Proud to Help #BreakTheBias

I found the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day  – #BreakTheBias – inspiring and appropriate for today’s world. 

This phrase makes for a great social media hashtag, but it also highlights that when it comes to gender equality, there are biases that still exist – both conscious and unconscious. Implicit biases come from culture like a thumbprint on our minds, and we must be conscious of them at every opportunity. At JFrog, we’re committed to building a culture of diversity and inclusion, and while our society has made great strides over the past several decades, there’s still more work to be done.

JFrog places a high value on diversity, but we don’t hire women because they’re female to just check a box. We always focus on bringing the right skill set to the role – whether male, female.  With that, I am extremely proud that our leadership team currently includes six incredibly talented female executives, with all of them contributing significantly to helping our company and the DevOps industry thrive.

In no particular order, these JFrog executives include:

Tali Notman, Chief Revenue Officer

Orit Goren, Chief Operating Officer

Micheline Nijmeh, Chief Marketing Officer

Keren Massad, Chief Human Resources Officer

Hila Mazinter, VP of R&D

Moran Ashkenazi, Chief Security Officer

Kavita Viswanath, VP GM, JFrog India

To brag on them a bit, we’re all excited and proud for Moran, who recently received a Bronze Globee award for “Women in Info and Cyber Security,” recognizing her achievements over 20+ years of driving cybersecurity strategy, architecture, and technical product management. Kavita started as a software developer and quickly moved to the business side, leading enterprise sales and alliances for leading global software companies for over two decades.  And Tali — one of JFrog’s first 10 employees — was recognized last year by the Silicon Valley Business Journal as one of the most influential women in Silicon Valley with a prestigious Women of Influence award.  At JFrog, we hire based on the skill and experience of the employee – and the public and behind-the-scenes results these six incredible women have generated speak for themselves. 

Starting at the Top

We’re also very happy to have recently welcomed Citrix CIO and IT industry veteran, Meerah Rajavel, to our board of directors, raising our board’s gender ratio to include 30% women.  Additionally, our developer relations team is 50% female – a category where women still remain under-represented according to global statistics (software engineering – 14% of total workforce; computer science-related jobs, 25% of total workforce). 

These executives and board-level commitments combine to create a strong and inclusive company culture, which starts at the top and trickles down across the organization. But while that might be great for JFrog, I also want our company to be part of a broader change in the global workforce. 

A recent study found that women make up just 12.8% of the STEM (Science, Technology and Math) workforce.  STEM careers and fearlessly pursuing them, needs to start early, which is why I feel strongly that both the tech industry and our company need to:

• Consciously and proactively support programs such as Women Who Code and other organizations that empower the STEM education of girls and young women. 
• Encourage the establishment of mentorship programs within our companies, or grant employees the time to participate passionately in outside mentorship and empowerment organizations such as the women’s CXO network – T200 (https://www.t200.org) and T200-LIFT, focused on lifting more female leaders into the C-Suite. 
• Allow opportunities for corporate and peer support programs that provide collaboration, inclusion, and inspire women to remain in the workforce.

Where Frogs Thrive

As a father of three girls (I’m the minority in my house!), I encourage each of them to follow their dreams – and assure them they can do anything they set their minds to. As a father and husband, I want a world free of biases and ceilings that prevent them from reaching their goals. As a CEO of JFrog, valuing diversity is a core part of our Codex – and we always want our employees to bring their whole, true self to the Swamp. I’m proud to be part of an organization that places a strong emphasis on diversity and equality; a place where everyone can feel assured they will be empowered to work toward their career goals regardless of their gender, sexual identity, race, ethnicity, or religious affiliation.  

To my fellow Wonder-Women Frogs, on this special day and month, I say don’t ever stop leaping forward. Keep being the bright stars you are and letting that light shine through for all to see! Your passion and talent for being the best at what you do will set the north star not only for our company, but for our entire industry!