Celebrating female leaders in ad tech: inspiring stories from our international team
March, the National Women’s History Month is nearing it’s close, and as always, it’s been a nice moment to recognize the achievements of the strong women in our global society and #BalanceforBetter. Even though it may be in a small way, we wanted to take a moment to recognize the female leaders in ad tech at Reactnext that make a difference every day.
Of Reactnext’s growing global workforce of women, 35% are in management/leadership roles. Our female employees are an exceptional group of talented women making their careers in the tech industry. We asked several of our international leadership team to tell how they ended up in the tech industry and share a little about their personal passions and aspirations. Check out their stories below and take a moment to send good energy towards the women growing and shaping the global advertising tech industry!
3 Inspirational Female Ad Tech Leaders
Pamela Molosor
“Many times throughout my career, I’ve had to be brave enough to be “the first”. I’m Brazilian, and I came from a humble home. The first of my family to attend university, I worked through school to help my parents pay my tuition. I was a good student and loved computers, and even got some experience in programming (Cobol, Basic, and Clipper were the hot trends at the time).
One day a friend invited me to a careers lecture, and I fell in love with advertising! My career in digital marketing started back in 1998, and I had my first leadership position when I was only 24. I managed a team of 25 people, and at that time I was awarded the youngest leader of the company!
Since then I’ve helped build 6 startups, 2 of them literally from scratch. Because I’m never afraid to be “first”, I am an early ad tech adopter, and for the past 8 years I’ve been working 100% in mobile marketing. I am very proudly the first female partner at Reactnext, and I love the challenges of hacking new ad tech trends and making new projects successful.
As a leader, I’ve always felt more like an older sister, than a leader. I truly think that the best leaders lead by example. They must be truthful, courageous, persistent, creative, a good listener, and delegate liberally above all!” – Pamela molosor, Senior Vice President of Growth & Performance Brazil
Betty shadwell
“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…well, specifically, I began my journey in digital in 1999 working for a “dot com” company in California just before the bubble burst. I was working two jobs at a grueling 50-60 hours a week while I went to college at night, with the intention of becoming an entertainment attorney. Fast forward a few more years and I was at a crossroads finishing my final year at UCLA: “Do I continue on to law school, rack up 100k+ in student loans OR do I dive headfirst into digital marketing and see where the rabbit hole takes me?” I chose the red pill (I am also a wealth of movie references, in case you did not deduce this on your own).
One of the most appealing aspects of the digital world is the ever-evolving technology that supports our ecosystem of supply and demand. Every 3-6 months there is a technical advancement, revelation or catastrophe that requires you to rethink everything you know, evolve and reinvent your place in the digital cosmos. Stagnation is death in our industry and with that, there is a lot of excitement and challenge. For a person like myself who bores easily, it is the perfect recipe for a commitment to excellence, which I have now demonstrated time and time again over the last 20 years. I have built revenues and teams through 4 multi-million dollar acquisitions, as well as successfully opened the US market for 2 major overseas Ad Tech companies.
As a woman in this fast-paced, ever-evolving landscape, I’ve confronted the need for work-life balance. Not only have I succeeded in this roller-coaster ride of a career, but I’ve done so while juggling the roles of mother and wife – which may be an even more difficult path to navigate than the pitfalls of fluctuating technology. I have found it’s indeed possible to achieve that much-needed balance by working for the right company and positioning yourself to take full advantage of the always-on 24-7 business hour flexibility. Today, you really can work anywhere, at any time and excel. In fact, when my 3 children were infants, I took them on the road with me to conferences and business meetings and we were soon deemed the “road-warrior family.” You truly can have it all as a woman in this industry, with the right support systems in place.
now focus some of my time mentoring and helping other women carve out their own place in digital, specifically through mBolden, a non-profit organization championing women in digital, where I am the Co-Chair on the LA Chapter’s Board of Directors. I have by no means reached the end of the rabbit-hole and remain engaged and excited to see where it may take me and who I may be able to help along the way.”
Melissa Sherrer
“My leitmotif for life is “the best is yet to come”, which I think holds true for the future of women in ad tech as a whole.
A long time ago, at the age of 8, I was lucky enough to meet one of the first and most trusted women in advertising in Argentina (at that time, digital advertising was the stuff of sci-fi movies). She was immensely impressive, traveling around the world, winning awards, dealing and negotiating with important men from huge companies. I remember I said to myself, “I want to be like her and achieve great things in the advertising industry”.
Only 10 years later, I made my childhood dream come true and began studying Advertising. I had to overcome many obstacles and objections. Even though my family was always 100% supportive, many in the industry were reluctant to have women taking on certain roles. I knew early that I was drawn to tech and digital advertising, and had the chance to work in the industry in my 20s. I consider myself a very hands-on person and a little bit of a “geek” and I was 100% committed to going beyond the limits (and breaking them). “A women leading operations? This is a man’s job!” Looking back 12 years now, I can’t count the number of times I was questioned or doubted.
As a female ad-tech leader, I feel the responsibility to encourage all younger girls to chase their dreams. No one should have ever told us “you can’t do it”, but it served to make us stronger. We now get the chance to say as a collective: “You were wrong, because we’ve done it!”