Jodi Washington

How do big companies maintain their industry leadership? Forward thinking, anticipating shifts in the market, and refining processes to grow. As a (not so traditional) director of business operations, I believe I’m at the heart of delivering creative experiences, driving operational excellence, and fostering a vibrant organizational culture by steering the ship alongside executive leadership. For the last 14+ years, I have worked to transform, redefine, and refine how leaders communicate, engage, and work with employees and customers. Supporting the EVP & GM of Flash at Western Digital the last three years, we’ve done everything from planning, communicating, and executing global innovation events that bring forward new ideas, to implementing activities that foster camaraderie, educate, and celebrate employee success. During my tenure at Cisco, we revamped everything from physical workspaces, to how we approached hiring in engineering, to the way we communicated with our audiences. Most notable was my time spent managing the enterprise networking team's technical advisory boards and Innovation Forum (aka Whisper Suites) at Cisco Live! These events were all about one-on-one partnership conversations between our product managers, technical marketing team, leadership, and VIP customers that focused on strategy, product improvements, and sharing new inspiration. Often involving travel to and coordination in foreign countries, I count their success amongst my greatest career accomplishments. By night, I run a soccer club alongside a staff of phenomenal females. I serve as a voice of empowerment for women in leadership but more importantly an example for young girls growing up in a largely male dominated world. In my spare time, I continue on a quest to overcome my fear of water by leveraging my advanced SCUBA certification to see everything imaginable under water.