It’s a woman’s world - Allison Philbert bats for more female CEOs in tech field

Allison Philbert has been operating in the male-dominated field of engineering/telecommunications for the better part of 20 years, and she would have it no other way.

In fact, Philbert, who is the chief executive officer of telecommunications giant Digicel, desires to see more women embarking on careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

In an effort to empower women and bring more in the field of technology, Philbert, who has her Bachelor of Science Degree in computing engineering, a Master’s of Science Degree in telecommunications and a master of business administration, has joined forces with Cari-Med boss Glen Christian to establish a national STEM foundation.

One of the primary focuses of the foundation is to empower teachers so they can be better able to support STEM programmes and have schools that are more focused on STEM subjects.

“I think it’s a great area because you have to develop the interest from early and then be able to support the child throughout various programmes,” says Philbert, who joined Digicel in February last year as a consultant, and was appointed CEO last August.

“The biggest thing we can be as role models is to be visible, accessible and relevant. I have been graciously supported by many people who are excited to see a woman in the role [of CEO].

“Most of my promotions came from women, so I was very, very blessed to be able to see situations where there were strong women in technical roles at higher levels in the organisations. I was cognisant of the fact that as I got higher up in the business, there were fewer women, particularly in technical roles, and Jamaica is representative of that today. We are standard-bearers of women in management and when you look at us, relative to CEO roles, we have a lot of female CEOs. Where we have more work to do is as technical, technology-based CEOs,” Philbert tells Outlook during a candid interview at her downtown Kingston offices.

Breaking the glass ceiling

Philbert, prior to joining Digicel, was vice-president of wire line business at Verizon, a United States-based company. She also worked for a year with French-based company Alcatel.

“We certainly have a lot of women who have broken the glass ceiling, but we just need to do it across the board. I became more aware of the glass ceiling during the course of my career. I have been very fortunate to have been supported by several individuals, mostly women. It was a woman who brought me back into the business [of telecommunications]. The president of our business was a female engineer. It was, however, a male CTO (chief technical officer) who actually encouraged me to go down the path of business, so I started in a very technical field where there were not a lot of women. This, unfortunately, is still the case today,” laments Philbert, a St Hugh’s High School alumnus.

Philbert, who is married to Wasi, a national of the US Virgin Islands, says if organisations want to tackle gender inequality, they should make it a priority.

“It is about making it a part of your targets. It is about being very focused on whether it is mentoring programmes; it’s looking at your promotions; do you have a good balance in terms of who is being promoted. If it is a company that has a board, do you have a balanced board, men and women; it is making sure it becomes a part of the conversation every single time,” she suggests.

A typical day for Philbert, who has two young children, begins at 4 a.m. While it’s a difficult task, she has found a way to strike a balance between family and work.

“I thinks it’s a challenge. A lot of women struggle no matter what their level, but it is about the balance, the integration, the prioritisation between what happens at home or at work, and it is true whether you have a partner or kids ... whatever the case is,” says Philbert, who moved back to Jamaica three years ago, having migrated to pursue further studies after high school.

She adds: “I think it is about prioritising, it is about being organised, and most importantly, it is about having the right kind of support. For me, it is important to create that infrastructure to support the things that are important to me. It is also important, I think, to set the right kinds of expectations. I think that as women, we tend to be too hard on ourselves. We feel like we need to be all things to all people, and that is a very, very difficult position to put ourselves in. We probably put more pressure on ourselves than everyone else around us because we want to be at the kids’ performance, swim meets; but you also have to be at the meetings and you have to be prepped, but you can’t do it all. One of the things for me is that I had to learn to let go and figure out what is acceptable and what I can manage and support, and I have had to figure out how to take care of myself ... to be able to run my business.”

outlook@gleanerjm.com