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The Women in Technology Podcast inspires its listeners with stories from leaders within the organization, influential women in the STEM industry, the men who help support women rise, and other captivating stories to empower and reinforce WIT's motto of advancing girls and women from the classroom to the boardroom.
Take a listen, get inspired, and rise!
Janel Merritt WIT Host (00:59)
Today, we are joined by a woman whose career is truly a masterclass in leadership, transformation, and purpose. Tony Towns Whitley is a globally recognized technology executive, Fortune 500 CEO, public company board director, educator, and thought leader. Across more than three decades, her leadership journey has spanned Arthur Anderson.
CGI, leading Microsoft's $17 billion US regulated industries business, serving as CEO of SAIC, and today bringing that extraordinary breadth of experience into the boardroom at NASDAQ and into classrooms at Stanford and Princeton. She's helped shape Microsoft's
First ethical AI framework has guided transformation across some of the most sequential industries. She was recently featured in Forbes and has been recognized by Fortune USA Today and Women in Technology. But if you only know her resume, you don't fully know Tony. She was born into a legacy of servant leadership, raised by a three-star Army general.
And a trailblazing educator where service, faith, and responsibility weren't just simply taught. It was a part of how they lived. She is a wife, mom, grandmother, and a lifelong student of the world who has traveled more than a hundred countries. And most recently, Tony became a member of the illustrious Delta Sigma Theta, Sorority Incorporated.
And I am excited to call her my Sor. Tony, before we begin, I want to mention that we were first, we first met when we both were recognized by Women in Technology in 2017. As I approached the stage that evening, you were the first person to congratulate me. I've never forgotten it. So long before today's conversation about getting into the room.
about staying into the room and opening the room for others. You demonstrated something in that moment. And I want to say thank you for seeing me. And thank you for being here.
Toni Townes-Whitley (03:37)
Well, you are so welcome and you're easy to be seen. I was super proud of you that evening. What a great evening we had. and thank you for this opportunity. Women in Technology is like home base for me. It is like coming home. What a wonderful organization that was part of my formation as a leader, as an executive, and in the tech industry. So thank you for this opportunity. I appreciate it deeply.
Janel Merritt WIT Host (04:01)
Awesome.
So let's start with something fun. What's something
Toni Townes-Whitley (04:05)
I think.
Janel Merritt WIT Host (04:06)
about Tony that people don't know on your resume, your board work, or your public leadership? Something that people wouldn't, you know, guess. What's a fun fact?
Toni Townes-Whitley (04:18)
A fun fact. I think most people know I'm super competitive and I've been an athlete in a lot of sports. So I think that comes out. I was an all-American high school basketball player and played in college and all of that. But I think what people don't know is that I've been working on a screenplay.
for twenty years. i if I ever finish this thing, it will be my lifelong project. But yeah, I've been absolutely fascinated with film and trying to create a new sort of genre of film. And I've been working on a screenplay called Bololo that at some point hopefully will launch.
Janel Merritt WIT Host (04:52)
That is amazing, and I want to be there. I love
Toni Townes-Whitley (04:54)
Mm-hmm.
Janel Merritt WIT Host (04:56)
how you have combined your technology and your passion for the fine arts. Excellent.
Toni Townes-Whitley (05:03)
So
Janel Merritt WIT Host (05:04)
So I spoke of your incredible parents who've contributed significantly to America while living through the realities of the segregation era. Your grandfather was a pastor, and he
Toni Townes-Whitley (05:17)
Yeah.
Janel Merritt WIT Host (05:17)
also worked with Martin Luther King Sr. You grew up.
with patriotism, service education as just simple expectations and having faith as your foundation while adding moving 11 times before high school.
Toni Townes-Whitley (05:34)
Yeah.
Janel Merritt WIT Host (05:35)
So how did all of this shape the leader that you became then and the way you've learned to enter rooms and navigate those unfamiliar spaces?
Toni Townes-Whitley (05:49)
Well, Janelle, I would say probably what was shaped in those early years of how I was raised was a set of core values that then directed my professional career and that I would be able to connect the way I wanted to build a career, where I wanted to show up, how I wanted to show up, what I wanted my legacy to be.
was absolutely influenced by the 10 core values that I use even to this day. And if I look at each of those core values, I can trace it almost to some part of my own family or my upbringing. For example, daily courage is one of my core values, how to show up as yourself, how to have the courage to to show up as as yourself, to believe in yourself, to forgive yourself when you've made an error.
