The BreakLine Arena

Join us in The BreakLine Arena as we share tech industry insights, hear from industry titans and celebrate the stories of our amazing alumni community. In this episode we have the opportunity to hear from BreakLine alum, Maya Dhir.For Maya, life’s unexpected twists and turns ultimately inspired her to reclaim her power.Born of Indian descent, Maya was raised an expatriate in Kuwait after her family relocated in search of economic opportunity. Although the societal narratives of the time placed strict limitations on many young women, Maya, with the blessing of her parents, left home to study engineering in Australia at the age of 15.Armed with a deep sense of empowerment and the courage to step into the unknown, Maya vigorously pursued her dreams. She earned a Masters of Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and pursued a Doctorate in Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, before ultimately landing a role as a trader on Wall Street.After getting married and starting a family, Maya’s life suddenly took an unexpected turn when her husband was diagnosed with Stage 4 Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. She found herself in a new city with no friends, no family, two children under the age of two, and a husband in desperate need of her care. Her career would have to ultimately be placed on hold for several years.When asked about this chapter of life, Maya articulated the struggle so many of us find between unconditionally supporting our family and pursuing our individual sense of purpose through our careers.In spite of unforeseen challenges and the uncertainty of time, Maya’s family persevered and she reclaimed her power. Her husband returned to health, both of her sons attended top academic institutions, and she ultimately achieved a lifelong dream of attending the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.When the time came to embark upon her the next exciting chapter of her career, Maya knew she wanted to find a company with a compelling mission and vision. She was introduced to Blend during her BreakLine Education programming, and with the support of champions like Jasmine Essalat recently began her new role on the Business Development and Partnerships team!If you are inspired by what you've heard, please like, subscribe, or review our show. To learn more about BreakLine Education, check us out at breakline.org.

Join us in The BreakLine Arena for an inspiring conversation with Kara Nortman, Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures. In this episode, Kara shares invaluable insight into her trailblazing career as a venture capitalist as well as how an incredible experience at the Women's World Cup Finals eventually let to her becoming a co-founder of Angel City Football Club.As Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures, Kara leverages her own founder experience to help entrepreneurs build high-performing teams across software, consumer, and the future of work categories. She is also a founding member of All Raise, dedicated to diversity in founders and funders.Before joining Upfront in 2014, Kara co-founded Moonfrye, a children’s e-commerce company. Prior to Moonfrye, Kara spent close to seven years at IAC where she was the SVP and General Manager of Urbanspoon and Citysearch. Earlier Kara co-headed IAC's M&A group where she led some of their most successful acquisitions, notably Urbanspoon, Dictionary.com and Aston Hotels. She also served as a board member to Hatch Labs, IAC’s mobile technology incubator, where she was the seed investor in Tinder. In earlier years, Kara spent time at Morgan Stanley, Microsoft, and Battery Ventures. She received her AB in Politics from Princeton University and her MBA from Stanford University.If you like what you've heard please like, subscribe, or rate our show. To learn more about BreakLine Education, check us out at breakline.org.

Join us in The BreakLine Arena as we explore the intersection of race, mental health, and the tech industry with Headspace's Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Cornell Verdeja-Woodson.These are truly unprecedented times. Collectively, we are navigating a global pandemic, adjusting to new workplace norms, and possibly engaging with issues of race, gender and equity in ways that stretch us outside of our comfort zones. The stress, anxiety, or uncertainty many of us feel from time to time is a reminder of the importance of protecting our mental health and incorporating self-care habits into our routines.In this conversation we unpack it all, and will hopefully equip you with some additional tools to more seamlessly navigate your journey.If you like what you've heard, please like, subscribe, or rate our show. To learn more about BreakLine Education, check us out at breakline.org.

Please join us in The BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Ali Ghodsi, CEO and Co-founder of Databricks.As Chief Executive Officer, Ali responsible for the growth and international expansion of the company. He previously served as the VP of Engineering and Product Management before taking the role of CEO in January 2016. In addition to his work at Databricks, Ali serves as an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley and is on the board at UC Berkeley’s RiseLab.Ali was one of the original creators of open source project, Apache Spark, and ideas from his academic research in the areas of resource management and scheduling and data caching have been applied to Apache Mesos and Apache Hadoop. Ali received his MBA from Mid-Sweden University in 2003 and PhD from KTH/Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden in 2006 in the area of Distributed Computing.If you like what you've heard, please like, subscribe, or follow our show. To learn more about BreakLine Education, check us out at breakline.org.

