"Effective Leadership and How to Earn Trust as a Leader"
"Effective Leadership and How to Earn Trust as a Leader"
25 - 2:20 PM EDT/New York (See in local time)
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05/25/2025 2:20 PM
05/25/2025 02:40 PM
America/New_York
#WTGC2025
"Effective Leadership and How to Earn Trust as a Leader"
#WTGC2025
"Effective Leadership and How to Earn Trust as a Leader"
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https://www.womentech.net/ringcentral
"Effective Leadership and How to Earn Trust as a Leader"
"Effective Leadership and How to Earn Trust as a Leader"
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Session: Effective Leadership and How to Earn Trust as a Leader
As Senior Director of System Design and Mission Assurance, Qi has worked in the Autonomous Vehicle (AV) industry for eight years and in large-scale systems safety for over a decade. During her time at Zoox, she has cultivated a robust safety culture and strategy process, leading safety engineering efforts and safety performance across the company. In her talk, Qi will discuss her leadership philosophy of employing and mentoring an effective safety team and how optimism and transparency are key to her leadership.Qi feels strongly that executing safety starts at the top by being an influential technical leader. Striking a balance between the technical rigors of the job while also being the team's biggest cheerleader. When working on a groundbreaking and innovative project, like launching self-driving robotaxis, it's natural for people to have doubts and fears, especially when deeply involved in their work over many years. In her talk, Qi will discuss the role of being a positive cheerleader, encouraging the team to persevere, especially during stressful times, by sharing a vision of optimism, curiosity, and providing encouragement. The idea is to foster unity and motivation and keep the team on track to push through any doubts and tackle the challenging journey together.
Key Takeaways
- The key to effective leadership is trust and optimism.
- Not knowing all the answers can actually be a benefit and asking many questions and having curiosity plays a key role in career progression
- Your career is a series of chapters and collected experiences that makes you resilient and enables you to prepare for a new career that, perhaps, didn’t exist several decades ago, like the Autonomous Vehicle industry.
Bio
Qi Hommes is the Senior Director, System Design and Mission Assurance at Zoox. Her team is responsible for defining the safety strategy for each Zoox milestone, prioritizing and driving safety engineering efforts across the company accordingly, and building up the Safety Case to provide safety clearance before milestones. Prior to joining Zoox, Qi was the Head of System Safety with Waymo, building up Waymo's System Safety process and System Safety team from ground up, both of which played key roles in the Waymo One launch. Qi's career spanned across private industry, government, and academia. Her experiences include systems engineering with the traditional automotive companies (Ford and GM), Principal Investigator for the US Department of Transportation supporting NHTSA's automotive safety research, and Research Scientist with MIT and core instructor of the Systems Engineering class. Qi holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, specialized in the theory and methodology for the design and development of large complex systems.Nadini Sahabandu, a seasoned business consultant and visionary product leader, brings over 14 years of expertise in Information Technology. Sri Lankan born and now based in Canada, Nadini's diverse career has spanned continents, including the UK, Australia, North America, and Asia. Currently contributing her skills to a leading Canadian insurance company, Nadini excels in leading cross-functional teams and driving product and digital transformation projects. Her proficiency encompasses consulting, product management, marketing, business analysis, strategic solutioning, sales, and portfolio and regional management.
Internationally recognized with three global awards, Nadini serves as a technology advisor, complementing her passion towards "humanizing technology". Her interests extends to the circular economy, ESG, and sustainability, reflected in her recent research and publications. Committed to nurturing the next generation of tech professionals, Nadini actively mentors newcomers and advocates for STEMM-related careers. Additionally, she conducts workshops on topics such as Accessibility and Inclusive Design, Product, Consulting, etc. contributing to diversity and inclusivity in technology, consulting, and product development.
