 From the VMware campus in Palo Alto, California, it's theCUBE, covering women transforming technology. Hey, I'm Lisa Martin. On the ground with theCUBE at VMware in Palo Alto at the third annual Women Transforming Technology event. And we're here with a CUBE alumni, Betsy Sutter, SVP and Chief People Officer at VMware. So great to have you back on theCUBE. Thank you, it's great to be here. So this is a very exciting day. Yes. I love these types of events because you walk in and you just feel the sense of community and empowerment. And that's one of the great things that WT Squared is in and of itself. It's a construction of organizations, that's industry, academia, nonprofits to help women connect, learn from each other and support each other, not just here in Silicon Valley, but beyond. And this is third annual. This was sold out like within hours. So amazing momentum that you guys have brought now to the third year. Great, yeah. We're really excited. We're really excited. And it's a new approach, right? It's creating, as you said, a consortium of companies to come together and just have real-time conversations about what's going on around gender equality. And so, yeah, I'm really proud of this conference. Mostly because it just brings such a diverse set of people together. Men and women, we have more men attending this year than ever before. And so the conversations you're just elevated. They're fun, yeah. So you started at VMware when I was a startup with about a hundred people, and here you are now managing this organization of 20,000 people. Big undertaking. Talk to me about the cultural change and shifts that you've seen and probably been able to drive from the last 15 years or so. Yeah, the culture's been a pretty deliberate strategy from day one, and I give the first CEO and founder, Diane Green, a tremendous amount of credit for being really clear about what she wanted to build. And she really wanted to build a sustainable company and a culture, and she knew culture was the differentiator. And even the current CEO today, Pat Gelsinger and I know that this is the single biggest differentiator that we can continue to strengthen in the company. And then all the diversity inclusion and conversations are just part of that at this point in time. But it was a deliberate strategy. Plain and simple, always keeping an eye on that. And the values are at the core of that, right? And then the culture and the behavior reflect the values. And so it's just been steadfast and stalwart on who we want to be over the past 20 years. It's our 20th anniversary as a company, and yeah, I've been here for 17 of those, but that's the work that I've really focused on. It's been terrific. Being deliberate is really key there. So this third event, inclusion and action is the theme. How do you see that being, how do you live that and infiltrate that at VMware? Yeah, well, you know, we're a company that has wanted to disrupt the tech space. And so in order to do that, we've had to stay focused on innovation, innovation, innovation. And we really innovate in everything, not just in our technology and our products, but how we bring them to market, how we support them. But it also affects a lot of the work that I do in my space. And in order to innovate, you have to be inclusive of just a lot of different viewpoints. And I like to say that we started out sort of as an industrial research kind of company. We were born out of Stanford, lot of computer science, graduate students creating what we've now become. And that's just been kind of the path is just collaboration. Even though we're 22,000 people now, we still kind of take that approach to everything we do. And speaking of Stanford, big news out this morning. Congratulations. Yeah, thank you. And VMware is investing 15 million dollars in a new women's leadership innovation lab at Stanford. That's amazing. Yeah, we're thrilled. We are so excited. And Shelly Carell, professor of sociology at Stanford. We, our partnership has been with Stanford since 2013. I think they've really helped us navigate everything that we've done in the inclusion and diversity space. And so this is a new chapter and it's around women's leadership and it's around women's leadership and innovation. And this lab I think is going to reap some great results. Research based work is sort of at the heart and soul of who we are, right? And so this is just more of that. It's going to be great to take progressive research, groundbreaking research and put it into practice. And so Shelly and I couldn't be more excited about what's next. Awesome. Well, one of the interesting things is, I was reading in the press release this morning that came out that according to McKinsey, companies with diversity at the executive level are 21% more profitable. That's right. Why aren't more companies even paying attention to that? That is a great question because most companies are about making money and wanting to be profitable. So it's perplexing that people aren't really honing in on what research is showing. But sadly it comes down to power and influence. It's all about who has the power and who has the influence. And so part of what we're doing with Stanford, VMware, women's leadership innovation lab is figuring out how to get women into more leadership positions and get them into more powerful and influential positions. And that will be the thing that equalizes gender inequality. So in the last six months, we have had big movements, me too. Yeah. Time's up. Yeah. Brotopia that Emily Chang published recently. That's right. How, when you, when you, when that first came out with all the Harvey Weinstein stuff, did you say, good, we need to be able to get, to leverage this momentum, was that, do you see that as being pulled into the tech industry and helping to accelerate making this diversity change? I think things are getting accelerated and amplified because I think voices are being used and heard. And I think there's a movement and I think women are coming together as a consortium around their gender and understanding that the real issues are around power and influence and tackling it head on. And the quality of the conversations around all of these movements is, it's inspiring to me after spending 30 odd years in tech. I bet it is. I think things are really starting to change because women are using their voices. Yeah. Speaking of women using their voices, you had Layla Ali as a keynote. Yeah. That was so fantastic. Strong, confident woman who, the daughter of Muhammad Ali, who tried to talk her out of becoming a fighter. Right. Tried to, too, I love how she said, he tried to actually