Janel Merritt WIT Host (06:41)
I like the forgive yourself.
Toni Townes-Whitley (06:41)
And and how to continue
yes, absolutely. Because I I find women particularly hard on themselves, particularly in corporate America, in terms of being able to acknowledge, acknowledge a learning, an error, a change that's needed or a pivot, and then let it go, move on from it, get the learning, but also move forward and separate your work from who you are. one of the
Core
values has been around courage and all of the agility needed when you're moving around the world with a military family, you've got a lot of starts and stops. So the confidence of being able to enter rooms, enter rooms quickly, find your spot, have your impact, and be able to move. I think agility was one of the great gifts. I thank my mom that one of my core values that I really gained from her was assuming positive intent.
And she was a person that assumed positive positive intent for others. And she operated with that assumption and it gave her the freedom to always sort of take the high road. And if someone was having a bad day or someone was interacting with her improperly, she didn't assume that it was personal. She assumed the individual had a challenge or the organization was challenged, and she was looking to figure out how to improve upon that. And I've always appreciated that core value from her.
I think from my dad I have a lot of my cognitive mindsets around leapfrog thinking, thinking beyond a position, from playing chess, checkers
and poker and everything that strategically and all of the sports that my dad coached how to look at the field.
And not just the ball, how to understand how to interact with the ball, but how to see the entire court or the field gave me a sense of strategic vision and how to look beyond the not just one move, but two to three moves. And so the core values really helped to shape who I was, and those were formulated from the experiences that I had. I think probably the most important to know was this ability to decouple who I am from what I do.
Janel Merritt WIT Host (08:49)
Mm, talk to me about that one.
Toni Townes-Whitley (08:49)
And that was very
much instilled in me. prayed over me every day was a verse from the book of Luke, to whom much is given, much is required. So I assume service was expected and required, given I have been blessed and continue to be blessed in so many ways, in so many dimensions, in every moment of every day. But that connection to blessing and service.
can get people confused that what they do and who they are are somehow the same. And I my parents were very clear and then life helped to teach me a little bit more, as well as the clarity of my own faith, that who I am is a child of God, is a is a parent, is a d sister, a daughter, hopefully just a
A contributing member in the kingdom, what I do is going to change and morph and and hopefully have great impact. Sometimes I'll learn. But if if you get yourself confused in terms of, hey, how your company is doing is who you are, the role you're playing is who you are. The job you didn't get is who you are. The promotion or the evaluation that you did receive is who you are.
This is where you can start to see the disillusionment and some of the poor behaviors in corporate America truly show up when individuals have somehow grafted their identity to what they're doing. And my parents were very, very circumspect about that with us as kids to make sure that they were proud of what we did, but who we were, that was a non-changing, clear, clear set of nouns.
Janel Merritt WIT Host (10:31)
That is incredible. You live with a larger purpose. And
Toni Townes-Whitley (10:36)
Absolutely.
Janel Merritt WIT Host (10:36)
I definitely appreciate that. I've always felt like service is the price that we pay for living. let's unpack some technology concerns that are looming. So, you know, we've put ourselves in an interesting position as citizens with this new technology. Most citizens
don't really understand the fine print that we are signing for these devices, for these reward programs, these apps. So let's talk a little bit about what actually are we agreeing to and why should the average citizen actually care?
Toni Townes-Whitley (11:17)
Well, you it's I'm gonna back us up a minute to now and say that about 10 years ago when I was at Microsoft, I started to talk about what leadership in the digital age would look like. And I started to talk about the accountability of companies like Microsoft and leaders in those companies to think not only about what we're building, but how we build it, how transparently are we building it, how much accountability and explainability in the models that we're building. and then for whom.
Are we building? Are we building in capabilities and features and functions that will solve societal major problems? Or are we building in ways that will exacerbate divisions that exist already around the world? And that responsibility in the digital age was not just about a supply chain or a production line or a top line or bottom line expectation of growth as a company, but in technology.
That there were enough unknowns and enough implications to the work that we were doing that we needed to think about a new construct. And at that point, I labeled it civic tech, this intersection
Janel Merritt WIT Host (12:26)
Mm.
Toni Townes-Whitley (12:27)
of technology that's consequential for our civic lives, not just voting and all of the sort of government pieces, but even just daily living. As you said, when we when we buy devices, do we understand what we're signing up for?
