job? How did you jump to your second job?

I’ve worked since I was 13 or 14 years old. But if you mean first “professional” job in the field I’m still in — excluding internships — I wrote a letter explaining why I was right for the job. A really good letter. That got me an interview, and then I just brought my whole damn self to that interview. I’m a huge proponent of showing up for interviews as you are, and as you will be in the position you are applying for — no surprises later. And if you aren’t allowed to be true to yourself in a position, then it’s not the position for you.

4)  What time do you typically wake up? What do you do every morning?

I don’t really enter the world as a fully present human until after 10am. That said, during the school year, I get up by 7am, make breakfast for my son, pack his lunch, get him off to school (by 8:20 or so), go for a run (about 4 miles), shower and get into the office usually by about 10:30am. During the summers it’s mostly the same, though maybe 7:30 or 8am wakeup if my son’s camp day starts a little later. On the weekends I can easily sleep until 9am and feel no shame whatsoever. 

5)  How do you unplug? How often do you unplug?

I’m not very good at unplugging but when I do, I read books. Real books. Mostly novels. Not on a Kindle or any kind of screen. A book with pages that I can turn. Even though I am often reading for work (as a critic for review), the joy of getting into the words and the story is still so gratifying.

6)  What’s the best networking contact you’ve made? How did you make it?

The best networking contact I ever made was Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who I know as Skip — I applied for and accepted a position as a receptionist at the Department of Afro-American Studies at Harvard University in 1994, much to the chagrin of my boyfriend at the time, who thought the position was beneath me. I knew that Skip was doing something extraordinary at Harvard — creating this “dream team” of black academics and professors, but more broadly, he was creating visibility and space for black intellect, and I wanted to be a part of that. The year after I left that job, during which time I published my first book, Skip invited me back to Harvard, but this time as a W.E.B. Du Bois Fellow. And still after that, Skip introduced me to Charlie Rose, who later hired me as a producer for his show on PBS, which marked the formal beginning of my career in media.

7)  What challenge / achievement are you most proud of?

Detoxing from the deeply destructive relationship with my birthmother (I was adopted at 3 weeks old in an open adoption — long story), whose self-serving power and influence over me was absolute from the day we reunited when I was 11 years old until the day I cut ties just before my 25th birthday. It was like being reborn, which also meant learning how to think for myself, and figuring out who I actually was and could become. It was terrifying and deeply painful and enormously challenging, but also so profoundly liberating.

8)  What cause do you most want to advance?

Racial justice.

9)  What song can’t you get out of your head?

All I Do by Stevie Wonder

10)  What is the best piece of advice you ever received?

You can’t broker personal relationships. They are not property deals. They are people.

11)  What is your “keep me going” quote?

“We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.” — Toni Morrison

12)  Who on the list of prior Honorees would you like to meet?

Farah Mohamed, Nilofer Merchant, Kimberly Bryant, Betsy Beers, Jalak Jobanputra, Bettina Sherick, and Stacy Ratner.

Check out Rebecca Carroll’s full 40 Over 40 profile here!

Welcome to the Forty Over 40 blog. We frequently spotlight one of our honorees and their thoughts on reinvention, mentorship and momentum…plus a peek into what makes them tick.

This Q & A is with Rachel Weiss, the VP of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at L’Oreal.  Rachel is innovating her field of work by currently being responsible for digital marketing and innovation strategy focusing on mobile, social, content and disruptive technologies across all of L’Oreal USA.

1) What was a pivotal moment of reinvention for you?

Getting laid off in early 2000 and being so poor I got a temp job handing out fliers on the street.

2) Who has been a valuable mentor or sponsor?

My former coworker James Hewitt. He and I worked together at three different companies (Sony, Citigroup and the failed start-up I mention above) and he took care of me when times were tough. Plus, I have learned so much from him and he’s like family to me now.  He’s given me advice and coaching I’ve used over the past 20 years.

3) What is your biggest goal right now?

Being healthy. I have been so focused on my career, I lost track of my own well-being. I’ve  been watching what I eat and exercising and it’s helping me be  happier, more focused and productive.  

4) How do you unplug? How often do you unplug?

I go to St. Lucia once a year to a wellness resort. I unplug there.

5)  What’s the best networking contact you’ve made? How did you make it?

Joe Medved from Lerer Hippeau Ventures. We met years ago in a limo going to Salt Lick BBQ during SXSW and I told him my dream of launching a program for L’Oreal and he helped me meet people, host events and has taught me so much about the start-up world and investing. I can’t thank him enough.  We actually met because he has a portable cell phone charger which was a big luxury at the time. He’s one the smartest and greatest men I know.

6) What challenge / achievement are you most proud of?

