I took my time in getting into tech
I took my time in getting into tech
It takes courage to make career changes.
I started working at Vindicia three and a half years ago.
Vindicia is an Amdocs company that provides software-as-a-service (SaaS) subscription management and failed payment recovery solutions. I am responsible for partnerships and business development in EMEA and APAC. Partnerships are a major part of Vindicia’s strategy, and we aim to work with partners who can sell the Vindicia solutions and referral partners who bring us leads for companies requiring Vindicia solutions.
I took my time in getting into tech. The law, with all its drama was interesting to me.
At the age of 12 I decided to study law. My family was made up of doctors and lawyers. I knew I’d never be a doctor. I actually had aspirations of being an actor as I always loved the stage. But I didn’t think it was practical. But the law, with all its drama was interesting to me. I studied law and business administration at Haifa University, the first year they opened a law faculty.
After working as an attorney for 10 years in the field of commercial law, representing both large companies and startups, I moved with my family to Cincinnati, Ohio where my ex-husband was doing a fellowship. There, I worked as a lobbyist in the Ohio House of Representatives and Senate for health organizations. When I returned, I continued to represent a number of American companies in Israel. It was then that I realized that I wanted to work less in a consulting role and instead be more hands on, taking more risks. After representing a medical devices startup during an IP acquisition, they offered me a position as their biz dev. Within two months I was CEO of the company.
I then continued to work with startups. At some, such as “eglue”, I managed business development and worked with Amdocs as a partner that brought us into major deals. At others, I was co-founder, including startups that deal with customer engagement…until the money ran out!
I have a lot of freedom to do what I need to do without being micro managed.
It takes courage to make career changes, especially when entering the startup world, which is like a roller coaster. There are days of incredible success, and then there are successes that are later revealed to be failures. The changes in my career were often a result of circumstances.
My move to Amdocs took courage because I had to enter the corporate world and adapt to it. But to my joy, I quickly discovered that in many ways Vindicia runs like a startup within Amdocs: It’s fast-moving, and I have a lot of freedom to do what I need to do without being micro-managed. It helped that my manager, who had recruited me, was very supportive throughout the process. While I still need to show results, I have a lot of support and a free hand to do what needs to be done.
I use my legal background every day in the tech world, whether it’s negotiating skills, or my legal and business outlook. I am happy that I don’t have to write contracts now, but the essence of the deal from both the legal and the business perspective, is something I contribute to as a trained attorney.
"In order to succeed, you need intelligence, talent, luck, and, ultimately, you need resilience. When there are crises, I don’t break. I get up and move on."
I don’t break. I get up and move on.
In order to succeed, you need intelligence, talent, luck, and, ultimately, you need resilience. When there are crises, I don’t break. I get up and move on.
People perceive pressure as negative, but I believe that pressure is a privilege, as it is often said within the context of sports. If you experience pressure, it means you are in a position that makes a difference; your results matter. It is a privilege, and you should learn to manage the pressure in a productive way, so it won’t paralyze you.
In my role, I most enjoy exposure to and interactions with people. I couldn’t do a job where I just sit behind a computer. I also love the rush of closing a deal – it’s a wow!
So often a woman is the only woman in the room.
There are a lot of women in management positions in Vindicia, and women are constantly promoted, so I have never seen being a woman as an issue here. I did encounter issues over the years in situations outside my workplace. When I would come to a meeting with a team I was managing, the attendees from the other side wouldn’t talk to me, and instead would only speak to the men in the room. For example, if the discussion was about business issues, they would address their comments to the male programmers, without looking me in the eye. This cuts across all geographies. There’s a long way to go before women in a meeting room are treated equally.
I recently attended the Money 2020 Conference in Amsterdam where there was a “Women in FinTech” lunch. One of the speakers at this lunch said that she always likes to bring a man along to these kinds of events so he can sit in a room filled with only women and understand how we generally feel. So often a women is the only woman in the room. This doesn’t happen to men, and they don’t understand the feeling. At Amdocs, there’s a lot of support for women. But there’s still a way to go.
Successful women need to help other women and promote one another. Many women in the workplace don’t have confidence in themselves to go for a job they feel they’re not 100% qualified for. Men rarely have that concern. When women get a job, they sometimes worry that people will think they don’t have the capabilities for it. Mentoring and support can help women overcome this lack of confidence.
My children have been my biggest supporters.
In the past years, my children – Maya, 29, Lee, 25 and Ori, 21 – have been my biggest supporters. They had to take on many life challenges with a mother working in a startup, and today, with my demanding career. I would often work late, so I wasn’t at home, or I was overseas, which ultimately required them to be very understanding. But they always believed in my abilities and in what I could achieve. In spite of the difficulties they always supported me.
In my spare time, when I’m not home, I go kite surfing with friends. This sport has taken me to a lot of places including Brazil, Mauritius, Zanzibar, Tenerife, Greece and more. As long as there’s wind and I don’t have to be on calls, I can go out and kite surf.
