KatysBlog

November 11, 2012 · 7:30 am

Mentor Cloud

Last week, in between cleaning up my office and final responsibilities to Huawei (where I have been Director of Operations for the Enterprise Global Competency Center), I started working on MentorCloud with Dr. Ravishankar Gundlapalli (CEO, MentorCloud), Tanya Jankot (my co-author for the Sun Mentoring 1996-2009 report), and Dolly Parikh (Founder, Aloki Design Studio).

MentorCloud is a mentoring startup company: “…a peer-to-peer platform purpose-built for people to connect as mentors and mentees, share expertise and drive mutual professional growth”, with offices at the Plug and Play Tech Center in the Silicon Valley. Ravi attended the Global Women’s Journey event at which I spoke earlier this year and we have been talking ever since.

3 Comments

Filed under Mentoring & Other Business

Tagged as Huawei, Mentoring, technical women

November 6, 2012 · 12:02 pm

Leaving Huawei

Almost my whole Futurewei “Enterprise Global Competency Center” Operations group was laid off yesterday, effective next week. I am leaving Huawei Technologies after 2-1/2 years. It has been interesting working in the Silicon Valley for a company based in China. The first time I was called a “foreign expert” it was a shock – since I was within 50 miles of my birthplace and the person speaking was about 10,000 miles from his hometown. I have learned a great deal about China and Chinese culture – both good and bad – and I will miss many of my soon-to-be-former co-workers.

I look forward to my next professional adventure. Please keep track of me on LinkedIn and on this blog.

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Filed under News & Reviews

Tagged as China, Huawei

November 4, 2012 · 8:37 am

Electronic Shakespeare Garden

“Not poppy, nor mandragora, Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world, Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep Which thou owedst yesterday.” Othello [III, 3]

I am creating an electronic Shakespeare Garden on a Pinterest board. Shakespeare gardens can be inspired by his works, or can include many of the plants mentioned, or can reproduce a setting for a famous scene. On Pinterest are my pictures of some of the plants mentioned in Shakespeare, plus pictures of some Shakespeare Gardens.

Plant names change over time – what we call a dandelion was in the 1500s a “golden lad” in flower or a “chimney-sweeper” when in seed. Decades ago, I started a paper card file to keep track of the plants in Shakespeare. I use this personal resource, plus the OpenSource Shakespeare Concordance to search for references. There is a surprising range of both horticultural and ornamental plants included in Shakespeare’s works.

“In thy fats our cares be drown’d, With thy grapes our hairs be crown’d: Cup us, till the world go round, Cup us, till the world go round!” Antony and Cleopatra [II, 7]

Folger Shakespeare Library’s garden, Washington DC

“When daffodils begin to peer, With heigh! the doxy over the dale, Why, then comes in the sweet o’ the year; For the red blood reigns in the winter’s pale.” Winter’s Tale [IV, 3]

“There’s fennel for you, and columbines.” Hamlet [IV, 5]

El Camino Real Convention

This weekend was the annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real on the Central Coast of California. I was a delegate to convention from my home parish of St. Andrew’s in Saratoga. My husband John and our neighbor, the Reverend Stephenie Cooper, ran the computers and visual system for their fifth year. In front of the big screen were about 300 lay and clergy delegates and in back of it were Stephenie and John sitting amidst a dozen computers in a nest of cables keeping the business running.

My contribution was being a roadie (helping them move equipment in and out) and providing photographs to spice up the presentations. Our much-loved Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves has a good sense of humor and enjoys the funny pictures. She even brought her two Bishop Barbies to the convention. In 2010, the women of St. Andrew’s gave her the first doll (in red robes), who has now been joined by a second in white vestments.

One of the impressive presentations was by a youth group who brought a chain of 508 plastic bags, representing the number thrown away every second in California. The chain wrapped around the convention hall twice – making a powerful visual point about taking better care of our world.

Most Valuable Innovation Project Award – Cloud Storage

I am very proud today! My husband John Plocher and his development team won Futurewei Technologies’ 2012 Most Valuable Innovation Project Award for their Cloud Storage project. John’s boss, Jim Hughes, is traveling in China so John (the Software Architect) made the acceptance speech at today’s big event. The team will split the award bonus.

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Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews

Tagged as China, Geeks, Huawei, John

October 31, 2012 · 7:52 pm

Silicon Valley Halloween

Halloween is serious fun here in the Silicon Valley. Spooky house decorations go up weeks in advance, people come to church in funny hats and silly outfits (for “Boo Sunday”), companies have costume parties, waitresses work dressed as clowns, stores give out candy to kid parades, and tonight the sidewalks are full of children dressed as cats, bugs, princesses, super heros, and monsters walking from house to house trailed by their parents, greeting neighbors with “Trick or Treat!”.

Silicon Valley Women & Girls Leadership Summit

Huawei was again a sponsor of today’s 8th Silicon Valley Women & Girls Leadership Summit – held at LeyVa Middle School in San Jose. I was one of a group of women leaders who joined the 7th and 8th grade girls to listen to speakers and panels, and to learn more about each other. The inspiring keynote talks were by Santa Clara Judge Katherine Lucero (who encouraged the girls to find a mentor and the women to be a mentor), and entrepreneur Shelly Kapoor Collins (who asked us to be a door opener for each other, not a gate keeper barring the way).

After the big event, some of us went on a tour of the impressive new Bulldog Tech campus within the larger campus. I promised our able Bulldog Tech guides that I would post their photo tonight… good job girls!