WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.090 Anna Delaney: Hi, I'm Anna Delaney. Women represent less 2 00:00:03.090 --> 00:00:06.690 than a quarter of the overall workforce in cybersecurity. And 3 00:00:06.690 --> 00:00:10.530 there is only one female CISO in the top 10 U.S. companies. 4 00:00:10.740 --> 00:00:15.120 Evidently, there's room or more room for women in cyber. So why 5 00:00:15.120 --> 00:00:18.360 is it such a challenge? Well, two women paving the way in 6 00:00:18.360 --> 00:00:22.500 cybersecurity - Valerie Abend, cyber strategy lead, and Lisa 7 00:00:22.500 --> 00:00:26.340 O'Connor, global R&D lead for security, both at Accenture - 8 00:00:26.460 --> 00:00:29.880 have analyzed this issue and developed practical next steps 9 00:00:30.030 --> 00:00:33.360 for achieving greater inclusion in hiring practices and a 10 00:00:33.360 --> 00:00:37.320 roadmap to becoming a CISO. Valerie and Lisa, thank you very 11 00:00:37.320 --> 00:00:38.460 much for joining us. 12 00:00:38.970 --> 00:00:41.130 Valerie Abend: Thank you so much, really appreciate the 13 00:00:41.130 --> 00:00:43.740 opportunity. Three powerful women talking about 14 00:00:43.740 --> 00:00:47.580 cybersecurity, modeling what we're trying to accomplish. This 15 00:00:47.580 --> 00:00:48.060 is great. 16 00:00:48.120 --> 00:00:50.850 Anna Delaney: Absolutely. Well, Lisa, starting with you. 17 00:00:50.880 --> 00:00:55.440 Accenture has recently published a report, "Rising to the Top." 18 00:00:55.500 --> 00:00:59.250 What did you learn about why more women are not in leadership 19 00:00:59.280 --> 00:01:00.060 positions? 20 00:01:00.990 --> 00:01:03.780 Lisa O'Connor: So we studied, we worked with the Accenture 21 00:01:03.780 --> 00:01:08.340 Cybersecurity Forum, which is a group of amazing CISOs, both men 22 00:01:08.340 --> 00:01:11.700 and women. And we asked them a lot of questions about their 23 00:01:11.700 --> 00:01:15.990 journey, their journey to CISO and got insights from them on 24 00:01:15.990 --> 00:01:19.380 how that journey is different between men and women. And we 25 00:01:19.380 --> 00:01:22.650 got some really interesting insights on it. But some of the 26 00:01:22.650 --> 00:01:27.480 things they all said is that, again, confidence is so 27 00:01:27.480 --> 00:01:30.570 important, not so much competence, but confidence in 28 00:01:30.600 --> 00:01:33.630 tackling these roles and tackling some of the challenges. 29 00:01:33.990 --> 00:01:38.370 And there's such a value to having mentors and sponsorship 30 00:01:38.430 --> 00:01:42.780 at a very senior level for these positions. And having personal 31 00:01:42.780 --> 00:01:46.800 resiliency came up as a theme on both sides, and especially for 32 00:01:46.800 --> 00:01:50.700 our women being resilient in these roles. Because this is a 33 00:01:50.700 --> 00:01:56.610 high stakes role. The CISO is at the intersection of all things 34 00:01:56.640 --> 00:02:01.080 that happen in cyber, in a company, in an organization. So 35 00:02:01.080 --> 00:02:04.440 they have to be resilient, both personally and professionally. 36 00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:07.890 But when we dig into the data, that's where it got kind of fun 37 00:02:07.890 --> 00:02:13.080 for me. So we saw that men tend to rise within the organizations 38 00:02:13.080 --> 00:02:16.920 that they're in much more frequently than women. And so 39 00:02:17.070 --> 00:02:20.460 57% of the time, they're a successor within their own 40 00:02:20.460 --> 00:02:23.430 organization. And we saw that women were actually more likely 41 00:02:23.430 --> 00:02:26.280 to go outside of their organization to get that role. 42 00:02:27.060 --> 00:02:30.060 And so that kind of piqued our curiosity. So we asked some more 43 00:02:30.060 --> 00:02:34.740 questions about that. And once the women threw their hat into 44 00:02:34.740 --> 00:02:38.340 the ring of being a candidate for a CISO, they were actually 45 00:02:38.370 --> 00:02:41.940 highly successful. In fact, they were successful faster than the 46 00:02:41.940 --> 00:02:46.140 men. So that kind of makes you wonder, are we over preparing? 