Gabriela Martinez (she/her)

Gabriela Martinez (she/her) is a Growth Sales Director at Vox Media, focused on breaking new business and creating new advertising revenue streams. She has ten years of sales experience working in media and entertainment, specifically within high growth digital companies. Prior to her current role, she was based out of Sydney, Australia helping BuzzFeed build their APAC business. Throughout her career, she has contributed to the ever-changing landscape of online media — from the early days of streaming video on demand (SVOD) during her time at Hulu to evangelizing global branded content partnerships and beyond.

Gabriela earned a Masters in Business Administration from NYU Leonard N. Stern School of Business, with a concentration in Finance and Marketing. She received her Bachelor’s degree from Boston College, with a major in Communications and Studio Art. Outside of work, you can often find her traveling abroad and spending time with her partner, Nick, and their puppy, Lemmy.

1/ When did you know that you wanted to work in tech?

To be honest, the tech life found me! I knew I was interested in Media after having interned at HBO in college. I found it challenging and fun from a personal standpoint, and being in the know of pop culture was interesting to me. During my first job at ESPN, I saw that media consumption habits were changing, specifically with television losing viewership to online portals. At the time, Netflix was disrupting its own business and the media industry by offering streaming video alongside its long standing DVD rental service. An old coworker told me about this new player on the scene called Hulu. I looked around my then television-based office and knew that I wanted to be a part of something different. So I joined the small Hulu team in New York, and the rest is history.

From a personal standpoint, being a part of the build is what I find extremely satisfying. That’s the thing about tech — if you’re doing something right, then you’re always building and pushing past the status quo.

2/ Who is a role model that you look up to?

My mother has always been that person that I wanted to emulate. She immigrated to the United States when she was 17, during the early 1970s while El Salvador was in civil war. Without speaking the language and being a foreign child from little means, she was able to create an amazing life for herself and my father. She worked hard, learned English, and went to college. She’s been a teacher for decades now, impacting the lives of children in New York City public schools. I have always been able to look at her and say to myself, “Wow, if she can do all of that with what she started with, I should be able to conquer it all.”

3/ Where is your hometown?

I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.

4/ What is a struggle that you’ve faced and how did you handle it?

Since both of my parents were teachers, education was the highest priority in our home. I was fortunate enough to attend The Lawrenceville School for high school, which is a prestigious boarding school in New Jersey. Though those years were some of the best in my life, it was also the first time that I truly felt like an outsider. At the time, I was one of very few Latin students in the school, let alone Latin women.

I struggled to feel comfortable in my own skin, while in a predominantly wealthy and white community. It took years for me to stop looking outward to find validation. As I matured, I realized that what made me different, both culturally and socio-economically, made my point of view unique. That high school experience prepared me for the tech industry, where women of color are vastly underrepresented. As one of them, I have to dig deep often and find my own validation by knowing I am more than qualified to have a seat at the table.

5/ What is something that you are immensely proud of?

I decided to get my MBA during my time at Hulu. I also knew that I didn’t want to leave the company because we were doing something innovative and seeing growing success. So, I opted to go to NYU part-time.

The concept of going to school for three or four years to get a two year degree wasn’t an option for me, so I met with a Stern academic counselor at school and walked through what an accelerated program would look like for me. Essentially, it would mean I would be working full time, and going to school full time by dedicating my night and weekends (winter and summer semesters included) for two years straight. I decided to take the challenge on, and was one of the first students to pioneer what is now Sterns’ accelerated MBA program.

I’m proud of this for so many reasons. First, I became the first person in my family to get a Master’s degree. Secondly, Latinx students constitute a small percentage of total enrollment for MBA programs. And lastly, I was able to help build a new part of the part-time MBA program that wasn’t established before.

6/ What’s something that’s been on your mind a lot lately?

The representation of women of color in leadership positions in our industry. Though this always seems to be on the broader diversity agendas of Fortune 500 companies, the examples of them turning to reality are few and far between. As an industry, we have to be more dedicated to diversifying our hires, because different and unique experiences bring new ideas and processes. Qualified candidates exist, we just have to ensure that they are included in the conversation.

7/ Favorite food?

Pizza!

8/ Favorite book?

A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami

9/ If you could try another job for a day, what would it be?

An astronaut. Dedicating your life to space exploration must be so challenging and so insanely rewarding. Who wouldn’t want to go on a mission to the moon or Mars?

10. If you could give your 18-year-old self a piece of advice, what would it be?

Focus less on what you think others want from you and more on what you want for yourself.

Karina Canales (she/her)

Karina Canales is a Sales Insights Manager at Google. Prior to Google, she had six years of experience in digital marketing and business intelligence at a Peruvian bank. She holds an MBA from Wharton, University of Pennsylvania, with a major in Statistics, Marketing, and Management, as well as a Master’s degree in Marketing from Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas. She received a degree in Systems Engineering from the Universidad Nacional de Ingenieria (Peru).

