Gloria Montano

WISE NL ROLES: Member of the Board of Directors including as President (2010-2014, 2019-2020) and Treasurer (2020-present).

DESIGNATION: Silicon Valley expat interested in technology and society

EDUCATION: Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Master of Education, Post-Secondary Studies

ABOUT:
At 17, I originally wanted to be an optometrist because I heard they got free eyeglasses. Being very near-sighted and naive, that sounded pretty good to me. After a bit more research, I discovered the cost of the education to be beyond my reach so I accepted an engineering scholarship to the local university. Fortunately, I had taken the right courses in high school to be accepted into the engineering program and the rest is history.

I moved to St. John’s from California where I had logged over 20 years of engineering and management experience covering program and project management, digital design, customer support, and technical support for sales and marketing at various high tech companies in the Silicon Valley, specifically Compaq, Mentor Graphics, Teradyne EDA, Silicon Compiler Systems, and IBM. I came to Newfoundland in 2006 for graduate study and have since chosen to make St. John’s my home.

In Newfoundland, I’ve held administrative and academic staff positions in the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science and in the Division of Cooperative Education at Memorial University. My last position in California was as Director at the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology’s Virtual Development Center (VDC), national service-learning program in partnership with ten US universities.

I am a Fellow of the School of Graduate Studies at Memorial University; a Fellow and national Past President of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) in the United States; and am the recipient of a number of technical and service achievement awards. I have a long history of working with organizations that are dedicated to diversifying participation in engineering and science and am currently on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Centre for Women in Science, Engineering, Trades and Technology (WinSETT).

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/gloriamontano

HOBBIES & ACTIVITIES: Golf, Hockey, Hiking

INTERESTS: Technology and Society

ADVICE:

1. Choose your life partner well. Unless you’re extremely lucky, tough times will happen and when they do, a supportive partner is essential.
2. Establish a solid technical reputation first. Management roles can wait and you can lead from wherever you are.
3. Treat everyone with respect along the way because they may be your ally, boss, employee or client in the future.