For Your Team - Leona Thomas
Explicit content warning
06/09/21 • 36 min
Leona Thomas is a diverse tech leader who’s leveraged her technical foundations to expand into business transformation and strategy over the 15 years I’ve known her. Leona has a rich history of serving as a COO, a CTO and CIO, a Board member for various organizations as well as President & Founder of an investment advisory firm. She was doing innovation and transformation on a global scale before it was trendy. Leona is also a mentor, a philanthropist, a former rugby player, a fantastic dancer. I can honestly say, she’s one of the few people I’d wake up for at 5am to go do yoga and dancing at sunrise in downtown Philly.
In this episode, Leona highlights how she diversifies a room by walking into it. She shares how being half black and half white as well as a lesbian that has been out for decades makes her not just “feel” other, but truly “be” other from whatever group she’s meeting. The beautiful aspect of thinking through how to leverage her “other” to enlighten others to ways they can be more inclusive and the importance of acceptance.
Her parents’ marriage was before the Loving Decision and therefore illegal in 17 states (but not the states they lived in). Her birth certificate had read “White” and was crossed out with “Negro” handwritten in when a nurse saw who her father was. Leona talks about how that dictated where she went to school back in the days of “bussing” students based on race. She talks about how others learning she’s half black sometimes changes their behaviors and their relationships despite that she’s still the same professional, fundraiser, philanthropist, or friend.
Leona also stresses the importance of diversity on teams and how different approaches of technologists and business strategists make for the best teams. We discussed labels and how not to blanket categorize people. “Labels are for boxes” is a t-shirt Leona has!
At Diverse Tech Leaders we discuss how to help organizations be better and build more inclusive workplaces, and Leona shared with our listeners some of the highs and lows of her employers. The examples she shared included mentoring, advocacy, masking, and the tension between divisional actions and large corporate policies, systemic challenges, and the bottom-line money companies lost by not being inclusive. We discuss how remote work can be leveraged to augment your diversity by bringing roles to the talent instead of demanding talent work “in your office.”
Leona also dedicated years toward non-profit board service with the William Way LGBTQ Community Center of Philadelphia. She also shared how Diverse Force was a fantastic board training program that she pursued despite having been a board member for over 7 years. Give the episode a listen!
To learn more:
Favorite Song: Leona doesn’t have a favorite song, but she gave a great reason why!
Leona Thomas via Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonathomas/
The Loving Decision: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_v._Virginia
William Way LGBTQ Community Center of Philadelphia: www.waygay.org
Diverse Force: www.DiverseForceonBoards.com
Reminder Days: https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/reminder-days/
Diverse Tech Leaders Podcast:
Podcast “Show Notes” at: www.DiverseTechLeaders.com
Twitter: @DiverseTechLdrs
Connect with Kristen Lamoreaux:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristenlamoreaux/
Lamoreaux Search: www.LamoreauxSearch.com
Twitter: @LamoreauxSearch
Facebook: www.facebook.com/lamoreauxsearch
Leona Thomas is a diverse tech leader who’s leveraged her technical foundations to expand into business transformation and strategy over the 15 years I’ve known her. Leona has a rich history of serving as a COO, a CTO and CIO, a Board member for various organizations as well as President & Founder of an investment advisory firm. She was doing innovation and transformation on a global scale before it was trendy. Leona is also a mentor, a philanthropist, a former rugby player, a fantastic dancer. I can honestly say, she’s one of the few people I’d wake up for at 5am to go do yoga and dancing at sunrise in downtown Philly.
In this episode, Leona highlights how she diversifies a room by walking into it. She shares how being half black and half white as well as a lesbian that has been out for decades makes her not just “feel” other, but truly “be” other from whatever group she’s meeting. The beautiful aspect of thinking through how to leverage her “other” to enlighten others to ways they can be more inclusive and the importance of acceptance.
Her parents’ marriage was before the Loving Decision and therefore illegal in 17 states (but not the states they lived in). Her birth certificate had read “White” and was crossed out with “Negro” handwritten in when a nurse saw who her father was. Leona talks about how that dictated where she went to school back in the days of “bussing” students based on race. She talks about how others learning she’s half black sometimes changes their behaviors and their relationships despite that she’s still the same professional, fundraiser, philanthropist, or friend.
Leona also stresses the importance of diversity on teams and how different approaches of technologists and business strategists make for the best teams. We discussed labels and how not to blanket categorize people. “Labels are for boxes” is a t-shirt Leona has!
At Diverse Tech Leaders we discuss how to help organizations be better and build more inclusive workplaces, and Leona shared with our listeners some of the highs and lows of her employers. The examples she shared included mentoring, advocacy, masking, and the tension between divisional actions and large corporate policies, systemic challenges, and the bottom-line money companies lost by not being inclusive. We discuss how remote work can be leveraged to augment your diversity by bringing roles to the talent instead of demanding talent work “in your office.”
Leona also dedicated years toward non-profit board service with the William Way LGBTQ Community Center of Philadelphia. She also shared how Diverse Force was a fantastic board training program that she pursued despite having been a board member for over 7 years. Give the episode a listen!
To learn more:
Favorite Song: Leona doesn’t have a favorite song, but she gave a great reason why!
Leona Thomas via Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonathomas/
The Loving Decision: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_v._Virginia
William Way LGBTQ Community Center of Philadelphia: www.waygay.org
Diverse Force: www.DiverseForceonBoards.com
Reminder Days: https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/reminder-days/
Diverse Tech Leaders Podcast:
Podcast “Show Notes” at: www.DiverseTechLeaders.com
Twitter: @DiverseTechLdrs
Connect with Kristen Lamoreaux:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristenlamoreaux/
Lamoreaux Search: www.LamoreauxSearch.com
Twitter: @LamoreauxSearch
Facebook: www.facebook.com/lamoreauxsearch
Previous Episode
Introduction
In this short welcome episode, Kristen highlights her background in diversity recruiting within the tech space and shares what pisses her off when it comes to building diverse slates. She shares the weekly schedule of shows and their three categories: For You. For Your Team. For Your Organization & Community.
With each episode, Kristen will provide links and content to 'The Crew' via www.diversetechleaders.com.
If you'd like to follow Diverse Tech Leaders, find us on twitter @DiverseTechLdrs
Follow Kristen on twitter @LamoreauxSearch
Next Episode
For You - Cindy Finkelman
Cindy Finkelman is a diverse tech leader who is happiest when she's orchestrating business transformation enterprise wide. Cindy has served as a CIO, a CTO, led corporate platforms and functions at multiple Fortune 100/Fortune 25 companies. She serves on non-profit boards and engages with her community. She is a brilliant strategist, a mentor, a straight shooter, a champion of women, and a leader I've called friend for over a decade and a half.
Cindy shares the highlight film of her career and how she’s successfully navigated multiple industries. She talks about the importance of having a network and how that impacts your internal advancement and your exposure to external career opportunities.
Even though there is greater focus on diversity these days, you can't wait around for someone to "find" you. A good friend of mine said that you only notice the taxi cabs that have their light on because it means something to YOU personally. We chatted about what accountability do diverse tech leaders have for being visible whether it's in their industry or even inside their company and how they should garner that visibility.
We discussed how Cindy has always been really good about exposing diverse team members to leadership events and bringing people along to key meetings. When you look around the table, it should be diverse. Cindy and I have long bemoaned the shortage of women in leadership roles or speaking at conferences. We get into your responsibility to develop yourself and be deliberate in what you’re doing to develop others.
Cindy highlights what can we do as individuals to affect change in diversity within our workplaces. Because we can't all go work "somewhere else!" She gives practical advice and questions to ask during interviews to explore the importance of diversity inside an organization. Cindy she understands how powerful and meaningful a strong BRG can be, but in interview you want to keep is simple. She also stresses that the accountability for a diverse slate is on each of us.
Cindy serves on the SIM New York Board and as a SIM Women Champion. She shared about her non-profit board work as well with helping women and children elevate from the shelter system and the importance of purpose.
To Learn More
Cindy’s Favorite song: “It’s my life” by Bon Jovi - http://bit.ly/CindysFaveSong
Cindy via Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cindyfinkelman/
SIM New York: https://chapter.simnet.org/newyorkmetro/home
SIM Women: https://simwomen.simnet.org/home
Catalyst Whitepapers: https://www.catalyst.org/research-series/engaging-men-in-gender-initiatives/
Diverse Tech Leaders Podcast
Podcast “Show Notes” at: www.DiverseTechLeaders.com
Twitter: @DiverseTechLdrs
Connect with Kristen Lamoreaux
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristenlamoreaux/
Lamoreaux Search: www.LamoreauxSearch.com
Twitter: @LamoreauxSearch
Facebook: www.facebook.com/lamoreauxsearch
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/diverse-tech-leaders-272585/for-your-team-leona-thomas-32916458"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to for your team - leona thomas on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy