Francine Gordon - Chapter President

Francine is an executive coach, drawing on her breadth of experience and depth of knowledge.  Before starting her coaching business, Dr. Gordon spent over five years with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as the global knowledge expert on Human Resources issues.  Clients included Global 500 companies in high technology, finance, biotechnology, industrial goods, and pharmaceuticals in North America, Europe and Asia. 

Dr. Gordon began her professional life as assistant professor of Organization Behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB). She was one of the first two women on the GSB faculty and the youngest person to hold that position.  In addition to teaching M.B.A. and Ph.D. candidates, she consulted with major companies and co-edited a book, Bringing Women Into Management (McGraw-Hill), which provided unique solutions to integrating women into executive management.

Her experience also includes 8 years with Tandem Computers/UB Networks and 6 years at Pacific Telephone/Pac Bell, where her last position was Director of New Business Opportunities.   Early in her career, Francine helped found and manage a critically acclaimed professional (i.e., Actors Equity) repertory theatre.

Francine graduated from Vassar College, Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa.   She went on to earn both an M.A. and Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from Yale University.  Francine is a certified integral coach.

Usha Sekar is an experienced software executive and entrepreneur.  She was founder and CEO of CRIA Technologies, a pioneering outsourcing management company, developing software and services for a newly emerging market during the first wave of Internet companies.  She was previously CIO of Fujitsu PC and Director of IT at Tandem Computers and Compaq (now a division of HP), and has successfully led many significant initiatives from E-commerce to global enterprise applications.  Usha is currently fully occupied as Founder/CEO of a brand-new tech startup (Meemli, Inc.) a venture that aims to deliver on the triple-bottom line of people, planet and profit.

In her spare time, Usha is also actively involved with several non-profits, in addition to ATW.  She has served on the board of the Community Committee for International Students at Stanford, is an Executive Director of Shadhika, a foundation supporting destitute women and children in India, and is an active supporter of BUILD which has an innovative program to help under-resourced high school students in the Bay Area make it to college.  As a fan on entrepreneurship, Usha maintains a blog on the startup ethos and the entrepreneurial mindset (http://startupline.blogspot.com/).

Usha holds an MS in Mathematics from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), from Madras (Chennai), India.  She spends her leisure time with family and friends enjoying theater, books, movies, and the scenic Bay Area.

Marsha G. Gastwirth - Evening Program Director

Marsha Gastwirth has spent her professional career in business development and marketing as a manager and individual contributor with both start-ups and Global 500 companies for over 10 years aand holds an MBA from Golden Gate University, San Francisco, CA. Ms. Gastwirth is Vice President of Development & Communications for the Alliance of Technology and Women’s National Executive Leadership Team and has served as Director of Sponsorship for the Silicon Valley (California) chapter of ATW, previously the Professional Area Network of Women and Technology (PANW), since 2002. In her current role, Ms. Gastwirth is responsible for the organization’s overall fundraising plan, including corporate sponsorships and grants, and communication. Ms. Gastwirth currently manages a MarketStar sales team supporting special pricing requests at Hewlett Packard in Cupertino, CA.

Patti Dock - Marketing Director

Cathleen Smithwick - Treasurer

Cathleen is currently Director of Finance at Visto Corporation where she is in charge of all financial planning, analysis and reporting functions and is responsible for providing executive guidance to help drive corporate performance. Prior to Visto, she was at Field Day Solutions, a small startup where she was a member of the executive team. She also has long term experience at Network Associates, Inc., where, in her last role as Director of Finance, she planned and established professional finance, planning and controllership processes to support the Sales. Marketing, Tech Support, IT and Professional Services global groups. Cathleen brings a wealth of expertise in budgeting, analysis and control. She has over 14 years of diverse experience in business planning, revenue recognition, financial leadership and process development. She also has international experience including six years in Japan working as a commodities trader at Nissho Iwai and as financial advisor and consultant to small start-ups and, as part of her role at NAI,  managed worldwide finance (Asia and Europe) for the Support, Marketing and IT teams. Cathleen is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with an MBA from the University of Southern California (USC).

Susan Chan Kelleher- GREAT MINDS Director

Diane Wotus - Logistics Director

Diane Wotus has worked in high tech manufacturing for over 20 years.  She earned her degree in Chemical Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh PA.

Starting in New Hampshire at Nashua Corporation, Diane learned the Deming approach to quality manufacturing in the Computer Products Division and worked her way into management.  She then transferred to California to manufacture thin film media at StorMedia, a start-up, where she was Vice President Operations.  From thin film media, Diane moved to thin film heads at Read-Rite Corporation as Senior Director Wafer Fab Operations.  Most
recently,  Diane worked in the UK at Bookham Technology (a manufacturer of optical components) as the Vice President of Wafer Fab Operations.  Since returning from the UK, Diane has been working at Varian Medical in Palo Alto managing the master scheduling function. Although slightly out of the high tech arena, Diane is able to apply her operations background and knowledge
of process improvement in her current capacity.