47 00:02:46.170 --> 00:02:50.550 Are we ready? Are we quiet on our candidacy? And we learned 48 00:02:50.580 --> 00:02:54.000 more throughout the interviews and throughout our survey about 49 00:02:54.060 --> 00:02:56.370 what they overestimated and wondered what they 50 00:02:56.370 --> 00:02:58.860 underestimated going into the CISO role. 51 00:03:00.780 --> 00:03:02.430 Anna Delaney: What did they overestimate? What did they 52 00:03:02.430 --> 00:03:03.780 underestimate? I'm curious now. 53 00:03:04.830 --> 00:03:07.800 Lisa O'Connor: Well, how much they needed to bring to the 54 00:03:07.800 --> 00:03:12.000 table, technically as a CISO. And the women definitely 55 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:15.810 overestimated that 40% of them had that on their list of 56 00:03:15.840 --> 00:03:19.380 overestimating the importance of that. Because by the time you're 57 00:03:19.380 --> 00:03:22.800 a CISO, it's really about the other leadership and the C-level 58 00:03:22.830 --> 00:03:26.850 interactions and communications, not so much the technical acumen 59 00:03:26.850 --> 00:03:32.010 that got you to the role. And that was one of them. And you 60 00:03:32.010 --> 00:03:36.660 know, for the other part, there are two things that women also 61 00:03:36.690 --> 00:03:39.750 underestimated, which was interesting. And it was 62 00:03:39.810 --> 00:03:43.590 management sponsorship. So really having sponsorship at 63 00:03:43.590 --> 00:03:48.870 very senior levels, and culture, surprisingly, and so 50% of 64 00:03:48.870 --> 00:03:52.050 women underestimated the importance of those in the 65 00:03:52.050 --> 00:03:55.020 companies that were they were looking for that position, in a 66 00:03:55.020 --> 00:03:58.770 role. Men were a little bit lower, they were around 27%. 67 00:04:01.300 --> 00:04:03.940 Anna Delaney: Very interesting. So Valerie, as I mentioned in 68 00:04:03.940 --> 00:04:07.930 the intro, there is room for women in cyber, it's clear. And 69 00:04:07.930 --> 00:04:11.500 yet there has been quite a bit of attention paid to encouraging 70 00:04:11.560 --> 00:04:14.620 more women to follow a path in cybersecurity in the past 71 00:04:14.860 --> 00:04:18.160 decade. You know, there are industry groups dedicated solely 72 00:04:18.280 --> 00:04:22.780 to women conferences, magazines, online forums, and we see a lot 73 00:04:22.780 --> 00:04:25.870 of men in the industry promoting, praising their female 74 00:04:25.870 --> 00:04:29.710 colleagues on platforms such as LinkedIn. What's going wrong? 75 00:04:29.710 --> 00:04:31.330 What do we have to do differently? 76 00:04:32.310 --> 00:04:36.780 Valerie Abend: So attention is good, but it is not intention. 77 00:04:37.530 --> 00:04:42.780 And I think we have to have a lot of directed and intentional 78 00:04:42.780 --> 00:04:47.070 practices that we measure and monitor in an ongoing fashion 79 00:04:47.340 --> 00:04:51.960 and are actually executed by the C-suite and reported out with 80 00:04:51.960 --> 00:04:55.920 full transparency. Because if you want to accomplish 81 00:04:55.920 --> 00:05:00.030 something, you will make actions very specific for people and you 82 00:05:00.030 --> 00:05:03.210 will hold them accountable accordingly. And so if you have 83 00:05:03.210 --> 00:05:07.530 an intentional focus about rising women to the top, you 84 00:05:07.530 --> 00:05:11.190 will make sure that they are at the seat at the table when a 85 00:05:11.190 --> 00:05:14.430 cyber incident occurs, and that they have a voice at that table. 