Do we understand where our data is? Do we understand the privacy of our own data and how it's being disseminated? Do we understand what the introduction of AI, different AI solutions will do? Who are we actually engaging with when we think we're having a phone call or interaction? And what
Janel Merritt WIT Host (12:58)
Right there.
Toni Townes-Whitley (12:59)
does it mean for the broader? Let's go even higher, if you will, in terms of the macro impact. What does that mean for a society as the digital
Footprint expands. What does it mean for the concentration of power, of influence? Are there tech leaders? At times I felt as the global public sector leader of Microsoft traveling countries, in the 140 countries where Microsoft was was had presence, I felt that the tech as a tech leader, I had more influence sometimes than the local government leaders. And I was concerned as a non-elected official.
That
I had that kind of influence, that the company and the brand and the tech. And so even as early as this morning, I believe the OpenAI CEO came out, Sam, this morning with concerns, Sam Altman, with six models that they have concerns about the agents operating in in, let's say, concerning behaviors, not anticipated behaviors. We call this in the AI world alignment when
and and misalignment when agents or digital agents are not operating in the ways that were prescribed when they are are doing behaviors outside of what was scoped in their norm. And so we've heard that over the last few weeks, the CEO of Anthropic, I believe the CEO of SpaceX and others have come out with concerns about pacing this development of these emerging technologies. Should we slow it down so that we can
Janel Merritt WIT Host (14:28)
We slow it down. Right.
Toni Townes-Whitley (14:32)
Determine how to govern it. And I've been spending a lot of time over the last few years talking about the governing of emerging technologies, whether it be AI, which is a set of technologies, whether it be quantum and how we understand the new kind of security world that quantum introduces, quantum technologies. But all of these have a civic intersection where
Janel Merritt WIT Host (14:57)
They do.
Toni Townes-Whitley (14:58)
We need to think about technology from the perspective of what it means for every citizen, whether it's in a voting situation, whether it's in public services being allowed, having access to health care. All of this is coming much more through a digital lens. And we do see the divide. We do see the divide exacerbating in many ways where those who don't have access to digital.
Education don't have the acumen, may fall behind. And so that's where I think there's a lot of accountability. and I'm trying to be part of that dialogue and push forward. What is the governing framework that we need for technologies from national security that has always had deep tech, has always had a conversation about humans in the loop. But what does that mean now in the current environment? And I think every citizen.
Has got to start to think about what where their data is, where they're how they feel about privacy, how what are they willing to exchange? For example, how much data would you be willing to offer to your automaker so that your your car, your automobile can serve your needs? There is a sense of customization that data can do, but is there a point where you feel less comfortable? How do you feel about data in the healthcare environment? How do you feel about
What's who's teaching your children and how data is being engaged there? How do you feel about artificial intelligence and quite frankly, sort of the newer models that may replace some of the frontline functions that humans have done? And quite frankly, some of our students, I just spoke to the national MBAs at a conference, and their number one question was: Will I have a job with this MBA?
Janel Merritt WIT Host (16:48)
That's everyone's question
right now.
Toni Townes-Whitley (16:50)
Right, Will the AI take me out? And look, I don't think we should be fearful in the s but I think we should be prudent. I don't think we should put our heads in the sand and act like this is going away. But I also am not an alarmist. AI has and other technologies have an amazing impact that they can have. And we've all seen that in our in our daily lives. We've gotten very comfortable with cellular technology. We're getting comfortable with bots. But at the same
Janel Merritt WIT Host (17:14)
We can't do without it.
Toni Townes-Whitley (17:16)
time, yeah, we've gotten very yeah, dependent. And yet.
Probably I would I would end this part of the conversation with this statement. AI is a circular technology. Everything that it introduces as an opportunity and a function and a feature, it also introduces from a risk perspective. The same AI that can create opportunities is the same AI that hackers use and cyber criminals use to attack. And so we have to be careful with AI.
To understand the circularity of it. We need more of it. And yet it also introduces quite a bit of what we'll call inductive unknowns around the corner, unknowns. And that's what we're starting to hear now.
Janel Merritt WIT Host (18:02)
when we talk about citizens being accountable, what does that accountability from an average citizen actually look like?
Toni Townes-Whitley (18:11)
Yeah, I think that's a
fair question because we really as a society have not kind of reset the way we think about the social contract between ourselves and our employers, ourselves and our government, ourselves and our neighbors, maybe even ourselves and our church and and institutions of faith.
