Gender and Technology in a Post-Pandemic World
Gender and Technology in a Post-Pandemic World
Welcome Back to the Show, Janet Lin!
For our first episode on gender and technology in a post-pandemic world as a part of our new series on women and emerging tech we are honoured to bring back friend of the show, Janet Lin! Tune in now!
With a background in Computer Science from UNB, Janet has spent 20 years of her career leading Digital Transformation, delivering innovative Customer Engagement Technology in the Canadian Retail, Health Care, Banking and Payments industry. She is passionate about helping Canadians live well in Lending and Payments, Loyalty, Digital Commerce, Digital HealthCare, Omni-channel Beauty, Digital Marketing and Media via various technology platforms.
Janet has launched multiple innovative, industry-breaking initiatives in North America, including recognition for the Global Innovation Award Winning digital product. Janet is named as one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network. She is undertaking the new challenges to transform Retail and Commercial Lending and Payments Technologies at Equitable bank. At EQ Bank, Janet Lin reports to the CTO Dan Broten, who reports directly to President and CEO, Andrew Moor.
A leader in diversity and inclusion, Janet established Loblaw’s Women in Technology committee from 5 women to 500 women, which promotes a diverse, flexible, and inclusive environment for women across all levels of technology. It has the vision to “Empower Canadian women in technology by promoting thought diversity and providing best-in-class opportunities for networking, career growth, and recruiting.” She also co-led the Loblaw gender diversity committee, Go Further Women.
At Equitable Bank, Janet joined a Newcomers Employee Resource Group, focusing on helping Newcomers to Canada to live well and define a career path in the Canadian corporate environment.
Gender Diversity and COVID-19
Janet has worked in the tech sector for many years and has seen the ways in which diversity, inclusion, and gender equality have evolved in the industry. Janet tells us that from her perspective, she believes that much of the work towards achieving this equity happened before the pandemic. However, as we have seen, COVID-19 did a great deal to undo much of the progress that we had previously made in achieving equity when it comes to gender and technology.
“A lot of women had to sacrifice their career development during the pandemic due to family situations and other priorities. Women-owned small businesses also had huge impacts on them due to the pandemic […] it’s so much harder to talk about gender diversity now than it was three years ago.”
Janet tells us she is excited to emerge from the pandemic with other female leaders to highlight these disparities and to celebrate the efforts and achievements of women on the frontlines of combatting them.
Women in IT Summit
The Women in IT Summit – Canada edition is returning live on October 25th at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto! The summit’s agenda is packed with must-attend sessions, keynote speakers, debates and workshops to educate on and discuss how we can put diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility at the core as we continue to develop revolutionary technology. To view the agenda and register, please click here.
To buy tickets or tables, please contact Zanib Malik.
If you have any questions about the registration process, please email the team and they’ll be happy to help.
Connect with Janet on LinkedIn