International Women's Day
What is International Women's Day
International Women’s Day is dedicated to celebrating all women around the world. This awareness initiative is a call-to-action to move towards gender parity and to recognize women for their social, economic, cultural and political contributions to society 1. Here at Klipfolio, we want to highlight the women in our team that contribute to our success daily. From our fresh new faces to our senior management team, our female coworkers are absolute superstars.
The stats
While Canada is breaking tech barriers through innovation, it’s no secret that the tech industry itself has a distinct lack of women in it’s employment. Statistics Canada estimates that women only make up 22% of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) workforce 2, despite an approximate share of 39% of STEM degrees and 66% of non-STEM degrees going to female graduates 3. In a survey of over 900 tech-based Canadian companies, females only made up 13% of the executive teams, hold only 8% of director roles, and almost three quarters of them have no females on their boards 4. Now, this isn’t only an issue about representation (though it is a big one), it’s also an issue about company success and longevity. Any group outside the majority can bring an endless supply of knowledge and perspectives to the table that can help make a company successful.
What is Klipfolio doing?
To recognize and pay tribute to all of our amazing women working for Klipfolio, we gathered short bios from some of our staff and will be tweeting them out through March 8th. We want to highlight their importance to our teams, while also helping to spread the word on the International Women’s Day campaign and gender parity.
Without further ado…
Meet our women in tech!
I can say wholeheartedly that the women in Klipfolio are intelligent, hardworking individuals with extensive knowledge in their respective fields – In fact, I could easily write a full essay on all of their achievements! Instead, we’re putting a spotlight on what makes each of us unique individuals both personally and professionally.
Trish Mermuys
Customer Loyalty Manager
Loves soccer, reading sci-fi, and eating all the sourdough bread.
Kaushi Bandara
Professional Services Ninja
As a 10 year old, I wanted to become a professional astronomer and as an adult, I actually became one! (I then left academia for high-tech)
Goal in life: travel and eat my way through as many countries on this amazing planet as possible!
Meggan King
Manager of Support Services
Loves fixing everything and owns too many boats. Thankful that she gets to work with so many amazing, inspiring and hilarious women at Klipfolio.
Pamela Buffone
Director of Product Marketing
Avid house fixer-upper, loves being part of a great team and is always in awe of the natural beauty in the world.
[EDIT: No longer with Klipfolio]
Jieyi Rong
Customer Success Guru
Loves reading crime novels; Chestnut’s mommy; Loves solving problems; Always plans trips around good food.
Prerna Luthra
Customer Success Guru
Part time drummer, Dysfunctional without music ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
[EDIT: No longer with Klipfolio]
Dominique Steneker
Software Developer
Will unashamedly dance non-stop. This includes but is not limited to: when programming, when sitting down, and—on the rare occasions—when sleeping.
[EDIT: No longer with Klipfolio]
Yvonne van Alphen
Technical Support Specialist
Loves taking pictures of nature, strumming a guitar, and doing downward dog with a dog.
Natalia Castillo
Software Development Team Lead
Loves spicy food, cats, recycling and the colour purple. Plays for the Alliance.
Danielle Hodgson
Product Manager
Loves skiing, cycling, canoeing, and camping; a general outdoors enthusiast.
[EDIT: No longer with Klipfolio]
Stacey Shrout
Controller
Yoga lover and entrepreneur who loves to travel, run, kayak, ski, read and write
[EDIT: No longer with Klipfolio]
Seema Nikam
Technical Support Specialist - India
I love singing and people say I have a good voice. Reading cooking and helping people makes me happy. Secretly everything amuses me… I am still a kid at heart :)
Fatimah Virjee
Technical Writer
Loves to travel, read, and cook. Can often be found staring at the bottom of a mug wondering why there’s no tea left.
Katya Zeisig
Digital Marketing Specialist
A licenced ski instructor, and an unlicensed crime-show lover.
Kalyani Khandelwal
Technical Support Specialist - India
Meditates daily, loves doing yoga. Would be the first one to start dancing at a party!
Krista Matthews
General Counsel
Loves smart humour, music, reading, yoga, spin and watching the sunset from her kayak.
Holly Ebbs
Technical Documentation Manager
Loves sitting in the backyard watching the birds, foxes, rabbits, deer … and the occasional bear. In my spare time I like to run, bike, play soccer, hike, read, and knit.
Kumari Himadri
Technical Support Specialist - India
Dance Enthusiast. Loves to travel and explore.
My life mantra: ”Life is full of choices and I choose Happiness...”
Nikta Kanuka
Product Manager
Has gone from hating winter to loving it, largely thanks to Dante (pictured here).
It’s a team effort
All of the women we’re highlighting today, including those Klipfolians who were unable to participate as they were simply too passionate to take any time away from working on our product, are the faces that have helped make Klipfolio what it is today.
I am a firm believer that we can only move forward if we move forward together, not just with gender parity, but also with racial and cultural diversity. Klipfolio CEO and Co-Founder, Allan Wille, also recognizes that diversity and inclusion are key, though they are often difficult to get right. In a blog post, aptly titled Why diversity and inclusion are so hard to get right, Allan speaks about Klipfolio’s efforts and challenges in creating a diversified workforce and how the job is never done.
Do you see yourself working with us? Check out our Careers page to see if we have a position for you!
1 If you want to read more about International Women’s Day, visit their website: internationalwomensday.com
Topics: Thought Leadership
Originally published March 8, 2018, updated Oct, 08 2019