Because there's more technology in each of those areas. And the question is, is the previous social contract still existing? What we expect from our hospital or clinic? And so I think we have to be an informed citizenry. That means not that everybody runs out to try to take an AI class, but there's a lot available online. There's a lot available in public libraries. I still make it a
make it a habit to go to the public library, try to go every week because there's so many resources still available. I don't want to assume that everybody's got a smartphone or everyone has a laptop or a desktop. But we've got to understand where our data is, what
the interactions look like in the various ways that we live our life.
Janel Merritt WIT Host (20:15)
Wow. So when we talk about civic tech and the sequential decisions about AI, data, infrastructure, all of these decisions that are being made, Who's missing in the rooms right now, Tony? And what is the consequence of having those voices be absent?
Toni Townes-Whitley (20:35)
So I go back to this definition of digital leadership that includes not only what we build, but how we build and for whom we build. And my concern is if we're not representing different constituencies in the decisions of what to build and how, we may not be able to test and verify that those constituencies will be served well by the technology we're building.
So when we think about who's in the room, where it happens, if we borrow the Hamilton lyrics here, what I have seen is a conversation that is evolving on the governance. How do we govern? When I define civic tech, I talk about tools, technology tools, I talk about practices and principles, and I talk about governance.
And
in that spirit, I would say to you, I see very few women leading our larger AI companies. I do see many women in the CFO and operating roles in these companies. So I'm happy to see that there are women in very senior leadership positions. But on just the CEO front, and I know we we both know the impact of CEOs, I am concerned that I don't see more women, people of color.
Absolutely not part of this equation.
Janel Merritt WIT Host (21:52)
And where are they? Where are the women?
Toni Townes-Whitley (21:56)
Like again, CFOs, I'm I'm they're financing AI. They are definitely making decisions relative to the investments, but
Janel Merritt WIT Host (22:02)
Operating, executing.
Toni Townes-Whitley (22:04)
and operating and executing. But where are we in supporting women, if you will, on the venture and private equity side?
I don't see those institutions. I still believe our five percent of investment dollars going to women in in the venture community is still has held has held fast over the last few years. We don't see women in the boardrooms at the same numbers and in the the consequential boardrooms that are making some of these decisions. And as you know, I could add those same statistics for women of color.
Are a fraction of that number as well. So I do get concerned about the diversity of opinion and thought relative to how we launch AI, particularly, which is currently the topic, I think the topic of the day, and the implications of that, so that we can understand that with a representative view.
Right now that's not what I see occurring. In national
security, which is always the military has always been a fairly diverse environment, particularly in the warfighting community. Even that area I see fewer women and people of color that are part of that discussion.
But I will say to you, as concerned as I am about those individuals and those groups not being in the room, I would say the small number of people that are in the room is a concern all by itself. It is the concentration of power where perhaps just a handful of AI and tech leaders in this country could really dictate in some ways, really formulate the future of our civic.
engagement. That's concerning. These are not elected leaders. And I think they're actually acknowledging this. I was pleased to see Dario at Anthropic acknowledge. Hey, I'm not an elected leader. Let's slow this pace. Let's understand who should be in the room. There is a role for government that doesn't slow down regulatory kind of frameworks need to be introduced, but not those that prevent us from staying competitive with China and some of our other peer adversaries.
So there is a dialogue that's happening, but it is still a very limited number of individuals in that dialogue. And the question will be, how does that room open?
Janel Merritt WIT Host (24:30)
So what is the responsibility of the institutions? You will have we will have a number of graduates that will listen to this podcast. What would you tell those seniors getting ready to go into the work field?
Toni Townes-Whitley (24:47)
So look, I would say a couple of things. First, I know there's a great concern about what early career opportunities will exist with the technologies that are being introduced, particularly for knowledge workers. I would say for those coming out with let's say knowledge worker degrees,
Having digital acumen, knowing how to engage with the technology, having agility so that you know how to even challenge the technology, because one of the assumptions is that somehow these models will always be correct. Well, editing and being able to challenge digital results will be a skill set. I'm absolutely convinced there will be digital editors. And
Janel Merritt WIT Host (25:30)
There has to be a human in the loop.
Toni Townes-Whitley (25:32)
absolutely, and these humans in the loop.
