STAxPreSales Collective Webinar
The PreSales Engineer is a critical part of enterprise software sales, but this coveted PreSales role has not always received the recognition it deserves.
Consequently, awareness of this career path has been limited, which has a direct impact on representation and diversity in the field.
The path to becoming a PreSales Engineer takes many forms, which often begin in purely technical or sales roles. These career paths have not traditionally been held by women or people of colour who often make up less than 20% of engineering or sales teams at tech companies. However, the skills required to be an effective PreSales Engineer are often found with individuals coming from diverse backgrounds: empathy, intercultural understanding, and the ability to teach complex ideas to a variety of audiences.
Data on who has been included in the PreSales Engineering space is limited, even today. We have partnered with the PreSales Collective to gather a panel of industry leaders, on January 27th at 2:00 pm EST, to uncover the field’s history, current state, and future opportunities.
We hope you can join us! Sign up to attend through the registration link below.
Can’t make it to the live session? Don’t worry, sign up anyway and we’ll send you a copy of the recording with timestamps of our key takeaways.
Meet the Panelists:
Cindy Goodwin-Sak, Vice President, Global Security Sales Engineering Organization | Cisco
As Vice President of the Global Security Sales Engineering Organization at Cisco, Cindy leads a
global team of sales engineers who design technical solutions that help customers
change the way people work, live, play and learn. She has held multiple sales
engineering, network engineering and leadership roles with startups, systems
integrators, and within Cisco Systems.
Cindy holds a Bachelors in Management and Human Relations, and a Masters of
Business Administration. She also holds multiple industry certifications including two
Emeritus Cisco Certified Internetworking Expert (CCIE) certifications in Routing &
Switching and Collaboration. Cindy is currently pursuing her Doctorate in Business
Administration at the University of Missouri, St. Louis.
Tia Hopkins, VP, Global Solutions Engineering | eSentire
Tia Hopkins is the VP of Global Solutions Engineering at eSentire. She holds two master’s degrees, and several industry certifications such as CISSP. She’s also an adjunct professor of Cybersecurity at Yeshiva University and is currently pursuing her PhD in organizational leadership. Tia is also an SC Media Reboot Leadership Award recipient for 2019 in the Outstanding Educator category, as well as The Software Report’s Top 25 Women Leaders in Cybersecurity and Cyber Defense Magazine’s Top 100 Women in Cybersecurity; both in 2020. She recently founded Empow(H)er Cybersecurity, a non-profit organization aimed at empowering women of color to be successful in the cybersecurity field.
James Kaikis, Co-Founder | PreSales Collective
James Kaikis is the Co-Founder of the PreSales Collective, the largest global community for PreSales professionals. James has spent his technology career in startups, scale-ups, and big companies, including Salesforce.com. His experience is in both Pre and Post Sale roles, relentlessly focused on Customer Centricity through the customer journey.
Ali Alizadeh, Director, Technical Sales | Sales Talent Agency | Panel Moderator
Ali started his career as a chef and did this for 10 years before joining the world of technology recruitment in 2014. For the past 4 years, he has built a career in human resource strategy with a focus on PreSales Engineering and Senior Leadership hires as a Director of Executive Search and Technical Sales at Sales Talent Agency. His expertise is helping business leaders and talent acquisition professionals find, attract, choose, and equip elite presales professionals to develop highly effective revenue growth teams. In his spare time, he enjoys new cuisines from all over the world and is an avid hiker!
Kaitlyn Tissington-Turner, Sr. Executive Search Associate | Sales Talent Agency | Panel Moderator
Kaitlyn has spent most of her university and post-graduation years focused on communications and career development of others. With a Bachelor’s from UBC in Psychology and Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Social Justice, she has always been passionate about how individuals’ experiences and identities shape their view of the world, and she uses this to bring a compassionate lens to her work as a recruiter with the Executive Search and Technical Sales divisions at STA. Kaitlyn is originally from the west coast and currently lives in Toronto; when she isn’t recruiting you can find her baking cookies, rock climbing, or desperately trying to keep up with too many podcasts.
