I want to start by saying thank you to all of you for, for, you know, spending together this, this 20 minutes. And to me, it is an honor and a privilege to be here as you can perfectly know.I am not a woman in tech, but I can tell you one thing I am in tech and I am who I am uh because of the many women in tech and in science that I met uh throughout my life. So this is gonna be a journey to allyship to be uh how do we or how have I tried to make my small contribution in just being here for, for all of you? So I have to say something super simple, right? And many, many women guided me to be where I am today. Um You will see in this 20 minutes that I personally did not even realize that I just want to be here in the other side of the world. And I'm saying that because I'm originally from Argentina, uh talking to all of you and, and just, you know, sharing, sharing my story and what got me here. But if I think about who were those, those women that, that made me be who I am. The very first one by, without any doubt, it has to be my mom. Uh, my mother was an incredible force of, of nature.

But if I have to pick three among the many things that she shared while she was with us, uh, those three would definitely be the resiliency, the understanding of priorities and the setting of right priorities and also the ability to dream big. And let me tell you how that went. She was the single child of two Italians that left Italy to go to Argentina without anything. And you know, married someone in Argentina and had first uh a boy and then she was expecting a second boy, just one and here we come, not one but two. Yes, there's another me. And at that point in time, she was uh already one of the best from the, from the school of uh Magisterium, which is essentially what you go to be uh a teacher. She was a teacher in what we call primary school. She was already being offered roles in managerial roles uh and being highly respected in her profession, but she found herself not with one baby, but with almost three. my older brother was a year and a half apart. And, and that is when we not only saw that resiliency and determination in her, but also the clarity, the clarity of saying I want to do what I do best and I love doing what I do, but I want to do it first with my Children and, and that was the second part of what was very forming in my life, which was really in hindsight, witnessing her how she would educate and how we should, she would make the world become really small and very tailored to each and every one of us.

Now having three babies around, I don't have anything to explain to many of you uh who are mothers but um not a, not an easy, not an easy job at all. And she did it, she did it beautifully, but it was that idea that identification of how she could land things to ourselves, how she could make that world feel unique to us and be there for us. Um The, the last element that I would say is like how the story continued that we grew up and she went back to school. She was teaching not only uh in the mornings, but also in the afternoon, like working full day and, you know, had an incredible career of 30 plus years of uh teaching and being involved with kids. That was one of the things that she loved the most, but the things that stayed with me and what, what I took very um very much to the rest of my life was this idea that I could do anything because she could do anything. So growing up, I have to tell you it wasn't uh an easy upbringing. Like many of those families in Argentina, uh we were from, from, I would say a very humble upbringing. My mom was a teacher. My dad was an HB AC technician.

So nothing was like you may say ample at home. And at that point in time, it was very unreal to any of us uh Children to, to think would I be able to go to school? Would I be able to even speak a different language? Right. We grew up learning Spanish. Um would I be able to travel for the first time on an airplane? Uh Those things were really ungettable. It didn't look like those things were gonna be on the cards but, but she could do anything. And to me, when those things became some of the things that I wanted in my cards, that was the lesson that I took with me. And I said, if you could do it, I could do it. So the other element was how uniquely she would tailor everything, how she would talk to us, how she would teach us to each and every one of us and that idea to see the talents in others and see how to get to each of us differently. It was something that became so forming and so natural to just say, how would my mom would do this, right? When I would need to interact with different peers or even work with teams now as a professional. So what I did decide uh was to pay close attention to what the women teach me in my life. And I have to say I carry that till this day.

The second, the second chapter or the second stop in this story was someone that was literally teaching me because she was a professor, she was a professor uh during my, my high school And here I am in the, in the last year of high school and I had no idea what um I was gonna be ending up doing.

And all of this happened as such, I did have a very clear idea. So in my last year of school, I knew that I was going to become an Egyptologist. And what is that? Well, that is someone that is an expert in history and is an expert in history. And as such is then going to go into a mastery of uh just learning uh Egypt, ancient Egypt history. So here he she, she comes uh Anna Maria Quadrio, she's, she's no longer with us, but she was my professor of math and physics and she looks at me and she said, Hernan, I heard that you had all the tests to go into history and learn all of that and become an Egyptologist. And that sounds all great to me. But I can tell you this math and physics thing happens too easy for you. So I want that you go and try to take the engineering tests to get into engineering school. And there was something in me that, that is like, that's not my future. But, but the reality is that, I don't know, it was that moment when I went back to those moments with my mom and I said I need to listen and I need to give it a try because she's right. I already have the, no.

So the reality is that I, I got a, yes, I got a yes. And I got accepted into the school of engineering. And she, uh, you know, in the last conversation, she would say, I told you that you were good at this and you can always do history as a hobby, you know, jokes aside. Uh, it was this idea of witnessing yet another individual that was able to see talent and to elevate others to places where I personally didn't even know that I could reach. And that took me to my years in university, which were very weird years. And when talking about weird, I particularly go to a couple of things in order for me to be able to study. I already made clear that there was no that, um, availability of, I would say funds or reserves to just send me to school. So, what I've done, what I did at that point in time was to tutor, to tutor while I was in high school. To other high schoolers to support my education. But when I found myself applying to education and getting accepted and all the, the interesting things, there were a portion of a scholarship but it was very, very uh minor because education in Argentina is fundamentally free.

