WITI HEADLINES



WITI Headlines

HP Appoints Nor Rae Spohn to Lead LaserJet Printing Business

PR Web, Emediawire, BusinessWire, Yahoo!

HP today announced the appointment of Nor Rae Spohn to senior vice president of the company’s LaserJet Printing Business… Previously, Spohn was vice president and general manager of the HP Color LaserJet Business and before that led the HP Personal LaserJet Printing Business. Last October, she was inducted in the Women in Technology International (WITI) Hall of Fame as one of the world's "five most pioneering women."

Patently Successful

HISPANIC BUSINESS Magazine

Ms. Azua helped develop the technology for home banking, as well as automated teller machines, secure online purchasing, text messaging from cell phones, and a host of other projects – 45 patents with 44 more pending – all for IBM Corp… Ms. Azua earned the Star Award from the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers for her mentoring, and her name turns up regularly on lists of influential Hispanics. Her most treasured achievement: induction in 2006 into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame.

Freescale exec named CTO at Calif. company

Austin Business Journal

LSI Logic named Claudine Simson executive vice president and chief technology officer… She was inducted into the Hall of Fame of Women in Technology International in 1999.

Business calendar

Sun-Sentinel

WITI Women in Community Workshop, 6 p.m., Sterling Worth Caf–, Plantation. Visit southflorida or call 561-414-6503.

Information Security Expert Pamela Fusco Joins FishNet Security

Kansas City News, Market Wire, Santa Barbara News Press

FishNet Security, a leading information security solutions provider, announces a key addition to its security solutions team. Pamela Fusco joins FishNet Security from Citigroup, where she held the position of EVP, Global Information Security, Citigroup Technology Infrastructure (CTI). She will serve as FishNet Security's Executive Director of Security Solutions… She is also an active member of the Chief Information Security Officers Executive Forum (CISO Executive), Information Systems Security Association (ISSA), and Women in Technology International (WITI). Ms. Fusco will be based out of FishNet Security's New York office.

More Girls Becoming Gamers



When you think of gamers, you might imagine a group of high-energy boys sitting around a video game console in the basement. It may surprise you to know 38 percent of all gamers are now female. But battling the boys isn't always easy…"You're getting into broader types of story lines, you have improved graphics,” said Vicky Wu with Women in Technology International.

REVShare Continues to Rev Up Its Executive Team, Tapping Gail Gessert as Director of Marketing & Communications; Marketing Executive Joins America's Largest CPA Television Advertising Network

PR NEWSWIRE. DBUSINESSNEWS

Gail Gessert has joined REVShare, television's largest Cost per Action (CPA) advertising network, as Director of Marketing & Communications, it was announced today by Joseph Gray, CEO, REVShare, to whom she will directly report… Accolades she has enjoyed include mentoring and public speaking for the Center for Excellence in Education (CEE), as well as being an invited speaker for Women in Technology International (WITI).

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WITI News

HP Appoints Nor Rae Spohn to Lead LaserJet Printing Business

3 April 2007

PR Web, Emediawire, BusinessWire, Yahoo!



HP today announced the appointment of Nor Rae Spohn to senior vice president of the company’s LaserJet Printing Business.

Spohn, 49, will be responsible for continuing HP’s worldwide leadership in laser printing through customer focus and innovation.

Her distinguished leadership track record makes her a natural fit for this role and I look forward to her continued contributions as a key member of the IPG leadership team.

A 26-year veteran of HP, Spohn will report to Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president of HP's Imaging and Printing Group.

"Nor Rae is a natural leader with a deep understanding of HP’s Imaging and Printing business,” said Joshi. “Her distinguished leadership track record makes her a natural fit for this role and I look forward to her continued contributions as a key member of the IPG leadership team."

Previously, Spohn was vice president and general manager of the HP Color LaserJet Business and before that led the HP Personal LaserJet Printing Business. Last October, she was inducted in the Women in Technology International (WITI) Hall of Fame as one of the world's "five most pioneering women."

Based in Boise, Idaho, Spohn recently was appointed to the Governor of Idaho’s Science and Technology Advisory council. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University in computer science and a master's degree from Stanford in electrical engineering.

