The IT Services Report is pleased to announce the Top 25 Women Leaders in IT Services of 2020. These talented individuals were selected for their notable contributions to their companies as well as the broader IT Services sector. Individuals were reviewed based on several factors such as breadth of experience, longevity in the industry, professional achievements and corporate as well as division performance.
This year’s awardees represent the highest level of achievement in the field. Not only have they made significant contributions to the continued growth and success of their companies, they have also paved the way for other women leaders in a traditionally male-dominated sector. Their consistent drive and forward thinking have made a significant impact on the groups, divisions and organizations they lead. Please join us in recognizing The Top 25 Women Leaders in IT Services of 2020.
1. Julie Sweet, Accenture
CEO
Julie Sweet is the CEO of Accenture, a global leader in professional services for nearly 20 years. Before becoming the CEO in September 2019, Sweet served as the top executive of Accenture’s North American division, the company’s largest market. As an executive, she has led the firm’s drive for inclusion and diversity in corporate workplaces, ideals that have shaped her since her previous career as an attorney. Prior to joining Accenture in 2010, Sweet helped create an entire women’s division as a partner at the prestigious law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. Under her guidance, Accenture has become a pioneer in workforce reporting, leading the movement toward corporate transparency by strong example.
Sweet joined Accenture as the head of the legal department and concurrently served as the company’s chief compliance officer. Additionally, she oversaw the Office of Government Relations, which provided her with great insight into the company’s aerospace, defense and U.S. federal technology solutions. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in international relations from Claremont McKenna College and a Juris Doctor from Columbia University Law School.
2. Shelby Austin, Deloitte Canada
Managing Partner of Omnia AI and Growth Investments
Shelby Austin is the Managing Partner of Omnia AI and Growth Investments for Deloitte Canada. The Ontario native brought her experience as a partner at a Canadian law firm to her transformative venture, founding ATD Legal Services in 2010. The company used cutting-edge computer processing in the field of document review and quickly received accolades for its rapid growth. In 2014, ADT was acquired by Deloitte, the largest professional services network in the world, and the company was incorporated into Deloitte’s Canadian member firm as its Legal Projects Solutions Team. Luckily for Deloitte, Austin came along as part of the deal, eventually taking the reins of Omnia AI where she oversees the end-to-end AI business solutions.
With Omnia, Austin hopes to advance AI and machine learning as tools for enhancing customer experience and accelerating profitability. She has served on the eDiscovery Implementation Committee, on the Board of Directors of Ladies Learning Code, and has advised several legal startups. Austin earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from American University, as well as a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Western Ontario.
3. Aarthi Subramanian, Tata Group/Tata Consultancy Services
Chief Digital Officer
With nearly 30 years of experience in global technology, Aarthi Subramanian is the Chief Digital Officer and a non-executive board member with Tata Group, one of India’s largest and oldest industrial companies. In her latest role within the multinational corporation, Subramanian leads the firm’s digital initiatives and delivery governance, propelling its new technologies and innovations. Prior to her promotion, she served as an executive director for Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the group’s wide-ranging technology subsidiary. Since beginning her career with TCS three decades ago, she has worked her way up through the company by serving in several different roles in India, Canada, Sweden, and the U.S.
Before joining TCS, she earned a degree in computer science from the National Institute of Technology, Warangal in India, and a Master of Science degree in engineering management from the University of Kansas. In 2019, she was awarded “Technology Leader of the Year” by India’s ETPrime Women Leadership Awards.
4. Nancy Mattenberger, Infor
Global Chief Customer Officer
Nancy Mattenberger is the Global Chief Customer Officer of global software company Infor, a New York-based provider of ERP cloud solutions specialized by industry. The self-proclaimed “global citizen” with roots in Switzerland is responsible for the company’s overall customer experience, working across all of its teams to ensure consistent satisfaction. She is passionate about working with people and has had an eclectic professional trajectory that eventually landed her in the tech sector. Her formative years led her to PricewaterhouseCoopers where she was a regional manager of global technology services.
