Dianne Lapierre, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Raymond James Ltd was asked to comment on the under-representation of Women in Technology.
Dianne spoke to the changing face of careers in information technology. The focus is moving away from pure technical skills and becoming increasingly about understanding and managing relationships across the organization.
Clearly, technology is still a significant part of the job, but that, she says, is the easy part.
“It’s the people side: it’s the relationships – understanding how people need to hear the messages about the technology. It’s developing and coaching and mentoring a team and sometimes I think women do have a distinct advantage in these areas. For millennia, women have been responsible for the relationships within the family and in society. I think we may have a little bit of a leg up. I certainly see our male colleagues learning quickly.” Despite these changes, women are still under represented in technology leadership.
At CIOCAN, we are proud that Toronto Chapter Board member Christine Day, was recently included in the list of Canada’s 100 Most Powerful Women. Even more remarkable, she is the only women on the list whose career is in technology. Described as an entrepreneur by nature, an innovator and a visionary, she has defined Questrade’s technology posture for 11 years, steering it from a small start-up to one of Canada’s top and fastest-growing online financial services firms. She is also an advisor on the Ontario Securities Commission Launchpad and many other industry working groups guiding efforts to accelerate disruption in financial services.
How can CIOCAN, as an industry influencer, facilitate more people like Dianne and Christine rising to the upper levels of management in Information Technology?