86 00:05:14.580 --> 00:05:17.820 You will bring them forward into actual board meetings where 87 00:05:17.820 --> 00:05:21.210 you're discussing cybersecurity and its intersection with the 88 00:05:21.210 --> 00:05:25.230 business. You will actually put them at the table in ways that 89 00:05:25.230 --> 00:05:28.980 not only bring them attention, but you will actually show with 90 00:05:28.980 --> 00:05:33.270 metrics how you're driving that improvement. One of the things 91 00:05:33.270 --> 00:05:37.380 that we know from experience is that when you are interviewing 92 00:05:37.380 --> 00:05:40.140 people, you should interview diverse candidates first, for 93 00:05:40.140 --> 00:05:43.740 example. There are a lot of ways in which you can actually act 94 00:05:43.740 --> 00:05:48.510 with intention to give the women more opportunity. And as Lisa 95 00:05:48.510 --> 00:05:52.290 pointed out, we have to make sure that women feel safe. 96 00:05:52.680 --> 00:05:55.500 Because this is a very risky business we're talking about. 97 00:05:55.770 --> 00:05:58.410 We're talking about companies that are under attack, and 98 00:05:58.410 --> 00:06:02.040 making headline news and often the chief information security 99 00:06:02.160 --> 00:06:06.660 is the voice and the face of when that breach occurs. It's 100 00:06:06.660 --> 00:06:10.650 psychologically quite scary. That comment that Lisa made 101 00:06:10.650 --> 00:06:14.160 about personal resilience can only happen if the person in 102 00:06:14.160 --> 00:06:17.280 that role feels psychologically safe to be able to say, what 103 00:06:17.280 --> 00:06:20.520 often are difficult messages about choices that have been 104 00:06:20.520 --> 00:06:24.420 made, not just in the moment, but over years to arrive at a 105 00:06:24.420 --> 00:06:27.780 place where potentially you are more vulnerable to an attack. So 106 00:06:27.780 --> 00:06:32.280 I think there's a lot there to unpack about how we make women 107 00:06:32.280 --> 00:06:36.360 feel that they are ready for that role, and position them in 108 00:06:36.360 --> 00:06:39.840 ways that other people see them to be ready for that role, so 109 00:06:39.840 --> 00:06:42.780 that they aren't having to look outside. And they actually will 110 00:06:42.780 --> 00:06:46.140 get promoted from within as Lisa pointed out. 111 00:06:47.850 --> 00:06:50.850 Anna Delaney: So Valerie, the report states that being a good 112 00:06:50.850 --> 00:06:54.180 CISO is not enough to be successful, and women need 113 00:06:54.180 --> 00:06:56.850 should or should feel comfortable being more 114 00:06:56.850 --> 00:07:00.480 aggressive in pursuing their career aspirations. Curious 115 00:07:00.480 --> 00:07:03.240 about this word, aggressive? Could you explain what you mean, 116 00:07:03.270 --> 00:07:05.040 and maybe share some examples. 117 00:07:05.400 --> 00:07:08.040 Valerie Abend: I love that we use the word aggressive, because 118 00:07:08.130 --> 00:07:11.010 women are always told when we're loud that we're too aggressive, 119 00:07:11.010 --> 00:07:15.360 we are too aggressive. But it's so funny because, you know, we 120 00:07:15.360 --> 00:07:19.950 have to be our own advocate. And we have to be intentional as 121 00:07:19.950 --> 00:07:24.660 well as women about wanting what we want for our career, which 122 00:07:24.660 --> 00:07:27.780 means, we can't just envision it, you actually have to help 123 00:07:27.780 --> 00:07:31.230 other people envision it. And the best way to do that is have 124 00:07:31.350 --> 00:07:35.160 sort of your own council of mentors, not just within your 125 00:07:35.160 --> 00:07:39.150 company, but also outside. People who are sponsoring you; 126 00:07:39.150 --> 00:07:43.170 people who are giving you very honest feedback, and telling you 127 00:07:43.350 --> 00:07:48.630 how to groom your communication skills, how to draw conclusions 128 00:07:48.630 --> 00:07:52.050 that actually bring other people to the table that