Congratulations to Laurie Schultz !
Posted by Lisa Toner on Thu, Jul 07, 2011 @ 04:19 PM
Laurie Schultz - Senior vice-president and general manager, mid-market ERP Solutions for Sage Software has been recognized as one of the top 20 female executives in the Canadian channel ecosystem for 2011. Article printed in the Computer Dealer News June 2011 edition.
There's always been something about customer-facing product management that has appealed to Laurie Schultz. She's been in the software industry now for 12years, starting with Intuit before moving over to Sage. Before software she worked in the telecom sector with Telus, working with customer-facing products such as call display.
"My skill set has come around product management; I've always been kind of a customer-facing manager," says Schultz.
The industry was a little bit more male-dominated when she started out, but she says one thing worth noting about Sage is there's a lot of female IT leaders in the company. "There are several general managers I work with who are female that have stay at home husbands and fathers and are the primary bread-winners. I think we're doing a pretty good job positioning women in leadership roles." said Schultz. "It's very unique in my experience."
While there aren't formal programs to encourage gender diversity, Schultz said culturally, Sage is a global company that has diversity of all kinds at its core, and that global footprint and culture has perhaps made it a little easier for women to advance. To young women considering a career in IT, Schultz said her career has afforded her a wide breadth of experience. There's much opportunity to gain skills in marketing or product management and be part of a global industry.
"I sell my product in over 100 countries and I spend a ton of my time outside North America; the ability to get a global experience and have a global impact is great," said Schultz. "I'd say to any young woman, just be confident and be yourself. Women are very good multi-taskers and that's a skill that comes in handy. Also, be very focussed on delegating."
Congratulations Laurie, from all the team at Plus!