Will
not only challenge the data or if you will, the outcome of the digital assistant, they'll also possibly put more context. It's not always that the agent is wrong. They just have information out of context. So we still need to know our disciplines, we still need to know our industries, we still need to understand context for what is the outcome or the process that's involved, but we have to build acumen.
with engaging with digital with digital assets of any sort, tools, digital agents, being comfortable in that space, which means if you're not, you don't have to be on the computer science track. You have to take enough, if you will, think of your everybody's minor needs to be digital. Everyone's minor, no matter what your major is, right? Everyone's minor is digital.
Janel Merritt WIT Host (26:22)
I love that. Everyone's minor needs to be digital.
Toni Townes-Whitley (26:26)
You have got to have the base
Acumen so that you can engage. The other piece is in a world where technology and digital technologies are emerging, our humanity may be tested in some ways. And I think knowing having the soft skills will be super critical, the empathy.
Janel Merritt WIT Host (26:49)
The ability
Toni Townes-Whitley (26:49)
The ability
to be situationally aware. These are things that technology has not mimicked yet. There are human traits. And we have to build the soft skills, even with our graduates, that soft skills training, giving them experience, giving them the opportunity to shadow and be in business environments. Those skills of communication, situational awareness, executive presence, empathy, conflict resolution.
Those are going to be critical skills in a world where the technology can find an answer quickly. It isn't about can you find an answer? Is it the right answer? Is it communicated correctly? Can it be implemented feasibly? That's the human in the loop that we have to build that skill set.
Janel Merritt WIT Host (27:34)
The critical thinking. As we talk a little bit more about putting women in the room, you've mentioned this in a couple of your articles. You've laid some very wonderful nuggets. In one of your articles, you said that women entering the C-suite need to expect a double standard.
I wanted you to talk a little bit more about accepting that double standard without allowing it to define their confidence, their worth, and how they lead in an inspirational way. I agree, but I gotta say ouch.
Toni Townes-Whitley (28:10)
No, I appreciate that. And I think, yeah, no,
I feel I say ouch as well as I say it. And I want to make sure that I clarified the verb accept here, because the double standard is not acceptable. I want to make sure we're very clear. I don't find the double standard acceptable. if I was to restate that, would suggest we can't be distracted by.
We can't be confused by. We can't be overly dismayed in a way that stops our forward progress by a double standard that still exists. So what I'm suggesting is that our movement can't be hindered by the limited thinking of people around us or the institutional symbols and signals that we get.
That suggests that we are either not good enough, or if we're in the role, we've gotten there for some other reason than performance and what everyone else has gone through. And so this idea that that doesn't exist in institutions anymore, that you're not going to engage with individuals that see you less than they are, or that you won't not continue to see glass ceilings, but also what I call glass shoulders, where people who are comfortable with you as long as you are at shoulder length.
and shoulder height until you
Janel Merritt WIT Host (29:34)
Yeah.
Toni Townes-Whitley (29:35)
start to move faster and you start to show greater promise. And then you will see the need to lock you down so that you remain in their in their sort of lane.
All of that still occurs. So the issue isn't whether it's going to happen. The issue is are you prepared to navigate when it happens and still fight the institutions? And quite frankly, when necessary, and using discernment, and for me that's prayer as well. When necessary, set personal boundaries and professional boundaries if you believe that behavior is coming with negative intent.
And so when I say accept the double standard, I don't want people to walk away with it's okay. I simply want individuals to challenge where necessary, challenge and press and speak truth to power in every situation, but to not be hindered by or shut down by the same behaviors that exist now that have existed for the last 50 years.
Janel Merritt WIT Host (30:40)
Does this also kind of go back to your mother's teaching of not taking it personally, staying focused?
Toni Townes-Whitley (30:48)
Very focused. Janelle, that's the word is focused. And focus doesn't mean you don't see it, right? Focus with peripheral vision, you may see it, but you still know where you are headed. I can see the, if you will, mess in the corners, but I'm still focused here. And my mom's the two core values that my mom most inspired are connected. One, assume positive intent. Two, when you can determine negative intent, set boundaries immediately.
They go together. Does that make sense?
Janel Merritt WIT Host (31:21)
Absolutely purpose driven. So you talk publicly about resilience as continuing to move and recognizing opportunity and disruption. How have you defined resilience or how has it changed for you in the last 12, 18 months? What it mean to you, and what does it mean to you now?
