Ellie Mae
Linh Lam is the CIO of Ellie Mae.
- While the number of female chief information officers is growing, the position is still dominated by men.
- The universe is so small that women CIOs in Silicon Valley almost all know each other and meet for quarterly dinners, according to Ellie Mae's Linh Lam.
- As CIO of one of the nation's largest mortgage processors, Lam has lived through many of the struggles that up-and-coming female tech leaders are also likely to face.
- One struggle for Lam, for example, was learning how to speak-up and share her ideas in male-dominated rooms.
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The number of female tech leaders is rising, but still lags significantly behind their male counterparts.
From 2017 to early 2019, the number of female chief information officers rose from 16% to 18%, according to a study from consulting firm Korn Ferry. Attention to that ratio is likely to increase as CIOs gain new authority in the C-suite due to sweeping digital overhauls across corporate America, creating an opportunity for those in the role to eventually take the CEO position.
The universe of female CIOs is so small that Linh Lam, the CIO at Ellie Mae, knows virtually every other woman tech leader in Silicon Valley. A group of them even get together for informal dinners once a quarter. Those relationships have come in handy when Lam needs advice on topics like presenting ideas to the board of directors.
"I am in a space where there aren't a lot of females," she told Business Insider. "It's a pretty tight circle."
While there are ample resources available to help women rise up the ranks - like Silicon Valley's Women Leadership Council, a conference created for and designed by female tech leaders in the area - breaking into a traditionally male-dominated field can be intimidating.
Lam, for example, had to learn to speak up in male-dominated rooms with ideas she was passionate about. On the flip-side, she also needed to get better at saying no to those proposals that wouldn't work - something she said is more difficult for female leaders.
"It's okay to say no to things, but just make sure that when you do you think about other ways [to] approach it," she said.
On top of office politics and other factors that can make it more difficult for women to advance up the career ladder, the demanding nature of the CIO role adds another complication for female tech leaders - particularly those with families, Lam said.
"The job of the CIO is really 24-by-7," she said. "It's okay to acknowledge those challenges. It's also okay to seek help for a lot of things. I feel like women put a lot of things on their shoulders."
Luckily, there are a number of resources aspiring female CIOs can take to prepare themselves for the role, as well as navigate the demands of the positions once in it.
At Ellie Mae, Lam is leading an effort at one of the nation's largest mortgage processors to not only enhance its tech platforms, but spur a cultural shift within the organization to become more efficient. She shared the podcasts and books she recommends aspiring female tech leaders take advantage of to help ascend to and succeed as a tech chief.