go beyond the 129 00:07:52.050 --> 00:07:55.410 information security teams, because as Lisa pointed out, 130 00:07:55.470 --> 00:07:57.810 it's not the technical skills that are going to get in your 131 00:07:57.810 --> 00:08:02.340 way. In some instances, you have all of the skills you need. It's 132 00:08:02.340 --> 00:08:05.640 just showing up and building that confidence over time and 133 00:08:05.640 --> 00:08:10.530 having other people help you arrive at that place. When we 134 00:08:10.530 --> 00:08:13.140 apply for jobs, we're not checking off boxes, we're 135 00:08:13.140 --> 00:08:16.020 looking at whole people. And we're looking for people who 136 00:08:16.020 --> 00:08:20.040 want an entire career, right, who are going to be leaders 137 00:08:20.040 --> 00:08:23.580 within our organization. And so when you look at a job 138 00:08:23.580 --> 00:08:26.760 announcement, put yourself in the place of person making the 139 00:08:26.760 --> 00:08:29.280 announcement and think of all the ways in which you already 140 00:08:29.280 --> 00:08:32.340 bring what they probably aren't even stating in that 141 00:08:32.340 --> 00:08:35.880 announcement. And so I think it's a really great opportunity 142 00:08:36.150 --> 00:08:39.240 for the women and the men to work more collaboratively 143 00:08:39.240 --> 00:08:44.430 together to actually push the notion of aggressiveness off the 144 00:08:44.430 --> 00:08:47.250 table and say that it's actually a good thing. It's a good thing. 145 00:08:47.940 --> 00:08:50.460 Anna Delaney: So just as a quick follow-up, I know that the 146 00:08:50.460 --> 00:08:53.190 report mentioned impostor syndrome, and that is often 147 00:08:53.190 --> 00:08:56.370 self-inflicted, I think we can all relate to that. Are there 148 00:08:56.370 --> 00:08:58.890 any tips you could share as to how to balance that 149 00:08:58.950 --> 00:09:02.280 assertiveness with those underlying doubts? 150 00:09:03.270 --> 00:09:05.880 Lisa O'Connor: Yeah, so part of it, I think, and we heard this 151 00:09:05.880 --> 00:09:10.050 from our women CISOs, is part of it is getting those at bats, 152 00:09:10.050 --> 00:09:14.070 getting into the environments, and getting the road time in the 153 00:09:14.070 --> 00:09:18.120 boardroom, the road time in key meetings, the road time, working 154 00:09:18.150 --> 00:09:21.930 a cyber event at the table. And that's so important to building 155 00:09:21.930 --> 00:09:25.470 that confidence and not feeling like you're an impostor. And oh, 156 00:09:25.470 --> 00:09:28.830 by the way, men have impostor syndrome too. We all kind of 157 00:09:28.830 --> 00:09:32.700 self-sabotage on this a little bit. But it's really doing the 158 00:09:32.700 --> 00:09:36.570 things that you need to practice and asking for feedback and 159 00:09:36.570 --> 00:09:39.390 getting guidance from that board of directors that you're going 160 00:09:39.390 --> 00:09:43.860 to create, to give you candid feedback in those events and how 161 00:09:43.860 --> 00:09:47.730 to grow and what do you need to develop in so that you walk in 162 00:09:47.730 --> 00:09:50.910 the next time with a lot more confidence and again, building 163 00:09:50.910 --> 00:09:51.690 these skills. 164 00:09:53.700 --> 00:09:54.960 Anna Delaney: Valerie, anything to add to that? 165 00:09:55.530 --> 00:09:58.170 Valerie Abend: Well, I like to say, you should be a little bit 166 00:09:58.200 --> 00:10:01.710 nerve-cited every day. Yeah, a little nervous and a little 167 00:10:01.710 --> 00:10:06.090 excited, right? I'm going to do something, I'm going to grow, I 168 00:10:06.090 --> 00:10:09.330 might not get it right 100%, I might even get it wrong more 169 00:10:09.330 --> 00:10:12.690 than I get it right. But if I'm not challenging myself, I can't 170 00:10:12.690 --> 00:10:16.740 grow. So I like being a little nerve-cited. And I encourage 171 00:10:16.740 --> 00:10:19.860 others to do the same so that they can grow. And I'm not 172 00:10:19.860 --> 00:10:22.920 particularly persnickety about when I make mistakes, I often 173 00:10:22.920 --> 00:10:26.580 broadcast them. Because I want other people to feel like they 174 00:10:26.580 --> 00:10:28.740 can come forward with making mistakes too. 175 00:10:29.820 --> 00:10:32.815 Lisa O'Connor: And that's really important in cybersecurity, and 176 00:10:32.876 --> 00:10:36.667 in cyber defense, because we're going to make them. We have to 177 00:10:36.728 --> 00:10:40.519 take risks, to be able to find the adversary to do some of the 178 00:10:40.580 --> 00:10:44.370 breachy things. And especially for my background, to innovate, 179 00:10:44.431 --> 00:10:47.916 right, I have to have a team that is motivated, and has a 180 00:10:47.977 --> 00:10:51.768 safe space to take those risks. And modeling, modeling what it 181 00:10:51.829 --> 00:10:55.619 means to hit and miss is really important for those teams. And 182 00:10:55.681 --> 00:10:59.532 then you learn to fail fast, and then you get right back on and 183 00:10:59.593 --> 00:11:02.956 continue the pursuit so important that we're doing that 184 00:11:03.017 --> 00:11:03.690 as leaders. 185 00:11:04.050 --> 00:11:07.410 Anna Delaney: Yeah, very true. So Lisa, let's turn around and 186 00:11:07.410 --> 00:11:11.010 look at what organizations can do. Can you share some practical 187 00:11:11.010 --> 00:11:14.400 next steps for organizations who want to incorporate greater 188 00:11:14.400 --> 00:11:16.260 inclusion in their hiring practices? 189 00:11:16.710 --> 00:11:18.660 Lisa O'Connor: Yeah, so the first, I think the first we'll 190 00:11:18.660 --> 00:11:24.330 call intentionality is companies have to recognize the value of 191 00:11:24.330 --> 00:11:28.320 diversity and inclusion. And again, we have references to it, 192 00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:32.070 and there are many, you're getting a better outcome, or 193 00:11:32.070 --> 00:11:35.640 literally a better business outcome and impact with diverse 194 00:11:35.640 --> 00:11:40.860 teams, period. And that has to be a belief that is internalized 195 00:11:40.860 --> 00:11:43.800 within that company and within the leadership team, C-level and 196 00:11:43.800 --> 00:11:48.330 the board. And that has to drive the behaviors that then happen 197 00:11:48.600 --> 00:11:52.740 in hiring or recruiting process. And Valerie shared some of them, 198 00:11:53.190 --> 00:11:57.300 you know, again, having a diverse slate that's entry 199 00:11:57.300 --> 00:12:00.690 level, that's you have to. If you're not looking at a diverse 200 00:12:00.690 --> 00:12:03.210 slate of candidates, how do you expect to change this outcome 201 00:12:03.210 --> 00:12:08.220 and come up with them. So really curating that diverse slate, and 202 00:12:08.220 --> 00:12:12.810 then, from an HR perspective, HR can really help manage this 203 00:12:12.810 --> 00:12:16.650 process and manage the expected behaviors, by setting 204 00:12:16.650 --> 00:12:20.460 guidelines, by providing oversight to the process, by 205 00:12:20.460 --> 00:12:25.050 holding leaders accountable for that and for consideration, and 206 00:12:25.050 --> 00:12:27.780 how they're actually finding the right candidates, the right 207 00:12:27.780 --> 00:12:31.080 qualified candidates. And so those are all sort of important 208 00:12:31.080 --> 00:12:34.920 things that HR can help in talent, in really making sure 209 00:12:35.430 --> 00:12:38.670 what you're saying is really happening in the processes. And 210 00:12:38.670 --> 00:12:43.620 I think the other piece of that too is the transparency. And 211 00:12:43.620 --> 00:12:47.220 it's not just transparency for the companies in their process. 