We recently hosted our very first Women in DevOps event in Switzerland, collaborating with Microsoft- and what a night it was! 🤩 ❤️ ✌️
As persistent skill gaps threaten to stifle progress in Switzerland’s tech industry, diversity-led workforce management has emerged as a bridge between challenge and opportunity. Hosted and chaired by Founder Lauren Langdell, we wanted to explore how leaders can move beyond performative diversity hiring, as well as creating an inclusive culture.
Key topics of the evening included:
Retaining top talent by building more inclusive environments
Supporting candidates through the entire talent lifecycle
Solving problems with the diversity of thought
Psychological safety and the foundations of team building
We would like to thank our incredible panel of experts for joining us Barbara Lisa, Greta Deats, Marianne Charaf, Merce Borrull, Hamlet D'Arcy and Lucia Palumbo.
Our panel of experts...
Barbara Lisa
Barbara Lisa is the Change and Transformation Direction in Beyond Gravity. She brings two decades of transformation experience, particularly in the digital context. She worked in leadership positions driving transformation for global businesses like British Petroleum, World Health Organization, and Roche to name a few, as well as set up an international business at the age of 24 which she later sold to pursue a consulting career.
Barbara holds an LLB and LLM from Charles University Prague, legal diploma from University of Cambridge, and Executive MBA from Bayes Business School, City University, London.
She is a passionate traveller, a TEDx speaker and was voted the most inspirational woman in Slovakia in 2020. In her free time she enjoys dancing, art, garden, is supporting charitable causes for children’s education and displaced people.
Greta Deats
Greta Deats is a Technical Program Management Lead in the Industry Solutions Engineering (ISE) organization at Microsoft. ISE is a global engineering organization that works directly with the largest companies and not-for-profits in the world to tackle their most significant technical challenges. She loves any opportunity to learn while she works, be it new tech stacks, industries, or cultures and enjoys being hands-on as both a developer and a leader. She additionally is a passionate speaker, volunteering her time and expertise to encourage young women to enter into careers in STEM.
Marianne Charaf
Dr. Marianne Charaf, Partner at itopia AG, holds a PhD in Business Informatics. Marianne grew up, lived and worked in several countries. As a woman in IT and mother, she brings a unique perspective to her leadership roles. With extensive experience in strategy and transformation across diverse industries such as financial, public services, and life sciences, Marianne is dedicated to fostering synergy between business and IT domains to drive data and digital transformation initiatives and customer experience. Her dedication to diversity and inclusion extends beyond professional endeavors, for example along her active involvement in in volunteer work as Co-President of the City of Zurich's Foreigners' Advisory Council, work aimed at promoting diversity, inclusion and empowering talents.
Hamlet D'Arcy Hamlet D’Arcy is a group program manager at Microsoft, leading several teams of software engineers and data scientists delivering customer-facing software solutions. He’s also the lead for the Microsoft Switzerland LGBTQIA+ employee resource group. Hamlet is endlessly passionate about making sure that every person can find a place to call home within his team.
Lucia Palumbo
Lucia is the Head of Technology at Hitachi Technology. She has a deep love for tech, particularly due to its ability to enable and boost a business. Lucia manages an international team and enjoys the diversity and variation of the role. In her spare time, you'll find Lucia either travelling, jogging or listening to all kinds of music!
