Keynote

Reflections: Trials and Triumphs

Join Padmasree Warrior in a fireside chat with Monica Bajaj as she reflects on her illustrious career leading global technology giants such as Cisco and Motorola, and her journey founding Fable.

Padmasree will share her invaluable leadership lessons and openly discuss the mistakes and challenges that have shaped her path. Her reflections will provide a deep dive into the complexities of steering major tech companies and pioneering new ventures in the industry.

Through candid conversation and personal anecdotes, Padmasree will offer insights into the strategic decisions and leadership practices that have driven her success. This session aims to provide a wealth of knowledge on managing high-stakes environments, driving innovation, and overcoming obstacles, making it an essential learning opportunity for anyone looking to excel in technology and leadership.

SPEAKER
SPEAKER

Padmasree Warrior

FOUNDER, PRESIDENT & CEO FABLE

Padmasree Warrior is the Founder, President and CEO of Fable, a social and AI discovery platform for content. Previously, Padma was the Chief Executive Officer of NIO U.S., Chief Development Officer and Board Member of NIO Inc., a manufacturer of smart electric vehicles. In this role she scaled the company from start-up to a successful IPO NYSE:NIO in 3 years. Prior to NIO, Warrior served as the Chief Technology & Strategy Officer (CTSO) for Cisco until September 2015. In this capacity she was charged with aligning the company's technology and business strategy to business results. She led corporate strategy, mergers, acquisitions, venture investments, and strategic partnerships. Before that, she was the SVP and GM for Cisco Enterprise segment and co-led Cisco’s worldwide engineering organization. Prior to Cisco, she was EVP and CTO at Motorola. Under her leadership, Motorola was awarded the 2004 U.S. National Medal of Technology.

Padmasree Warrior has been widely recognized for her creative, visionary leadership. Forbes has named her one of "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women" for three years running. In 2013, The International Alliance for Women gave her the World of Difference Award. In 2012, Business Insider called her one of the "25 Most Influential Women in Wireless". The Wall Street Journal has called her one of "50 Women to Watch." Fast Company included her among the "100 Most Creative People in Business." The Economic Times listed her as "the 11th Most Influential Global Indian."

Warrior served on Boards of large public companies like Gap and Microsoft. She also served on key government initiatives, industry advisory boards, and charitable organizations. She received the United States Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce’s Excellence Award and YWCA Metropolitan Chicago’s Outstanding Woman of Achievement Award. In 2007, she was inducted into the WITI Hall of Fame.

Warrior holds a Bachelor of Technology degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi, India and a Master of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University, New York, U.S. Warrior currently serves on the board of Spotify. Warrior is married and has a son. You can follow her on Instagram and Fable @Padmasree.

SPEAKER
SPEAKER

Monica Bajaj

VICE PRESIDENT ENGINEERING OKTA

Monica Bajaj is a seasoned technology executive with over two decades of industry experience leading global, diverse engineering teams. Her expertise spans technology, operations, global expansion, M&A and product launch in areas such as Consumer/Enterprise, Infrastructure, Business Intelligence, DevOps, and Security. She is currently the Vice President of Engineering, Developer experience at Okta. Prior to Okta she has held senior engineering leadership positions at various global enterprise companies like Workday, UKG, NetApp and Cisco.

Her expertise lies in building high-performance, and secure software platforms that can handle from Millions of users and billions of transactions, keeping resiliency and scale as the first principles. Monica holds a BS and MS in Computer Science from IIT Mumbai, India. In 2021, she won the Mentor of the year award from the WomenTech Network and was selected as one of the Top 60 Women technical leaders to watch by the Girl Geek X Community across fortune 500 companies. Monica is an active speaker in the Silicon Valley, a supporter of diversity in STEM, and an exec sponsor for Women at Okta. When not obsessing over technology, she can be found spending time with Boy Scouts, enjoying hiking and supporting the cause of mentorship and uplifting women and young girls.