Roma Xavier

My key factors to success are resilience in the face of adversity and the support of mentors. I hate to say it, but insults have driven me - people have insulted me and looked down on me. But it takes the right person to look at you and wipe the dust off your face and say, hey, it's okay, pull your big pants up and get to work. The world is so big and has so much hatred, but you've got to make it a positive day. That's how I looked at it in my last 10 years of growing pains - to be silent and be resilient and prove myself to the world, and I did. My secret weapon is being silent, hard work, resilience, being consistent, and being kind to other people. I've had mentors who have been my horsepower to move me in the right direction. John Modiri, my first mentor in marketing and sales, told me I had so much potential and that if I didn't go to school, he couldn't give me a promotion. Hearing that from a man, as a female, was a different perspective, and it really pushed me to go to school and get my career together. In school, I met Art Benjamin, an MIT alumni in the math and computer science area, who really took me under his wings and pushed me to all limits to finish my education.

The values most important to me are mission-driven work, meaningful impact, and human connection. I'm looking forward to working for a mission-driven company with meaningful work. I know we're all centered in AI and data right now, and there's a lot of negative comments about AI, but I work with AI almost every single day and use it for positive research purposes. What I enjoy the most is meeting new people and working with different backgrounds and different learning styles. I get to pick and choose, and I learn from everyone so much, whether it's the executive leadership team, the communication team, R&D engineering, marketing, or product team. People generally make me really happy. Team building, team collaboration, culture, and diverse backgrounds are some of the key things that I enjoy being in business today. I also believe in being kind to other people, though I forgot to be kind to myself. My goal in choosing the tech space is to prove to other women who have been in my footsteps that if I can do it, you can do it. If someone chooses me, I'll make a big impact to their entire organization. Choosing tech will open up many doors for me, and not only for me, it'll open some other doors for the person who did not have that mentorship and chance in life, and that's where I'm willing to give back.