Future Women in Leadership at Veritas: a conversation with Pam Holmberg

[AlexMatts]

Pam Holmberg joins FWIL mentees and mentors for an afternoon of shared conversation on the program and its progress at Veritas Technologies.I recently had the opportunity to speak with Veritas’ Pam Holmberg, Vice President of Human Resources for CPO and a champion of the company’s Future Women in Leadership program. The term “champion” is one employed frequently at Veritas within our array of employee programs, like Future Women in Leadership (FWIL), and is especially meaningful in this regard; minority groups benefit from support by individuals willing to command attention and resources to address the collective goals of the group.

And if women are to see true equity in the workplace, we need champions – enter Pam Holmberg.

This topic arose naturally in conversation with Pam, as she noted, “I am constantly impressed by the number of people willing to step up and dedicate energy and time at this company to making a difference,” going on to explain, “I am a champion of FWIL – one vying for the program to guarantee it is supported as needed at a leadership level – but many others are ‘in the weeds’ daily, identifying new chances for networking among mentees and mentors, and making those moments happen.”

In the technology sector, programs like FWIL are particularly poignant.

Pam shared, “I still see the disparity, despite the hard work of so many to improve gender balance in the world of tech,” and we agreed the act of openly acknowledging the divide through programs like FWIL has the potential to dramatically improve the state of the strata at organizations like Veritas.

Launched in Spring 2018, Future Women in Leadership is nearing the close of its first round with strong results. Several among the program’s mentees have produced technical FWIL projects that are likely to make their way into shipped Veritas products – an incredible feat considering these women are also full-time employees, integrated to existing technologies across the company.

With these outcomes and the upcoming program finale top-of-mind, Pam’s statement perhaps offers the best close to this FWIL update: “I’m grateful to be a part of a company where the future of its employees – all of its employees – is something that drives the greater whole to advance.”

It is efforts like the Future Women in Leadership program that make #LifeAtVeritas fulfilling, and will ultimately help us shift the scales of equality, broadly.