212 00:12:47.550 --> 00:12:51.090 It's the candidates making sure they're asking all the questions 213 00:12:51.120 --> 00:12:54.810 they need to, and knowing that if you're going through a hiring 214 00:12:54.810 --> 00:12:58.020 process, and you're the candidate, and you haven't seen 215 00:12:58.350 --> 00:13:01.980 diversity, you haven't met with all the leaders, you haven't met 216 00:13:01.980 --> 00:13:04.980 with any board members, you should be asking, you should be 217 00:13:04.980 --> 00:13:08.340 asking to include those on your journey to see if that is the 218 00:13:08.340 --> 00:13:11.580 right company for you. And if that's the right culture, and if 219 00:13:11.580 --> 00:13:15.000 it's supportive, and if you have management sponsorship, those 220 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:18.210 are all important to that success of the culture and 221 00:13:18.210 --> 00:13:22.140 success of that CISO in their role. And the last piece of it, 222 00:13:22.410 --> 00:13:26.700 again, it's the work before that is really looking at succession. 223 00:13:27.210 --> 00:13:30.990 And looking at, in our first report, we looked at why are so 224 00:13:30.990 --> 00:13:34.080 many women leaving the field at the midpoint of their career. 225 00:13:34.890 --> 00:13:38.460 Okay, so what do we need to do differently to bring that talent 226 00:13:38.460 --> 00:13:43.980 along, create the environments and the right framework to 227 00:13:43.980 --> 00:13:47.010 maintain and retain that talent throughout the pipeline. So we 228 00:13:47.010 --> 00:13:50.280 actually continue to nurture that talent inside. And make 229 00:13:50.280 --> 00:13:53.130 sure that when we're coaching, and we're thinking about 230 00:13:53.130 --> 00:13:55.560 succession, that's a diverse slate too. 231 00:13:56.220 --> 00:13:57.930 Anna Delaney: Well, Valerie, I knew that at Accenture, you've 232 00:13:57.930 --> 00:14:01.230 formed a group called the Accenture Cybersecurity Women's 233 00:14:01.350 --> 00:14:04.530 Council. Talk to us about it. How did it come about? 234 00:14:05.640 --> 00:14:08.850 Valerie Abend: I'm glad you asked. And we're really proud of 235 00:14:08.850 --> 00:14:12.630 what we built. But of course, there's always more to do. There 236 00:14:12.660 --> 00:14:15.420 was an eccentric cybersecurity forum when I joined Accenture, 237 00:14:15.420 --> 00:14:18.210 chaired by our own chief information security officer, 238 00:14:18.210 --> 00:14:21.840 and I had the pleasure to come and present one day on 239 00:14:21.900 --> 00:14:25.920 regulation facing all of these organizations around the world 240 00:14:26.100 --> 00:14:30.000 around cybersecurity. And when I joined the call, it was 100% 241 00:14:30.030 --> 00:14:34.440 men. There were literally no women on the call. And I said, 242 00:14:34.440 --> 00:14:39.360 well, that can't be, and what can we do to help the women 243 00:14:39.360 --> 00:14:42.450 chief information security officers out there? And so I 244 00:14:42.450 --> 00:14:46.500 said, look, I want to start a thing. I want to start a Women's 245 00:14:46.500 --> 00:14:50.460 Council. The women will have their own special space to talk 246 00:14:50.460 --> 00:14:53.850 both about professional development as well as technical 247 00:14:53.850 --> 00:14:59.970 issues and also the members of the full ACF and you know when I 248 00:14:59.970 --> 00:15:03.870 I sat back and I talked to a lot of the members. And it was clear 249 00:15:03.870 --> 00:15:07.980 to me that, you know, the men outnumber the women by so much. 250 00:15:08.280 --> 00:15:13.320 I said, well, you know, maybe what we need to do is model who 251 00:15:13.320 --> 00:15:17.400 we are, and who we are, are about helping women increase in 252 00:15:17.400 --> 00:15:21.810 numbers and get that equal place at the table. And so in that 253 00:15:21.810 --> 00:15:25.440 vein, we've opened up the membership a little bit more to 254 00:15:25.440 --> 00:15:29.670 