Join us in The BreakLine Arena as we share tech industry insights, hear from industry titans and celebrate the stories of our amazing alumni community. In this episode we have the opportunity to hear from BreakLine alum, T.J. O'Connor.T.J. O’Connor’s story is a reminder that there is light at the end of the military transition tunnel.A graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, TJ’s military service allowed him to hone his leadership, build a diverse set of professional skills, and gain exposure to a wide variety of roles.With a background in Cyber Operations and Information Technology, one of his earliest roles was leading a 22-person Client Service Team.Within three years, TJ became a senior leader of a 125+ person team responsible for the network design, vulnerability management, and system administration of a data center.TJ went on to serve at the National Security Agency, lead Air Force recruitment efforts in the Pacific Northwest, and instruct our nation’s next generation of leaders as an Assistant Professor of Aerospace Sciences.Those who wear the uniform know that military service truly is a family affair. Spouses often endure countless career transitions, children navigate new school systems, and extended family often step in to provide an additional layer of support during the trying times.After eight years of active duty service, multiple moves, and time away from a growing family, TJ and his wife Becky made the family decision to start an exciting new chapter by pivoting into the tech industry.He was introduced to Datadog during his BreakLine Education programming and immediately fell in love with the company culture. Last month, with the support of amazing champions like Marissa Parillo and Margee Leach, TJ officially began his new role as a Customer Success Manager.When asked about his experience thus far, TJ said, “Datadog provides me with an amazing opportunity to lead and drive impact across the organization as they expand their operations to the West Coast and in our home state of Colorado. The company truly invests in their employees’ growth and well-being. I can’t wait to see how this next chapter of my professional journey unfolds.”If you like what you've heard, please subscribe, follow, and rate our show! To learn more about BreakLine Education, check us out at breakline.org.

Join us in The BreakLine Arena for an action-packed conversation with tech titan and trailblazer, Stacy Brown-Philpot. Stacy is the former CEO of TaskRabbit the leading task management network connecting skilled Taskers with clients to handle everyday services in the home. In 2017, Stacy led the successful acquisition of TaskRabbit by the IKEA Group. Ranked by Business Insider as one of the 46 Most Important Blacks in Technology, Stacy is a frequent speaker on diversity, equity and inclusion. Notably, she founded the Black Googler Network, a seminal component of diversity initiatives at Google and the larger technology industry. She was named a 2016 Henry Crown Fellow with the Aspen Institute and Fortune's 2015 40 Under 40.Originally from Detroit where she developed a deep and abiding love for all things Motown, Stacy now resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two daughters. She holds a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude and an M.B.A. from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.If you like what you've heard, please subscribe, follow, and rate our show! To learn more about BreakLine Education, check us out at breakline.org.

Join us in The BreakLine Arena as we share tech industry insights and celebrate the stories of our amazing alumni community.A scholar, warrior, and athlete - Victoria Langston is the ultimate definition of a triple threat.Born and raised in a small rural town near Worcester, Victoria’s curiosity and love of learning carried her to the big city lights of Manchester, where she became the first in her family to attend university.As a psychology and neuroscience major, she gained invaluable insight into the human mind, and would ultimately go on to become a researcher at the King's College London Centre for Military Health Research.Even with the tremendous success Victoria experienced in academia, her longing for excitement, kinship, and impact compelled her to join the British Army where she would lead Soldiers in deployments to both Afghanistan and Nigeria.Following eight years of military service, Victoria would embark upon yet another adventure by pivoting into the tech industry. She was first introduced to DeepMind a British Artificial Intelligence research laboratory, during her programming as one of the first BreakLine Education participants.In her current role as a Senior Program Manager, Victoria is bringing to bear the sum of her diverse experiences in order to solve some of the world’s most complex and interesting problems.Oh by the way, she accomplished all of the above while training for and completing the Marathon des Sables, a six-day, 251km ultramarathon - her sweet taste of victory is pictured below.When asked what asked what advice she had for professionals navigating their own unique journey she shared the following.“If you go and do something and you don’t succeed, what’s the worst that can happen? Give yourself a chance, don’t rule yourself out before it’s even began.”If you like what you've heard, please subscribe, follow, and rate our show! To learn more about BreakLine Education, check us out at breakline.org.

