Cloud Girls is honored to have amazingly accomplished, professional women in tech as our members. We take every opportunity to showcase their expertise and accomplishments – promotions, speaking engagements, publications and more. Now, we are excited to shine a spotlight on one of our members each month.
May’s Cloud Expert of the Month is Wendy L. Williams
Wendy L. Williams serves as product manager for private cloud and security services at Internap Corporation (INAP), a provider of high-performance internet infrastructure, including colocation, managed services and hosting, cloud, and high-performance network services. Throughout her career, Williams has made significant contributions to large global IT organizations, including 20 years with Hewlett Packard (HP) and 11 years with IBM/Lexmark, as well as SingleHop, which was acquired by INAP in March 2018.
Williams has earned a reputation for being a self-motivated global product manager and channel sales leader who has been consistently promoted to take on the most complex, strategic initiatives. She has a proven track record of successful strategy creation and execution in sustaining mature product lines, innovating new ones, and driving transformational go-to-market initiatives with sales teams, channel and alliance partners. Her top areas of software and services expertise include ERP, traditional IT, mainframe, public/private/hybrid clouds, IaaS, PaaS, SaaS and IoT.
Williams is a graduate from the University of Illinois with a bachelor of science degree in business. She also served as president of the university’s College of Business Administration Minority Students Association. Her belief in lifelong learning has resulted in numerous post-college professional certifications. In 2017, for example, she earned a certification in IoT from MIT Professional Education.
Williams is an active volunteer who donates consulting time to promote economic growth and empowerment for nonprofits served by the Chatman Lewis Flaggs Consulting Group. She also serves as a mentor to students at Proviso East High School in Maywood, Ill. She loves all things tech and is a lifelong learner, an avid reader, artist and chef.
When did you join Cloud Girls ?
I joined Cloud Girls in 2017.
What do you value about being part of Cloud Girls?
The collaboration with so many incredibly talented thought leaders and the opportunities to continually learn from each other in this dynamic space.
What are the best ways you’ve gained executive sponsorship?
Staying at the top of my area of expertise resulted in being the “go-to” person selected for strategic initiatives.
How do you avoid being complacent in your role?
I love to learn, stay ahead of trends and get bored quickly, so I’m always looking for the next challenging project to continually sharpen my skills.
What one piece of advice would you share with young women to encourage them to take a seat at the table?
Know your value at all times and in every situation. State it clearly. Be confident in seeking out risky projects or roles that stretch your skills and expand your network.