1. When did you know that you wanted to work in tech?

My passion for technology started at the age of nine through a course in school in which I discovered computers and it was love at first sight. This passion has developed throughout the years. By the time I was 13, I had created my own website on rented computers. When I was 15, I asked my parents for a computer instead of the traditional 15-year-old birthday party. Although my first PC was second-hand, it was the best present I ever received. At the age of 18, I had my first blog, one of the first ones in Peru back in 2004. I loved interacting with people from all over the globe. This was one of the reasons that I studied Systems Engineering. Since then, technology has driven my work experience.

2. Where is your hometown?

I grew up in Mala, a small town in the outskirts of Lima.

3. What is a struggle that you’ve faced and how did you handle it?

When I finished school, I decided to apply to the college with the most difficult admissions test in Peru: Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería (UNI) to study Systems Engineering. Their annual admissions test is taken exclusively to be accepted into UNI and lasts a total of nine hours over the course of three days. Furthermore, UNI is a public school and the best college to study Engineering in Peru, so it is in very high demand. The UNI admission test is so difficult to pass that there are institutes that specialize in helping prospective students prepare for it.

I spent the whole summer after graduating from high school studying for the exam an institute. In February 2003, I took the admissions test and did not pass it. The competition was steep and the admittance rate in my major that year was less than 5%. I felt terrible. Not only had I failed to get into college, but I felt that I had disappointed my parents. They told me they understood that the test was very difficult, but I knew that they were concerned because they had no money to pay for a private school education and I could have just lost the opportunity to earn a college degree.

Right then, I made a decision: I would apply to UNI again the next year. I studied all day, every day for the entire year. I gave up all the activities of a normal 17-year-old girl. Three months later, I won a scholarship at the institute due to my strong grades. From that moment on, my parents never had to pay for my education again. In February 2004, I took the test again and succeeded.

I entered UNI with the 1st place in my major and 3rd place overall among all 8,000 applicants! In addition, I won a full five-year scholarship granted by the German corporation Siemens after a selection process which included interviews and additional exams. I learned that I must have a clear objective, define a strategy, and focus all my efforts on the goal to achieve it. Furthermore, I realized that hard work leads to big rewards.

4. What is something that you are immensely proud of?

I feel very proud of my experience in the non-governmental organization (NGO) Un Techo para mi País (similar to Habitat for Humanity). I joined as a volunteer in 2007 when a college friend told me about this new initiative to build housing for the poorest people in my country and to implement a plan to help them achieve an economically self-sustaining community.

A month later, on August 15th, an earthquake destroyed several cities in Peru, causing them to go into a state of emergency. The most affected town was Pisco. Many volunteers were called to go into the disaster area but only a few had experience in building houses, so I took the role of construction leader. We travelled to Pisco by ship because all access roads were destroyed. When we arrived, the outlook was bleak. Everything was destroyed, hundreds of people had died, and thousands more were left homeless.

The goal of my team was to build 3 houses in 4 days. A house takes 2 days of work so we had to do what would typically be a 6-day job in just 4 day, with no experienced volunteers! It was a difficult challenge but not impossible. I focused on the goal and conveyed it to the team clearly. We worked hard every day from 7 AM to midnight. The area in which we worked had no electricity, so we used candles for light. We slept outdoors in sleeping bags and had to eat only soup for days. I proved to myself that I am persistent and can do my best even in extreme situations.

At the end of the 4 days we achieved the goal! All the teams combined built more than 100 houses benefiting over 500 people. After this amazing experience, I continued to lead construction teams for 4 more years in various cities throughout Peru.

5. Favorite food?

Peruvian Rotisserie Chicken. I have a tradition of eating it every year in my birthday.

6. Favorite book?

One day I found a book in my mom’s library called More Than One Thousand Problems of Algebra and I loved it! I liked solving those problems more than watching TV or playing any game. Thanks to this book, my passion for math grew and at the age of 8, I won my first national math contest.

7. If you could give your 18-year-old self a piece of advice, what would it be?

I can summarize my advice in 7 tips:

1. Be humble, even genius people have a lot to learn. One learns more by asking and listening than talking.

2. Don’t be afraid to speak up. Share what it is on your mind and your accomplishments. “More important that knowing is communicating properly what you know”.

3. Surround yourself with positive people. People who believe in you and in your dreams.

4. Find a mentor for every goal you have. Nobody can give you better guidance than someone who has already accomplished the goal you want to achieve.

5. Take a 5-min break every day to think about your true purpose. Why do you do what you’re doing? No wrong answers here. The key is to remember every day what your motivation is and then get back to work.

6. Prioritize yourself and your future. You will always have opportunities to explore the world and do crazy things, but if you keep your dream/motivation in mind, you will prioritize your future over your present. If you don’t do it, nobody else will do it for you.

7. Do all of the above with a smile, always. Smiling makes you more approachable, friendly, and happy. Smiling will not only help you achieve your goals but it will also help you enjoy the journey.