Internet of Things (IoT) Community announces formation of Women in IoT Center of Excellence (WIoTCoE)

Published April 17, 2019 | By IoT Community

The WIoTCoE aims to collectively provide the global IoT community learning and best practice sharing for IoT application and use in engaging and developing Women in IoT.

The IoT Community® (Internet of Things Community®), the world’s largest community of corporate executives, IoT professionals and practitioners, today announced the formation of its Women in IoT focused IoT Center of Excellence (CoE), which will be led by Nancy Shemwell, COO, IoT Community. The Chair Emeritus will be Sandy Carter, vice president at Amazon Web Services, and Amber Armstrong, vice president and CMO, IBM Watson, will serve as the vice chair for the organization.

The WIoTCoE’s purpose is to lead the way in growing the strength of the IoT Community with thought leadership and diverse perspectives by leveraging and embracing the power of women within IoT. This CoE seeks to achieve this by facilitating discussions, the sharing of knowledge and education, establishing best practices, and making connections that reinforce inclusive and diverse thinking.

“We are delighted to announce the formation of our WIoTCoE, and are honored to have industry veterans Sandy and Amber in key leadership roles,” said Nancy Shemwell, COO, IoT Community. “Our goal in creating the WIoTCoE is to assemble a unique community of IoT executives focused on showcasing women leaders in IoT, as well as mentoring and educating current and future leaders in this high growth space. The IoT Community is very proud of being a leader in diversity, with 33% of the Board of Advisors comprised of women. With the global IoT market growing from $157B in 2016 to $457B by 2020* (28.5% CAGR), it is imperative to capitalize on the unique perspectives and contributions that are hallmarks of a diverse organization. The WIoTCoE seeks to identify leaders, share best practices, and equip them to enhance their ability to be strong contributors to the ever-growing IoT market.”

“The companies represented in the leadership team all have rich diversity programs that The IoT Community can leverage and learn from,” said Amber Armstrong, CMO IBM Watson IoT. “These women are all passionate about having a positive impact on today’s and tomorrow’s leaders in IoT and I am excited to join this diversity and equality initiative helping to bring balance across the IoT landscape.

“Women developers, managers, and entrepreneurships are playing a crucial role in establishing the Internet of Things,” said Sandy Carter, VP at AWS. “This is why I’m excited to join leaders from across the technology industry in creating a community to encourage, grow, and develop women leaders in the IoT industry.”

The WIoTCoE aims to leverage and enhance existing diversity programs and be a credible source of truth and best practices for embracing the power of women in the loT community by offering:

  • Learning portal and knowledge platform
  • Live conferences and on-demand dissemination of thought leadership (and education)
  • Spotlight Interviews – Women leaders in IoT
  • Alignment with other Women and STEM organizations

The five areas of coverage that form the pillars of excellence (PoE’s) are:

  • Culture
  • Business Acumen
  • Alliances
  • Leading by Example
  • Future IoT Talent

The Culture pillar will be led by Adrianne Court, Chief Human Resource Officer, Alkami Technology. Its focus is on embracing diversity of thought and unique perspectives and valuing differences to cultivate innovation in corporate and organizational cultures.

Jeanne Bayless, Partner at Bayless Capital, will head the Business Acumen pillar where they will work to develop opportunities to expand professional expertise spanning from financial acumen to business development.

The WIoTCoE is currently building alliances with women-centric groups such as Women in Cyber Security (WiCsy) and Texas Wall Street Women. Heading up the Alliance pillar will be Amy Konary, vice president of customer business innovation, Zuora, with a focus on the success and development of women in IoT.

Leadership by example is paramount to the WIoTCoE and at the helm of this pillar is Tamara Dull, principal open source technologist at Amazon Web Services. The Leading by Example pillar celebrates the success of women in IoT and will recognize companies and initiatives that are proactive in the advancement of women in IoT.

The WIoTCoE is committed to the future of women in IoT and that starts with promoting STEM initiatives at a young age. The Future IoT pillar will showcase associations with missions centered on inspiring girls in STEM to develop future IoT talent. At the helm of this important pillar will be Michele Null, global marketing leader, IoT Division at SAS.

Overseeing the five pillars of excellence will be Deanna Shaw, UX Architect/Tech Director at VMWare. In her role as Program Lead, she will be responsible for the coordinating with the pillar leads and managing the deployment of the programs out to the community.

*Source Forbes, Dec 10, 2017

 About IoT Community – (Internet of Things Community)

The IoT Community is the world’s largest CxO community of senior business leaders and IoT practitioners consisting of 23,000+ members. The function is to focus on adoption and application of IoT in commercial environments, seeking to contribute applying technology or overcoming the variety of barriers, inhibitors, and technical and operational issues. For more information about IoT Community, visit https://iotcommunity.net. Follow @IoTCommunity or hashtag #IoTCommunity

Contacts:

David Hill
Executive Director
IoT Community