Juliette Rizkallah from SailPoint discusses what International Women’s Day signifies to her and her experiences as a woman in the cybersecurity industry. Juliette has over 20 years’ experience in the tech sector, with previous roles at Oracle and Check Point Security, having studied in Paris and at Harvard Business School.
Juliette Rizkallah, CMO at SailPoint:
“International Women’s Day is a special day for me as an international woman working in cybersecurity. It is a day where we can all pause and reflect on how far we have come in creating more gender equality in the workplace. As I look back on my journey to leadership roles, it becomes clear: it takes all of us to truly balance the scales.
“For me, the idea of gender equality started with my parents who were both dentists with each of their own offices and clientele. Some of my earliest memories are of my dad boasting about my mum being so great at her job and claiming that she was much better than him at running her business. That put my sister and me in the mindset that we could be great. Gender barriers were not a concept or obstacle to us, not then and not now.
“Looking back to the start of my career, I was fortunate to have executives, mostly male, who were my champions. Much like my father with my mother, they gave me the support and autonomy to establish myself as a professional and equal among my peers. But I also went into each job with full confidence that I was the most capable of getting the job done. I never distinguished myself as a female co-worker but as a highly-skilled, adaptable professional.
“Today, as I often take the role of mentor, I advocate young women professionals to seek champions to help them thrive in their career, but I also advise them to be their own best advocate and to have the confidence to aim high.”