include women who report to chief information security 255 00:15:29.670 --> 00:15:33.990 officers, who want to become that CISO role. And so all of 256 00:15:33.990 --> 00:15:37.020 those women are now members of the ACF Women's Council, members 257 00:15:37.020 --> 00:15:42.330 of the full ACF. And it's a really robust and highly curated 258 00:15:42.360 --> 00:15:46.500 group that meets under Chatham House rules. We're not looking 259 00:15:46.500 --> 00:15:49.770 to be the biggest group in the history of the world from the 260 00:15:49.770 --> 00:15:54.600 standpoint of, you know, the most prolific numbers, we're 261 00:15:54.600 --> 00:15:58.650 really meant to have a very safe and special place, where we can 262 00:15:58.650 --> 00:16:01.440 address very specific topics about how we get women from the 263 00:16:01.440 --> 00:16:05.730 midpoint to the top role in cybersecurity. And in walking 264 00:16:05.730 --> 00:16:09.960 that talk, we also have rising leaders from Accenture who help 265 00:16:09.960 --> 00:16:13.260 support our mission. Women managers who rotate, who are 266 00:16:13.260 --> 00:16:17.100 rising stars, who help us actually run the council. And 267 00:16:17.100 --> 00:16:19.800 Lisa has done a fantastic job taking that forward. 268 00:16:20.700 --> 00:16:22.830 Anna Delaney: Yeah, Lisa, I will be curious to know what your 269 00:16:22.830 --> 00:16:24.330 progress has been to date. 270 00:16:26.280 --> 00:16:30.330 Lisa O'Connor: So we have, we've really grown and I think that's 271 00:16:30.360 --> 00:16:33.390 the exciting thing, when I look at the ACF and the Women's 272 00:16:33.390 --> 00:16:36.480 Council. We've grown and we've grown in sort of our impact. One 273 00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:41.460 of the things that is also of note is the content is really 274 00:16:41.460 --> 00:16:44.610 the topics are curated by the membership. So they're telling 275 00:16:44.610 --> 00:16:47.490 us what they want to learn more about, what they want to focus 276 00:16:47.490 --> 00:16:51.450 on. And one of the things that we do in the Women's Council is, 277 00:16:51.480 --> 00:16:54.480 you know, we sort of go back and forth between a tech topic, you 278 00:16:54.480 --> 00:16:57.450 know, that might be sort of a specialized topic that we think 279 00:16:57.450 --> 00:17:01.320 that women have a deeper interest in. And then we will go 280 00:17:01.410 --> 00:17:06.000 to the personal resiliency, the coaching, the other things that 281 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:09.300 we might call softer, but happened to be the exact skills 282 00:17:09.300 --> 00:17:13.290 that are so relevant for the senior relationships and 283 00:17:13.320 --> 00:17:15.930 leadership and board and other things like that, that we want 284 00:17:15.930 --> 00:17:19.860 to continue to curate and grow. And so that's been a kind of fun 285 00:17:19.860 --> 00:17:24.240 combination of what we've been doing and that agenda. But I 286 00:17:24.450 --> 00:17:28.500 think in, you know, looking at it in terms of what is Accenture 287 00:17:28.500 --> 00:17:32.280 doing, like what do we do in our programs, we put a lot of 288 00:17:32.280 --> 00:17:36.570 practices in place to make sure we are coming up with diverse 289 00:17:36.570 --> 00:17:41.130 slates of candidates for every position, not not just, you 290 00:17:41.130 --> 00:17:44.850 know, managing directors or, you know, and we're very pleased to 291 00:17:44.850 --> 00:17:47.940 have Julie Sweet as our CEO, we're very pleased to have 50% 292 00:17:47.940 --> 00:17:52.800 of our board members as women. And you know, 47% of our 293 00:17:52.800 --> 00:17:58.230 workforce, globally, is women. So our goal was 50-50 by 2025. 