This International Women’s Day, Solo.io is reflecting on women’s contributions to our company, getting inspired by their efforts to improve their communities, and taking a moment to reiterate our commitment to creating an inclusive and empowering workplace.
From our CEO to our software engineers to our project managers, women are shaping how we advance our technology and build our community.
Amplifying Voices and Building Skills
With a woman founder and CEO at our helm, Solo ensures that the open source and cloud native spaces include women’s perspectives and leadership.
Lin Sun, our director of open source, sits on the Istio steering committee and CNCF technical oversight committee, forging the path for the future of open source and cloud native projects, and speaks regularly at conferences.
“Not only do I work hard, but also I try to work smart and always look for ways to increase my impact,” Lin says. “I’ve found something I am passionate about, which is open source and interesting cloud native projects, and try to get involved and become a known technical leader in that space. I am no longer afraid of speaking up and having my voice heard. The key is to get myself involved in the conversation and have enough confidence that my perspective could be unique and valuable.”
Solo also emphasizes continued education with its professional development reimbursement and other opportunities for building on existing skills and learning new ones.
“Solo has also been really amazing with creating career mobility for me,” says Tricia Murtha, senior field marketing manager, who originally started at Solo as a business development manager.
Tech lead Ashley Wang on the Gloo Platform team shared a similar sentiment. “I’ve had great learning opportunities here – I did not know much about Kubernetes, Envoy, or Istio before joining Solo, and I’ve learned a lot since then.”
Fostering a Supportive Culture
Solo has a strong focus on equity and inclusion embedded into our company values. Our professional development reimbursement and generous leave policies support employees at every phase of life, including PTO, medical, compassionate, maternity, and family leave.
Most of the company works remotely and allows for work/life balance that’s family and free-time friendly.
Most recently, we implemented the software Cocoon to help facilitate the leave of absence process. In particular, this program supports birthing mothers by making applying for a leave of absence so much simpler and more transparent. They can also pre-plan hypothetical leaves confidentially.
Our programs and policies, like annual performance reviews and salary reviews and our employee handbook, establish clear, consistent, and equitable experiences.
“My manager and teams are very supportive and appreciative of what I do, which makes it even more enjoyable,” says Hanh Vu, a senior project manager.
This year, we plan to roll out a comprehensive diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging approach, including employee resource groups, to further improve how we support our employees.
Celebrating Accomplishments
Solo.io honors the many contributions and achievements of women, especially our professionals who are continuously inspiring and growing our company and the cloud-native community.
We recently recognized some of the impressive work of our employees at our company offsite.
The following Solo Excellence Award winners consistently go above and beyond at work:
- Nina Polshakova, Principal Software Engineer
- Hanh Vu, Senior Project Manager
- Jenny Shu, Senior Software Engineer
- Heather Hames, Principal Global Events Marketing Manager
- Cathleen Nelson, Senior Global Alliances Director
- Laurel Paluzzi, Director of Legal
- Tricia Murtha, Senior BDR Rep/Senior Field Marketing Manager
- Mikayla Kim, Senior Human Resources Generalist
And the Solo Values Award winners embody our company values:
- Ashley Wang, Engineering Manager
- Samantha Gutowski, Senior Director, Field & Event Marketing
Please join us in celebrating these important voices in our industry and making our community more inclusive and equitable. We are proud to be a workplace where women are empowered to do their best work.