Mattenberger went on to director positions with Kronos and Oracle before landing at Infor in 2014. Presently, she is still spreading her people-power as an executive vice president and is committed to leading the industry as businesses continue to move into the digital future.
5. Carole Ferrand, Capgemini
Chief Financial Officer
Carole Ferrand is the CFO of French technology service organization Capgemini, a leading global provider of business transformation solutions. She brings with her a life-long commitment to fostering mutual trust between every member of any organization. After obtaining a Bachelor of Business Administration from HEC Paris, Ferrand began her career in corporate finance with global powerhouse PricewaterhouseCoopers, splitting her time between Paris and London. After eight years, she brought her fiduciary talents to Sony France where she spent over a decade as a financial executive.
Ferrand then accepted a financial director position with France’s Artemis Group, as well as an executive role at its affiliate FNAC. In 2016 she joined the independent board of directors of Capgemini and two years later she was promoted to her current role as CFO. Ferrand’s motto, which was given to her by another female professional mentor, is “always ready,” and she persistently advocates for gender equality in corporate leadership.
6. Inderpreet Sawhney, Infosys
Group General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer
At Infosys, Chief Compliance Officer Inderpreet Sawhney has enforced the company’s central values of fairness and client value. Sawhney serves as the company’s Group General Counsel as well, leading its legal function and ensuring regulatory compliance in addition to upholding ethical standards.
Sawhney boasts 30 years of experience internationally, both in the technology sector and the legal world, from her early years as a legal manager in Calcutta, India, to a decade-plus-long tenure as a partner at a mid-sized firm in Silicon Valley. Just prior to landing at Infosys, Sawhney spent five years as a senior vice president and general counsel at Wipro, one of the most renowned tech companies in India. During her time with the IT and consulting firm, Wipro was recognized as a world leader in corporate ethics by the U.S.-based Ethisphere Institute. With Infosys, Sawhney leads her team from its offices in Dallas, Texas, and looks forward as the company continues to grow internationally.
7. Julie Linn Teigland, Ernst & Young
Managing Partner and Global Leader
Julie Linn Teigland casts a wide net at Ernst & Young (EY), primarily serving as the Managing Partner of its Europe, Middle East, India and Africa division. As a leader with the international professional services giant, Teigland oversees a massive workforce of over 115,000 people across more than 90 countries, providing tax guidance, auditing, and digital business transformation for a vast international market. During her 17-plus-year career with EY, she has been credited with growing revenue in the Germany, Switzerland, and Austria division of the firm, thanks in great measure to her resolute integrity and peerless business management skills.
As a life-long advocate for gender inclusion in the corporate world, Teigland is also the Global Leader of EY’s “Women. Fast forward” initiative, a platform aimed at advancing gender equality through engagement with their clients and communities. Equally altruistic and unwavering in her determination, Teigland is an executive actively working for an ideal digital future.
8. Roshni Nadar Malhotra, HCL Technologies / HCL Corporation
Chairperson, HCL Technologies and Executive Director & CEO, HCL Corporation
As the second-generation leader of the HCL Corporation, Roshni Nadar Malhotra is a pioneer of women in tech and is the first female IT CEO in India’s history. The company was founded in 1976 by her father Shiv Nadar and other engineers and has grown into one of the most successful information technology companies in South Asia. In her role as Chairperson of HCL Technologies, she oversees an organization with a market cap of over $20 billion and revenue in excess of $10 billion. She is also Chairperson of HCL’s Corporate Social Responsibility Committee, through which the company aims to invest in philanthropic endeavors that benefit its communities.
Malhotra has received awards and accolades for her exceptional success and generosity and has been named on Forbes’ “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” list in several successive years. In 2018, she launched The Habitats Trust, a foundation dedicated to preserving India’s natural resources and wildlife.
