The Software Report is pleased to announce the Top 25 Women Leaders in Tech Services and Consulting of 2019. These exceptional women have developed deep expertise in the technology field, some with distinct specialties, and have progressed rapidly to senior most levels within their organizations. Thousands of women were evaluated resulting in a select set being eligible for this year’s process.
In tandem, we received hundreds of nominations and performed a more detailed review of each nominee based on a series of questions on the candidate's professional capabilities. The Software Report also conducted candidate evaluation based on research of qualified information sources and publicly available information. We looked for demonstrated technology expertise, longevity in the industry, career progression and current position among other factors. 
1. Tamara Alairys
Ernst and Young
Tamara Alairys is a Principal at Ernst and Young and helps lead the firm’s IT Advisory Services Group. She has more than 20 years of experience helping Fortune 500 companies realize business benefits through strategic investments in technology. Her focus areas include technology strategy, technology transformation, cloud, mobile, collaborative and information management technologies. Prior to joining EY over six years ago, she was a Group Vice President for Oracle Corporation, where she led Oracle’s North America Advanced Technology Services group. Prior to Oracle, she was a Partner at Accenture, helping to lead the firm’s Financial Services practice. She was with Accenture for two decades and eventually managed a $400 million consulting practice. Tamara earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 
2. Karalee Close
Boston Consulting Group
Karalee Close is the global leader of Boston Consulting Group's Technology Advantage practice and a core member of DigitalBCG’s Global Senior Management team. She is an active sponsor of the firm’s Women@BCG and Women in Technology initiatives. Her client work focuses on digital and technology-enabled transformations in health care and other industry sectors, including consumer products, media and entertainment, oil and gas, retail, technology, and telecommunications. In the public sector, she focuses on digital strategy, data-driven transformation, operating model development, capability building, cost reduction, risk and portfolio management, and IT governance. Prior to joining BCG, Karalee held senior management positions in Canadian hospitals. She earned her bachelor’s degree from University of Victoria and an MBA from University of Toronto.
3. Shally Stanley
Acumen Solutions
Shally Stanley is a Managing Director at Acumen Solutions, a leading global tech services consultancy based in Virginia. Shally reports directly to the CEO and is managing an international team of over 600 people to deliver and develop client solutions. She has over 25 years of experience as a management consultant to Fortune 500 companies with a deep focus on innovative information technologies and practices. Previously, she was a Senior Vice President and CTO of Greenwich Technology Partners, which she joined through the sale of her company NetGain. Shally built Netgain into a highly profitable network consulting firm focused primarily on global management consulting firms and large investment companies. She began her career at McKinsey, where she managed a global voice networking and systems team. Shally earned a bachelor’s degree from MIT.
4. Pam Murphy
Infor
Pam Murphy is the Chief Operating Officer at Infor, a role she has held since 2011. Previously, she served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Operations. Prior to Infor, she spent eleven years at Oracle Corporation, where she was responsible for a wide range of operational and financial functions which included running Global Sales Operations, running Consulting Operations for Europe, Middle East and Africa, and running Field Finance function for Oracle's Global Business Units. Prior to Oracle, Pam was with Andersen Consulting and Arthur Andersen where she provided strategy, direction and counsel to existing and potential Clients. Pam earned her business and accounting degree from the University of Cork, Ireland and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
5. Amy Gilliland
General Dynamics Information Technology
Amy Gilliland is the President of General Dynamics Information Technology. She had previously served as General Dynamics IT Deputy for Operations, supporting the company in all aspects of business operations. She joined the Company in 2005 and since then has served in a variety of leadership roles including Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Administration, Chief of Staff for the Chief Executive Officer and Staff Vice President of Strategic Planning; Staff Vice President of Investor Relations; and Director of Strategic Planning. Previously, Amy served in the U.S. Navy as a Surface Warfare and Public Affairs Officer. Her Navy assignments included service aboard USS LABOON (DDG 58), with the Navy’s Legislative Liaison Office to the U.S. House of Representatives, the Office of the Secretary of the Navy and the Navy Office of Information. Amy earned a bachelor’s degree with distinction from the U.S. Naval Academy, a master’s degree from Cambridge University and an MBA from Georgetown University.