Toni Townes-Whitley (31:47)
I think prior to stepping in as CEO in 2023, I would have defined resilience in terms of forward progress with great restrict with great pressure, right? How to press through in a pressured
hindered environment, how to hold the line and press the line were probably the ways I would have defined resilience. And I have done that at times in different parts of my personal life and professional life, how to hold that line and continue to press and and not feel I think there's an old gospel song, I don't feel no ways tired. This
Janel Merritt WIT Host (32:33)
Ooh.
Toni Townes-Whitley (32:33)
idea that you're just not going to let
exhaustion, fatigue, disappointment, depression slow you from that press. And that you are getting your energy, you're getting your inputs. from me, again, generally faith-based, I'm getting my inputs from a Holy Spirit that's that's that's I'm able to move not even on just my own power. That said,
When there's so much volatility, I realized I stepped into CEO to the CEO role formally October 2nd of 2023. And we know what happened five days later in Israel was the attack. And immediately was the question of what
where does SAIC stand on this? What's our public position? What's our social media position? How do we engage the employees? And it was on from there. It was just an immediate volatile environment, both globally, geopolitically, militarily. We had assets in theater, which means we had people, our employees in regions, and how to protect them.
And from that sense of volatility, I can't tell you that my time in the CEO box had a window that wasn't moving at a pace that was to me unprecedented. And unprecedented, not just for me as a CEO, but quite frankly, for the entire industry that I was in, for the government
Janel Merritt WIT Host (34:06)
Right.
Toni Townes-Whitley (34:07)
that was redacting through a process that was particularly volatile.
Through a change of administration that had quite a bit. I think we had over a hundred executive orders in less than 45 days to respond to. And everyone was just spinning. And finding that true north and then pushing towards that true north was a challenge in its own right. But having found that, I realized over those two to three years.
That it wasn't just enough to push forward. It wasn't just enough to hold ground or hold position. That in the midst of that, we needed to lift up and look at the landscape and determine where we would be in the next 24 to 36 months. And were there opportunities
Janel Merritt WIT Host (34:58)
That whole court
Toni Townes-Whitley (35:00)
right now, in the midst of pressing and holding the line?
And getting the work done and meeting our customers' expectations and hopefully exceeding those expectations when our customers changing, our markets changing, our industry's changing, our governments changing, our expectations are changing, our communication style is changing, people are feeling cut out, left out. How then do you envision
Who you wanna be over the next 24, 36 months. And as we started to do that as a company, I was super proud to see a team be able to lift up and look out. And it's risky, it's always risky because the natural tendency is to stay under the rock, stay under the bush, and just hold
Janel Merritt WIT Host (35:46)
Right. Correct.
Toni Townes-Whitley (35:48)
and hope everything goes over. But at some point you've got to get up, you gotta look out.
Course, you're ducking from time to time, but you've got to start to see what could be beyond the horizon. So we went forward, and I found myself on Capitol Hill with congressional committees, talking to the House Committee and the Senate committees for foreign affairs, talking to the Armed Services Committee, and suggesting a new way that this industry could operate. Publishing.
writing about interoperability and mission interoperability and technology at a time where people were like, maybe we need to stay quiet. Maybe we're getting putting new models out for new forms of of technology, considering a Gentec as a a model of a Gentec AI, bringing digital assets into this part of the industry. Again, it's always a risk. It's always a risk because moving slowly and surely feels much more comfortable.
But at the end of the day, with all of that volatility,
the natural tendency is to lock down, hold your position, and you do have to do that. But I have learned and have grown, I hope, as a leader in being able to lift up in the midst of that, see and reimagine and start to make moves and place bets for what the future is post-volatility or what the new world order might look like so that we have a position when that timeframe comes.
Janel Merritt WIT Host (37:20)
So, Tony, our last question, and we could go all day on this. but you you've served on the board of the women in technology. Why was this organization important to you at this point in your journey? And what role do organizations like WIT need to play now as technology and women careers are changing so quickly? And thank you.
Let me say that.
Toni Townes-Whitley (37:48)
Thank you.
No, I look, I got involved with WIT almost 20 years ago as I was moving from a management consulting role into technology more directly. I had Arthur Anderson had gone through the Enron scandal and and had shut down as a company. And my entire office, I was a management consultant with Arthur Anderson, was acquired by UNISIS.
And I was leading, they actually asked me to lead the transition. So not only was I trying to find my way, I was trying to translate for the rest of my Anderson team what that what that kind of career path would look like. And that is when I got introduced to women in technology. So it was it was a critical
Janel Merritt WIT Host (38:31)
Okay.