294 00:17:58.230 --> 00:18:00.600 And we've been incredibly transparent about it, which is 295 00:18:00.600 --> 00:18:03.630 important to the business community, and putting those 296 00:18:03.630 --> 00:18:06.510 metrics out and keeping the yardstick on us to make sure 297 00:18:06.510 --> 00:18:10.440 we're doing those things. But within security, we do a lot of 298 00:18:10.440 --> 00:18:12.660 things. We have Women in Security, which is an internal 299 00:18:12.660 --> 00:18:16.890 forum, which is a place where women meet monthly to discuss 300 00:18:16.890 --> 00:18:21.420 all kinds of cybersecurity topics and create community. And 301 00:18:21.510 --> 00:18:26.220 those are important in terms of creating that community globally 302 00:18:26.250 --> 00:18:30.120 for women at all different levels and to have access to 303 00:18:30.150 --> 00:18:33.510 managing directors and analysts and everybody else. It's really 304 00:18:33.810 --> 00:18:36.690 been an amazing community growth. 305 00:18:38.340 --> 00:18:41.010 Anna Delaney: And it's two years since the group was created, 306 00:18:41.010 --> 00:18:44.520 what has been particularly interesting or even surprising 307 00:18:44.670 --> 00:18:46.800 in the journey so far, would you say? 308 00:18:46.950 --> 00:18:48.570 Valerie Abend: I actually think we're like three and a half 309 00:18:48.570 --> 00:18:56.730 years, maybe four and a half? Um, yeah. So I mean, I think you 310 00:18:56.730 --> 00:18:59.280 know, when you look back some of the big highlights, one is we 311 00:18:59.280 --> 00:19:01.140 don't want to just be a place that talks, we actually want to 312 00:19:01.140 --> 00:19:03.750 produce thought leadership, which is why you see the first 313 00:19:03.750 --> 00:19:07.650 report jumping the hurdles, now rising to the top of both 314 00:19:07.650 --> 00:19:11.070 staying true to the mission of getting women from the middle of 315 00:19:11.070 --> 00:19:14.850 their career to the top. As Lisa mentioned, the topics are highly 316 00:19:14.850 --> 00:19:18.240 curated. So you know, next one coming up, I think it's about AI 317 00:19:18.240 --> 00:19:22.830 and defending yourself against cyber weaponized AI. And in the 318 00:19:22.830 --> 00:19:25.440 past, we've done workshops on personal resilience, and what do 319 00:19:25.440 --> 00:19:28.950 you need to do, right? How do you put your own oxygen mask on 320 00:19:28.950 --> 00:19:33.450 first and then everyone else. That remind myself to slow down 321 00:19:33.450 --> 00:19:38.490 to show up sometimes is really important. And I think that, you 322 00:19:38.490 --> 00:19:43.830 know, we'll continue to do that rotating of how do we address 323 00:19:44.250 --> 00:19:49.230 bringing forward the new skills that will matter most as the 324 00:19:49.230 --> 00:19:53.010 world moves to a faster pace and the digital transformation and 325 00:19:53.130 --> 00:19:56.820 cyberattacks take advantage of that. These communication 326 00:19:56.820 --> 00:19:59.850 skills, the ability to adapt in a highly changing environment 327 00:19:59.850 --> 00:20:03.810 and still make yourself somebody who's personally resilient as 328 00:20:03.810 --> 00:20:06.600 you support your teams, that's going to be an increasing 329 00:20:06.600 --> 00:20:10.260 demand. And women are really positioned well to take 330 00:20:10.260 --> 00:20:14.010 advantage of that opportunity. And so I'm sure we'll continue 331 00:20:14.010 --> 00:20:17.490 to do these things, point out the hard-soft skills while we 332 00:20:17.490 --> 00:20:21.750 also address the really important technical skills to 333 00:20:21.750 --> 00:20:22.410 move forward. 334 00:20:24.120 --> 00:20:26.310 Anna Delaney: Well, this has been excellent. Thank you, both 335 00:20:26.310 --> 00:20:29.490 of you for all your hard work. And I look forward to speaking 336 00:20:29.490 --> 00:20:32.970 with you again soon. I've been speaking with Valerie Abend and 337 00:20:32.970 --> 00:20:36.930 Lisa O'Connor of Accenture and for ISMG, I'm Anna Delaney.