International Women's Day Spotlight: Nasuni

This #InternationalWomensDay, we got the chance to speak with some of the leaders at Nasuni , the leading file data services company that helps organisations create a secure, file data cloud for digital transformation, global growth and information insight. Cheryle Cushion , Parrish Blaszka , Ann Karolin Thueland , and Kristin C. , share their experiences as women in the workplace and their input on the topic of #EmbracingEquity.

Cheryle Cushion, Vice President, Marketing, Nasuni

Cheryle Cushion is vice president of marketing, responsible for elevating Nasuni’s brand, driving demand for its solutions worldwide, and ensuring a positive customer experience. She oversees corporate and product marketing, demand generation, corporate communications and marketing operations. Cheryle has?30 years of experience in developing corporate marketing strategies and executing integrated marketing programs that drive strong customer engagement via direct and indirect sales channels.?

Prior to joining Nasuni, Cheryle was Vice President at Hospital IQ and has held various marketing leadership roles in several successful young technology companies including Raptor Systems, Interliant, Seahorse BioScience, and most notably EqualLogic which was purchased by Dell in 2008 for $1.4B. At Dell, she then led the Global Storage Marketing team contributing to its growth of over $750M in just 3 years, as well as spent 3 years developing and executing global hardware and software campaigns across the full enterprise product portfolio.?

How do you balance career, personal life and passions? Is there such a thing as balance??

Achieving work-life balance for women in particular is very challenging and needs to be ‘conquered’. Being in high tech for most of my career, I’ve worked with and for several men who haven’t fully appreciated the difficulty many women face when having to choose between being there for their family and having a successful career. They often have wives who handle a lot of the “raising a family” activities like making appointments and taking the kids to the doctors, attending school functions and talking with the teachers or getting kids to practices or even just getting dinner on the table. I’ve had to remind them that I play that role in my household, so flexibility has had to be non-negotiable in my career choices.?

Who was/is your role model and/or leadership mentor??

I’ve been fortunate to have a few managers and colleagues along my career path that I’ve looked at as role models. Those that have worked hard, supported me in my career aspirations and that I’ve seen make tough calls but with professionalism and respect.?

What advice would you give to the next generation of female leaders??

The best career advice I have ever received and would like to pass on is for sure that no one is irreplaceable. I learned this lesson the hard way and early on in my career…some are harder and may take longer to replace, but everyone is replaceable.?

Another one is, speak up. We have a great, supportive culture at Nasuni which provides all the tools and education you’ll need. But at any company, it will be up to you to leverage them, in order to achieve your goals and ambitions. Remember, anything worth having is going to take some effort to achieve.?

Finally, network often. Relationships are and always will be important in every aspect of your life, both personally and professionally. You never know what you could learn, who you could help or receive help from that could change your perspective and direction.?

Do women in your profession have a hard time getting promoted??

Without a doubt, being female in a very male dominant industry comes with its challenges. I remember one time, in particular, being very frustrated by the behavior of a male colleague and having my manager at the time tell me that I needed to stop being so ‘emotional’. Until that point, I had never even thought about gender differences in the work force but had chalked it up to being about experience and my lack of it.?

I’ve always hated this idea of “special treatment” in the workplace just for being a woman. The exact same behavior exhibited by a man and a woman are labeled differently and can sometimes be dismissed or not addressed urgently. Men typically speak differently when a woman is in the room. I think skills are assessed differently and we often “wait our turn” or “wait until we are 100% ready” when it comes to sharing ideas and being promoted.?

Things have come a long way over the past 30 years, but it’s not completely gone. To the next generation, my advice is to work hard, be strong and confident in your voice, be respectful of everyone in the discussion and be open to working together to solve these issues.?

Parrish Blaszka, Senior Director of Awareness, Nasuni

Parrish Blaszka is the Senior Director of Awareness for Nasuni. In this capacity, she leads the team responsible for driving recognition for the company across public relations efforts, analyst relations, brand, social, and web. Prior to joining Nasuni, she was with Dell in a variety of marketing roles and at Cambridge Computer, a storage-focused channel partner. Early in her career, she worked at several high-tech public relations firms in the greater Boston area and New York. She is a graduate of the University of Vermont and a New Hampshire native. Outside of work, she’s most likely found on the lacrosse field cheering on her sons or boating with her husband.?

