Women of Vision Awards Banquet & Top Company For Technical Women Workshop: Women of Vision Keynote and Master of Ceremonies
PADMASREE WARRIOR
Padmasree Warrior is Cisco Systems’ Chief Technology Officer. As CTO, she is responsible for helping drive the company’s technological innovations and strategy, and works closely with its senior executive team and board of directors to align these efforts with Cisco’s corporate goals. As an evangelist for what’s possible, she pushes the organization to stretch beyond its current capabilities – not just in technology, but also in its strategic partnerships and new business models.
Warrior joined Cisco in 2007. Prior to that, she was the CTO at Motorola, where she led a team of 26,000 engineers and directed Motorola Labs, with an annual R&D budget of $3.7 billion. Over the course of her 23 years at that company, she served in a broad range of roles, including as Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Motorola’s Energy Systems Group, and as Corporate Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for its Semiconductor Products Sector.
Warrior’s energetic, approachable and pragmatic leadership style integrates ideas from diverse sources, which include engineers, sociologists, technologists, marketers, policy experts and others. Throughout her career, she has earned a reputation for establishing processes that tap a rich diversity of technical, business and entrepreneurial IQ to nurture disruptive and breakthrough innovations, speed development time to market, and improve the way people work, live, play and learn.
Under Warrior’s leadership, Motorola was awarded the 2004 National Medal of Technology by the President of the United States, the first time the company had received this honor. Recently, the Economic Times ranked her as the 11th Most Influential Global Indian, and the United States Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce recognized her with its prestigious Excellence Award.
Warrior is also a strong and vocal advocate for women and minorities in math, science and engineering. In 2007, she was inducted into the Women in Information Technology International Hall of Fame, and received the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago Outstanding Woman of Achievement Award. She has been recognized as a role model by many organizations, including the Girl Scouts Illinois Crossroads Council, Notre Dame Girls High School, the South Asian Women Leadership Forum and as a Science Spectrum Trailblazer. In 2001 she was one of six women nationwide selected to receive the “Women Elevating Science and Technology” award from Working Woman magazine.
Warrior is also a committed community leader. She has served on the boards of Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet and Museum of Science and Industry, the Singapore Agency for Science, Technology and Research (ASTAR), the Chicago Mayor’s Technology Council, Cornell University Engineering Council and advisory council of Indian Institute of Technology. She previously served on the Texas Governor’s Council for Digital Economy, the White House Fellowships Selection Board, and the Technology Advisory Council for the FCC and on the Advisory Committee for the Computing and Information Science and Engineering of the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Warrior holds a M.S. degree in chemical engineering from Cornell University and a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in New Delhi, India. In 2007 she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Engineering from New York’s Polytechnic University. In addition, Warrior serves on numerous governmental, industry and charitable boards and panels. She is married, and the proud mother of one son.
SYDNIE KOHARA
Veteran broadcast journalist and regional Emmy award winner Sydnie Kohara serves as News Anchor at CBS 5, a role that has put her on the front lines of stories ranging from Hurricane Katrina to wildfires in Southern California.
This dynamic storyteller has delighted audiences with her memorable interviews of women newsmakers throughout business and politics, including U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Senator Dianne Feinstein and EBay CEO Meg Whitman.
Kohara’s storytelling reflects a diverse career and a knack for discovering heart-pumping adventure. She’s climbed to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge, been chased by a Siberian tiger cub, and sat in a New Orleans policeman’s boat as he searched for Hurricane Katrina victims. She’s talked tech in the dugout with San Francisco Giants home run king Barry Bonds, business with Sir Richard Branson and vision with technology gurus Michael Dell and Jim Clark. And she’s not afraid of trying something new, like becoming the first woman co-host for the University of Alabama football shows, hosting “Corporate Raiders,” a business game show seen by millions in Asia, or driving at Talladega Speedway (in her 1975 Ford Maverick, which wasn’t fast enough to climb the banked track).
In great demand as an emcee, moderator and speaker, Kohara hosted the 2008 Anita Borg Institute webinar series held in collaboration with Invent Your Future Enterprises. where she brought to life the colorful journeys, best practices and leadership techniques of women technology executives. She is also featured on CNET’s business management website BNET, where she hosts a video series called “Dodging Landmines.”
Prior to CBS5, Kohara served as CNBC’s international correspondent in NBC’s London bureau reporting on overseas financial markets. From Tokyo and Hong Kong to Frankfurt and Paris, her career has spanned the globe, providing market news and information on Asian and European corporations for CNBC’s “Today’s Business,” “Squawk Box” and “Market Watch.” She also filed reports for NBC’s “Early Today” and appeared on MSNBC, WNBC in New York City and other NBC affiliates.
For their efforts covering the tragic 1989 earthquake, Kohara and her colleagues at KGO-TV in San Francisco were awarded the George Foster Peabody Award and the Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Reporting, two of the highest honors bestowed in U.S. broadcast journalism. She has received several national reporting awards from the Asian American Journalists Association and has served as guest host of “Pacific Time” on public radio stations nationwide and in Hong Kong. She has also worked at television stations in Sacramento, California and Montgomery, Alabama, where she was the first woman co-host of the University of Alabama’s syndicated football shows.
Kohara is no stranger to public service and community outreach. She was appointed by Governor George Deukmejian as Chief of Communications for the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs. She has also served as the Quarterly Chair for the Commonwealth Club of California and helped found Camp CEO, a Girl Scout-sponsored retreat for at-risk teenage girls.