Women of Impact’s 2015 Fearless Female: Monique Morrow

Guest Blog by Roxanne Edwards

At the Women of Impact Conference this year on March 19th, our focus is to empower attendees to Be Fearless – by taking risks, overcoming obstacles and blazing new trails in their personal and professional lives. The Conference focus is to connect, develop and inspire the women in technology at Cisco.

Meet Monique Morrow CTO, Cisco Services now First CTO-Evangelist-New Frontiers for Development-Engineering and one of our Fearless Females being featured for the Women of Impact conference on March 19th.

Who is Monique Morrow?  Besides being the first CTO for Cisco Services and being named the first Distinguished Consulting Engineer at Cisco in 2005, Monique is a leader in many industry groups.

Monique is an inventor with five patents and an author of three published books and in process of writing another.. She was awarded the 2014 IEEE R8 Clementina Award; and, one of six top individual achievers recognized in 2014 by the ITU and UN Women’s organization, for her leadership in Gender Equality Mainstreaming Technology.  Most recently, named one of the 2014 Top Ten Most Influential IT Women in Europe.

Monique’sinterest in technology began as a child.  She was constantly encouraged by male managers to keep looking for that next frontier, which landed her in Switzerland where she’s been living for the last 25 years.

Monique is very passionate about eliminating the glass ceiling for women in the workforce, especially in technology.  Women should be able to be fearless as they develop their career path.  In the past, women have volunteered for high-risk assignments to prove their value add..  This is not how we should nurture talent.  We need more males to advocate for women, and to help change the culture for women in the workplace.  Monique strives to make a difference by being a coach, mentor and sponsor to both women and men; and is also reverse coached by a millennial woman leader at Cisco.

Monique is not all work and no play.  She is learning to Fence Sabre with three time Olympian, and 2004 Athens Silver Medalist Zsolt Nemcsik. She also rows skulls at the Zurich Rowing Club.

Have you registered for the Women of Impact Conference yet? For more conference details or registration information, click here:

Follow our Fearless Female, Monique Morrow on Twitter @mjmorrow. Share with us with your stories and pictures how you can Be Fearless on Twitter @Cisco_WOI or find and Like us on Facebook on the Cisco Empowered Women’s Network Facebook page! Don’t forget to use the #WOI2015 hashtag!