Honoring the Women at Integrate: #IntegrateHer Week 4

This week, we are continuing to celebrate the women at Integrate for National Women’s History Month with stories of their career paths and personal lives. From what led them to Integrate, to the challenges they’ve overcome, to the advice they’d give their younger selves, the women of Integrate are a diverse group of strong and talented women. Read below for our fourth installment of #IntegrateHer stories and check out stories from previous weeks: week 1, week 2 and week 3. Follow us on social (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter) or check back on our blog for more.

Eva Altamira, People Development Manager

1. Tell us about your career path and what led you to Integrate.

I was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago. I’m a people person. I enjoy meeting new people and building connections. After college, I worked at Target as a department manager and loved every minute of the human connection and busy pace. After a year and a half of working holidays, I decided to switch careers. I worked as an account executive for a facilities management company, Vixxo, and naturally fell into running the operations training on-site. Now the really fun part starts, a position became available for Talent Development Specialist in Phoenix, Arizona. At the time, I had never been to Phoenix and didn’t know much about it, but I knew I was interested in pursuing a career in training/HR. I accepted the Talent Development role and 5 months later moved to Phoenix. After over 4 years at Vixxo, I joined Carvana to support all things Talent Development in the Logistics department. Talk about fast-paced and exciting. 1 year and 4 months later, a position at Integrate opened and I had to take a look this interesting organization. I was sold on the position after learning about the initiatives the People team would be working on that are driven by the Employee Experience. Happy & proud to be an Integrator!

2. What has been your biggest challenge over the past year (personally, professionally, or both)?

Living in Phoenix has many perks, including the beautiful weather we get most of the year. However, living in Phoenix means I’m 1,698 miles away from most of my family. Personally, my biggest challenge has been being far away from my family and not seeing them as much as I like. Professionally, my biggest challenge was finding my rhythm being WFH. I struggled with finding a balance between work and personal life because I am a very social person that enjoys spending time with others.

3. Do you have any unique talents?

I can pick the BEST thing on any menu. Also, I’m an expert at looking things up on Google: LMGTFY.

4. What do you do for fun outside of work?

Hiking is fun because it gets you moving, connects you with nature, provides some of the best views and if you have weak ankles like I did back in 2017 it helps you get stronger.

Backpacking is like a slice of pizza. It’s a great experience until it’s gone (or over). It allows me to fully recharge by challenging myself. I carry everything I need on my back and disconnect from the world. My only priority is to hike, hydrate, peep the views and get from point A to point B.

Spending time with my pup Rizzo! She is almost 3 and requires all of the attention and pets. We are part of an agility club that we go to once a week, she’s wicked fast.

All things food are fun for me! I love to cook and grill. I love to learn about things I can make on my own at home. I can make my own almond milk, Bitchin’ Sauce, almond butter, pizza dough, orange juice *without a juicer.* It’s fun exploring alternatives to store bought things.

5. What is one thing you’d tell your younger self?

Phoenix is great, you should look into moving there sooner.

6. Which one of our cultural pillars do you most align with?

Innovation. I’m a persistent problem solver that enjoys finding creative solutions.

Jacqueline Natz, Account Executive

1. Tell us about your career path and what led you to Integrate.

I left college with aspiration to be in television. I packed my bags 2 weeks after college and moved from Indiana to New York City where I shuffled between television production jobs like the CBS Early Show and the Judge Hatchett Show. I quickly discovered that the rigor of TV production and the lack of benefits was unsustainable, so with a little mentorship and guidance, I shifted over into sales as a Sales Assistant for NBC Universal. It became clear to me through assisting the sales team, at NBC that I was destined for a career in Media Sales, but I needed to learn the ins and outs of the business. I transitioned over to CNET (now CBS Interactive) as an Account Coordinator, first trafficking and managing campaigns, then was promoted into Account Management for BNET, a B2B focused site that no longer exists.

I got my first real sales break in 2010, when I was hired by a mentor as the first Account Executive in the current iteration of Ziff Davis. I then spent the next 5 years really getting my feet at Ziff Davis, where I watched the company transform from being bought out of bankruptcy, to creating some of the first programmatic solutions in the space, to going public with J2 Global, and I got to be on the front line of selling this innovation. These were some of the best career growth years of my life. I dabbled in management, ultimately deciding, after the birth of my daughter that managing my family was enough and that, for the time being, I truly thrived as an individual contributor.

