Women in Leadership | Fireside Chat Series | Episode 10 | Shannon Gath | CIO of @TERADYNEINC

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the warm welcome. Happy International Women's Day. It's fantastic to be here. What a great way for all of us to celebrate such an awesome occasion. So thrilled to be here. I think you and I connected on our shared passion and energy around these kinds of topics, so really thrilled to be here. I am currently the CIO at Teradyne. We are both a robotics company but also in the semi industry, and I've been here for almost two years. It'll be two years in April. But if you asked my 10-year-old self, 'Hey Shannon, what do you want to be when you grow up?', my answer was... Science, really. You know, science was near and dear to my heart. It came more naturally to me than some of the language arts. I think that's just how I'm hardwired. And really, I think that's just a reflection of my own nature, which is about problem solving. I really find fulfillment in problem solving. So I studied at Tufts University, just north of Boston, and I studied mechanical engineering. Again, it was math and science that I really loved, physics in particular. And that's where I found my energy. And at the time, there were maybe two other women I can even remember in my graduating class. So I was very used to an environment where there just weren't a lot of women. I think I have a lot of... I've sort of had that natural inclination on how I've led my life. My first job out of college was mechanical engineering oriented, and I was trying to design viscometers for the US Navy. Part of it was in a startup company, so I had to wear a lot of hats. One of the things they asked me to do was implement an MRP system. I said, 'Okay, I don't know anything about it whatsoever, but I am resourceful and I'd like to make sure that what I do has a great level of quality, but I don't know anything.' So here I am, trying to be very curious. That's part of who I am. I'm naturally curious. I'm trying to implement this system, but I'm talking to this developer and they don't... I figured it out, I'm good now. Then I realized, oh, there's a DBA or a database administrator. They have a different language, so I went out and trained myself as a DBA. After implementing that system, I just fell in love with technology and spent the rest of my career in IT. I was really intentional about my career. I wanted to try different things to figure out what I liked best. So I was in a startup, a small company, a medium company, and a large company, all very intentionally. And then I also made sure that I was in multiple industries that had some synergies with each other so it wasn't a whole new environment. I was in... challenges but also meet the compliance needs in those organizations. I've spent most of my career trying these different environments, figuring out where I personally thrive, what type of environments I thrive in, and then looked for the next opportunity that aligns with what I like to do, what I find fulfilling, and where I have a shared passion with the organization. That's really brought me here.

Yeah. I would say it's certainly a different environment. What I found a level of connection with — I can tell you that I have never taken a position where I felt like it wasn't... I really find healthcare very fulfilling. For me, I've been in a couple pharmaceutical companies. It's really easy to get out of bed every morning when you're like, 'Hey, I am helping somebody with cystic fibrosis that used to not live past 32 have a full life.' That to me is super easy to get behind. But it's very different in financial services. It's kind of getting behind a mission where you're helping people to save money to create the lives they've always wanted to leave. They're so different. And even at Teradyne, Teradyne is grounded in — I love mechanical engineering and all that stuff, tinkering with everything. But it's also a place where, if you look at the numbers of women, one of the things that drew me to the... I felt like I brought a lot of experience where I almost call it an impact opportunity, where there's a huge organizational need and desire to get better. It is one of the top priorities of Teradyne to really get better representation of minorities and really create an inclusive environment for people to thrive in. So I was like, 'Oh, it's almost like I felt there was some sort of calling for me to come to Teradyne where all of those things lined up.' But for me, it's been very different. One thing I will say is I have been very laser-focused. I know not everyone's like this, and it might just be part of who I am, but very early in my career, probably in my 20s, I was like, 'You know what? I want to be CIO. I want to be CIO.' Everything I did in that role — it was like a dream come true role. But I knew getting to CIO would be a lot harder in that role. There was an opportunity that came up on the side that said, 'Hey, we need what you have, and that's what we're looking for,' and it was a faster path to CIO, so I took it despite being so happy. It's really hard to give that up with so much unknown on the other side, but when you have that clear vision of where you're trying to get, taking those leaps really can serve you well. Those things have worked for me.

Yeah. So, first and foremost, I think just having the conversation around that research. I mean that research happened a while ago about the fact that women would wait until they could check off every qualification. I think the more we're talking about this in more forums, the more awareness women have, and they'll check themselves like, 'Wait a minute, I can throw my hat in.' And if you look around here and you see your male colleagues doing it, I think it helps build your confidence to be able to do things like that. So I hope just educating people on that circumstance... That education piece is not only going to give women the confidence to take a leap like that, but it's also going to educate the management team, whether they're men or women, to say, 'Hey, maybe you should take this role over here. I know you might be thinking that you only have this, but I see your potential.' And honestly, we're all athletes, right? No one knows everything on day one. We talk about imposter syndrome and everything like that. At the end of the day, you have to make yourself an athlete. Whatever is key in that space, and where you have blind spots, educate yourself. You're talking about passion, you're talking about drive. Anytime I'm in a new situation, I gotta go educate myself, and that's going to make you successful. As long as you look behind you and you're like, 'I haven't...' It keeps you up and keeps you going. And it really is important to build that support network — men, women, everybody.