9. Vicki Huff Eckert, PwC PricewaterhouseCoopers
Founder and Leader, US and Global New Ventures
In July 2020, Vicki Huff Eckert was named Vice Chairwoman of the West Region of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) U.S. With thirty years of service to PwC, Eckert proves the value of hard work and dedication, advancing through the company ranks all the way to the top. She is the founder and leader of PwC’s U.S. and Global New Ventures organization, incubating internal innovations for the benefit of their ever-expanding customer base. Her team has contributed to the development of over 50 SaaS products at the company, which has the second-largest professional services network in the world.
Together, Eckert and PwC support international clients of all sizes from across sectors. She has led the company through innovation, co-founding the PwC Silicon Valley Advisory and overseeing the global technology efforts in telecommunications, media, and entertainment. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in business from The Pennsylvania State University.
10. Virginia “Ginni” Rometty, IBM
Executive Chairman
Virginia “Ginni” Rometty has provided expert leadership to IBM for nearly a decade. After eight years as CEO and President, Rometty has handed over the reins to colleague Arvind Krishna and stepped into a new role as Executive chairman. Her tenure at the helm of the U.S.-based technology titan was focused strongly on transforming the company into a major player in contemporary computing solutions. Under Rometty’s leadership, IBM expanded its capabilities in cloud computing, security, quantum computing, data, and AI, while further accentuating its business expertise and consulting services. Before becoming IBM’s CEO, in 2002 she led the successful integration of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) consultancy service into IBM’s Global Business Services division, including a staff of nearly 30,000 consultants worldwide.
Rometty’s career with IBM spans three decades full of unparalleled technological advancement and innovation, and her achievements extend beyond the technical. She has been lauded for promoting diversity and inclusion within the company and throughout the industry, and for supporting technology education initiatives across the nation.
11. Kelly Manthey, Kin + Carta
Group Chief Executive - Americas
Kelly Manthey is the Americas Group Chief Executive of Kin + Carta, a digital transformation organization built for the rapidly-evolving future. Previously, Manthey served as the CEO of Solstice, a Chicago-based digital consulting and development company that joined British marketing firm St. Ives in 2015. The entire group rebranded in 2018, and as Kin + Carta was born, Manthey took on the responsibility of overseeing the company’s American operations. With the rebranding came a new organizational model called “The Connective,” which divides the company’s services into three columns: strategy, innovation, and communication. In her time leading Solstice, she spearheaded digital innovation and now hopes to continue on an even broader level.
Manthey began her career over twenty years ago with another professional services company before striking on her own as an independent technology consultant. She also spent several years managing marketing systems and business projects for a large pharmaceutical company, successfully directing its transition into the digital age. She has long been passionate about dismantling stereotypes about working in STEM fields, and formed the Women in Tech group at Solstice. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Kent State University as well as multiple professional certifications from Harvard Business School.
12. Jennifer Kilian, McKinsey & Company
Digital Partner
Jennifer Kilian has combined a compassion-based approach with a keen mind for design as a Digital Partner with McKinsey & Company, the American consulting firm nearing 100 years in business. Since 2014, Kilian has been propelling design and user experience to the forefront of McKinsey’s client services, converting years of experience with major players in tech into actionable insights that drive growth. She has been hailed for her innovation in user experience design, metering her creative vision with a healthy dose of business sense, and her skills as a creative director have made her an asset with ubiquitous names like Apple, IBM, and Facebook.
Her skills have served Fortune 500 companies across a range of industries, directing product initiatives for Chrysler, Disney, Hewlett-Packard, and even NASA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in graphic and industrial design from the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University and a Master of Science in interactive telecommunications from New York University. Her credentials are matched by her enthusiasm for the importance of design in the digital world she envisions.
13. Karalee Close, Boston Consulting Group
Managing Director & Senior Partner; Global Leader, Technology Advantage Practice
As Managing Director of Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) Technology Advantage practice, Karalee Close operates at “the intersection of technology and humanity.” Additionally, Close serves as a key member of the DigitalBCG Global Senior Management team, focusing on infusing data analytics into health care systems and other sectors. At BCG, one of the most esteemed consulting firms in the U.S., Close is actively involved in women’s empowerment programs that recruit female employees and amplify their voices. As women make significant advances in technology fields, Close and BCG strive to provide a workplace where female leaders are developed and gender equality is celebrated.
Close is a believer in the power of digital transformation, and she has spent her career implementing technological advances in health care systems, including six years as a global leader with BCG. Prior to her time with the American firm, she spent several years remodeling IT and customer experiences with Toronto-based University Health Network. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in health information science as well as a Master of Business Administration from the University of Toronto.
14. Riju Vashisht, Genpact
Leader, Global Transformation Services
Riju Vashisht serves as the leader of Genpact’s Global Transformation Services business. She previously served as Genpact’s Digital Solutioning, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Transitions leader. Her career with Genpact began in 2001 where she held a variety of leadership roles for India, the Philippines, and South Africa, including learning and development. Between 2010 and 2014, Vashisht left Genpact for a tenure as human resources leader for Walmart in India.
She returned to Genpact in 2014 where she was first appointed chief operating officer of the company’s consumer goods, retail, life sciences, and healthcare businesses. In this role she adeptly led global operations, transformation, and employee engagement across these verticals. Vashisht is renowned for her deep understanding of business drivers and the ability to effectively align clients and operations to execute with speed. Today, Vashisht directs this key attribute towards strategic development and delivery of integrated transformation, digital, and analytics solutions for clients in all industries.
15. Susan Penfield, Booz Allen Hamilton
Managing Director & Senior Partner and Global Leader
An innovator in every respect, Susan Penfield is the Chief Innovation Officer at Booz Allen Hamilton. Tasked with advancing the firm’s innovation journey, she strives for the, “trifecta of good: understanding of their [client’s] business, bringing the body of knowledge, and integrating the whole solution.” Penfield’s leadership sees her passionately mentor and advocate for women in STEM careers. She actively partners with fellow leaders to “galvanize the message of opportunity and achievement for emerging talent” for women in leadership. She has been a catalyst in leading and improving the firm’s admirable approach to recognitions, recruitment, and retention. In 2017 Penfield received a Diamond Award from Girls Inc. DC for outstanding executive leadership.
At Booz Allen Hamilton, Penfield drives focused innovation and functional strategies that “empower our people to change the world” creating integrated capabilities, breakthrough products and solutions, as well as alternative business models. Her additions to the company’s innovations seed next-generation business, drive growth, and develop functional strategies that scale, deepen and retain the firm’s talent base through affiliation, development, recruiting and upskilling. The firm’s celebrated DC Innovation Center, a physical embodiment of commitment to innovation, is the direct result of Penfield’s style of leadership. For this she was recognized by the Wash100 award as one of the most influential figures in government consulting for driving vision, innovation, and achievement for American citizens over the last two years.
16. Patricia Brown, SAS
Executive Vice President & Chief Legal Officer
With a tenure expanding 32 years, Patricia Brown’s extensive knowledge, loyalty and experience sees her serving as the Executive Vice President & Chief Legal Officer at SAS, overseeing legal services and licensing operations worldwide. After receiving her Juris Doctor from the University of North Carolina, Brown served in the U.S. Marine Corps for five years as a paralegal. Having worked up the ranks at SAS throughout her career, Brown assumed her current role in 2019, succeeding fellow SAS veteran John Boswell. Prior to this she led SAS efforts focused on protecting intellectual property while supporting the governance of SAS offices and affiliated businesses.
Today, she leads a team of over 300 attorneys and support staff while her division handles all legal and licensing operations support for the company including the Government Affairs, Enterprise Negotiations, and Risk departments. Brown is regarded for providing legal support to every facet of the business, prioritizing customer focused approaches to legal services. With her extensive experience she leads her teams in providing legal support for several large SAS divisions and contributes to setting direction and policies for SAS within the executive management team.
17. Sophie Proust, Atos
Chief Technology Officer
After only 4 years at Atos, Sophie Proust shot up in the company of 110,000 employees, across 73 countries, to assume the role of Chief Technology Officer in 2019. In the last 20 years, Proust served three years at Evidian as a development director before working for nine years at Bull.
