Her Story
About Geraldine
Geraldine Mascardo is a telecommunications professional with 25 years of experience. She earned her bachelor's degree in psychology, which provided a foundation in scientific methods and organization that she applied when transitioning into the technology space after completing her studies. Mascardo spent 15 years building her career in the Asia Pacific market within the telecom industry before moving to the United States, where she has spent the last 10 years with AT&T. Representing Santa Clara, California, her role centers on connecting and aligning resources to meet customer business needs while driving internal collaboration across legal, procurement, project management, and executive leadership teams. In a male-dominated field, she emphasizes the importance of influential leadership that empowers others, builds trust, and creates opportunities for team and organizational success. Mascardo advises aspiring professionals to prioritize relationship-building and trust over chasing titles, noting that success stems from meaningful networks, continuous learning, and lifting others as one grows.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Geraldine
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I think it's really finding how you will work towards getting into not a leadership role per se. Chasing after title, I would say work into building relationships, building trust. The important piece here is relationship. That is the time that you will build your network and get a buy-in for those people that wanted to be part of your network. And it's not about title. Title doesn't win you becoming a leader. This career has taught me that success is really just not just individual achievement. It comes to building meaningful relationships, and staying committed to continuous learning too. And don't forget to lift others as you grow. Never forget the impact that you could make on your customers, and not just for your external customers. It's important too that you do that with your internal customers, meaning the organization that you work with, your peers, and even to the next generation of leaders too as you grow.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Opportunities because this has been transformational in a male-dominated industry. The biggest one that we need to make a dent is being an influential leader rather. Ultimately you wanted to empower others, build trust, and create opportunities for the people and organization to succeed, and as well as to have your team be successful in achieving goals and objectives.
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