6. Dorothy Copeland
IBM
Dorothy Copeland is a Global Vice President of IBM and currently leads the IBM Global Business Partner organization in North America. Previously, Dorothy led Amazon Web Services Global Partner Programs, which includes tens of thousands of software and consulting partners around the world. AWS Partner Programs include the AWS Partner Network, AWS Channel Reseller Program, Managed Services Program, SaaS Program and AWS Partner Competency Program. She was with Amazon for seven years. Previously, she was a Vice President of Business Development for Cloudmark. Dorothy began her career in 1996 as a sales and marketing manager at Quantum. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Whitman College and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley. 
7. Heather Combs
3Pillar Global
Heather Combs is the Chief Revenue Officer of 3Pillar Global, a leading developer of client-facing web and mobile applications. She oversees marketing, business development and operations for a nearly 1000 person multinational company, creating the revenue acceleration strategies that drive 3Pillar’s continued double digit growth. Before joining 3Pillar, Heather was the Chief Business Development Officer at the HR Certification Institute (HRCI) and prior to HRCI was the Chief Business Development Officer at Aronson and Chief Sales Officer at Hanover Research. Heather also spent 13 years at the Corporate Executive Board, where she led product management, sales and strategic partnerships initiatives. She frequently speaks on stages and online about growth acceleration, strategy, sales and women in tech and works with business leaders to create smart growth strategies with her consulting practice, Authentic Growth. Heather holds a master’s of public service and administration and a bachelor’s in political science and psychology, both from Texas A&M University.
8. Marisa Mann
Solstice
Marisa Mann is the Chief Operating Officer of Solstice, a consulting services organization that delivers digital transformation and innovation services to Fortune 500 companies. She has been with the company in leadership positions for over six years. Her roles have included Managing Director where she managed corporate headquarters delivery while spearheading operation processes for delivery for both New York and Buenos Aires offices as well as Director Solution Delivery where she directed all aspects of programs including strategic planning, delivery execution and managed services. Marisa was previously a Vice President at J.P. Morgan and began her career at Accenture. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from Northwestern University.
9. Elaina Shekhter
EPAM
Elaina Shekhter is the CMO and Head of Strategy for EPAM, a global provider of software engineering and IT consulting services. She has been instrumental in establishing new specializations in robotic process automation and intelligence automation, artificial intelligence, and blockchain - all new centers of focus related to EPAM’s work in digital platform and global product development. Elaina has been with the Company in a number of roles including most recently as the Global Head of Business Development and prior to that as the Global Head of the Travel and Consumer Business Unit. Prior to joining EPAM, Elaina held leadership roles with Carlson Companies, including Head of Retail and Entertainment for 24K, a spin-off of Carlson Marketing Group. Prior to Carlson, she was a Manager with Ernst and Young Consulting, specializing in CRM and analytics engagements for notable clients such as 3M and GE. Elaina holds a master’s degree in information systems and bachelor’s degrees in economic theory and political science from The American University. 
10. Kelsey Robinson
McKinsey & Company
Kelsey Robinson is a Partner at McKinsey & Company. Since joining the firm in 2011, Kelsey has advised executives as they seek ways to drive overall growth and has partnered with companies in the retail, consumer tech, telecom, travel, and media sectors. She has been integral to McKinsey's partnerships with LeanIn.org and Women In The Workplace and leads McKinsey’s West Coast Gender Initiative. Kelsey co-led McKinsey’s research into fostering the success and participation of minorities and girls in STEM education. She has also authored numerous articles on talent in the digital era and independent workers, published by McKinsey and other leading business media. Before joining McKinsey, she worked at Digitas, a leading global digital advertising agency. Kelsey earned a bachelor’s in management science from MIT and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
11. Jo Masters
Tquila ANZ
Jo Masters is the CEO of Tquila ANZ, a leading Salesforce consulting firm headquartered in Sydney, Australia focused on the Asia Pacific region. Since taking the helm in 2016, she has led the Company through tremendous growth. Previously, she held leadership roles with Object Consulting, where she was the Vice President of Sales and Marketing and before that General Manager. At SoftBrands (Infor), she progressed steadily through the organization taking leadership positions in Australia and the U.S. Over an eight year period she rose from General Manager of Australia Pacific to Senior Vice President reporting directly to the CEO and managing worldwide sales, marketing, professional services, support, development and human resources. Jo started her career in the hospitality industry at ACCOR in 1986 where she held roles from Financial Controller to Regional General Manager. In 1994, she joined Sulcus as Senior Project Manager and in 1998, when Eltrax Systems acquired Sulcus, Jo became Managing Director and General Manager for Australia. Eltrax was eventually acquired by SoftBrands where Jo continued her professional ascent. She earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting and business management from UNSW Business School.
