I joined Trint nine months ago and have been fortunate to work with many inspiring and accomplished women. This has made my time at Trint rewarding, and I find myself genuinely grateful to be part of the Trint team.
My admiration extends to the senior leadership team, where six out of eight individuals are female. This includes Akosua Quartey our Finance Director, Georgie Wickman our Chief of Staff, Lauren Ward our Chief Commercial Officer, Diana Muizniece our Investor Relations Consultant, Karen Webb our VP of People, and Tessa Kaday our Director of Product.
In celebration of International Women's Day, I had the opportunity to interview some of my colleagues, shedding light on their unique skills, diverse backgrounds and personal challenges. Here’s what they had to say:
Product is so diverse as a discipline. The more diversity of perspectives we can attract into it, the better product development practices will be and the more inclusive and accessible end product experiences will be! Encouraging more women to pursue careers in product management not only benefits individual women but also contributes to greater diversity, innovation, and success within the technology industry as a whole.
Hannah Mansour, Product Lead
Women make up one of the underrepresented groups in software engineering. It’s important that more women take up my line of work as a core part of our industry is innovation and having perspectives from a diverse group of people results in better solutions.
Katie Mcdonagh, Software Engineer
Sales is definitely a male-dominated environment, which can give the impression to other women that it’s more suited to men. This can lead to women being put off applying for jobs when they see teams having far more men than women. From my experience, women in sales roles bring things to the role. E.g. a different way of communicating with customers and a more human-centered approach to sales cycles, that are different to what men offer and can improve how teams work overall. Statistically, women tend to be more successful in sales roles than men so it is clear our approach works and there’s a lot we can contribute.
Sadhbh Hoban Logan, Account Executive, Enterprise
I see the pace of change with the AI era we are now in will continue to be exciting but also push us to think differently. We need to continuously focus on how we can make our customers' lives easier. They are under pressure to produce real time, fact checked and accurate news in multiple languages and platforms with less investment than ever before. My focus will be continuing to ensure Trint partners with global customers and solves their pain points through AI so they can do more of what they love, which is breaking news across the world so we are all better informed.
Lauren Ward, Chief Commercial Officer
I hope to see more ethnic women in senior leadership. There is room at the table and we should support one another, be available for transparent conversations on how to get there and what to expect when you grab the next seat.
Georgie Wickman, Chief of Staff
The rise of generative AI and LLMs is so acute in our industry; the importance of having diverse teams building them or figuring out the best use of their applications is going to be crucial to their success. I’m excited to be able to work in a field where I can directly influence this!
Hannah Mansour, Product Lead
I personally like adventure and a bit of a challenge (perhaps it comes from my Australian upbringing) but I would say to not take the easy route and always look for opportunities to expand either by broadening your experience across disciplines or sectors. I have witnessed some company cultures where being yourself (which includes being female) was not a sign of leadership. There was a particular blueprint that had a bias to all senior leadership being male. I think quickly recognising these attitudes and either stamping them out if you can or moving on quickly would be my advice as there are plenty of companies like Trint that encourage you to lead in your own style.
Lauren Ward, Chief Commercial Officer
Imposter syndrome is real! It’s still something I have to work on to keep under control at times. I would encourage anyone dealing with this to try to remember that everyone makes mistakes, or doesn’t know the answer to something sometimes. Having a supportive team around you makes dealing with these issues much easier, and being honest about them normalises it for others in your team too.
Katie Mcdonagh, Software Engineer
In the past, I’ve had issues with managers being more used to managing males. When going for promotions, for example, this can mean your manager misunderstanding your motivations because you might not express them in the same way as your male counterparts. It’s important not to let this knock your confidence and trust your own ways of working and communicating – definitely don’t change how you do things to align to these kinds of expectations.
Sadhbh Hoban Logan, Account Executive, Enterprise
Helena Morrissey is inspirational. In a male dominated industry, she climbed to the top of the ladder and has 9 children. I appreciate how she is open in sharing her learnings with others and started the 30% club to have more women represented on boards. Also my mother, who as a Burmese woman in the 1970s, was expected to settle down early. Instead she worked hard to ensure financial independence, never relied on anyone and – when she had me – was always there when it mattered without additional support.
Georgie Wickman, Chief of Staff
My parents moved to the UK knowing very limited English and were able to bring both me and my sister up with a good education. Despite the difficulties, they always worked hard with a positive mindset.
Chi San Lo, Digital Marketing Manager
I have had some great mentors and coaches in my career and a few memorable statements have been, “Your career is a marathon, not a race” and “You never see a CEO running around an office, slow down and check in on people, be an environmentalist and check the mood of the team by slowing down and speaking to people”. Realizing you can only do so much helps you to be ruthless at prioritizing, delegating and being organized is critical to lead.
Lauren Ward, Chief Commercial Officer
In my role, I tend to be the person others come to for emotional support. This can be mentally exhausting and at times people will use me to take out their frustrations. I've learnt to not take this personally and I try to put it into perspective. I process the feeling at the moment and remind myself that I can only control my reaction and I cannot control how others react but can only support them.
Georgie Wickman, Chief of Staff
Over the past few years I’ve realised just how crucial it is to take breaks from outlets such as social media and the news to focus on myself and my well-being. This can involve anything from cooking, to a massage or simply reading a book. These things really help me switch off and focus on my present self.
Chi San Lo, Digital Marketing Manager
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