Strategic Leadership

What it is in terms of my goals and why it matters to my prior experience

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Be a Lady They Said, Paul McLean

Be like a boy, my father said.

Play with construction sets, with a chemistry laboratory, build a radio yourself, play rugby, learn how to code, work in the woods. Build things, break things. Challenge conventional wisdom. Be fast, be bold. Connect globally through technology.

Be like a boy, my father said to me, after I — his second girl — was born.

Do everything a boy does, learn everything you want to, he said. Technology has no limits. Look at me, he said. Be like me. Become an entrepreneur, do software. Be a maker. Develop technical skills, to become a shaper.

Be like a boy, my father said.

I followed (t)his way. This is where I am now.

I am an award-winning Women in Technology with a track record as a next generation women leader in tech.

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Women in Technology “Rosie the Riveter”

I have an international arts background as well as statistics and coding skills. After my career in Corporate Strategy at Deutsche Bahn, I progressed to Strategy Consulting at Mastercard. I am on a promotional track to a pre-partner position, incl. 22 miles road cycling per day. I make an exceptional impact within and shape my organisation. I mentor, coach my female team members. I lead the tech agenda and grew into different roles. In addition, I act as a public speaker about fintech and cryptocurrency. I continue to push myself to grow outside of my comfort zone by completing the AWS Cloud DevOps Engineer Nanodegree.

Strategic Leadership helps me to continue this way.

It transforms my career and be the first step in the live-long membership of many more to come.

victoria-riess-female-strategic-leadership
Female Strategic Leadership
  • Short-term, I will change career to a General Manager at one of the Big Four tech companies in Europe.
  • And long-term, I will found my own predictive analytics start-up to change the world one technological achievement after another.

Strategic Leadership accelerates my goals.

It teaches me how to change the way in technology business is done by thinking original and help me develop a global mindset in this international community.

Strategic Leadership gives me the opportunity to hone my tacit and tangible leadership skills that are harder to learn for me as a future senior women leader in tech because there are fewer role models. By giving me the opportunity to get involved in multi-national leaders groups and forcing me to work with other Type A players, the Strategic Leadership programme teaches me these less tangible leadership skills, like integrity, teamwork and self-confidence. I make the most of the Strategic Leadership by taking as many opportunities — from Women in Leadership through Entrepreneurship to Tech initiatives — as I can outside of the programme to develop the hard and soft skills tech leaders need.

Be like a boy, my father said.

Strategic Leadership helps me to continue this way.

It accelerates my goals. And I am pleased to join the global Strategic Leaders community.

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