Hello, welcome back to the main stage. Feel like that. Music always gets me just jazzed up for our next speakers. Hopefully you're popping back in here from having just been in the sessions area.Maybe you saw some talks about gorilla publicity or sales or hosting holistic learning for the future of work lots going on today in our sessions area and back here on the main stage. So happy to have you back up next, we have for you Liliana Schwartz Brunner as part of our career summit day here at Women Tech Global Conference. Liliana. I'm going to welcome her to the stage right now. Hello, Liliana, how are you?

I'm so so excited to be here. I'm doing just fine. Thank you for having

me here. Well, we are so happy to have you here. Liliana is going to be talking to us about looking back to make progress ahead and she is a senior executive and strategy leader who builds and leads organizations that negotiate win and deliver large scale highly complex deals internationally for about $4 billion or more in global provider of products and services including the telecom cable industries.

She focuses on customer driven results and forging solid relationships with sea level and influential decision makers across fortune five hundreds. And she merges this deep strategy leadership background with an award winning solution driven mindset, helping build top talent teams in extremely competitive environments worldwide.

And we know that competition is only heightening as we go here. So one of the things Leanna that I saw in your, in your explanation for this talk that I was excited about was that you said in your takeaways today, you were going to share it with us, how you can have it all. And I am excited to hear about that, Liliana. So,

yeah, so, so thank you for having me here again. And I'm going to feel very personal, very personal. Uh and I very personal view of where I am with my career and specifically, um you know, the pandemic time, what happened with the way I think what I have changed in the way I think how I'm approaching customers, you know, how I'm nourishing this career to the next level. So with uh uh and I'm going to share some slides, very personal. I'm making this uh this entire discussion, very personal. So, um so who I am? So just a few words about myself. So I'm first of all, a mother of three, my, the joy of my life. Um I'm a wife and I'm a general manager and uh president of North America. And throughout my journey, you know. Uh, I spend my life in different continents. I grew up in, uh, uh, in Israel. If you didn't hear the accent in Jerusalem actually. And half of my life I actually, uh, live in the United States with few years living in, uh, in London and, uh, the queen just now just said hi there. Um, but, but this is me, like in a glance and why am I in a docs and just a little bit about Ams about my career. Um And who is Amex? I'm not sure that the audience here uh knows who am Os is.

So just maybe just very uh high level introduction. So am Os is a global company uh that provides uh software solutions for all telecommunication industry globally. So we cover half of the globe, 85 countries and uh we have uh probably almost every tier one around the globe that uses our services, including probably a lot of you can um uh recognize names in the United States, like ad and T team of Verizon and maybe more abroad like Telefonica and, and so on and so forth.

Um And as uh as you mentioned in your introduction, it's around the $4 billion company. Um And I've been with AM Docs and this is part of my personal uh career story. I've been with Ams since I graduated my masters. So I have been over 20 years. Yeah, it hard to tell. Uh over 20 years, I've been with the company and I grew actually uh within the company starting from uh being a developer into uh general manager and president in the company today. Um And when I'm thinking about Amdo, and why did I grew up in the same uh you know, company that I built my entire career beside the fact that the company uh is a global company that really fits my personality. I really feel this, that we share the same values and values about uh thriving through diversity and inclusion. And I wanted to share some of the exciting um uh facts or data that we have in our company uh because I want to encourage others to do the same. So, and, and because it's a woman in tech, I thought it was interesting to break this data as well. Um So just like for Amex there, a 32% representative of women, I think uh it's rarely seen specifically on telecommunication as well as in software companies. But besides that, we can see there is a lot of attention uh from the senior leadership to continue expanding the and, and expanding the diversity and actually shortening or closing the gaps of uh the gaps. And we see it all fronts in the managerial roles, grew to 22%.

You know, the V, the VP positions were 21%. I hope the numbers will continue growing. But staying with the company as my career, you know, this were some of the values that were very close to my heart and seeing that uh that I go along side by side with the, with the values of the country company and growing within the company that helped me stay and grow within uh grow my entire career with within AMEX.

I'm sharing this information because I'm going to link to another very, very exciting leader uh that shared the same career path as myself. And I'll share that uh in a few slides. Um And then suddenly, you know, we're all aware that when everything is was shining going. Uh Well, for all of us, the world has stopped, right? And I'm going to focus about the change and in the way I, I see and manage uh my teams as well as uh teams in the AM book and my customers. And here is, I live in Philadelphia, the streets of Philadelphia, the offices all got empty. And after almost a year sitting in the same chair in the same room, I said things are going to change and going to change in the past and going to never look the same in the future. And part of the things that I've done on a personal level is actually um changing some of the things about myself and about my family to get myself out of this mode of what I used to do versus where I'm going to be. And part of me and another 25 million households in the United States decided to take a path. And so welcome to my beautiful Joy, Hernandez Joy.