Shortly after the birth of my daughter, I made a huge leap to WIRED Media Group, a Conde Nast division, where the glamour began. I travelled globally on behalf of clients like Google and Samsung, developed multimillion-dollar print, digital and physical event sponsorships that took me to places like Romania for the Bitdefender Marketing Conference, San Francisco for the Launch of WIRED25, Austin for SXSW and Vegas for CES. It was a real career high, but a life of intense entertaining, late nights, early mornings and a lot of travel. As a new Mom (and soon after, single Mom), I started to miss my daughter who was in daycare from 7am to 6pm while I commuted back and forth. I feared I would blink, and she would be a teenager and I would regret not having taken the time to be a Mom. I was burning out from trying to balance both.

After 3 years at Conde Nast, I knew I needed to make a major change out of the publisher scene and into a job that would allow me more work/life balance. This shift in mindset married my desire to leave consumer sales, which is what I felt was the source of the burnout. I did some soul searching and physical searching to find the right fit for me from a lifestyle perspective. I interviewed a bit, and I found job listings on LinkedIn for the SAD position at Integrate. Alex King, Director of Global Talent Acquisition, and I connected – he told me that truth be told, I was in his queue to contact. It was serendipity! While my lack of software experience probably didn’t translate into the SAD role, there was a newly formed display team, at the time called Listenloop, which would be a great fit for my tech-forward, programmatic sales experience. At Integrate I found a place where I could execute on the career I love without compromising my obligations as a mother. My daughter, now 6, asks me every day why I work from home and don’t go into the city. Other than the pandemic, I tell her, Mommy made the choice to be with her and make sure I don’t miss a minute of her life.

2. What has been your biggest challenge over the past year (personally, professionally, or both)?

Bar none, learning how to balance virtual learning and working. Integrate has been so supportive! It’s actually made me better with multi-tasking and learning how to work smarter.

3. Do you have any unique talents?

Not really. My life of moving around and adjusting constantly to new environments has made me pretty resilient and flexible. I rely on those things a lot.

4. What do you do for fun outside of work?

The pandemic drew my family to the outdoors much more and ultimately led us to buy a home in the Poconos where we’ve been skiing, playing games like pickleball, hiking etc…

5. What is one thing you’d tell your younger self?

Buckle up! I’d also tell her, “it’s media, not brain surgery…relax.”

6. Which one of our cultural pillars do you most align with?

Radical Candor – I can’t help being brutally honest.

Meryl Krich, Project Manager

1. Tell us about your career path and what led you to Integrate.

Most of my career has been spent in for-profit higher education, specifically in the field of allied health. In 2016, I was given the opportunity to launch a new campus for a Denver-based tech bootcamp in Phoenix, Arizona. I fell in love with technology, innovation and the culture that is embedded in the start-up community. Knowing that I had found the industry in which I wanted to further my career, I joined an international EdTech start-up. I learned a lot about working with diverse teams across the globe and the importance of structure and process to ensure success. I decided to advance my career by obtaining my Project Management Professional (PMP) certification and a position with a tech company as a project manager. Enter Integrate!

2. What has been your biggest challenge over the past year (personally, professionally, or both)?

For everyone, working in a pandemic has been the challenge of a lifetime. A career shift within this new Zoom-centric world was difficult at best. I found that having the right mentors, friends, and family encouraging me to follow my passion provided the direction I needed to continue my journey.

3. Do you have any unique talents?

Is sarcasm a talent?

4. What do you do for fun outside of work?

My hobbies include bowling, scuba diving, and playing poker. My husband and I actually met at a poker table. If I had a bucket list it would include winning a bracelet at the World Series of Poker in the Ladies Texas Holdem Championship.

5. What is one thing you’d tell your younger self?

Don’t base your decisions on other people’s opinions. Only your opinion matters because you are the only one who has to live with the outcomes.

6. Which one of our cultural pillars do you most align with?

#RadicalCandor: In all my years as a manager, director and leader, my team members have always appreciated my communication style. It has helped them find their voices in the feedback cycle and propelled them to achieve more than they imagined.