Yeah, yeah. I think it's a few things. It's interesting because, like I mentioned, coming to Teradyne, understanding the lack of... sleeves myself included to say, 'What's going on in this instance? What...?' And it's really thinking through multiple channels. So I try to look at recruitment. What are the challenges and the barriers? It's different company to company. So, you know, are we having women on the interview panels? If women are interviewing and not seeing anyone that looks like them or has any similarities to them, are they gonna want to come? So I think you have to go through and understand the journey of candidates to understand the recruitment concerns or barriers, and then work with a team to go after those most important things. Then you have to do the same on the retention side. You have to use data. I'm talking to intelligence. Understand, you have to look at the... people for the wrong reasons. Are we looking past some women that maybe are very collaborative, but maybe we were promoting people that are very dominant in the conversation, which is not the leadership style you want? So it's really looking in a mirror as an organization and figuring out the exact barriers using data to really break through that. I can share that at Teradyne, one of the things that we did is I worked with our head of HR, who's awesome, her name's Mahal. Her and I were having a conversation one time. We were like, 'We got to figure out this problem.' What if we brought all the women together at headquarters informally? We had a brown bag lunch and we just very candidly had a conversation: 'What's getting in your way? What are the...?' There, oh, we had somebody in facilities in the room right now, we can fix that. And we did — we changed the mother's room. So, you know, I think one of the things that I heard from women is, because we tend to be very logical and data-oriented in decision making, when the numbers of women are much smaller, they feel like their voice isn't heard. So understanding that challenge and then creating an environment where their voice is heard and there's action behind it — I think that's powerful. Teradyne has been phenomenal at finding the ways to invest in bringing out what's really getting in the way and taking action on it.

Well, it's interesting. There is research that actually shows different things that have historically been more promotable. Level of attractiveness is one thing, where people actually make 12% more money if they have a certain level of attractiveness, which is interesting. Being aware of those biases, say, 'What profile of people should be promoted? Somebody collaborative, somebody open-minded, somebody with a lot of initiative, taking initiative.' So I think changing how we think about decisions about advancement and making sure that we're being fair across the entire workforce is really important. It's just very interesting, having seen how the world has changed in my career. I've had a corporate career for over 25 years, and what it used to be like when I first got out of school versus what it's like now is night and day different. The Me Too movement, the Time's Up movement — these have changed the world in terms of some of the biggest offenders of things like sexual harassment. Other things happen to be the executives up at the top that could get away with anything. What the world finally did was like, 'You know what? You can't get away with it. I don't care if we're the most successful company in the world and you're the CEO, you're gone.' And you hear about it in the news all the time. So I think it's helped to level the playing field a lot in terms of women don't have to deal with that as much in the office anymore. I do think that has changed a lot. I remember being back in the day, if I had to think twice about going out to dinner with a male superior or anything like that — 'I don't know what people are going to think, I would rather just not do it.' Now it's very different. Executive teams across the globe have really no tolerance anymore. They're taking action and showing it. You just can't get away with that anymore. So it really has created a safer environment. I mean, it's not perfect for sure, but way better than it ever was. And that to me — when I think about International Women's Day and what it means to me — is we're just celebrating this together with the men and women on this call. It's such an improvement from where it was 25 years ago, and it's something we should all be proud of because we've all been part of it.

Yeah, I mean, I've certainly been in situations. I think it's a lot easier to speak up now than it used to be 25 years ago. What I observed 25 years ago is if a woman spoke up, they disappeared. You're like, 'Okay, well if I'm in that circumstance, I'm not sure I want to raise my hand.' It's very different now. Now I think women feel very safe and secure, and companies have stood by women that have been brave and courageous enough to raise their hand. I also think there's a much stronger women's network to help people bring out that, and then there's also people that just have a better awareness — both men and women — that call out bad behavior when they see it. So they know they have allies in the room that are looking... For this individual that was sort of an office bully. We were in a conversation because something went sideways, something went terribly wrong. We're like, 'Everybody get in the war room, let's go figure this out.' We start the meeting and go, 'This is the problem we're trying to solve.' She starts to lean in and say, 'Well, this is what happened.' And then her own boss cut her off and said, 'I'll take this.' He starts going on. I go, 'Excuse me, she is the closest to this. She is the most knowledgeable. I want to hear what she has to say.' Then she continued, and everyone agreed with exactly her recommendation, and we moved on. I didn't think twice about it. Then at after 5:00, she comes to my office. I honestly didn't know her... for me, and she broke down in tears. I didn't even think twice about it. I didn't even connect the dots of how much that meant to her. The sad part was a week later she gave her notice and she left. I think the more leaders understand that you just have respect as one of your core values, the more you demonstrate that you have to be respectful and there's no tolerance otherwise, the more women are going to be more comfortable and they'll stay. And we need them.