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Patently Successful

April 2007

By Holly Ocasio Rizzo

HISPANIC BUSINESS Magazine



Ms. Azua helped develop the technology for home banking, as well as automated teller machines, secure online purchasing, text messaging from cell phones, and a host of other projects – 45 patents with 44 more pending – all for IBM Corp.

The 46-year-old Hispanic Business WOY finalist serves as vice-president of technology and innovation at IBM's offices in Somers, New York.

If a glass ceiling ever loomed over Ms. Azua, creating value made it fall away. "She is one of the most focused and passionate technical leaders we have when it comes to finding real value in everything we do," says Nicholas Donofrio, executive vice-president of innovation and technology at IBM's headquarters in Armonk, New York. "She enables others to focus and feel the same way. She is unselfish in her quest to help our company be a great company again."

Ms. Azua said she doesn't regret entering management at mid-career. "I was offered management jobs several times, but they all required moving, and I wanted to stay near my family.

"By the time I got into management, my team grew large and fast. They don't see me as a stodgy executive who doesn't understand, because I've done the same work they do. The years I spent with in-depth technology were valuable in earning respect."

Her colleagues describe Ms. Azua as passionate about her work with a people-oriented twist.

"Not only do I have the highest regard for Maria's technical ability, but I believe her passion to succeed is second to none," says Herman Rodriguez, a senior patent engineer for IBM in Austin, Texas, who was a co-inventor with her on several patents. "She is extremely energetic and relentless, and handles difficult situations with the conviction that she will prevail regardless of the challenge.

"Her passion and actions are complemented with the love she shows for her family. She is truly an inspiration to those around her."

Ms. Azua was 6 months old when her parents, a lawyer and a homemaker, left Cuba for Puerto Rico with her and her older sister. The family moved briefly to Miami, then returned to Puerto Rico after her father bought an amusement park. They settled in Urbanizacion Los Angeles, a neighborhood in Carolina next to the rumble of Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport.

Her father instilled in her his principles of good business behavior and her mother provided an attraction to science. "My mother never worked outside our home, but she loved science," Ms. Azua says. "In college, she studied a type of chemistry having to do with sugar manufacturing. High-tech at that time, 60 years ago, was focused on how to get more sucrose out of sugar. A hundred years from now, people will look at us as if we were strange to worry so much about food."

As in many families, Ms. Azua and her sister would have broken their parents' hearts if they had moved away from home to go to college. So she attended the University of Puerto Rico, graduating with a bachelor's degree in physics and applied math, then enrolled in graduate studies in computer science at the University of Miami and an MBA program at Florida Atlantic University so she could live in Miami with a watchful aunt.

Computer technology did not earn her love until she worked on a project involving cluster galaxies at the Arecibo Observatory while in grad school. "Since the telescope is a radio telescope, it gets radio waves, not pictures. I was writing FORTRAN programs to analyze the data," she says, referring to an early programming language. "We were doing a lot of data processing, and I found computers fascinating."

IBM found Ms. Azua in 1989 in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, where she was considered an expert in SQL, Oracle, and other relational databases. "IBM wanted me to do database storage for a hospital," she says.

As the dot-com era unfolded, she acquired new skills for working with e-businesses. From designing UNIX, DOS, and OS/2 operating systems, she developed into a technology architect creating information solutions for IBM's large banking clients, including Bank of America and Bank One. It was not by accident, she says.

"Success has nothing to do with luck," Ms. Azua says. "I believe in thorough planning, in looking at where technology is going. I tell people now: Invest your energy in the future, not the present."

Ms. Azua has been married for 17 years to an IBM hardware engineer involved in chip design. "My husband and I work all hours of the day all the time, around the clock," she says, but weekends are their time together. "On Saturday, I don't read my mail, and we take three weeks' vacation together every year."

She says if she returned to college today, she would study biology and chemistry. That's because she foresees much computer work ahead in modeling virus mutations and epidemiology.

"Technology's not all bells and whistles," Ms. Azua says. "You really want the world to be better because of technology. Making the customer happy creates more demand, and that means more value to the company's bottom line."

She's a mentor to Hispanic students of all ages. "I want to tell them you can be whatever you want to be, and by the way science is cool. They see programs on TV about doctors in an ER or lawyers or celebrities, but when was the last time you saw a lawyer who looked like one on TV? We need to show them that engineers are cool, and engineering is a great career for average-looking people with above-average intelligence."