Lauren Manturi, Manager, Campaign Management

1. Tell us about your career path and what led you to Integrate.

My career started in 2016 as a Sales Coordinator for IDG Communications. In this role I fell in love with the martech space. As I grew in my role, I found my passion for project management and enablement. After three great years at IDG, I decided to make the move to Integrate. Many of my clients had been Integrate users, so I was familiar with the product and had seen the value first-hand. I started at Integrate as a Campaign Manager where I was able to grow my technical experience and expand my program management knowledge base. Flash forward two years, and I’m still as in awe of our product as the day I started.

2. What has been your biggest challenge over the past year (personally, professionally, or both)?

Living during a global pandemic has presented many challenges. If I had to choose the hardest, it would be dealing with managing my mental health. I have always battled with anxiety, but this year it has been heightened to a level that I have never experienced. This challenge has taught me to be honest about what I can and can’t handle. It has forced me to set boundaries both professionally and personally. In the past, this is a struggle I’ve kept to myself and a small circle. This year I’ve learned not to be ashamed and to own the barriers in my life. In being more open, I hope to show others it is okay to admit you need space for mental health and also serve as a resource for how not to let these challenges hold you back.

3. Do you have any unique talents?

Nothing unique yet— but, I’m currently taking multiple Master Classes so hopefully I’ll come out of quarantine with a better answer. 😉

4. What do you do for fun outside of work?

I love to bake, workout and endlessly scroll Pinterest.

5. What is one thing you’d tell your younger self?

“A flower does not compete with the flower next to it. It just blooms.” I heard this quote a few years ago and it has been my go-to source of motivation ever since. We all have our own paths and timelines. Sometimes we forget how special our own path is when we’re so focused on watching others.

6. Which one of our cultural pillars do you most align with?

As a leader, I align heavily with the pillar of trust. Much of my role is helping my team get from point A to point B, whether that be in professional development, account work or process enablement. My team has to trust me to guide them in the right direction and to make sure that they’re enabled with all of the necessary resources. This is a concept I think about a lot in my day-to-day. It encourages me to continue my own development so I can grow as a resource for my team. Luckily, I have awesome leaders to learn from and to go to for guidance myself.

Deb Wolf, Chief Marketing Officer

1. Tell us about your career path and what led you to Integrate.

Cal Poly –> Advertising agencies X 2 –> PeopleSoft –> Commerce One –> Independent Contractor –> Notiva –> Mercury Interactive –> Workday –> Lookout –> BetterUp –> Integrate. I’ve spent 30+ years in B2B marketing, which means I started way before it was cool to be in tech and the consumerization of IT was a thing. The first part of my career was spent in brand and advertising until I found myself as the first full-time marketing person at Workday with a name, a logo, three pages on a website, and very hungry salespeople who need to be fed. It was 2006 and martech was just becoming a thing. We had the good fortune of building our pipeline at the same time we were building our tech stack and overnight my career took a sharp left turn into demand. I’m a 3X Integrate customer having bought first at Workday, then at Lookout, and later at BetterUp. Now I get to drink our champagne every day as Integrate’s CMO. 2.What has been your biggest challenge over the past year (personally, professionally, or both)? If you asked me my superpower, I’d tell you it was putting great teams together. Starting a new role during the pandemic has made that particularly difficult as I’m still waiting to hug all our team members and have a glass of wine together.

3. Do you have any unique talents?

I excel at cooking for 20+ people…not so much for 4.

4. What do you do for fun outside of work?

The pandemic blessed me with a bonus year with my 22- and 20-year-old children who are spending their senior and sophomore college years at home. We’ve had endless movie weekends and adopted a pandemic puppy. Separately I’ve challenged myself to read 52 books in 2021 and am well on my way.

5. What is one thing you’d tell your younger self?

Get more sleep.

6. Which one of our cultural pillars do you most align with?

Integrate’s pillars are so perfectly layered together that it’s hard to align with just one, but the thing that resonates with me most is that they are all built with the customer at the center.

Regan Hamilton, Digital Marketing Manager

1. Tell us about your career path and what led you to Integrate.

While I’ve been in marketing since college, I’ve tested out a few different company verticals to find what I like best. Fresh out of college, I worked for a startup. I loved the agility of that team and learned a lot about sales, product, CS and marketing all at once. Then, I worked at an IT consultancy in Boston where I focused on demand and digital marketing. After deciding that both of those weren’t for me, I landed at an agency specializing in paid search and social. Around this time, I also started pursuing my masters in global marketing management. While studying broader marketing strategy and its implications on global companies, I got the itch to move to an in-house role with a growing global presence. However, I also wanted a company with startup agility and enterprise level management. Thankfully, my friend (and now colleague), Emily introduced me to Integrate!