Uh And she joined our family during this uh uh transition that, you know, we and myself, we as a family and myself uh went through uh in order to for myself to open up to new ideas and challenge yourself to get ready to the day after. Um So, as you could see, we were moving around, staying in different places just to change atmosphere and make me think uh differently uh during the pandemic and try to see how am I adjusting myself going forward. Um And as part of this personal growth and pain that I went through the first years of the pandemic, I needed to get out of my comfort zone and getting myself out of a comfort zone. I actually decided on three initiatives. One of them, social media, I know it existed, it's not new, but I think the entire social media has changed the purpose of social media and specifically linked in change its purpose to some degree. And it's not only about the professional uh seeking or, you know, through the linkedin options, but actually presenting yourself as a human being as a leader and as a part of them do in different aspects, one is ability to share information with the broader audience and my customers around North America, share information while I still sit in my, I sit in my room share information in a very global way with my team and others that follow me another change that and it's not by me, by my nature, I had to really get out of my comfort zone and get out there.

And virtually before I didn't, because I didn't know when I can do it physically. And the other part was chief and I think part of one of those days was uh allocated to chief itself. I joined the chief community and I think it's, it's again, it was getting out of what I know and, and, and sharing and learning from others and getting a lot of networking virtually from different industry, different women leaders around the globe and was so nourishing and so inspiring.

I think that was another thing for me to get out and think differently because things are changing, going forward. And the other one is sharing in through blogs through uh linkedin, sharing some aspects and mix of very uh authentic blogs of who I am, what I believe in. And, and that reflects on me as a leader, but it reflects also on Amdo as a company. So I thought that that the change I, I want to embrace and I, and I did it and my first and, and my first attempt um and I'm going to share my first attempt to, to get the value from this connection was the first um blog that I published that followed by reaching out to one of the greatest leaders I believe in, in women leaders in United States.

Uh Tammy Irwin, who is the CEO uh of uh business, Verizon Brighton Business. And uh I approached her, I said, well, well, I'll approach the worst I can do is that she would never respond, but she did. And she responded and we start building this relationship through social media. We could not, we could not meet. Uh And through building this relationship, I invited her to join uh join podcast that I never did in my life. It was the first podcast I've done in my life again, trying to break those boundaries and, and understand the world is changing around me and I need to fit into a new world and actually try to lead some of it. Um And then I, I had the pleasure actually to invite Tammy and she agreed and it all started by just reaching out, let's see what happens. Um And this podcast was published. Um I think it's the most seen podcast ever. It was my first podcast ever uh through the great indoors. But then it grow my appetite of, of reaching out and using social media and, and being out there. Um uh brought me to, to the next level that I, I suggested to uh Sampath. I said, well, I've done it with Tammy and we did it virtually. Why won't we try to do another podcast, um, and get to know each other.

It was the first time again after almost two years that he agreed to meet us, uh, and do the podcast, uh, from, you know, virtually, from t to physical with Sampa. Funny enough, I don't know how many of, you know, but, uh, Sampath actually became, uh, Tommy is retiring and Sampath became the CEO of, uh Verizon business. But this all I, I was not aware and uh back, back in November when we met in the mobile law, um um as I said in November, so all those trials of, of getting myself out of this comfort zone, trying new things. What could happen is that I will not get those approaches. And that, you know, that approach of social media, I was trying out things of daring, actually brought me to many new initiatives that actually helped me with my career. And by the way, as part of my responsibility uh is Verizon. And, and when I got this responsibility, I didn't know a soul and we were in pandemic. Um So for me, you know, using those techniques uh out there and actually using it to some degree, a mix of a personal level with a professional level helped me uh to build those relationships.

