On the Record with Lonye Ford

Lonye Ford, CEO of Arlo Solutions speaks to some of the challenges she faces as a woman in the government technology workforce. Lonye has had success and challenges from her time at the U.S. Air Force help desk, to her current role of CEO at Arlo Solutions. Carolyn and Mark get a uniquely human perspective surrounding government technology.Episode Table of Contents[01:18] Bringing the Women in Technology Together[06:24] Women in Technology Are Creating Their Own Lane[09:36] Issues Women in Technology Have to Deal WithEpisode Links and ResourcesLinkedInLonye Ford Brings the Team TogetherCarolyn: Today, we have Lonye Ford, CEO of ARLO Solutions. Lonye served for over 10 years in the US Air Force. Thank you for your service, Lonye. She was named one of the Top 50 in Tech Visionary at InterCon 2021.You talked about your superpower which is to get the teams, all these experts with these egos, to come together. I'm wondering, when you walk in a room you have to be a little bit disarming. You look super young, you're a woman and you're African-American. When you walk into a room, do you think those things help you with bringing the teams together? Have you seen it played against you?Lonye: It's so important to ask those questions. To be honest, I have been feeling weird about addressing that directly. You come up in the military and you don't talk about sex, religion, color. Now, I'm asking a lot of diversity questions this year, because diversity has really been pushed to the forefront. It's really the first time I have been asked those questions before. We talk about it, but not in the open forum.I'm getting more comfortable with addressing it. When I first started, it did not help me. It was very difficult to gain respect. So when I walked into the room, I would tell people I had to be over-prepared.Not Because I’m a WomanCarolyn: Dismissed because of the way you look. Tracy and I talked about this a little bit. I want to be known for what I can do, not because I'm a woman. So I haven't even wanted to address those questions. It's like you know what, it's not about me being a woman. It's about me being capable.Lonye: I struggle with that. I'm going to give you an example. We're in an award for Moxie Group for DC, we're finalists. The category that we're in is women owned. My partner went back and she said, "Actually, I don't want to be in this category." That's how much we struggle with it. She was like, "I don't want to be in this category." We went back and forth. She's like, "Why would we get an award based on our gender?" So then, we went back and explained, this is where we're struggling too. I told her to think about the message also, that people are trying to integrate and highlight the work that women are doing. Is it perfect? No. Sometimes it'll come across as odd. No, but you also don't want to always push back when someone is trying so hard, explain to them. And then, we're still competing with other women.But her thing is, "I don't want to compete with other women, I want to compete with everyone. I don't want to be put in that category." I'd say that we struggle with that, too. We do.Lonye Ford Probes for the IntentCarolyn: I don't want to be on a panel for women in technology. I want to be on a panel for superheroes in technology.Lonye: It's important if we think about the intent. Personally, I don't. But if you think about it, if our intent is to serve and to provide this ability, there are a lot of women and young women that are looking at that. That has a very positive impact on them. So if you take out how you...