2. What has been your biggest challenge over the past year (personally, professionally, or both)?

My biggest challenge over the past year has been adjusting to the remote lifestyle– remote work, remote socializing, etc. It was certainly a unique experience onboarding to a new company without meeting coworkers face to face, so I am definitely looking forward to meeting the team in person one day.

3. Do you have any unique talents?

I can sing “I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys in Mandarin.

4. What do you do for fun outside of work?

I am really into trying new restaurants and bars in Boston (that hobby has been put on hold for a while). To balance that out, I’m also very into fitness. My go-tos are spinning and boxing right now and I gotten more creative during quarantine, since those things are easy to do inside. I also taught myself how to crochet and made my soon-to-be-born niece a very average looking baby blanket.

5. What is one thing you’d tell your younger self?

Growth isn’t comfortable. I have found that the most growth, both personal and professional, comes when you’re the most uncomfortable.

6. Which one of our cultural pillars do you most align with?

I align most with our performance pillar. Specifically, I love that we are encouraged to be the CEO of our own job. I think this empowers employees across the org to do the highest quality of work and to be proud of it.

Quinn Shapiro, Financial Analyst

1. Tell us about your career path and what led you to Integrate.

Before Integrate, I was working in FP&A at a huge company. While it was a great company, it was not the best fit for me. I operated in a silo and I didn’t have a lot of space to be creative or collaborative. A former colleague of mine reached out to me about a position that had just opened up at their new company and encouraged me to apply. That new company was Integrate. After some warm welcomes and great conversations, I walked out of the interview feeling energized, passionate, and like this was really a great fit. Two+ years in and I’m still just as excited to be part of this org as I was on day 1. I am so thankful to be part of a team where I can be creative, drive outcomes, and add value to the growth of our business. All while being surrounded by some of the most fabulous folks I’ve ever had the pleasure to know.

2. What has been your biggest challenge over the past year (personally, professionally, or both)?

Like many others, adjusting to Covid life has been a challenge. I feel fortunate to have the ability work remotely during this time – thank you to Integrate for making that possible. I’ve had such minimal disruption that I often feel like I am one of the more fortunate people who have been impacted by this pandemic. The biggest challenges of this era have been the prolonged inability to travel and explore freely, and also feeling disconnected from friends and family. I am quite nomadic, traveling internationally and domestically every chance I get, so I am missing these times and I look forward to the day that I can be out bouncing around again. While I’m based in Arizona, my family is all back on the East Coast. It has been challenging to be so disconnected from them for so long. Visiting home will certainly be my first trip!

3. Do you have any unique talents?

I’m a creative at heart and I love creating art of any kind. My primary medium is paint on canvas, but I also love to play around with other mediums, such as photography and photo editing, digital art (programs like procreate), or wood burning projects. I fell in love with art during college and ended up adding a Minor in Fine Art & Design to my education track. I’ve also exhibited in art shows, vended at music festivals, and supported myself fully for ~3 years in school doing freelance painting. These days I use art as a creative outlet in my spare time to make my heart happy. I’m also a self-taught pianist and I love learning the piano riffs to my favorite hip hop tracks. I’m continually amazed at how my connection with music is deepened by further understanding music theory and learning the notes and chords myself. While these may be talents, they are truly my passions. My DSLR, my keyboard, and my paintbrush are part of me 🙂

4. What do you do for fun outside of work?

Travel! I have a deep passion for exploring new places. I’ve been to a handful of countries and I plan to travel to a hundred more when we can do so safely. It’s a dream of mine to live remotely in a van or other camper vehicle for a spell. I love to be outdoors surrounded by mountains, trees, or water. If I’m not out chasing adventures and sunsets, I’m experiencing live music (please come back), creating art, playing piano, practicing yoga, skiing, camping, reading books, and listening to podcasts. I love to learn and try out new things. I don’t watch much TV anymore, but I’ll still quote whatever joke you want from The Office.

5. What is one thing you’d tell your younger self?

Focus less on what you believe is right and focus more on what you know is right for you.

6. Which one of our cultural pillars do you most align with?

#trust #innovation