How would you describe your leadership style?
I think the overall goal here for me as a leader is pretty simple. It’s to find the best people, to empower them, and then give them really challenging problems that they get to go out and work on and tackle. At our core, we’re a learning company. You see this mindset in individuals, but it’s something that permeates our culture and the company as a whole.
What’s unique about leading a tech company in the age of Ubiquitous Technical Surveillance?
It’s really interesting to see how our clients, our vendors and service providers, and even our workforce are entrenched in using technology that creates and adds to their digital signature. It’s a challenging task to break people of these habits, and it’s really rewarding when we show them how they can use different technology and solutions to mitigate their signature and still deliver and drive impact at their organizations.
What’s something new you learned recently?
Every weekend, for the past several months, I’ve put something new on the wood smoker and it’s been fun to experiment with different meals. My favorite so far has probably been an Armenian-inspired lamb shank. I’ll keep you posted on any other new flavor genres that I discover.
What’s something going on at Ridgeline that you’re excited to see happen or continue to grow?
I think our workforce as well as our clients and the marketplace would tell you that Ridgeline has delivered the best-in-class training experience since UTS became a defined problem set. And now, more recently, the team has been able to integrate tools under our Iris and Contour product lines into our training for an experience that is completely unique and full of impact for our students.
How would you define Ridgeline’s culture?
Ridgeliners are focused on delivering excellence to clients while still being very supportive of one another, and although you often might see individual victories at the company, the overall goal absolutely remains that the team wins.
Tell us about a time when you’ve been impressed or inspired by the great work completed by a Ridgeliner?
I think what’s been most rewarding for me has been watching our employees scale alongside the growth of the company. There are numerous examples I can think of – Lisanna started in a support position and now she’s our first female instructor, Eric O. was hired on as an individual contributor and now he leads a team of over 30 software engineers, and Tina was initially focused on handling Ridgeline’s finances when it was just a small startup, and now she delivers very strategic financial solutions not just to our company, but she’s helping our customers solve their challenges as well.
What makes Ridgeline unique?
Our clients are faced with a number of challenges today, and it can seem easy to find a solution that fits the bill for the current issue they’re trying to overcome. What sets Ridgeline apart, and where we really demonstrate our value, is in our ability to future-proof our customers. We’re good partners, and we’re constantly thinking forward. We provide solutions our customers don’t even know they yet need.