During her tenure at Bull, she headed the Tera 100 Project to deliver The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission with the first Petaflops-scale calculator in Europe. After Atos’ acquisition of Bull, she began as a group senior vice president head of big data and security R&D between 2015 and 2019. Proust received a Master of Science at the Ecole Supérieure d’Electricité “Supélec” of Paris which she supplemented with a Short Advanced Management Program in Negotiation at ESSEC Business School. As of 2016, Proust has sat on the board of directors of Worldline global.
18. Julie Godin, CGI Inc.
Co-Chair of the Board, Executive Vice President, Strategic Planning and Corporate Development
A multi-hyphenate leader, Julie Godin is the Co-Chair of the Board and Executive Vice President, Strategic Planning and Corporate Development of CGI. Within these roles, Godin collaborates with the CGI Board to set the strategic direction for the company, striving to maintain equilibrium between the company’s three key stakeholders—clients, employees, and shareholders—to ensure each stakeholder’s long-term success. She further oversees the development of enterprise-wide policies, programs, and processes related to the management of the company and their consistent, high-quality application across all CBI Business units.
Godin began her professional career with a Kinesiology degree from the University of Sherbrooke. After a career in corporate health, Godin founded Oxygen, a company that manages comprehensive health and well-being programs in the workplace. Oxygen merged with CGI to offer members a well-rounded suite of health and well-being services. Today she is a recognized leader, having fulfilled multiple functions across the company by developing and executing policies and approaches that contribute to CGI’s strong culture and long-term growth. As of 2017, Godin is on the Board of Directors of CN, a transportation leader. She also co-founded the Godin Family foundation, a non-profit that strives to reduce poverty, promote education, and improve the health and wellbeing of children and teens in disadvantaged areas.
19. Katie Ebrahimi, Unisys
Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer
A Silicon Valley native, Katie Ebrahimi is a natural fit as Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer at Unisys, the global information technology company. At Unisys, Ebrahimi applies her wealth of experience within HR and the information technology industry to lead and operationalize all of Unisys’ global human capital strategies, including organizational design and effectiveness; associate training, evaluation, and retention; leadership and career development; diversity; and talent acquisition.
Having earned a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from California State University, Sacramento, and further studying industrial and organizational psychology at San Jose State University, Ebrahimi applied her extensive knowledge of organizational behavior in HR Management roles at Landec Corporation, Sutter health, and The Clorox Company. From 2000 onward, she took on director roles, gaining experience at tech firms McAfee, Sun Microsystems (where she served 9 years), and Cisco Systems, before advancing to vice president of human resources, a role she held for one year before her current appointment. At Unisys, where “people remain the most precious resource of all,” Ebrahimi’s HR expertise is vital to the continued success of the company’s highly skilled staff.
20. Laura Langdon, Wipro
Chief Marketing Officer
Laura Langdon was appointed Chief Marketing Officer of Wipro, the leading global information technology, consulting, and business process service company in 2019. Throughout a 27 year career, she counts amongst her many leadership roles an 11 year tenure as the vice president of marketing at The New York Times, a chief operating officer stint at DDB, and chief marketing officer position at Frog.
Prior to landing her role at Wipro, Langdon served for almost two years as the chief marketing officer of Aricent (the parent company of Frog), where she was responsible for leading the marketing strategy, PR and communications, advertising, and analyst relations. At Wipro, she applies her self-described “results driven lens and deep, cross-discipline expertise towards shaping global brand strategy, PR, communications, digital marketing, demand generation, partnership development, and branded content creation.”
21. Teresa Barreira, Publicis Sapient
Chief Marketing Officer
Teresa Barreira is the Chief Marketing Officer of Publicis Sapient with 25 years of global B2B experience in marketing and digital strategy, brand creation and reinvention, and solution definition and client centric strategies. An innovator and creative thinker, Barreira has a proven track record of exceeding multi-million dollar revenue targets, transforming and reinventing marketing organizations, creating new brands, launching new companies or lines of business, and driving high growth in fast-changing businesses.
Under Barreira’s leadership, Publicis Sapient’s market strategy has emphasized the company’s focus on delivering clients’ transformation initiatives through a unique combination of technology, data sciences, creativity, and deep industry expertise. She is a member of the Publicis Sapient Executive leadership team supporting business growth solidifying the company’s position as an industry leader in digital business transformation across 53 offices and over 20,000 employees. Barreira received a Master of Business Administration at Northeastern University’s Graduate School of Business Administration, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
22. Phebe Novakovic, General Dynamics
Chairman and CEO
Phebe Novakovic has been a powerful leader as the Chairman and CEO of defence giant General Dynamics since 2013. Forbes ranked her 24th on their 2018 list of most powerful women in the world, and for good reason. An American businesswoman and former intelligence officer, Novakovic is one of the only female executives in the male-dominated military-industrial space.
The daughter of an Air Force officer, Novakovic received a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She joined General Dynamics in 2001 after serving as the special assistant to the secretary and deputy secretary of defense for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1997-2001. She became the president and chief operation officer of General Dynamics in 2012 before assuming her current role only one year later. Novakovic serves on the boards of Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern University and Ford’s Theater, as well as on the boards of multiple charitable organizations.
23. Nazzic Keene, SAIC
CEO
Nazzic S. Keene serves as the CEO of SAIC, a company that provides system integration, engineering, and IT solutions to defense, intelligence, and civilian agencies. She was appointed to this role and was elected to SAIC’s Board of Directors in August 2019 after being with the company for seven years fulfilling increasingly prominent executive positions. Prior to being CEO, Keene was the chief operating officer and president of the company’s Global Markets & Missions sector, as well as senior vice president for corporate strategy.
A well-respected industry leader with three decades of experience with the information systems and technology services industry, Keene served 20 of which in executive management. In 2018 she received the Washington Business Journal’s COO of the year award andthe Washington Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business Award. Prior to joining SAIC, Keene was the General Manager and Vice President for U.S. Enterprise Markets at CGI, leading the company’s U.S. expansion. Keene acquired her bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona. Keene is currently a member of ADP’s Board of Directors and the Inova Health System Board of Trustees.
24. Carla Christofferson, DXC Technology
Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer
Carla Christofferson is the Vice President of DXC Technology and was named Chief Risk Officer in January of this year. In both her leadership roles, Christofferson leads the company’s risk and security efforts at a global scale to support the talent and innovation platform that serves 6000 private and public sector customers in 70 countries. With significant experience in senior leadership roles, Christofferson advances DXC’s enterprise-level resilience strategy to enable leaders to respond to security and business disruptions.
After receiving a law degree from Yale University, Christofferson worked one year as a judicial law clerk before completing a 22 year tenure at O’Melveny & Myers LLP. At the Los Angeles law firm, Christofferson served 14 years as a partner, representing customers in industries including power, energy, oil, and gas. As an active member of Los Angeles community affairs, Christofferson was also co-owner of the WNBA team the Los Angeles Sparks between 2006-2014. She has also served on the boards of the Los Angeles Library Foundation and Metropolitan YMCA.
25. Vicki Schmanske, Leidos
President of the Intelligence Group
An accomplished executive, Vicki Schmanske is the President of the Intelligence Group for Leidos, a company she has served for four years. Throughout her 35-year career, Schmanske has navigated roles across a variety of markets. This makes her an ideal executive for Leidos, a company that engages in the provision of scientific, engineering, and information technology services and solutions in the areas of defense, intelligence, civil, and health markets. With her ideal experience, Schmanske entered Leidos as a deputy group president in 2016, before serving as chief administrative officer in 2018 for only four months before the promotion to her current role. In 2018, Schmanske was granted the Corporate Large Market Sector Leadership award from Women in Technology.
At Leidos, Schmanske oversees the provision of solutions and services to intelligence community agencies. Schmanske is also an active member of the community, serving as the executive leader of the Leidos Washington, D.C. Heart Walk campaign and as a board member of The Women’s Center and the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in applied mathematics and computer science from the University of Virginia, and a Master of Science degree in information systems from George Washington University.