Ms. Azua earned the Star Award from the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers for her mentoring, and her name turns up regularly on lists of influential Hispanics. Her most treasured achievement: induction in 2006 into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame.

What about her first mentor? "It's the new generation's responsibility to demonstrate to our parents that going up the corporate ladder doesn't mean we love them or our kids any less," Ms. Azua said. "On the other hand, does the vice-president of a Fortune 500 company let Mami tell her what to do? Of course."

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Freescale exec named CTO at Calif. company

27 March 2007

Austin Business Journal



LSI Logic named Claudine Simson executive vice president and chief technology officer.

Milpitas-based LSI (NYSE: LSI) said Simson most recently served in Motorola Inc.'s (NYSE: MOT) semiconductor products sector and its spin-off, Austin-based Freescale Semiconductor Inc. (NYSE: FSL). There she was responsible for leading worldwide research and development of semiconductor technologies that enabled product differentiation in networking, communications, automotive, and wireless applications.

She will be responsible for charting future technology and architectural advancements for LSI Logic, and will lead strategic technology collaborations with key customers, business partners and leading universities.

She was inducted into the Hall of Fame of Women in Technology International in 1999.

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Business calendar

19 March 2007

By Cindy Kent

Sun-Sentinel



WITI Women in Community Workshop, 6 p.m., Sterling Worth Caf–, Plantation. Visit southflorida or call 561-414-6503.

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Information Security Expert Pamela Fusco Joins FishNet Security

14 February 2007

Kansas City News, Market Wire, Santa Barbara News Press



FishNet Security, a leading information security solutions provider, announces a key addition to its security solutions team. Pamela Fusco joins FishNet Security from Citigroup, where she held the position of EVP, Global Information Security, Citigroup Technology Infrastructure (CTI). She will serve as FishNet Security's Executive Director of Security Solutions.

"We are happy that Ms. Fusco has joined FishNet Security. She brings another dimension of real world business experience working with large financial services firms as a former CSO," said Gordon Shevlin, EVP of Business Development for FishNet Security. "With this addition to FishNet Security's leading team of industry experts, we can provide our customers with an even greater depth of experience and knowledge," Shevlin added.

Ms. Fusco has more than 20 years of experience as an information security and risk management professional holding top security positions with many other leading corporations including Merck & Co., Digex, and EDS. Her experience encompasses all facets of security including logistics, physical, personal, systems, networks, wireless, and forensic investigations. Among many other professional accomplishments, Ms. Fusco has developed company security platforms and has designed, implemented, and executed architecture, policy and compliance, and security strategies. In addition, she has developed robust and cost effective Intrusion Detection Devices, real-time analysis tools, automated systems and application security patch configuration processes.

"I am pleased to be a part of the FishNet Security solutions team. I look forward to providing our clients with enterprise wide services, helping them reach their security goals," said Pamela Fusco.

Ms. Fusco brings a wealth of knowledge in the information security space and is a global speaker on the matter -- participating in seminars and conferences all over the world including: SecureWorld and RSA. She holds certifications as CISSP, CISM, and CHS Level III. She is also an active member of the Chief Information Security Officers Executive Forum (CISO Executive), Information Systems Security Association (ISSA), and Women in Technology International (WITI). Ms. Fusco will be based out of FishNet Security's New York office.

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More Girls Becoming Gamers

14 February 2007





When you think of gamers, you might imagine a group of high-energy boys sitting around a video game console in the basement. It may surprise you to know 38 percent of all gamers are now female. But battling the boys isn't always easy.

Amber Dalton and her girlfriends are typical twenty-somethings with a not-so-typical hobby.

"We are serious gamers,” Dalton said. “We are serious competitors."

They play video games that involve everything from street fighting to shoot em' up car races, poker to brain busting puzzles. They even compete in tournaments.

"We're not just interested in our Barbie dolls,” Dalton said. “Get past that stereotype."

Dalton and her friends are part of a growing trend of girls taking control of the typically male dominated gaming community.

"You're getting into broader types of story lines, you have improved graphics,” said Vicky Wu with Women in Technology International. “The better made that the video games are, women are going to catch on and say, 'hey, you know, these are fun games and we want to be a part of that, too.'"

