Greetings ITSMF Family!
Life Belongs to the Dreamers and to the Faithful. I have the immense pleasure of experiencing ITSMF’s Global Institute for Professional Development (GIPD) as President & CEO and as a participate in the Executive Academy. I will be one of 128 GIPD graduates on June 9, 2022. When I joined the Executive Academy, I was one month into the President and CEO role at my dream job.
When I started, I thought that participating in the Executive Academy would be a way for me to learn more about ITSMF’s members and academy participants. I thought that I could observe and learn their needs, motivations and how changes in the technology industry are impacting leaders. I thought this insight would be helpful for future strategy and visioning for ITSMF and help me get oriented with our constituencies as a new CEO in the organization.
What I have witnessed firsthand through this experience is what it is like to be transformed as a leader mind, body, and soul. The GIPD has transformed over one thousand leaders over the past 25 years, and I am proud to be among them. The GIPD convenes the most brilliant, multi-talented, emotionally intelligent technology leaders on the globe. The faculty of the GIPD has an unprecedented amount of corporate, higher education, leadership and training experience. But each one will tell you that their role in ITSMF is more than a job, it is a passion project.
Each member of the GIPD has added new leadership books to their library over the past nine month. I am looking forward to interviewing Shellye Archambeau (retired Silicon Valley CEO and author of Unapologetically Ambitious, Take Risks, Break Barriers, and Create Success on Your Own Terms) during the graduation festivities. She is one of my favorite leaders and new authors. I am also excited about watching the capstone projects that each cohort has tirelessly produced. I am one of 28 Executive Academy authors who wrote and published Understanding the Game of Executive Leadership: Strategies to Win. This book will be sold on Amazon this month.
I am looking forward to Linda Clement-Holmes’ (retired CIO of Proctor and Gamble) keynote address during the graduation. As I have observed, studied, and dissected technology leaders and personal and professional pathways to success, I left with the impression that Life belongs to the dreamers and to the faithful. Life belongs to those who dare to set goals, dreams that surpass their present circumstances and experiences and those with courage and faith to not give up.
Congratulations to the GIPD class of 2022!
President and CEO, ITSMF
About Information Technology Senior Management Forum
Since 1996, Information Technology Senior Management Forum (ITSMF) has been dedicated to increasing the representation of Black professionals at senior levels in technology to impact organizational innovation and growth. We do this by developing and nurturing these dynamic leaders through enrichment of the mind, body and soul. At its inception, only 3% of senior-level positions in the technology industry were held by Blacks. With a half-million new computer-related jobs expected by 2028, ITSMF is committed to increasing the number of qualified Black professionals for these positions. For more information about ITSMF, visit www.itsmfleaders.org.