Toni Townes-Whitley (38:32)
time for me as I was trying to define myself in the industry of technology.
Where would I fit? What would I bring? I'm an economist by training. I'm not a technologist by training. So what would be the benefit of an intro infrastructure company with
Janel Merritt WIT Host (38:49)
It's a great bridge.
Toni Townes-Whitley (38:50)
Yeah. And it became
A way for me to understand the network of women and technology, who was who was out there, what they were doing. So it was network, it was actual skill building. Wit did classes and you could go and you could learn. And I started to build on: hey, you know, even though I'm not a techno, I didn't grow up building apps, I did grow up doing economic models. And as all that technology and software was being applied.
I could, if you will, scenario and and create some optionality on models for how this technology could be applied. And I started to find my own
sort of my own lane within technology. And then I realized that I was super comfortable in areas where other people weren't, which was regulated industries. Like these are the most regulated,
Janel Merritt WIT Host (39:38)
Mm.
Toni Townes-Whitley (39:38)
highly visible, complex, slow-moving industries. And I just found it fascinating to watch how technology could transform in kind of these tough, tough environments. And WIT allowed me to sort of meet people in that industry space.
Wit gave me an understanding of board service. I didn't really understand corporate boards and the role of boards in a career, public boards, private boards, for profit, nonprofit. I learned all of that through women in technology. And it helped us you know, helped me launch some of my board career. So I grew up with Wit. And I grew up
Janel Merritt WIT Host (40:18)
Who knew it
was such a foundation? Wow.
Toni Townes-Whitley (40:21)
Yeah. And I think these
organizations are critical to now for you just don't know where people are either in coming into an industry, in pivoting. They've been in the industry, but they're pivoting to a different part of the industry, or they're exiting the industry and they're trying to understand how to translate what they've learned in tech into other areas. And wit was there for all of that. Entry, pivot, exit.
We we created a mantra back then called Classroom to Boardroom. And the goal
Janel Merritt WIT Host (40:51)
Yes.
Toni Townes-Whitley (40:52)
was to say, how do we take the life cycle of girls that were interested? And I started to get excited and started to teach and be part of girls in technology and ensuring that they felt like they could see a future and create a career path in technology. And so I thank WIT for as an organization for.
The contacts, the engagement, the friendship, the colleagues, the content, the just the mindset that shifted for me. I saw things bigger than just my role at UNISUS. And quite frankly, Wit went right along with me with every career move that I made. I got to another part of Wit. So I ended up obviously becoming president of Wit, serving on the board. And I will always, always be
A fan, an alumni, you know, a constant engagement with Wit because of what it means for so many women and so many men, quite frankly. I introduced
Janel Merritt WIT Host (41:54)
Yes, yes.
Toni Townes-Whitley (41:55)
all of my male colleagues to Wit, and they would come and cheer me on and engage. And so I I just think Wit is a phenomenal part of the ecosystem and it serves different.
roles at different seasons of your career. And that's the beauty and the adaptability of an organization like WIP.
Janel Merritt WIT Host (42:15)
That was incredible. And congratulations, women in technology. Well, Tony, this brings us to the end of our time. Like I said, I could go on and on. And you and your experiences, your leadership, you are a master class. I started off by thanking you for seeing me. And I want to close by letting you know we see you.
We see your faith, we see your courage, we see your service, your commitment to opening rooms for others. And thank you for being a vessel that allows us to still see your parents through the way you lead, serve and show up in this world. Their legacy lives through you every day. And that is a gift you give us all.
So thanks for sharing.
Toni Townes-Whitley (43:15)
Wow, thank you, Janelle. And I'll just I'll end with where what's still prayed over me every day, to whom much
Janel Merritt WIT Host (43:21)
Mm.
Toni Townes-Whitley (43:22)
is given, much is required. I am blessed beyond measure, and I continually, just continually ask the Lord to use me towards his purposes in the kingdom. So thank you for the opportunity to share with you and and thank you for letting me know that I'm seen as well. It's good to get
Janel Merritt WIT Host (43:39)
wow.
Toni Townes-Whitley (43:40)
that reminder from time to time, isn't it?
Janel Merritt WIT Host (43:42)
Wit stands with you and thank you so much for joining us.
Toni Townes-Whitley (43:46)
Thank you.