Sheryl Chamberlain - Mentor Program Co-Director

Sheryl Chamberlain works at EMC in Global Alliances and is responsible for developing, building and establishing global, corporate and regional relationships with Computer Sciences Corporation. She is the Founding President of the Women’s Leadership Forum West Coast representing over 4,000 employees in EMC’s Western Region .

Prior to EMC, Sheryl owned and operated a business consultancy practice focused on providing system integration business reengineering services to organizations with revenues of $5M to $1B. She has held key sales, marketing, project management and financial positions for Fortune 500 companies including IBM, PepsiCo, Norton Simon Corp. and Deloitte Touche. She was the CFO for Arizona-based John Carlier General Commercial Contractor, and application software implementation consultant for IBM ISV Computer Guidance Corporation.

Sheryl has been involved in a number of leadership programs including serving as founding officer and president of the Construction Financial Management Association Valley of the Sun; Institute for Women’s Leadership - Executives Leading Sustainable Change; Santa Clara University Global Women’s Leadership, Network Women Leaders for the World.

Shelli Hendricks - Mentor Program Co-Director

Shelli Hendricks is Manager of Learning & Development for EMC University Western US Region, responsible for professional and leadership development of nearly 4,000 EMC employees in this geography. She has over 10 years experience teaching, advising, coaching, mentoring, designing curriculum and developing leaders in both corporate and academic settings. Key programs and accomplishments include design of corporate self-managed mentoring programs, implementing organization and talent reviews, career coaching and curriculum evaluation. In addition, Shelli provides organizational development consulting services, in the areas of development needs analysis and evaluation, performance appraisal, team building, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) workshops, career coaching, managing change, and conflict resolution.

Ms. Hendricks’ education includes a MS in Educational Technology from Nova Southeastern University, and a BA in Literature from San Francisco State University. Shelli currently serves as the founding chair of professional development for EMC’s Women’s Leadership Forum West Coast.

Michelle Benson - Great Minds Director

Ms. Benson is a software development manager with over 15 years of experience in the software industry.  She began her career as a software engineer for Oracle Corporation.  Since then she has been at several startup companies including Aim21 which was sold to Reuters and Egreetings.com which went public and then was bought by American Greetings.  She has worked in several areas of software, from database, to client-server applications, to web-based applications and e-commerce.  Ms. Benson is currently a development manager at Remedy, a BMC software company. 

Ms. Benson has a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Michigan.  She has been active in other non-profit organizations and has a strong interest in getting girls interested in technology fields and assisting young women in the pursuit of technology careers.

Irene Lefton- Volunteers Director

Ms. Lefton is a well connected and accomplished leader with a proven track record in building strategic relationships that create successful business. Her easy communication and strategic leadership skills build bridges between individuals, companies and their partners and customers. Coming from several P & L management positions in technical and software companies, she most recently was living abroad in Zurich Switzerland setting up the European Professional Services and Training Business for MontaVista Software, a Linux based embedded operating system Software Company. Ms Lefton has held Regional Business Development Management and Director of Services roles for companies such as USinternetworking and Progress Software. She was a founding member on the Board of the Silicon Valley Chapter of ATW and she has a BA in Economics and an MBA both from University of New Mexico. Irene is known for her organizational skills and creative strategic strategies. She is also currently on the Board of the University of NM Alumni Association, NorCal Chapter and is exploring her next career move.

Sally Crawford - Immediate Past President

Sally Crawford is CEO of Crawford & Associates International, a Palo Alto-based company that provides integrated learning and change management solutions to ensure companies achieve sustainable business results.  Ms. Crawford started her business in 1982 in the basement of her Chicago home and has expanded it into a multi-million dollar consulting firm with prestigious global clients such as Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, and Network Appliance.  Ms. Crawford has received numerous awards, including Woman Entrepreneur of the Year (Ernst & Young) and Top 25 Women Making Business History (National Association of Women Business Owners).  In 2001, she was named among the Top 30 Women in Technology by Women in Technology International.  In 2004, Crawford & Associates was named by Biz Ink magazine as one of the Top 50 Women-Owned Businesses in Silicon Valley.  As a recognized entrepreneur and community leader, Ms. Crawford was recently named to two advisory boards: Professional Businesswomen of California and the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning.

Kathryn Ullrich - Founding Chapter President

Ms. Ullrich specializes in the recruitment of senior level executives for technology and consulting companies. Ms. Ullrich has over four years of executive search experience with her own firm and Russell Reynolds Associates. Earlier in her career, she was Director of Product Marketing at Siebel Systems, responsible for the communications industry vertical. She joined Siebel from Accenture, where she was a manager in strategy consulting. She began her career in an engineering management development program with GTE and engineering assignments at Motorola.

Ms. Ullrich has an MBA with top honors from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA and a BS, cum laude, in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan. She is currently on the board of directors for the University of Michigan alumni association and was the Regional Director for the Silicon Valley chapter of WITI, President of her business school class, Vice President of the board of directors for the alumni association at the Anderson School at UCLA, and selected member of Leadership California. She also holds patents in near video-on-demand services.