Over the last 12 months, Nerea Gandarias has been appointed 8x8’s Global Field and Channel Marketing leader and a finalist in this year’s Women in Tech Excellence Awards. We learn more about the year she’s had and her Enterprise Team Leader of the Year nomination in the interview below.

8x8: What's it like working at 8x8?

Nerea Gandarias (NG): I love it. I get to work with intelligent and inspiring people every day and I feel that I’m challenged to bring my best self to work every day. The company has a clear vision and strategic goals which helps to build a strong culture. I love contributing to that; working with people and building teams that are bigger than the sum of their parts.

8x8: Do you have the career you envisioned for yourself?

NG: My career is probably bigger, better and different to what I envisioned it a long time ago. Getting here has not been a linear journey. I have a chequered background having worked as a translator, as a BDR, in Sales and in office management before finally deciding that Marketing was my home. I’ve been lucky to get opportunities, but also brave enough to take them and make the most of them. That becomes a virtuous cycle.

Sometimes it’s easier to say “no” to things that take you out of your comfort zone, but being open, having a curious mind, and saying “yes” is how you progress.

8x8: Since we last spoke, you have also been appointed an 8x8 EMEA UK regional leader. How do you feel about this opportunity?

NG: The UK is a strategic region for 8x8, and it is a genuine honour to be entrusted with that responsibility. The goal is to drive cross-functional, regional identity and culture. While I’ve been in Marketing for a long time, early in my career I worked as an office manager, an underrated job that I loved and made my own. This role has many similarities. It’s about people and building a culture. I’m incredibly excited to help drive the culture of collaboration and success we have in the UK.

I’ve also been recently appointed VP of Global Field and Channel Marketing, which means that in addition to our international regions, I now also cover the US. I’m eager to share best practices across regions and ensure we leverage the amazing talent and skills we’ve got worldwide.

8x8: What do you see as your key priorities? What does success look like?

NG: There are a lot of exciting things happening in our industry, and I want to help bolster 8x8’s reputation as a great place for employees to work at and for customers and partners to work with. In all my roles though, the goals are the same. It’s about driving business results and fostering high-performing and collaborative teams that are empowered to perform individually and collectively.

8x8: What's been the biggest surprise for you in the last 12 months? What is the achievement you’re most proud of?

NG: There’s been a lot of change in the industry and at 8x8 over the last 12 months and I wouldn’t call it a “surprise,” but I’ve been impressed and proud of the speed my team has adapted and responded to it. Our newly launched contact centre innovation roadshows are a great example. They’ve been a pivotal part of our go-to-market strategy and our team has made them an incredible success. They provide a setting for our customers and partners to engage with us and contribute to our product roadmap. We’ve created a very strong two-way conversation.

8x8: Are there barriers for women wanting to work in tech/SaaS?

NG: The barriers today are lower than they were just a few years ago, but we still have a long way to go. I’d highlight three areas of importance. First, there’s an underrepresentation of women in leadership and technical roles in general. That means there are too few female role models in the industry to inspire younger women. Second, there’s still a pay disparity. To truly remove barriers to women, that basic issue of equal and fair pay needs to be fixed. And third, the lack of work-life balance impacts women more because we often have more caregiving responsibilities outside of work.

It's encouraging that companies like 8x8 are actively addressing pay disparity and promoting more women. Work-life balance can be helped with flexibility, but this is the hardest issue to address because women often feel we must work twice as hard to do the same job; we’re constantly having to prove ourselves.

8x8: What more could/should men be doing to ensure it's a level workplace?

NG: Men can be advocates for women in the workplace. They should also question it when they walk into boardrooms that are overwhelmingly male. Men can speak up and help secure the proper gender balance. It benefits everyone—all genders as well as the business as a whole.

Men can play a huge role in mentoring women, share experiences with them, and work to understand the experiences of women. Some of the best mentors I’ve had are men. We need to focus on removing the unconscious biases too and have more conversations about these things; we can’t be shy about talking about gender equality.

I took my teenage son to a careers fair recently and we sat in a lecture on “STEMinism” which was about encouraging women into science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). I was incredibly encouraged to see that half the audience was made up of teenage boys. This is a very positive sign for the future.

8x8: In terms of equality, do you think things have progressed in the last 12 months?

NG: In our sector, I’ve never felt like there’s been more discussion around women in the workplace, and that’s having positive effects. It’s shifting people’s mindsets at work and moving people towards fixing things. 8x8 is proactive about changing and improving things. If I look at myself, I’ve had many opportunities at 8x8 and there are increasingly more women being promoted to senior leadership roles. I hope that eventually we will no longer need talk about women in tech, or about minorities in tech. Equality should be a given.

8x8: How do you feel about being a finalist in the Women in Tech Excellence Awards for 2023?

NG: Incredibly humbled and proud. It also comes with a big responsibility. We all recognise women are underrepresented in the tech sector, and that there aren’t enough role models. I see it as my job to help change that. As I grow in my career, I have to be more active about being a role model and contribute to filling that gap. Often the roles we take on can be more important than we first realise, and that brings with them new responsibilities that we must take seriously.

8x8: Your nomination is very prestigious. What advice would you give to women starting their careers who wanted to make a similar impact or advance to leadership roles?

NG: First and foremost, you have to believe in yourself. It’s also really important to build a network that’s going to enrich you and who you can learn from. I’d encourage women to connect with others, regardless of seniority, and find common ground. People like to be approached, they like people who are interested in what they do. By networking you also learn about yourself. It can remind you of your talents and give you a new understanding of the value you bring.

Read more in 8x8’s Women in Tech series