 Hello, welcome to theCUBE's presentation of Women in Tech Global Event, celebrating International Women's Day. I'm John Furrier, host of theCUBE. We've got a great guest here, Isabella Groger Cesarvich, who is the Vice President of Worldwide Public Sector, EMEA sales for AWS Amazon Web Service, Europe, Middle East and Africa. Isabella, thanks for spending the time and coming on this program for International Women's Day. Appreciate it. Thank you very much for having me on that one. It's an exciting topic, John. A lot of things going on, a lot of themes. We'll get into that. But first, tell us about your career and how you got to be working at AWS. Yeah, that's a really interesting story, I would say. I give you, first of all, the headline. I am a dental technician by training. I am business administration economics by study. And I spend my really whole life in tech. So my first message here is that you can have a great career plus in tech having a diverse background. What you need really is to be curious and to be eager to learn. And you see that I have slightly tweaked our leadership principles, saying learn and be curious on that one. But when you agree on that one, saying, I am curious, I want to learn, this is really a great place in technology and in AWS to be in and to progress a career. It's really, really cool. And when I look ahead, I see that because the industry lines are blurring more and more, they are more and more diverse skillsets, diverse roles coming in. And that is really opening an exciting opportunity also for women, but also in a broader sense of diversity to go and have a career in technology. It is quite exciting. Back to my career, I started in a company, I think when I look back at that and reflect it was a startup these days, very, very early in parallel computing, moved on then into management consulting, into international consulting project and managing those ones. And when I look at that piece, I have built out at that point exactly my industry skills. And that was beginning in the oil and gas industry. When I then transitioned in a bigger cooperation into the ERP space, that also continues on a global scale and then eventually I switched over and started to go deeper into another industry segment which was the public sector. And when you come from oil and gas, that is a transition that comes to national oil companies. So that just sort of naturally came but gave me an absolutely different scope. So 16 years in oil and gas and then process into public sector. Now in my last global role, I really get across the whole discussion about cloud. And this is why I got also in touch with AWS. Talking about, wow, this is the future. This is really the way of how computing is gonna be consumed in future and how agile those types of a model is. And that was really super intrigued. Also having a sort of a really startup mentality. And this is, and here I am as the sales responsible for a mayor in public sector. Well, I love the throwback to parallel computing. I remember those days, exciting story. And I love the point about a lot of opportunities with tech. The aperture of technology has really widened the surface area for things you can do and bring a diverse background to is really amazing, great point, great insight. I have to ask you, what first got you interested in working in the tech sector? How did you get attracted to the parallel computing? What was the gravitational pull? Was there a moment of luck, serendipity? What happened? Tell us how you got interested in the tech sector. John, I wish I would tell you now a story that this was the wow moment, right? Where I came across something and that sparked the idea. Can I tell you a secret? So when I started my study, the thing that I said, or the statement I made was it's just I want to work in everything, but not in IT. And maybe that is how the brain process. So the brain process, I want to work in IT. And this is how I got into it. No, but seriously, I think the first part was, I got to my business degree, but I got it from a technical university. This is why I came, first time came across that in a broader sense. Would I say, is it late or is it early? I don't think so. That was for me at the right time that was mechanical, engineering, engineering and IT. I've also built a couple of ceases around that part. That was the first one. And certainly when I get into this company that was on parallel computing at that time and underdog being responsible for optimization models for refineries I sort of transitioned into that one. So coming really from a technical university background being on a daily basis with that and being in this topics all the time and also thinking about how could I progress that way? And also having my first engagement with the company in that space, that got me intrigued and stuck into the startup space not calling it the startup those days but also in the technology side. And I think the farms have been so cool if I look back on that one. You know what's interesting about that story is is that you were in an environment that was technical and nerdy. And we're seeing that now. People are, we had a leader on AWS that I interviewed. She said, we're nerd native. The younger generation is natively nerdy and they got tech and they're touching it everywhere. They're in think zones, they're in think tanks and building things. So this is the new situation. So this is kind of where we're going. So the next question I have for you is how do we encourage young women and girls to get a career in tech? Are there initiatives that you guys have? I know get IT initiative that AWS runs is one. How do we get this word out that it's all in front of us? The environment is rich to bring careers in together. Yeah. And I think to your point, you can't start early enough on that one, right? So I can say it has been a different touch points but I think I also had an inspiration earlier where I really thought about, yeah, I can do everything. So from that perspective, that paves a way into a looking at, I can equally proceed different career passes but you touched on the get IT side and I really, really love that initiative that we as AWS have put together and I've been a judge on that one and it's amazing results