But what is not free is to get to and eat and just leave and buy the books that is not free. And just so we picture I needed to go an hour and a half each way from home to the school and from the school back home, there was no dorms or anything like that. And three people come to mind that made that experience possible. And those three people are gonna be in a picture that to me is already showing up. But to you, it's gonna come in a few seconds. But those three people were, uh starting from left to right. Uh It was Andrea, it was Veronica and it was Celia and, you know, when I was preparing for this and I, I contacted them, they were the first one to learn that I wouldn't be talking about them because I don't know if uh during those times they knew how instrumental they, they were.

But I, I kind of like I called them a university tribe. It's not common at all to have a very, a group, small, large whatever, but particularly a group that takes you from the beginning to the end of the university because it's a hard career, many people just stumbled upon. But you're seeing now in that picture that now I see that you, you are seeing as well, the three incredible friends and colleagues, all uh engineers in systems and computer science uh with their beautiful families. And what I, what I have to say that these three did for me are fundamentally the ability to show me that positivity and strength takes you anywhere. And what I mean by that is that without mentioning names, but they will know who I'm talking about. They would look at me and, and you said, Hernan, come on, we have gone through better. We need to keep going. And this idea of keeping, keep going and never, never giving up and showing me that there was an option and the only option was to go forward and to be positive in front of anything else that was was happening.

Uh It was one of the things that one of them did for me. The other huge thing was uh that saying in English that I learned while learning this language, tha thieves, right? This idea of staying together being for each other. Uh and just, you know, showing me the the importance of always helping each other and me also helping them whenever we need it, no matter what, no matter how. And the last skill that I that I experienced from, from them was the most incredible ability to multitask many people said multitasking is inefficient. But these individuals could multitask, multitask and context switch and keep all the balls rolling. And they were in many cases, uh be also working full time and get to uh where we needed to study an entire weekend and say, and this is food and these are drinks and then we have everything that we need and or stop and listening to what one was reading and go and cooking and coming back.

And I really, I really realized at that point in time that if I were to get through that career and finish university, which again, growing up was not in the cards. Uh I would definitely make sure to amplify and keep that space for them because it was also a time when don't get me wrong, uh completely different country with uh different principles and culture. I did see firsthand how in many cases they would get passed for, let's say, being highlighted in a class because they were a woman in a class of engineering that was male dominated or I would see when uh they were actually being graded below just because they were in areas that they shouldn't be playing and nothing, nothing was disturbing them from a very clear path and a very clear objective and the next person is part of that group as well.

But from a different dimension, Maria Alicia was someone that I met while uh while I was going into my um my third year of university. And one of the things that happened in my second year, which was also kind of science fiction is like, I uh I was appointed by the head of the Department of Algebra and Discrete Math as, as her T A. So she would be the one that was running the show. And she told me, you know, we're doing all the summer schools um school training for entering uh in, in the engineering school that always happens during our summer in Argentina. And I would love for you to teach the class. I said, well, I'm not a professor. I know the math. He said, no, no, no, you will be fine. So I was terrified. But the first day I show up and I find this the new little creature that you see in the pictures and you see us studying here in these pictures and there's no other way uh that just to say that she was unapologetically brilliant. So the rest takes me to one person that taught me the importance of also being that quiet giant.

But that yells louder than anybody else and letting your greatness show up and she would see me for who I was and she would just never care about seeking or looking for validation. So that takes me to the end of this story and how I realized uh was gonna was was going to be my journey as an ally. And that all that allyship showed up in witnessing in now in this country when I moved to, to the US, how, how women were standing up for other women. That was the first incredible thing that happens. And uh the other incredible thing for me was this idea of how to be a good ally. And the idea of being a good ally meant that they didn't need to be rescued. They just needed to be for me to be there for them in the way that they wanted me to be. What I, what I realized is that I wanted to just do something very, very simple and leave you probably with, with one of the, the main idea is that to me, stay.

And when I explain what all means is to have a deep ability to listen, to have the ability to be for each other and leverage our own potential. But more important as an ally to ally, if I have to pick very few things is make sure that this is what I even tell myself. I need to make sure that when I want to show up for somebody else, my allyship does not create this empowerment. I would never forget one time when I was stepping up for someone and she looked at me and she said, I don't need to be saved. I know how to save myself. I just need you to be with me and that's what she needed. And it's not right or wrong. It's just what it was. But the deeper learning in my head was that she needed in whatever I was going to be to be elevated and to be empowered. And something that I really identified is that I needed to learn to ask, I needed to be a good ally. I needed to learn to ask, what do you need me to be in this moment? And the second aspect was to have a lot of compassion because compassion for me is the fight to just get frustrated and go into anger.

When you go into anger, you're not helping anybody, you're not helping the person that is disrespecting a good friend and a fantastic woman next to you that knows more than anybody else in the room and you are becoming part of the problem. So the idea is, and the quick trick there, there is like, you know, I would like to share with you how, what you just did to her made me feel in that idea of expressing how something made me feel. I will create light in that action that will allow for that individual. Hopefully, if you are in the presence of someone with a brain to understand what is that reality creating. So those, those are absolutely the two things that you know, there's no right or wrong. We will all keep making mistakes. What is not an option for me is something that I uh I also learned

and, and I'm just gonna jump in here if you don't mind just wrapping it up here for us and we can get to the next speaker

two seconds. Uh, it would be this, this idea of when you see something, say something. The, the, the most important thing that I promised to myself was never to be absent in one conversation. And thank you. Thank you very much for having me and I hope that you continue the rest of the day with other incredible people. Thank you again.