A seat on the board of directors is usually the reward that comes after scaling the management ladder and emerging on top. But in a world where regular business operations are undergoing a digital transformation to remain competitive in a data-driven economy, taking the unusual path from the board to day-to-day field operations could just be the most dynamic choice.

This was the chosen path by Tracey Newell, (pictured) president of global field operations at Informatica LLC. “It just seemed like such an amazing opportunity to literally get off the sidelines and get into the game,” she said.

Newell spoke with John Furrier (@furrier) and Rebecca Knight (@knightrm), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Informatica World event in Las Vegas. They discussed Newell’s decision to leave Informatica’s board of directors and return to the management trenches, as well as how she is shaping Informatica’s ecosystem growth (see the full interview with transcript here.) (* Disclosure below.)

This week, theCUBE spotlights Tracey Newell in our Women in Tech feature.

The path to success is non-linear

The choice to oversee Informatica’s growth strategy up close wouldn’t surprise those familiar with Newell’s career: “Look for game-changing opportunities,” is one of her building blocks for success. She is known for seeking out ways to change the rules, and she appreciates career challenges that give her new perspectives — such as her jump from the boardroom to the C-suite.

Executive level roles at Cisco WebEx, Juniper Networks, Polycom and Proofpoint are proof of her credentials in high-level sales leadership. In her free time, Newell advises enterprise identity governance software company SailPoint Technology Holdings Inc.

Newell’s original decision to join Informatica’s board was based on the understanding that digital transformation is an enterprise board of director’s decision. “Governments and large organizations are trying to figure this out with the CEO, the board, the management team, because it’s critical and yet it’s also really hard,” she said.

Knowing first hand the struggles companies were having with the complications inherent in digital transformation, she saw the need for a thought leader. And “… my belief was that Informatica should be that thought leader,” Newell stated.

After two years as a member of the board, Informatica’s focus on research and development was paying off. Its cloud-scale, AI-powered real-time engine — known as Claire — was only a year old, yet the company was already established as a leader in intelligent data integration and management.

So, heeding her instinct to get “back into the game,” Newell took up the lead of global field operations. “And it’s just been fabulous,” she said.

An active ecosystem benefits all

Fast forward a year, and Informatica is leading the field in both integration platform as a service and hybrid integration. “Our strategy has been really simple in that we want to be best of breed in everything that we do,” Newell stated.

Partnerships with Amazon, Google, Accenture, Deloitte, Cognizant Technology Solutions, and others are upping the company’s game. “We partner with everybody,” Newell said.

Customers gain from these synergistic relationships. “If you do decide to buy one product and then add a second or a third or a fourth family, you’re going to get the benefit of all that being backed by a platform play and by AI and machine learning,” she stated. “These [partnerships] are really strategic for the client, the global system integrator and for us, for all of the same reasons. This drives massive change in a good way for our clients to keep ahead whoever is nipping at their heels. But certainly it’s [also] a tremendous services opportunity for the large integrators.”

Knowing the customer is the key to the data goldmine; and Informatica claims to hand their customers that key. How? A hybrid platform and good partnerships is important, but working at the metadata level is the company’s secret power.

Its enterprise data catalog solution provides search engine style results for enterprise data. “When your kids ask you a question, you just go online and get the answer,” Newell said. “Because of what we’re doing at the metadata level, working with all of the different companies around the globe through open APIs, you can now do that inside your enterprise.”

But with knowledge comes responsibility. “There’s this kind of theme of understanding everything that there is to know about a customer and yet, at the same time, a huge requirement for governance,” Newell added.

Informatica has a hybrid data governance solution to help companies transform while at the same time keeping compliant with regulations such as the California Consumer Privacy Act and the General Data Protection Regulation.

Closing the tech skills gap

Newell has championed diversity throughout her career. While at Cisco she led Cisco Viewpoint, a forum that assisted women to advance in their professional life. Diversity Journal honored her for “breaking down barriers, driving higher levels of company performance, and inspiring the next generation of leaders.”

At Informatica, she supports the company’s Next 25 Initiative to help underrepresented youth gain science, technology, engineering and math skills. Her department also recruits seniors for internships. This gives them the opportunity to learn important skills, and offers the possibility of a permanent position on graduation. “The recipe for a strong team is to hire gifted people with diverse backgrounds and strengths,” Newell stated.

Unlike scaremongers who warn of work disappearing under automation, Newell is positive about the job market for the upcoming generation.

“There’s going to be career opportunities for everyone that’s in school, whether it be on the business side, whether it’s management, marketing, sales … and, of course, … computer science and engineering,” Newell said. “For young folks coming out of school, [the digital economy] is a tremendous opportunity.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Informatica World 2019 event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Informatica World 2019. Neither Informatica LLC, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE