Full Session Description

It’s critical that dev leaders continually inspire and better their teams for continued innovation and excellence. Mary Beth’s leadership on Blackbaud’s platform strategy, architecture modernization and culture shift has allowed for the evolution of Blackbaud’s technology from legacy on-premises and hosted applications to an agile development model with solutions implemented on Blackbaud SKY®, the company’s platform for social good cloud innovation. Mary Beths’ continued leadership now also allows for new critical features that help social good organizations better operate and fulfill their missions to be rolled out in a matter of days.Mary Beth will share the keys to managing dev teams to increased innovation and success, including:· Creating a “safe” environment for productive disagreement· Giving teams problems to solve, not solutions to implement· Creating an environment of autonomy, mastery and purpose· Celebrating failing fast· Pivoting quickly· Translating direction from the C-suite in a way that sets teams up for successShe’ll also share the four biggest lessons learned along the way as a leader in Blackbaud’s transformation, including:· The hard stuff isn’t the code. It’s the culture.· Reiterate and stick to your principles.· Be ready to fail.· Code wasn’t our secret sauce.

Mary Beth Westmoreland

CTO @ Blackbaud

About the author

Mary Beth Westmoreland is Blackbaud’s Chief Technology Officer, responsible for leading worldwide product, technology and analytics strategy, architecture, user experience and innovation across the company’s entire solution portfolio.Mary Beth joined Blackbaud in 2008 and has over 30 years of experience in software engineering and product development. Prior to Blackbaud, Mary Beth was vice president of research and development at Ipswitch, Inc. where she led software engineering, design, and operations across the company’s global product portfolio. Before Ipswitch, she spent 15 years at the Savannah River National Laboratory where she started as a programmer and eventually managed the company’s Enterprise and Technical Systems Engineering organizations. In both 2019 and 2017, Mary Beth was named one of the Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology by the National Diversity Council – a definitive list that honors the most extraordinary female leaders, influencers and achievers impacting the technology industry. She has been recognized for her leadership in Blackbaud’s transformation to a cloud software company that is innovative, agile and successful, for her mentorship of other women, and for her commitment to corporate citizenship.Mary Beth is a trustee at her alma mater, Immaculata University, where she graduated with a degree in Mathematics and Physics. She is also a member of the Advisory board of Clemson University’s College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences, a founding board member of Charleston Women in Tech, and is actively involved in a variety of STEM programs, Women in Technology initiatives and other nonprofits.