Heidi Malden

I have to say it's my mom. My mom was a single mom, and I'm the first person to go to college on both sides of my family, and that is 100% all her doing. She wanted me to have a different life than what she had and what all of her family members had, and she pushed me. She pushed me to do things that were outside of my comfort zone. I remember even when I was in high school and I got to calculus, she just looked at me and said, 'I no longer can help you. You need to figure out how to help yourself.' I remember being frustrated because my friends had parents that were able to help them, and she said, 'This is your story. You need to figure out how to find your own answers, because you're not always going to have the answer, but the person that wins is the person who can figure out how to find the answer. So go out and figure it out.' I got my drive watching my mom. She worked so hard, and she had multiple jobs to make me different than everybody else in that family.

The best advice came from my mom when I was struggling with calculus in high school. She told me, 'You need to figure out how to find your own answers, because you're not always going to have the answer, but the person that wins is the person who can figure out how to find the answer.' That lesson about being resourceful and finding solutions on my own, rather than always having someone to help me, has been fundamental to my success throughout my career.

When it comes to women specifically, I think we all have to remember that we've earned our right to be at the table. I think that young women, and even older women, myself included, we sometimes question that. We get to the table, and we look around, and we see a lot of people that might be a different gender, or we feel like maybe we haven't done what's necessary to be at that table, but we have. And I don't think men have that same question. They all just assume they have the right to be there, and we need to have that same thought process. We've earned the right to be at the table. If you've been invited, you've earned it. Be there, and be there strong.

When AI first came out in business, it was kind of like the new shiny toy that everybody wanted to play with, and it was like, yeah, it might be a nice-to-have. There were a lot of concerns about hallucinations and everything, but I think it's starting to settle in with businesses that this is not a nice-to-have, and it is not a shiny new toy. It is the way business is moving in the future, and if people don't start adopting it now and understanding how to make their companies cutting edge with AI, they might be left behind. I did the same thing about 12 years ago with analytics. I was with a business analytics company, and that was considered a nice-to-have, not a must-have, and so it was hard to sell until everybody kind of got on board and realized if you don't have analytics, you're not running your business correctly. I see the exact same movement happening with AI.

I think being human really matters more than anything else, especially now with the whole AI onset. Having those human connections and making sure that you're being empathetic to those that might have needs beyond your own is incredibly important to me. I'm very active in philanthropic organizations and giving back to the community. Business-wise and even personal-wise, AI is a huge component, but we can't forget that we're all human, and humans need interactions. Working with humans and giving back is something that I'm super passionate about. I've done charity rides through Malawi, Africa helping with AIDS relief, gone to Jordan to help Assyrian refugees with pre- and postnatal care information, and been president of National Charity League, a mother-daughter organization that really connects you with your local community.