Gigabit January 2019
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NORTH AMERICA<br />
Neelam Sandhu,<br />
Senior Director of<br />
Business Operations,<br />
Office of the CEO,<br />
BlackBerry<br />
function of the company in some<br />
capacity”. One day she may be meeting<br />
with government officials and customers,<br />
the next launching a new internal<br />
expense management system, or<br />
executing on initiatives like the<br />
BlackBerry Shield.<br />
Sandhu has seemingly found her<br />
calling in the technology sector but<br />
unfortunately, women in this field are<br />
increasingly rare. A report by Accenture<br />
and non-profit Girls Who Code<br />
noted that women account for 34% of<br />
computing jobs today, down from 37%<br />
in 1995. Elsewhere, in the UK, figures<br />
from the Women’s Engineering Society<br />
(WES) show that just 15% of people<br />
working in STEM (Science, Technology,<br />
Engineering and Mathematics)<br />
roles are women – and only 5% of<br />
leadership positions in the technology<br />
industry are held by women. The<br />
statistics make for disheartening<br />
reading, but Sandhu is optimistic that<br />
we could see change on the horizon.<br />
“In my career, I’ve certainly<br />
experienced some bias from men and<br />
women alike,” she recalls. “However,<br />
I’ve been very fortunate that, for me,<br />
BlackBerry has been a great place<br />
to grow and learn and to advance my<br />
99<br />
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