After spending 25 years building software products and serving as a vice president of engineering at Macromedia and Adobe, Karen Catlin witnessed a sharp decline in the number of women working in tech. Frustrated but galvanized, she knew it was time to switch gears.
Today, Karen is an acclaimed author and speaker on inclusive workplaces. She has published four books: "Better Allies: Everyday Actions to Create Inclusive, Engaging Workplaces," "The Better Allies™ Approach to Hiring,” "Belonging in Healthcare," and "Present! A Techie's Guide to Public Speaking" (with Poornima Vijayashanker).
Forbes. A Q&A with Kevin Kruse about Karen's book, "Better Allies."
(In "5 Simple Ways To Be A Better Ally At Work" by Kevin Kruse, October 26, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2020/10/26/5-simple-ways-to-be-a-better-ally-at-work/#76688967642e)
New York Times: “Many men in the Valley genuinely believe that their company is a meritocracy,” said Karen Catlin, a former software engineer and a former vice president of Adobe Systems. “They think that the gender problem is something that happens somewhere else. It’s my sincere hope that because Kleiner is so well known, they’ll see that this problem is not at the corner. It’s at the heartbeat. And after this, we’ll have a series of cautionary tales about what not to do going forward.”
(In "Ellen Pao Disrupts How Silicon Valley Does Business" by Farhad Manjoo, March 27, 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/28/technology/ellen-pao-disrupts-how-silicon-valley-does-business.html)
New York Times: “Left-leaning Silicon Valley has been embracing the Women’s March and had this heightened awareness about issues that women face due to misogynistic men,” said Karen Catlin, a former software engineer who is now an advocate for women in the tech industry. Now the same social-media energy aimed at President Trump is being marshaled against Uber, better known on Twitter as #deleteUber.
(In "Uber Case Could Be a Watershed for Women in Tech" by Farhad Manjoo, March 1, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/technology/uber-case-could-be-a-watershed-for-women-in-tech.html)