12. Katie Vanpelt Stein
Genpact
Katie Stein serves as the Chief Strategy Officer for Genpact, where since late 2016 she has driven the development and execution of Genpact’s corporate strategy, including the company’s focus on priority service lines and realignment of the company’s product and solution portfolio. She is also the global business leader for Genpact’s Enterprise Services – the company’s core services portfolio that cuts across all industries, including finance and accounting, source to pay, supply chain, enterprise risk, and enterprise performance management. She joined Genpact from Mercer where she spent more than six years in a variety of senior roles and most recently was Partner, Market Business Leader – Retirement for the East Market. Based in New York, Katie earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chapel Hill, North Carolina and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
13. Shelby Austin
Deloitte
Shelby Austin is the Managing Partner of Omnia AI, leading a team of artificial intelligence strategists, machine learning engineers, data scientists, and risk specialists. She also chairs the Global Innovation Council for Deloitte’s Financial Advisory practice and leads the Strategic Analytics & Modelling practice at Deloitte. She has a proven track record of helping businesses drive significant growth and savings through the use of technology and data-driven decision-making. Before joining Deloitte, she founded a company that was named one of Canada’s Hot 50 companies by Profit Magazine. She was also named among Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 from WXN. Shelby graduated from American University with a bachelor’s in government.
14. Shannon Fitzgerald
Booz Allen Hamilton
Shannon Fitzgerald is a Partner and Senior Vice President at Booz Allen Hamilton, where she helps lead the firm’s Citizen Services practice. There she is responsible for developing and growing a digital business to transform government missions in the rise of the digital citizen. Shannon has held several senior-level business, market, capability and sales leadership roles including leading large-scale $500 million plus businesses and closing large, complex business deals over $100 million in value. Shannon is a recognized expert in organizational transformation, is an instructor for the Change Management Advanced Practitioner course at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, and serves on the Business Practices Council for the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Towson State University.
15. Anya Minbiole
Microsoft Digital
Anya Minbiole is the Director of Global Digital Advisory Services for Microsoft Digital. She has been with Microsoft for over 15 years. In her current role, Anya is in charge of driving global strategy, brand, marketing and sales enablement for Microsoft Global Advisory Services consultancy. Her organization has five hundred Digital Advisors around the world who are responsible for guiding organizations from governments and education institutions to large corporations. She began her career at Microsoft as a product manager for the tablet PC and mobile, after that moved into enterprise marketing, then enterprise sales and strategy, and advertising sales and strategy. Previously, she was a financial analyst at J.P. Morgan. Anya earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Kentucky and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
16. Marguerite Davidson
Central Data Systems
Marguerite Davidson is the CEO of Central Data Systems, a full service provider of Infor enterprise software. She joined the Company in 1996 having run two previous software entities, she was selected to spearhead Central Data’s business initiative to focus on becoming the premier Infor Distribution SX.e partner and implementation leader. In 2002, Marguerite took the helm, becoming President and Owner of Central Data. Under her leadership, Central Data has been profitable every year, grown 100% and is the largest Infor SX.e/CloudSuite Distribution partner in North America, earning many awards for sales and customer retention year over year. She began her career with New World Systems, a local government software solution serving municipal government needs. Marguerite attended the University of Wisconsin.
17. Laura Beaudin
Bain & Company
Laura Beaudin is a Partner at Bain & Company, where she is a firm leader across several practices including digital, telecom, media and technology. She also leads Bain Marketing Excellence globally. Since joining the firm in 2000, she has focused on the intersection of media and marketing, helping media, entertainment and technology companies develop sales effectiveness and customer-led growth strategies, and brands define high impact marketing strategies. Laura is on the board of an environmental non-profit in San Francisco and is an active contributor to Bain’s multi-year partnership with KIPP Bay Area Schools. Laura joined Bain’s Toronto office after earning her bachelor’s of commerce degree from Queen’s University in Canada. She also earned an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
18. Alison Millar
PwC
Alison (“Ally”) Millar is a Partner in PwC's Advisory Services practice. Her IT background ranges from ERP to cloud applications and includes both waterfall and agile methodologies. She has extensive experience leading and managing large scale business transformation. Additionally, Ally co-leads PwC's SaaS practice, leading the development of business and technology accelerators, pre-configured solutions and architectures to help clients introduce new business models, accelerate time to value and drive results from their business transformation programs. She began her career with PwC over 10 years ago when she joined as a Director. Previously, she was a project manager for NetApp and before that worked with Warner Brothers as a Vice President. Ally earned a bachelor’s degree from The Robert Gordon University.
