Cindy Gao (she/her)

Cindy is a solution consultant leading Google’s Exchange Bidding business. Having worked in many different Google offices — Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo and now based in Mountain View, California — she has a love of travel and living in new places.

Cindy enjoys attending lectures and startup talks to keep herself up to date on the fast-paced technology industry. She is a mentor for Google TOPPA@Berkeley program, aimed at helping students to grow and plan their careers. In her free time, Cindy enjoys doing cosplay, painting, and taking photos.

What’s something you’re really proud of?

I lead a Chinese Googler Network and community in Silicon Valley, which includes many high tech companies such as Facebook, Uber, Airbnb, etc. Through this organization, we have organized several events with ~300 volunteers and ~3000 attendees. You can find out more about our organization at www.zgzggala.org.

What’s a challenge you’ve faced, and how did you handle it?

My greatest challenge is being social and making new friends. The way that I handle this is by pushing myself to do more community and event organization work. While I’m still not great at making friends, the work that I am doing will hopefully benefit people in one way or another, and that in itself is fulfilling.

Arille Jeriza Stutler (she/her)

Arille is a solutions consultant at Google, focusing on Google Play business operations. She has 7+ years of operations experience at the company, and has previously worked in both Cloud (enterprise) and consumer-facing teams. She was born and raised in San Jose, and studied Bioengineering at Santa Clara University. She had an undergraduate marketing internship at eSilicon Corporation, which unintentionally was the catalyst for shifting her career interests to the world of business. Since high school, Arille has been a strong advocate for programs encouraging women and minorities to explore STEM fields, and she’s actively involved in volunteering through one of Google’s employee resource groups, the Filipino Googler Network. Outside of work, you can catch her cooking new recipes, spending time with family and husband Brent, and playing with her Shih Tzu, Yana.

“‘Why are you here? There’s a cheerleading camp next door.’

It’s been twelve years since my classmate made this comment to me, after I’d shared with him I was struggling to understand a coding concept. As one of the handful of girls at the high school robotics camp, this casual remark made by one of my “friends” took me by surprise. It shook my confidence. Was it a mistake thinking I could actually do this? Will I ever measure to compete? Maybe he felt I’d brush off his remark as a joke. Little did he (and I) know, after slowly picking myself back up with the encouraging words of my parents, that crude remark helped shift my ambitions into overdrive. Frankly, I’m quite stubborn, and I wanted nothing else than to prove him and any other naysayers wrong. When the school year started again, my best friend and I pioneered an all-girl robotics team at our school to show that #girlsrock, not really knowing the challenges that lay ahead. For the next few years, we actively sought mentoring parents, teachers and local company sponsors (including Google!) to donate their time and expertise. It took a village, but our team learned how to build and wire together robots that were over 5 ft tall and 120+ lbs for the FIRST Robotics Competition!”

Cristina Costa (she/her)

Cristina Costa (she/her) has been working in the technology industry in Boston for the past 4 years. She started her tech journey at PayPal and later worked at HubSpot as a consultant and at a startup called Lendbuzz as a digital marketing manager. Cristina is the co-chair of an organization called Women with Purpose, which empowers women of color through a series of professional development seminars and events in the Boston area.

Cristina is also passionate about increasing access to educational resources for all. She is a recent graduate of the 2018 New Leaders Council Fellowship, which provided her with the tools necessary to run politically progressive campaigns. Most recently, Cristina worked as the Director of Marketing and Student Engagement at Duet, an ed tech organization whose mission is to provide affordable bachelor’s and associate’s degrees to low-income adults in the Boston area. Cristina cares deeply about racial and gender equality and hopes to create more opportunities for people of color in the constantly expanding tech space.

1. When did you know that you wanted to work in tech?

I didn’t decide to work in the tech industry, I sort of fell into it. I had been working in higher education as an international student advisor and thought that I wanted to go back to school to earn my MBA. At the time, I was very unhappy in my workplace and didn’t enjoy my courses, so I decided to transition back into marketing and advertising, which is what I had studied in college. When I started my job search, a friend of mine posted on Facebook that her company, PayPal, was hiring for an advertising operations position. I reached out to her and ended up landing the job! Working at PayPal exposed me to all of the opportunity that the tech vertical provides and I have been working in tech ever since.

2. Who is a role model that you look up to?

I have always looked up to my mother. She moved to the US from Guatemala at 16 years old without speaking a word of English. She not only survived, but she became the first woman in the family to attend college. My mother has always been the backbone of our family and my strongest supporter.

3. Where is your hometown?

I was born in Cambridge and Somerville, but I was raised in Hyde Park, Boston.

4. What is a struggle that you’ve faced and how did you handle it?

After college, I was accepted into a program called JET Programme (Japan Exchange Teaching Program) and I moved to Japan all by myself. I didn’t know anyone in the program and I didn’t have family or friends close by. I took this opportunity so that I could explore the world and get out of my comfort zone. My first few months in Japan were very difficult. I lived alone in a rural town, didn’t speak the language and felt so alone, but I survived. I managed to acclimate to the culture and made some amazing friends along the way. After that experience, I know that I can survive ANYWHERE.

5. What is something that you are immensely proud of?

One of my proudest moments was when I became more involved in diversity and inclusion initiatives within the tech industry. I helped start an employee resource group (ERG) at HubSpot called POCAH (People of Color at HubSpot), which created diversity initiatives and mentorship programs for employees of color.

During that time, I also began volunteering at an organization called Resilient Coders, which taught students of color how to code, where I helped with recruiting and placing these graduates in positions in tech. My proudest moment was when I referred and trained a recent Resilient Coder graduate and helped him land a job at HubSpot! I truly enjoy empowering other people, especially marginalized groups that might not have had the opportunity otherwise.

6. What’s something that’s been on your mind a lot lately?

POLITICS. I am beyond disappointed and disgusted with the current administration and how the laws being implemented are affecting minorities and especially immigrants in this country.

7. Favorite food?

Pad Thai or pretty much any type of Thai food!

8. Favorite book?

The Alchemist.

9. If you could try another job for a day, what would it be?

I have secretly always wanted to be a singer! If I could try a job for a day, I would want to be Beyonce and sing and dance at the On The Run tour with Jay-Z!

10. If you could give your 18-year-old self a piece of advice, what would it be?

I would tell her to trust her instincts, believe in herself, surround herself with positive people, and that it’s okay to put yourself first.