that have been driving that. So the initiative has a defined frame. It is encouraging girls in the age of 12, 13 and also then, but potentially also then later going and considering and career in tech. With that one, it brings these challenges that teams are solving for specifically, for example, schools are taking problems on that they're gonna frame and set up into a sort of a mini startup mode thinking about what is the business case? How do I go from a detailed plan but also still keep a big picture in mind and then bring it forward into a pitch. This is a very, very round off and defined program that we have set up and it really, it sparks very, very great, not very, but great ideas in the sense of it sparks the ideas for really how those problems can be solved in those communities and potentially beyond. What I really love about it is it forces diversity. You think about it, it's not only just for girls or it's not for younger women, but it is diverse teams. So they are from a diversity perspective, it brings different perspectives into it and is solving those problems for communities or challenges for communities. So since we started that one, we have had a very, very strong participation in the UK, for example, from 136 schools and I think over 30,000 students and we are now rolling this initiative also out to other countries in Europe and I had the pleasure to participate in the one in Germany. So I think that was really an outstanding experience and it really brings that top of mind again and again thinking about no matter what's your background is, just go and solve problems for your school, for your community, get people together, get diverse perspective and get things going. I love that example. It's a great story because it also allows people to get their hands on some technology experiment, break stuff, fix it, get building at the young age, but also the theme this year is breaking the bias. So when you get to the younger ages, the bias can be worked on there. This is a great example of that. Does that have an impact there as well? Yeah, I think so very much. You have those teams that are naturally then working around the problem and they are really absolutely focused on the topic. They are absolutely focused on solving a challenge and I think that really brings the diversity of perspective together and in that context, the teams are also looking at what we have in our organization, what makes really that strong culture which are the leadership principles. So this is an invent and simplify. This is a build trust very much, just deal respectfully with other people, but also be able to discuss, have your strong opinion, but then also agree on a direction. So I think it really brings that to the topic and by that broadens the base of the collaboration. Right, organic diversity from day one, as they saying Amazon phrase, but let's take, speaking of Amazon phrases and leadership principles, one of the things that we hear, Andy Jassy talked about this all the time, but now Adam Slavsky talks about it as well. He's the new CEO of AWS is to be the world's best employer, right? So one of the things is the diversity, inclusion and equity part of the equation. And of course they're putting stories out like this is a great, great service and we're happy to be working with them on this. So why is diversity and inclusion and equity such an important part of this leadership principle for Amazon and the world? Can you share your thoughts and share the urgency and imperative of why this is a big deal? Look, I think now, first of all, we need to acknowledge that we are all diverse, right? And we can by default say that. So we are bringing all this diverse views. We are bringing a lot of diverse perspective when we are joining a company, when we are talking to other people in each and every interaction, we are expressing our diversity. And we as AWS believe that when technology is delivered, it should be in a way that it should be built in a way that is first of all diverse, it is equitable and it is inclusive. And we have the responsibility to make that happen. And we also have as an organization, the responsibility to take the way on, to understand what does it takes to get there and to get the commitment out to make sure that we bring more diverse perspective. We bring more diverse perspective. We foster those ones and we build on that we never stop on looking at bringing more and more diversity in, that's one. I think we are as AWS committed to a diverse workforce for one reason and that is our customers are diverse. The challenges are diverse. So delivering the best solution needs a diverse perspective. This is where the best of innovation comes together when you have people that can discuss, but those people also feel safe to express themselves and to have their voice heard. So that's the second part to it is it's the customer focus and we are extremely customer obsessed. But on the other hand, it is also the question about we do it for our people because we want, and that comes then back to your point, John, also on the leadership principle, we want our people to feel the belonging into the organization. This is what they are in their safe point. This is what they deliver at their best, also for our customers and what they feel that they are part of the organization. And when you take diversity, equity and inclusion together, the outcome of all of three is belonging. So we want to really drive that to make sure that we drive more aspects of that diversity into the organization. So we bring a broad basis of our colleagues into the organization and make the work voice heard. That's it. Now, that's one, hang on. And then we want actively recruit women into drive this gender diversity specifically as well. When we look for example at EMEA and we are going to colleges, we are going to events, we are going to conferences. When we want to really offer the benefits for our industry leading, for example, parental leave, mentorships and sponsorship programs, which have women to develop their careers, to really focus on that one. So I think it is striving for being the Earth's best employer by bringing those top industry programs to life to make sure that each and every diverse personality can find a space at AWS and run for the best of our customers. Yeah, that's a great point. The world's diverse, the customers are diverse. And if you put the three words together, they're all equally important. You got to include everyone. Got to be diverse. Everyone has to have equity. That is a community. That's about what community is about. And we're now doing seeing more community focus than ever before in today's world. This is super important. Quick follow-up on that, the role of community. What's your vision on community? Because people want to belong to something. They want to be part of a tribe, this community. Yeah, and that's what I'm saying. I think when you, to your point again, to reinforce that when you bring these three words together, you get this community feeling, you get the belonging. I think it's also the question of a strong culture. You, the ability to offer a cultural framework that people can identify with where they see that the breadth and depth of their skills and all the people around the globe can be folded in. I think this is massive. And this is extremely powerful to bring that to life and to be able to offer this to our colleagues that are working at AWS, but also beyond. That is a universal message that we can spread. Yeah, I got to say, props to Amazon and AWS and we're investing at theCUBE. We're going to do more of these interviews. This is a force multiplier. I think diversity, inclusion, and equity is a force multiplier competitive advantage. The product gets better, the people are happier. It's just a wonderful thing. So I really appreciate the insight and points on that. That's a great, great segment. Lastly though, we're speaking of the number of inspiring women. You're one of them. Thanks for joining us as part of celebration International Women's Day. I'd like to ask you, who inspires you? Look, there are so many. I think we are living in a world where you get the inspiration from very, very many sources. But if I drive that back to what has shaped my career, what has shaped my past, I would say that they are two main data points. The first one is, I'm really going back to my dad when I went back to him and says that, what eventually can I do? He just looked at me and said, do whatever you want. And this is how I really went into life rolling up the sleeves saying, okay, yeah, well, let's go there, right? So it inspired me to look at the positive side and to always take it from an opportunity perspective to go and do whatever I wanted to do, what I thought is interesting for me and where I have been really curious and wanted to learn more about. That is one. And the other one, besides all the frameworks that we, for example, have at AWS, the leadership principles, our culture of diversity, but also our culture of discussion, high debate. And those types are super, super inspirational when it also comes for me to drive in the next level of getting everybody on the same page. I had a discussion with one of my former skip managers, as skip level managers. And the sentence that he has formed that still sticks with me is, I was looking at the next career point and we have been discussing that back and forth. And he was always asking me the same question. So what do you wanna do next? And I gave him an answer. He never answered, he just walked away. And I did that two times and I eventually figured out that it's probably not what he really wanted to hear. And when we started to go into a discussion, he pointed me to a fact or to a direction that he said, do you want to wait for dead men's lippers? And this is a sentence that just, you don't really need to understand that in breadth and depth. But if you think about the picture, just like this, there is the old chair and then you have the dead men's lippers. Is that something, this is something where I always think myself back and forth, I'm thinking, which point am I at? And is that eventually also a point where I would say, this is a dead men's lippers transition point. And this is what inspired me of thinking about the next career points, staying agile and also staying always curious and learning. So going to that next level is about pushing yourself and really rethinking and going after things that may be aspirational, but attainable at the same time. Understanding that role sounds like that was a growth opportunity. Yes, it was a growth opportunity. It never comes to the point where you're gonna say, I'm gonna now, that's it, right? I've learned everything. It is a, I'm gonna step out. It's gonna be outside my comfort zone. Am I ready to do that? And is that the right point for me? And I think the answer to that one is always yes. This is how you stay, stay keep up with technology, but you keep up also with all the fantastic opportunities that the life and also the environment like, for example, AWS offer. Isabella, thank you for coming on to sharing this story. One last question I'll ask you is, what's next for you? What do you want to do next? You're worldwide public sector executive leader for Europe, Middle East and Africa for AWS, hot company. The regions are everywhere. There's more regions as local zones. Everything's happening. It's expanding. You're in the middle of it. What's next for you? I want to see cloud being the driver of innovation and business dynamics and business model change. And I want to be part of this business model change that is based on cloud in future for the benefit of public sector and all the other entities. And also very much for the benefit of all citizens around the globe. That's my next. Well, it sounds like it's gonna be very diverse, inclusive and highly equitable. And I want to be part of that. I want to belong to that. Thank you for sharing and looking forward to more conversations. And thank you for spending the time to come on theCUBE's presentation here. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, John. I appreciate it. Okay, theCUBE presentation, Women in Tech, global events celebrating International Women's Day. This is the first episode. There'll be more. We're going to get more and more stories out. But March 8th is a big day. We're celebrating it today. International Women, I'm John Furrier, the host of theCUBE. Thanks for watching.