Yeah. So I can give you a really good example. At Teradyne, like I said, they're so supportive in making this better. Myself and two other sponsors were asked to think about the idea of mentorship and sponsorship. It almost sounds like a bad taste in my mouth because I have been in formal mentoring programs, I've had a kind of sort of informal sponsor through the years. I didn't like any of them. I really didn't find them useful. I know that sounds awful, but it was like you'd get paired with a mentor and if it wasn't a good fit, you're like, 'Oh, this is torture. I'm not really getting...' DEI and one of them — and I'll give them full credit — is State Street, which is here in the Boston area. They are fantastic at really supporting women and helping them thrive. We drew sort of the stuff that they do in terms of mentorship and sponsorship. A light bulb went off. It was this concept they do called mentoring circles. What it does is it pairs two mentors with four or five women that are at a like place in their career and have a shared desire around a certain competency — let's call it strategic thinking, or executive presence, or whatever that reason is. So they have a good reason to come together. We modeled a pilot program here at Teradyne. We targeted where specifically we... into this program. We are just finishing it up, we're about at our six months now. It's very targeted at helping women grow where they want to grow and opening up the lines of communication with executive partners like myself and other leaders at Teradyne, who now will have a really strong connection. They have more visibility to us, and we can help pull them through a little bit more effectively in the organization. So far so good. I'll keep you posted on how that goes. But if anyone ever wants to hear more about the work that we've done, I'm happy to share it.

Yeah. I think the way I handle it is I have my own leadership style that has worked... you know, investment governance groups, right? Which has everybody on edge because everyone wants the funding to do what they want to do, but there's only so much funding. So I usually have to put in place investment governance, which people don't always want to do. So if you're in a place where that's the case and you're the squeaky wheel and you're used to getting all your funding, and now if someone's going to make you go through an actual process, they're like, 'No way.' But you know, I've been told, one example where I was called in front of the CEO and everybody else to — 'Shannon's first on the agenda, and we're going to talk about investment governance.' So I'm like, 'Clearly someone's upset with what I've done.' So instead of walking in there in front of the firing squad, I'll tell you my approach because I think it might be something you guys can... good decisions and if the payoff is right. So you got your objective. No one can deny that the payoff if we do this right — for every dollar we have to spend on technology as a company, we put it in the next possible best place as a company. Then I talk about what's working well. Everyone's engaged, no one misses this meeting because everybody wants their funding. But then I also talk about what people are complaining about, what's not working, and own it. I'll say, 'Okay, well the people that are coming are very selfish and they're not enterprise-focused.' Then I say, 'What am I doing about it? Well, I'm working with the CEO to see whether or not we have the right people in the governance group.' So what I mentioned, it's really being objective around things that tend to be... credibility and respect of the other leaders at the table. And that has worked well for me.

First and foremost, one that just pops to my mind is grit. I'll never be the most intelligent in the room, but I can go toe-to-toe with most people on grit. I think it comes from me having two amazing parents whose work ethic puts me to shame. But just having even 10% of what they... to be done for the betterment of the company. Those are the athletes I want, because I know they're going to help in one thing, and I'm gonna put them over here and give them a different opportunity so they can help drive positive change somewhere else. That to me is number one.

Well, the mothers are the most obvious to me. We've done sessions on work-life integration, that's a big one. The first time we did a Teradyne tabletop event, we said, 'Okay, everybody just talk about the things that are top of mind to you, like what's... voice is heard.' So for me, it's great that we fixed the mother's room and made it really nice — it's got blankets, it's got kid pictures, and it's awesome. We really listened. But what I think is more powerful is that we gave them a place to have a voice, because that's just the start of many changes to come where we gain a better understanding of what is going to help these women thrive, because they are so important to our success.