How do you balance career, personal life and passions? Is there such a thing as balance??

Balance is a bit of a misleading term as it’s often associated with things being equal, and that’s not always the case in trying to achieve a sense of balance across your career, personal life, and passions. Across all of the hats that female leaders often wear - working professional, mother, wife, friend, daughter…the list goes on - there is never going to be an equal balance of time and energy. Something or somethings, will always have to take a backseat. On a daily basis, there will always be a trade off as to what consumes the majority of your energy for that day. Some days they may be more equal, but not always. Burnout is real and stretching yourself too thin by trying to give all areas 100%, 24x7 isn’t feasible. Give yourself the grace to be flexible, and don’t be too hard on yourself. And by all means, don’t believe everything you see on social media!?

Ann Thueland, Senior Director EMEA Marketing, Nasuni

Ann Thueland’s career spans over 20+ years, during which she has gained experience in senior enterprise marketing positions at large corporations such as Hewlett Packard, Fujitsu and Dell, but also set foundations for growth at start-ups like data virtualization company Actifio, later acquired by Google and real-time streaming company Ververica, original creators of Open Source Apache Flink (acquired by Alibaba). More recently she established the marketing function as Head of Marketing at Crate.io, followed by her current assignment as Sr Director Marketing EMEA at Nasuni.?

How can women develop their leadership skills??

I think leadership requires entrepreneurial thinking and ownership but eventually is all about being a role model, inclusive and empathetic.?

What advice would you give to the next generation of female leaders??

My advice for the next generation of female leaders would be to be fearless and confident, know that the world needs them and look forward to what they can bring to the table to make this world a better place.?

Kristin Concannon, Senior Public Relations Manager, Nasuni

Kristin has over 8 years of experience working with companies based in Dublin, Ireland, and Boston, MA, including Mary Crotty PR, Design Museum Boston (now Design Museum Everywhere), WGBH, HqO, and Nasuni.?

Her professional accomplishments include building communications functions from scratch, implementing and globally scaling content marketing and public relations initiatives, elevating brand awareness and share of voice for disruptive companies, and partnering with industry experts and analysts to secure strategic media placements and opportunities. She graduated with a degree in PR and Sociology from Boston University. While on campus, she was a PR Executive and Vice President of a student-run nonprofit. Outside of the office, Kristin has a deep appreciation for the arts and traveling.?

How can women develop their leadership skills??

I can narrow this down to three things: make sure to challenge yourself, advocate for yourself, and get comfortable with taking up space. I’ve known (and currently work with) some of the most brilliant people, many of whom are women. The individuals I most admire aren’t gender-specific, but they all are passionate and dedicated to learning, speak up when they need to, and are confident in what they bring to the table. Often women are made to feel small and tend to lose their voices in the workplace (especially in corporate environments) and don’t give themselves the chance to level the playing field with their male peers. At the end of the day, it’s all about being willing to get acquainted with the uncomfortable. ?

How important is it to have a mentor to grow as a leader? ?

Mentorship and representation are incredibly important. Some of the most brilliant people I know are women - I don’t think I’d feel half as capable and inspired in my career now if I didn’t have opportunities to work alongside/under individuals who were a constant reminder of what “great” looks like.?

What strategies can work well to promote inclusion in the workplace??

To promote inclusion, you need to be passionate and proactive. You can’t just wait until others solve your challenges for you. Make sure you remind people why you deserve a seat at the table by paying attention to common goals, asking questions, doing good work, and collaborating with your peers - drive the results you want to see. ?

As a leader, how do you stay mindful of who’s at the table and who’s missing? ?

I am fortunate to work for a company that works towards inclusivity in every aspect of the organization. We have multiple employee-driven programs and feedback opportunities where individuals can always share their unique perspectives. I’m an observer by nature (I can thank my Sociology background for this), so I make sure I take note of who is talking and what they are talking about on any given occasion. I apply this knowledge to my projects where relevant, and I also always make sure to ask if there are people who should be involved that haven’t been involved already. Everyone has a chance to speak, and no idea is a bad idea. It goes back to?collaborating with your peers.?