So you could see like, uh I mean, there was other things that we start doing more in the physical format, you know, it could be made or virtual and physical which I believe that's what's going to happen in the future, but that worked extremely well. And I hope that those stories inspire you ladies there um to try, try out break your boundaries because I think that's how you grow as a person, that's how you grow as a leader. Um And that's how you grow in your career. Just uh we can't lose sight of actually trying to meet people in person. So just maybe the highlight of the story um that I was sharing about Tammy Irwin earlier before is uh is that we met actually face to face back in my Barcelona, a mobile law conference just this last March after not seeing ever each other, it was all through Zoom. And when we uh we met each other, we felt like we knew each other, uh the entire, the entire life, we hugged each other. Well, although it was the first time ever, we saw each other uh in person. So I think, you know, going forward and again, thinking about what, what this presentation is all all about is looking a little bit in the past and looking how the past actually structured the future.

I just wanted to share those stories of my personal growth uh throughout those uh two years into embracing, you know, the the the new world. So, um another aspect of that was trying to see and help Paralympics, right? Uh You know, we, we have not done it for two years and they needed the support and, you know, coming together throughout the pandemic and trying to get everyone together was another uh fantastic connection as this to uh face to face. And maybe just um I'm not sure where, how I'm doing about the time. Um But maybe overall um the message would be um is that you need to try to reach out new heights all the time, whether it's uh on your personal level, whether it's with your customer or whether it's with your own team. And uh you know, part of the thinking that I had during this pandemic is how do I reach out to my virtual team uh which are majority of them I've never met in my life. Uh And one of the ideas, again, it's a different aspect of social media. It's uh uh camel. We reached out to uh David Hassel Haseloff and uh ask him uh to uh welcome the team virtually uh to the next year and uh kindly did it. So we have a video here that he welcomed uh my team together.

It was something special, something different. And I felt like we're helping back the actors in the community. Um And, but the most important thing I think we all took out of this uh uh event, virtual event with David uh is that he summarized uh he summarized his vision, which I actually took as a mantra for myself and for my team and that it's see it, believe it and you will live it.

So um I strongly believe in it. And so that became my mantra. See it, believe it and you will live it. And I wanna share that mantra with you and I wanna try to encourage everyone else uh as well. Try get out there. You have my linkedin. Maybe I will be the first one you reaching out and do the next move that can lead you uh to new heights. That's uh overall story that I wanted to share with you. I don't know if anyone has any questions or um how we wanna move from here.

You bet. Thanks so much Liliana for joining us and for sharing your story and this good insights, see it, believe it and you will live it like that. It's an easy mantra too. Do you have, is it, do you say this to yourself like regularly Liliana? Do you have something that you, you know, like a mantra that you remind yourself of? Is this it

and this is it, this is it, you know, if you really see something and you start believing it, you make it happen, you just make it happen. So, you know, throughout like all the different experiences that I shared, you know, I envisioned something, but I started believing in it and you could see the results, right? Uh You know, and, and I just wanted to share something very personal, but that worked and maybe someone else can pick up from there and, and it might work for them as well.

Yeah. Absolutely. Has there been, you know, a situation you can point to with something that you looked at, you know, outside of what you already shared today where you said, like, that seems out of my reach and, and how did you get yourself to believe it? Like, I think that's a hurdle, right. That we see like, how did you, how did you push yourself really past that line?

00, it's, I remember my hands were shaking. The first blog I did the first post, I did the first time I reached out you and I to Tammy and she responded back. But I had a, by the way, I have a very, very fantastic team marketing team that, that actually helped me, helped me to get there, help me with the confident of reaching out how to approach uh through the social media, you know, what would be the right thing, you know, things to say, how to say, you know.

Um So they really, really helped me through this process and, and even today before I posting something I will send them like, is that OK? You think it's OK? Because I know that it's uh reaching out to so many people, I think uh uh this post, uh you know, with the Rich New Heights uh that I did to my team, it reached within 24 hours, 16,000 viewers or like inspectors. Right. So it just blew out of proportion, right. And it's inspiring. That's, and that's what I hope that I did hear and I hope that to continue doing going

forward. Thank you so much, Liliana. That's a perfect note for us to end on together. I feel like, but we do have your linkedin on the screen here, which is perfect. Um And if anyone wants to reach out to Liliana, she'll be around for a little bit. She'll be on linkedin. You can find her and Liliana, you know, there's a lot more going on today still as part of this career summit day. So if anyone, you know, hopes to find Liliana, maybe she'll be around the networking area, maybe she'll be in the sessions. So we encourage you to keep popping around um with an opportunity to meet so many amazing people like Lianna. So thank you so much for being here today. Thank

you so much for having me and have a great conference. Um I love being here. So thank you. Thank you for doing. Thank you for Anna and everyone else who actually came together and this is such a, you know, performing this wonderful conference here with

us. Yes. Thank you so much, Vianna.