Ah, great question. Yes, that's Susie for you. I think it's a combination. I chose to learn how to ride a motorcycle. Some days out of confidence, some days after I've done some dumb things on it, you're dropping it. So I think it's about picking yourself up and carrying forward. The more experiences you have that are positive around getting back up and doing it again and getting it right really build your confidence overall. I would say, you know, I'm getting into my late 40s, I'm more confident than I've ever been because, first of all, I don't really care about a lot of things that I probably used to care about, because I am focused on what matters to me. My family matters to me, my job matters to me, helping women matters to me. As long as those... spin. I teach a group exercise class, spin, in the gym, and I absolutely love doing that. That's how I get my workout. But the secret here is I actually do not know how to ride a bike. Spin is great because the bike goes nowhere. It's not like I never learned — I did ride a bike when I was a child, and you know how they say you never forget? Well, you do. And I am too scared to get on a bike now because I don't want to fall down and break bones and be out of commission for eight weeks. So you learned to ride a motorcycle? Oh my gosh, you're making me... Well, by the way...

That's a good question too. At this stage in my career, I don't think about it that often, and often I am the only female in the room. But I think that comes with the confidence you gain over the years too. But I also know we have a lot of tailwinds where the support women get from men at this point. When you are the only female in the room, it's grown so much. There's such a better appreciation for what women face. Somebody that was going for that job was not happy about it. He was disrespectful to me in a meeting, and it was one of my business partners that said, 'Hey, you didn't answer her question. Stop the whole room.' And I'm like, it's very rare for me to be on this side of being defended because I don't mind defending myself, and I was blown away. I think the more you experience that kind of positive energy in the room with people with really good intention who truly care about a supportive environment, I don't worry about it as much. I do think showing up as your authentic self in these meetings, you bring a unique perspective people should want to hear. And make sure, like I know you guys... I'm going to try and get them all in. I know we are at the end of everything, but one of the questions we have — and this is the wonderful thing of having men on this forum also — it's: what can men do differently or better to help women coworkers do better personally and professionally?

I think they just got to listen. And seek out specifically what's getting in your way, no different than what I'm doing with these Teradyne tabletops. I'm trying to hear directly what's getting in the way of these women that are so intelligent, such high potential... supportive. It's taking the time and energy to understand what's getting because it's different every place, and you really have to take the initiative to figure it out.

I was independent, I joined remotely in it, which is a very interesting journey to join remotely. All my onboarding meetings had pros and cons to it for sure, but yeah, the first time in my career I've joined remotely.

I need to say, genuinely it felt like a little bit of a warm hug when I joined Teradyne. I mean that. When I say it's a priority around diversity, equity, inclusion, when they hire people like me into these roles, they want us to be successful, and they are so attuned to the fact, 'How do I help this individual?' It's obviously a challenge to join remotely where you don't have as much informal breaking of the bread together and stuff like that. I think people went out of their way to... call, let's go. So I mean, I think when the executive team really prioritizes diversity, equity, inclusion, you see it in their actions. I do feel like Teradyne in particular is such a supportive environment for women because they really want to be more diverse in a more diverse state.

So for me, I think it is all about reflection. Going from my start of my career to standing here with all of you, to me it's something that we all should really celebrate. I mean, the fact that we are... making things better, and the more we educate each other, the more we should... Like, my career is a lot longer than some of you on the call. So for me to share where I fell down and what worked for me so that you don't have to face that same problem, you don't have to walk into that pitfall — the more women we can rise up more quickly, so we get the numbers we need at the top. Because they're not there yet, and they're going to be. And it takes investment and passion that you guys all have, because I know it's one of your core values and I see it right on your face. Thank you. That's what it's going to take.

Meaning, tell me more about that. Meaning what helps drive me in my career right now? What are my... I think what they mean is, what are your greatest challenges as a woman in the situation you are in now, CIO of a company? I know you're using your mechanical engineering skills, I know there's a bit of the health... right. I mean challenges? I think in terms of my CIO role, that's more in the macroeconomics of the world, making sure that we grow and succeed as a company. That's probably one of the bigger challenges. But in terms of diversity, equity, inclusion, I want to be able to pull up so many more women up. I've got two hands, so it's going to take all of us joining hands together and really lifting up one another. There's just so much work to be done to get to the right numbers. I think it's what, 53% of the workforce are women, and that's not the state. I think there's like 8% women CEOs and only 1% are women of color. There's so much to be done there. It's just how fast... have done things is so helpful because it just invigorates all of us to that same goal: how do we make things better for everybody? So I really thank you. I love to see the passion you're bringing to this. I will definitely get in touch with you after because I want to learn more about how you have implemented this at Teradyne and hopefully learn from it and make things better here and in other places. Thank you. Congratulations on all your awards, and a very, very happy International Women's Day to you and all the women in...