I’m proud of launching the L’Oreal Women in Digital program five years ago and watching the entrepreneurs I’ve met grow their businesses, get married and have kids and mentor a next generation. I’m so proud of those women.

7) What was the last business book you read? 

Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist  written by Brad Feld

8) What cause do you most want to advance?

Equal pay for equal work.

9) What song can’t you get out of your head? 

I’m obsessed with the entire Alexander Hamilton soundtrack like a 5 year old obsessed with Frozen.

10)  What is the best piece of advice you ever received?

My grandmother told me “Wherever you go, you take yourself.” I always think about that.

11) What is your secret indulgence? 

Going to Broadway theater on my own after work. I leave work, go to TKTS and catch a show my myself.

Check out Rachel Weiss’s full 40 Over 40 profile here!

Welcome to the Forty Over 40 blog. We frequently spotlight one of our honorees and their thoughts on reinvention, mentorship and momentum…plus a peek into what makes them tick.

This Q & A is with Libby Schaaf, Mayor of Oakland City.

 

1) What was a pivotal moment of reinvention for you?

Deciding to quit my job as an attorney at the big, corporate law firm and take a job for roughly half the salary at a nonprofit to start a volunteer program for the Oakland public schools. I realized that my passion for public service was more important than compensation or professional prestige, and I’ve never regretted these values-led choices.

2)  Who has been a valuable mentor or sponsor?

Jen Pahlka, founder of Code for America, encouraged me to see the innovative potential of government and participatory democracy, as well as to nurture it within Oakland. She also was one of the first influential leaders to urge me to run for Mayor and help me see myself in the role.

3)  What is your biggest goal right now?

To make Oakland a model city for health and equity during this time of resurgence, including improving outcomes for and preventing displacement of vulnerable residents, small businesses and cultural organizations, as well as tripling the number of Oakland youth who graduate from college.

4)  What time do you typically wake up? What do you do every morning?

7am – I drive my kids to school in our mini-van; it’s often the only time all day I feel like a typical mom.

5)  How do you unplug? How often do you unplug?

Nearly every night I need to take my brain off work to fall asleep and enjoy doing so with some good fiction. I’m especially fond of geeky sci-fi fantasy and whatever my awesome book club has selected.

6)  What cause do you most want to advance?

Equitable life outcomes – especially higher education. Right now, only 1 in 10 Oakland public school 9th graders will graduate from college. That’s unacceptable, especially in this Knowledge Economy and considering shameful disparities by class and race. If there’s only one thing I do as Mayor it’s changing that. To learn how I will, visit www.OaklandPromise.org .

7)  What is your “keep me going” quote?

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead

Check out Libby Schaaf’s 40 Over 40 profile here!

Welcome to the Forty Over 40 blog. We frequently spotlight one of our honorees and their thoughts on reinvention, mentorship and momentum…plus a peek into what makes them tick.

This Q & A is with Vanessa Alvarez a Marketing Executive at Amazon Web Services who is breaking the ceiling for Latinas. Vanessa is innovating her field of work by helping companies understand the value of cloud computing, and leverage the innovation of technology to increase business value.

1)  What was a pivotal momentum of reinvention for you?

The moment I realized I needed to build a brand in order to establish a career in the tech field. Realizing that your brand is important and represents who you are was a big moment.

2)  Who has been a valuable mentor or sponsor?

I have had many people that have been valuable in my life, both personally and professionally, too many to just focus on one.

3)  What is your biggest goal right now?

To help move the needle on Latinos being represented in the technology industry. It’s critical that Latinos be a part of the future, and that’s technology.

4)  What time do you typically wake up? What do you do every morning?

I wake up at 5 am, remind myself of what I’m grateful for, fuel up with coffee, turn on CNBC for market news, and read about what’s going on in my industry. I may squeeze in a workout or run.

5)  How do you unplug? How often do you unplug?

Unplugging is hard, the tech industry is moving so fast, and I want to move with it! I need to know what’s going on all the time, but when I do unplug, it’ll be for a few hours to spend with family.

6)  What challenge / achievement are you most proud of?

As mundane as it may sound, graduating from college is my proudest moment. According to Pew Research only 15% of Latinos graduated from college in 2014. These stats are real. It was less during my time.

7)  What was the last business book you read? 

Ben Horowitz-‘The Hard Thing about Hard Things’.

8)  What is the best piece of advice you ever received?

Always focus on your own brand, it represents you and what value you bring to any organization

9)  What is your “keep me going” quote?

Mark Cuban: “Work like there’s someone working 24 hours a day to take it all away from you”.

10) What is your secret indulgence? 

Fashion, looking for a way to tie my two passions together (fashion and technology).

Check out Vanessa Alvarez’s full 40 Over 40 profile here!