Join us in The BreakLine Arena for an inspiring and uplifting conversation with tech pioneer Rani Johnson, Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President at TIBCO.In this conversation, Rani shares how from an early age her curiosity, access to opportunity, and a supportive community facilitated extraordinary success and cultivated a life-long love of learning. During this episode, she also provides insight into how she navigated major decisions in her career while also providing words of wisdom to up-and-coming professionals navigating their own journey.In her current role as CIO, Rani is integral to developing the vision and overall business strategy of TIBCO's IT organization. Prior to joining TIBCO, Rani was the SVP and CIO of SolarWinds and CIO at the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA). Rani began her career as a software developer at NASA's Johnson Space Center and had code deployed on the International Space Station. Rani holds dual degrees in electrical engineering and general engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and Spelman College.We hope you are able to join us in what truly is a phenomenal conversation!If you like what you've heard, please subscribe, follow, and rate our show! To learn more about BreakLine Education, check us out at breakline.org.

Join us in The BreakLine Arena as we share tech industry insights and celebrate the stories of our amazing alumni community. In this episode we have the opportunity to hear from BreakLine alum, Andrew Powell, (aka “AP”).He first forged his entrepreneurial spirit in the bustling markets of Trinidad and Tobago, where he spent his childhood summers.Whether learning to balance the books of his uncle’s corner store, or rolling up his sleeves to help grow the margins of his grandfather’s pig farm, AP’s experience was largely informed by the deep sense of confidence, pride, and assertiveness role-modeled by his extended family.These seminal moments became the cornerstone of a tremendously successful career in sales.After graduating college with a degree in business administration, AP quickly rose through the sales ranks within the tire industry. Over the course of a decade he gained national recognition for his stellar performance, and also earned a reputation for his best-in-class customer service.Following this success, AP’s lifelong passion for technology and desire for continued professional growth compelled him to make the pivot into the tech industry. During his BreakLine Education program, AP was introduced to Confluent where he quickly identified a strong alignment with the company’s mission and his career goals.AP “closed the deal” on a new exciting chapter of his career, landing a role as a member of Confluent’s Enterprise User Success team.When asked about his experience thus far, AP is most grateful for the growth opportunities of the rapidly expanding industry as well as the support system provided by mentors such as fellow BreakLine alum, James Smith.To learn more about AP’s journey, check out this podcast interview with The BreakLine Arena!

"My purpose to walk this earth is not to generate revenue. My purpose is to help people find out ways that they can liberate themselves from a system of control in their mind to create a system of liberation so that they can find emotional and spiritual fulfillment. My first design principle for the rebirth of my professional life, which is where my identify was still very strong: Prioritize your happiness."Folks, if you are looking for a bit of deep wisdom and inspiration to help elevate you to that next level of happiness or fulfillment look no further. Join us in The BreakLine Arena for a truly profound conversation with Ali Azhar, Chief Revenue Officer at HOVER. In this episode, Ali vulnerably dives into the wisdom and insights he has gained over the course of his personal and professional journey. As Chief Revenue Officer, Ali is responsible for hiring and retaining top sales talent, implementing the company’s Go-To-Market Strategy, and creating programs to retain and grow HOVER’s customer base. Prior to moving to Silicon Valley, he was a successful entrepreneur, founding and selling three businesses. In 2011, he moved to the Bay Area to pursue a career in software sales leadership, working for MongoDB. During his tenure at MongoDB, he was both the top individual contributor as well as the top sales leader globally.If you like what you've heard, please subscribe, follow, and rate our show! To learn more about BreakLine Education, check us out at breakline.org.