Yvette Kanouff, Partner at JC2 Ventures, an AI-focused venture firm founded by John Chambers, spoke with Kathy Bloomgarden, CEO of Ruder Finn, one of the world’s largest independent global communications and integrated marketing agencies and #6 on O’Dwyer’s ranking of top PR firms:
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Kathy: Yvette Kanouff has been at the forefront of technological evolution throughout her storied career. I’ve always admired her as a fellow woman business leader, and a tech-forward persona. I spoke with Yvette recently about the most impactful tech trends on her horizon, her approach to leadership, and how she found ‘her road’.
Yvette, we are living in a transformative era where disruptive technologies are an engine of constant change in how we work and live. I think it’s fair to say that humanity’s future is being reshaped in front of our eyes. What are you looking to as the defining technologies of the future?
Yvette: There are many, but none as impacting as AI. AI has so many implementations and will have an effect on almost everything that we do. We're only at the beginning of seeing its impact on our lives. The key is to always learn, to understand the opportunity, and to work fast with new technologies. Take AI - companies that do not adopt AI now stand a significant chance of falling behind their peers. Disruptive technologies are opportunities to leapfrog or be leapfrogged. The past few years have been about finding use cases for AI - agents for call centers, bots, user interfaces, help with transcriptions, writing, and so much more. The future will be more about automation of workflow and integrating Agentic AI into our work environments and taking advantage of its ability to pull together complex systems and organizations.
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Kathy: I’ve always believed in having a learning mindset no matter your age or point in your career, and today that’s definitely even more important than ever. I really appreciate the reverse mentoring I get from young peers who grew up and live and breathe these new technological tools. Learning and growing is how we advance in our careers, how we continue to develop our minds, and how we find opportunities and purpose we might not have seen before. Along these lines, more on a personal vs. company basis, what technology excites you for consumers? How can we use technology to its fullest in different aspects of our lives, for instance at home and at work?
Yvette: I am going to stick with the AI theme here. Consumers can make songs, videos, write about complex topics, have digital twins for important areas like health, ask complex questions of AI agents - there are limitless ways that we can all take advantage of the benefits AI brings. In addition, I see the benefit of applications in areas such as health fitting into all our lives.
Kathy: Switching gears a bit, you originally grew up speaking German as your first language. You have challenged yourself in a number of ways in your life and career, from adopting a new language in a new country, to going into the primarily male-dominated field of engineering, to breaking down barriers in the cable industry and inventing the concept of streaming. Why did you choose to “take the road less traveled”? How have you found the courage to reinvent yourself more than once and to persevere until you succeed?
Yvette: I fell in love with mathematics, and it was a natural choice for me. Yes, the technical field was all men, but I didn't see it as a less traveled road - just 'my road'. I have some great stories about working with all men, like having 25 men throw me a baby shower because they thought that’s what I would get if I worked with women. It was complicated, but I wouldn't change it. I love the question about drive and courage - these two things make you not see the bad things as much as the opportunity.
Kathy: If you could impart 30-seconds of advice to the next generation of leaders, what would that be?
Yvette: No goal is too high - go for it. Find coaches, mentors, and sponsors. Speak up. Be driven, be bold. Make your own path and don't let anything stop you!
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Yvette Kanouff, Partner, JC2 Ventures
Yvette Kanouff, winner of the 2020 Lifetime Achievement Emmy for Engineering and Technology, is responsible for technology strategy and engineering relationships within JC2 Ventures investment companies, partners, and customers. Previously, Yvette headed the $7B service provider business at Cisco Systems where she led the innovation and business transformation in service provider products including routing, access networks, optical networking, cable networks, network function virtualization and video/media. She has held CTO and President roles at various companies and has focused on leading the industry towards SaaS, cloud-centric, open, and automated solutions. Yvette pioneered technologies instrumental in creating video streaming, MPEG standards, encoding standards, content distribution networks, and the DVD. Yvette began her career in digital signal processing and has a bachelor's and master's degree in mathematics. Yvette holds several patents, is on various company and industry boards, and she is an active participant in industry organizations, standards bodies, and leading industry technology efforts including 5G, digitization, cloud, cybersecurity, media, and artificial intelligence.
Kathy Bloomgarden, CEO, Ruder Finn
Dr. Kathy Bloomgarden, CEO of integrated communications consultancy Ruder Finn, has built an agency for the future. With ‘What’s Next’ ingrained in her DNA, Kathy keeps her eye on where the world is going, not where it’s been. Kathy’s career highlights are numerous, from launching many of the world’s most important scientific breakthroughs such as the first cell and gene-edited therapies, to convening essential dialogues between leaders around AI and tech disruption. She has built one of the industry’s most dynamic in-house tech labs for emerging tools in mapping, deep insight mining, and predictive analytics. Kathy is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Partnership for New York City, the World Economic Forum, and author of Trust: The Secret Weapon of Effective Business Leaders.
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