19. Ami Palan
Accenture
Ami Palan is a Managing Director at Accenture where she helps lead the firm’s west coast management consulting practice for communications, media and technology. She has been with Accenture for over 18 years specializing in sales and service transformation as well as customer experience management. She has helped large clients in her industry focus areas achieve targeted business results. In addition to leading her practice and attending to client matters, Ami publishes thought-leadership pieces related to indirect sales, customer service and customer experience. Prior to joining Accenture, she was a consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers. Ami earned a bachelor’s in business administration from Indiana University Bloomington and an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. 
20. Berni Mobley
SAS
Berni Mobley is the global lead for SAS’ Information Technology division. She leads an international team that is responsible for the development and delivery of SAS’ core business systems, as well as enterprise data analytics. She has over 40 years of experience in IT and has filled IT leadership roles at SAS since 2002. In 2013, Berni was selected as one of the top 100 IT Leaders by Computerworld's Premier 100 IT Leaders for her IT leadership at SAS. Prior to joining the Company, she held progressively responsible positions in IT, focused on the management and delivery of enterprise business solutions in industries such as banking, pharmaceuticals, insurance and application hosting. Immediately prior to SAS, Berni was the senior director of application management services for Interpath Communications. She attended Concordia University.
21. Valerie Perhiren
Capgemini
Valerie Perhiren is a Vice President of Capgemini and Head of AI and Big Data. She has been with the firm for over 14 years. Capgemini is a French multinational corporation that provides consulting, technology, professional, and outsourcing services. Among its technology services, Capgemini specializes in transformation and innovation, digital services, and technology operations. It is headquartered in Paris, France. Capgemini has over 200,000 employees in over 40 countries, of whom nearly 100,000 are in India. In her current role, Valerie helps her corporate clients design their data strategy to leverage their real data assets. She joined Capgemini in 2005 as a BI project manager in the Paris, France office. Amy graduated from La Sorbonne. 
22. Amy Rall
Unisys
Amy Rall is a Group Vice President for Unisys Federal and leads the Homeland Security and Critical Infrastructure team. She also leads Unisys weather, Department of Energy, and Department of Transportation accounts for Unisys. Previously, Amy was Vice President of the Customs and Border Protection / Immigration and Customs Enforcement practice. During that time she led several mission critical government IT programs for Unisys. Prior to Unisys, Amy worked for Qinetiq North America (Apogen Technologies) where she was Vice President of Homeland Software and Information Assurance Solutions. During that time she was responsible for software and security teams supporting CBP, ICE, FEMA, TSA, and U.S. Coast Guard. Amy has a bachelor’s degree from American University and is a certified project manager.
23. Jennifer Barnes
Centric Consulting
Jennifer Barnes is a Director of Centric Consulting, a top tier management and technology consulting firm. Jennifer leads a team focused on serving companies that range in size from $50 million in revenue to the Fortune 50. She has been with Centric for over seven years providing services pertaining to business intelligence, Oracle, business process management, business analytics, cloud computing and mobile devices among other areas of expertise. Jennifer began her career with Ernst and Young and also held leadership positions with Perficient and Express Scripts. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a master’s from Illinois State University.
24. Patti Chanthaphone
MindPoint Group
Patti Chanthaphone is the President of MindPoint Group, a leading information security consulting firm. Patti has been helping to lead the Company for the past 10 years. MindPoint was recently recognized by NASA with an Award of Excellence for cloud security support for the EVA Data Integration Project. It was also named one of Washington Business Journal’s 2019 Best Places to Work. Previously, Patti was a Senior Vice President of Missing Link Security and an IT Security Specialist at the FBI. She began her career at UUNET as a Security Engineer. Patti earned a bachelor’s degree from George Mason University and master’s degree from The George Washington University. 
25. Sara Hale
Coastal Cloud
Sara Hale is the Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Coastal Cloud, a woman-owned Platinum consulting partner of Salesforce.com. Prior to founding the Company in 2012, she was a managing partner and co-founder of Graphene Consulting, which was a business integration consulting company. Prior to Graphene, she spent eight years with Accenture rising to Manager. Sara has over 25 years in the technology consulting industry. Sara has significant experience with all operational aspects of the technology consulting business including service delivery, financial reporting, billing and collections, human resources, recruiting, staff development and facilities management. She has worked with many Fortune 500 companies. Sara earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Duke University.
