Successfully Mixing Community and Business: Lori Senac’s Story

Lori Senac is a Director of Strategic Accounts for Tanium. In August 2019, Lori Senac was selected to join Michigan Council of Women’s Technology Advisory Board. This is her Tanium story.

Lori

“I’ve always had a passion for technology, and in my +25 years in this industry, I’ve often found myself being the only woman in the room. So I thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if more women were doing this?” I believe it is important that we take each other under our wings and encourage networking.

For the past 15 years, I’ve been involved with the Michigan Council of Women in Technology (MCWT). With MCWT, I’ve been able to volunteer, give back and share information with young girls, women and sponsoring partners. Recently, I decided that I wanted to do more, so I joined the Partnership Committee, and through volunteering in several areas at MCWT I’ve been selected to join their Advisory Board.

Community

The Michigan Council of Women in Technology foundation (MCWT) is working to inspire and grow girls and women in technology. It is about girls and women of every level in school or career being able to network together, and help bring more visibility and job opportunities in our field. For the last two years, I’ve been the Sponsor Lead for the annual MCWT Golf Classic, one of the biggest events of the year. This year, it was a record-event—we raised almost $200,000! It was also my first year there with our Tanium team, and we were told that the Tanium sponsored golf hole was one of the most fun!

One of the next things I am going to personally do is sponsor a cybersecurity camp for young girls, and a few of my customers and partners have already expressed interest in sponsoring as well. It is a great example of how we can win together!

Business

I’m working to bring awareness of Tanium to the community and educating people on how we can help solve problems in enterprise IT environments. It’s when we are getting that message out there—how we are bringing that much needed visibility and control within their company and how we can do that at speed and scale—they want to hear more.

I learned early on the value of taking ownership of your business, much like a franchise, and getting connected to people helps you find your own way forward. I think the purpose of MCWT and the opportunity to network with our customers at these events, being side by side in community and giving back, really helps build meaningful relationships. My customers get to know me and my colleagues well and that level of transparency builds trust and really brings people closer together. Even if people are not directly involved in my area of expertise, they know and trust me, and are not afraid to refer me to other networks, which happens often. That’s huge!

One Piece of Advice

If you are looking for ways to become involved in networking, my advice to you would be to look for mentors. Often we don’t have people in front of us that we can ask for advice, that we can share the good, the bad and the struggles with, and someone that has that experience. That’s why I think it’s important to have a mentor, somebody that can guide you in the right direction, share their network with and do life together. I personally have had several mentors, and they have helped me tremendously. On the other hand it is equally important to give back and be a mentor to help others. MCWT is a great way for me to do that.

No two days at Tanium are the same, but each day offers the opportunity to work alongside intelligent, driven colleagues who want to win as a team and deliver unparalleled solutions for our customers. Come join our team. Check our open positions on Tanium Careers.