FirstRain president and CEO Penny Herscher

It has been a busy two weeks for FirstRain Inc. President and CEO, Penny Herscher, with back-to-back events, the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing and Dreamforce, demanding her attention. It was announced at Dreamforce on Monday that FirstRain will be integrated into Wave, Salesforce’s new Analytics Cloud. This is certainly a big win for a tech company with a woman at the helm; especially one that advocates and speaks up for gender equality in the tech world.

While attending the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing event last week, where her own daughter was job hunting, Penny Herscher appeared on SiliconANGLE’s theCUBE to share some of her thoughts and experiences (full video below).

The event has grown over the course of its 11 year existence with as many as 8000 attendees at this year’s event. Herscher noted that 50 percent of female attendees this year are students.

Herscher says that the event’s focus is on how to recruit, retain and advance women in the field of technology. She states that providing gender equality is a creative, moral and economic issue.

Speaking with Herscher, theCUBE host Jeff Frick raised the controversial comment on gender-equal pay from Microsoft Corp. CEO, Satya Nadella,  solicited during an on-stage interview at the Grace Hopper event. Herscher passionately responded that “There is absolutely no reason in the world women should not be paid equally to men… It’s just morally wrong.”

This comment resonates what other women in tech have had to say about the offhand comment. Maria Klawe, the woman at the center of Nadella’s sexism controversy, appeared on theCUBE shortly after her interview with Nadella to share her first-hand perspective on the issue. Klawe said she’d rather not rely on karma to bring about equal pay for women in tech, as Nadella had suggested.

For more in-depth coverage and exclusive interviews, join us weekly on SiliconANGLE.tv for “Women in Tech Wednesday”.

Photo Courtesy of: FirstRain