kind of get me to think it was my idea to not go into it. Right. That obviously a woman probably born with a lot of natural confidence, but I loved how she kind of talked to all of us and said, he sometimes that light goes out or it's dimmed and I need to remind myself what's my purpose. Yeah, yeah. So you probably see a good amount of females that have that sort of innate confidence that love engineering and I'm going to do this. How do you encourage those women to maybe mentor some of the, either younger or not, other females who want to do something but are intimidated by, you know, maybe don't have that natural confidence. How do you kind of facilitate that empowerment? Yeah, well, I do think Layla's story is amazing and, you know, most importantly, she's an entrepreneur and a business woman, right? I mean, what she's done with her career, with her foundation, but what she's done with her career is most impressive and I love that diggin' deep and find that warrior from within. Yes. But I think for women today, I think the difference is that we're able to have the conversation with each other and even with the opposite sex. And I think companies are starting to understand that if you don't have diversity, you're not going to have innovation and you're not going to win. And most companies that I've worked for, and VMware in particular, we want to win. We want to lead, we want to disrupt and we want to impact the world. And we want and need to make money as well. But I think for women now, the conversation is allowed. I know that people are listening on both sides of the fence and we do a lot of VMware just to make sure that conversation is live. One of the things I'm really proud of at VMware and that I really believe is that it's been the quality of the conversation since day one that have put us where we are in the world and in the industry and as a company. And so the conversation's shifting a little bit, right? We're talking more about this and it's those quality conversations that just keep it going. And that's sort of core to who we are so we'll just continue that trend. And it's great being able to talk to theCUBE because you're allowing us to amplify the quality of the conversation. So I'm grateful. And we're happy to be a part of that. So just about the event, there are a number of tracks. Also, that was something that I was mentioned to you before we started filming was, I loved that when I walked in, there was a headshot area. Yeah, I love that. And as well as a LinkedIn profile writing and resume clinic, all of these, you think minor things, those can be really impactful. If a woman has a great headshot, wow, this is fantastic or somebody guiding her on what or what not to put on a LinkedIn profile, just even providing some of these things that are foundational, that's really huge. It is really huge. And it's also just a new platform for these conversations to continue, whether it's just a visual because you're looking at my LinkedIn headshot or my Twitter feed or whatever it is. But these are all really small things but matter, right? Absolutely. Small things really matter. And so building those up into people's psyches and their abilities is sort of what we're trying to do as part of the conference. So in context of the third annual event, the sold out event, and this great announcement of what VMware and Stanford are doing, what are some of those quick wins or exciting wins that you're looking forward to seeing the rest of 2018? Yeah, I think, I love that question. I think the key is continuing to join forces, to continue to lock arms and continue the conversations. And so a lot of what I love to do professionally and personally is create those platforms for people to do those kinds of things. And that's what women transforming technology is about this year and has been about the last two years. And I think we'll just continue to do that. And people will tell us what we need to know and where we need to go. Awesome. If you look back at your career, would you have forecast your success being the chief people officer at sea level? Or would you, what was that like? Yeah, that's such, I'm just starting at this point in my career to really reflect on that. No, I never imagined having this amount of responsibility and privilege, never in my wildest dreams. It wasn't an aspirational goal. I knew that I wanted as much influence as I could have to achieve results. I'm a professional problem solver. This is a pretty meaty problem that we're tackling. But no, I didn't dream it. Now I feel a huge amount of responsibility to start to talk about it. I'm a, I think I mentioned you, I'm a behind the scenes kind of person. Like to work back there, understanding the problem, diagnosing it, coming up with a solution and then helping implement it. But now it's time to kind of talk about what's happened and where we are and set course for the future with so many wonderful women. Last question for you. Because the attrition rate is so high for females in technology, what advice would you give to a woman who's on the cusp of leaving, not to sort of family, but just going, I'm not sure I feel supported here. What advice would you give her? Yeah, I would give that person and I do give this advice on a rate to go out and have lots of conversations and just start those conversations. You just don't know what you don't know. And I've had women come to be and at the end of 45 minutes to an hour tell me they're thinking about doing something else. And it saddens me, especially if they're at VMware because I don't want them to leave. But go out and have those conversations and explore what's next. Don't be afraid of the conversation and sharing what's happening with you at your work. And events like women transforming technology are only going to help continue to get more eyes and ears on every side of whatever gap we've got, aware of this, and help all of us become part of the solution to accelerate diversity because as the data show, companies can be far more profitable if they've got that thought diversity. That's exactly right. And it's just that simple, but it's just that difficult. Exactly, only it was that simple. Well Betsy, thank you so much for joining us and allowing us to be part of the voice and getting this awareness out there for women transforming technology as well as helping to hopefully empower and inspire all of the current and future generations of women in tech. Yeah, no, I really appreciate you being here too. Thank you. Our pleasure. We want to thank you for watching theCUBE. I'm Lisa Martin on the ground at Women Transforming Technology. Thanks for watching.