They're forming all girl gaming clans. Think of them as support groups that help girls link up with other female gamers around the world. They use Internet capable consoles or PCs.

Dalton started the PMS Clan about four years ago.

"We are made of housewives, students, girls-next-door, just about every kind of woman that you can imagine," Dalton said.

Their mission? To provide a fun, competitive, and healthy environment for female gamers.

Dr. Jeanne Funk has been researching video games for years and says these groups can have many positive influences.

"They can be positive technology role models,” University of Toledo PhD. Jeanne Funk said. “They, I think, give girls a sense of community, a place to interact that's safer than perhaps the larger online gaming world."

That larger online gaming world, according to experts, sometimes subjects girls as young as nine to sexual harassment and intimidation.

"Once a girl reveals that she's a girl, say through her voice, then she leaves herself open," Funk said.

"People hide behind the anonymity of their headsets and forget that they're seeing and playing with real people with real feelings," Dalton said.

Gamer Caitlin Buckshaw says it can be discouraging.

"When we get harassed, they usually tell us to get back into the kitchen,” Buckshaw said. “That's the number one thing I probably hear. Or, girls don't belong in games."

Dr. Funk says that over time that harassment can be devastating, especially for younger girls.

"They could have lower self esteem," Funk said.

So, it's important for parents to talk to their children about the larger online gaming world.

"What they like about it, what they don't like about it, and help them develop a strategy if they do experience online harassment," Funk said.

Dalton says when she and her girls venture out of the clan, they use any harassment they face for motivation.

"I just say, 'You know what? I'm here to play just like you are. Pick up your controller so I can beat you!'" Dalton said.

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REVShare Continues to Rev Up Its Executive Team, Tapping Gail Gessert as Director of Marketing & Communications; Marketing Executive Joins America's Largest CPA Television Advertising Network

14 FEBRUARY 2007

PR Newswire. DBusinessNews



Gail Gessert has joined REVShare, television's largest Cost per Action (CPA) advertising network, as Director of Marketing & Communications, it was announced today by Joseph Gray, CEO, REVShare, to whom she will directly report.

Gessert will be responsible for implementing brand positioning and messaging, as well as develop relationships with ad agencies and stations while educating the industry about REVShare's cutting edge model which brings accountability to today's fragmented television advertising universe.

"We're extremely fortunate to have Gail lead our voice at REVShare," said Gray. "We're looking to launch technology for television that will be unprecedented. She's just the person that can capture the spirit of the message."

Gessert added, "I'm extremely lucky to participate in the moment where technology and CPA advertising will be the answer to television's upcoming challenges with the onset of greater media fragmentation from digital tier multicasting. REVShare, with its 18 year history, is taking the lead on this front."

Prior to joining REVShare, Gessert handled Business Development for SSI, which was named one of the fastest growing privately held companies in San Diego 2006, by SDBJ. She was instrumental in the branding and launch of its new company, SEMDirector, the premier search management solution provider for global organizations. Gessert is a veteran of both Internet and Entertainment. In her role as the U.S. CEO, she assisted in taking the first hi-tech virtual reality company public in Germany, and has teamed with top ad agencies, often being assigned to help traditionalists start interactive divisions. Gessert continues to follow leading edge technology in her posts.

REVShare's technology provides agencies unprecedented ease, efficiency and savings for their clients in booking schedules on over 1200 television properties via its established network. The media management model provides broad outreach to local markets, cable, and syndicated channels with one easy order; AND ensures that advertisers only pay for results. REVShare is the first bid market environment for television based on accountability, as media is paid for on a consumer response basis.

Gessert comments, "Being familiar with search engine's CPC models like Google's and Yahoo's, REVShare is a natural for me to represent its unique and valuable proposition."

Gessert, originally from the DC area, holds a BA and MA from Arizona State University, and Ph.D. from University of Arizona in Educational Psychology with Minors in Psychology specializing in Information Processing, Research & Statistics, and Computer Applications.

Accolades she has enjoyed include mentoring and public speaking for the Center for Excellence in Education (CEE), as well as being an invited speaker for Women in Technology International (WITI). She is also a faculty member of University of Phoenix Online where she facilitates for its Doctoral Program, the School for Advanced Studies (SAS).

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