The importance of allyship with Crayon CEO Melissa Mulholland and Board Chairman Rune Syversen

I'm Gabriella Shuster and I want to introduce you today to two very special people and we're going to talk about allies and what does it mean to be an ally and give you some great examples. Very often when there is only one of a minority, a woman, a Black, a Native American, LGBTQ+ individual, or some other behavior that is directed towards that individual as a consequence of their association with that group, the majority group will lean on that person to represent their whole group. An advocate who is not also associated with that same group will take intentional action in that moment to stand with the individual and/or stand on behalf of the group so that the burden of representation does not unfairly fall onto the person who is a member of that group. Tuning your sensitivity to when someone might either be excluded or singled out takes practice; it also takes courage and intentionality. When an individual does work with intention to observe and act in this way routinely, it gets easier over time and mitigates the impact that these subtle and unconscious microaggressions can have on that minority representative. In my case and in Melissa's case, being the only woman in the room, I want to share the story about Melissa Mulholland and Rhonda Severson. Melissa is a strong, competent leader in her field, developing new and innovative ways to showcase how organizations could build profitable partnerships with Microsoft. At the time, she was building content and concepts that could make meaningful impact on businesses and the CEOs that ran them, but there were many times when Melissa was the only woman in the room, speaking and directing the conversation to a room full of male CEOs. She would feel maybe outnumbered; sometimes the responses would shake her confidence. You'll hear their story. Runa was one of the CEOs in the room and an ally; he practiced being an advocate. He is attuned to look out for those microaggressions and moments when the person could use an advocate. So I want to introduce you to both Melissa and Runa to share with you more about their story. Melissa, would you like to introduce yourself?

Awesome, thank you. And Runa, would you like to introduce yourself?

Absolutely, it's so great to be here. And Gabriella, yeah, my name is Runa Severson. I'm the co-founder and also the chairman for Crayon, where Melissa resides today, so that's me.

Well, thank you both for agreeing to come here and share your story. You know, the many times that you, Runa, acted as an advocate and ally to Melissa enabled you both to form a very strong working relationship. And Melissa now as the CEO of Crayon and Runa the founder moving into your new position, I think that your relationship was thanks to the many years of allyship and sponsorship that you gave to supporting Melissa. Melissa is now successfully running and leading your organization onto transformation and innovation. So let's move on. I'm going to ask you a few questions and you can share with us a little bit more about that story. So Melissa, I know I gave a brief synopsis of the situation, but can you expand on the role that Runa played and the actions he took for you as an ally?

Yeah, excellent. It's a great example. So Runa, at the time, what was going through your mind? What helped you to recognize that situation and decide to take action with Melissa?

Well, you know, I don't think it was that much about Melissa at first. But I think all of us have really felt that awkward moment when people are questioning what we're saying or trying to intimidate us in the room. And I had this bad feeling. I knew that when you placed Melissa out on the floor, this is a really knowledgeable woman. So I mean, we better listen because she is really bringing value to the table. I was listening in and I learned a lot. And then I saw other people really not respecting her for what she put forward. That typically—and I mean from my childhood days—I've always been fighting, I wouldn't say for the weak, but for people being treated unfairly, which is really something that has bothered me. It has also affected my career in the early days in a negative way because I spoke up without thinking about the consequence. Over time I learned it. And then of course I got to know Melissa and all the knowledge she had. I also saw that some people were more looking at her height, that she was a woman, that she was young—all the things that really don't matter. For me, I always feel that with the position I have today, it's my responsibility and obligation to help people that actually have something to bring to the table to be treated in a fair and decent way. I think that's really where we started to build a bond. And obviously Melissa has shown her skills, which in many ways has been—even at that time when she was, I mean it's five, six years back when we first met—she was much smarter than many, many guys in that room. Obviously that's something that really came across. And I felt that with the position I have, I have an opportunity to chime in and support her.