Women of Impact’s 2015 Fearless Female: Sabrina Lin

Guest blog and interview written 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 Sabrina Lin, Vice President Commercial Sales, from the Greater China region who is another one of our featured Fearless Females for the Women of Impact conference.

Sabrina Lin was born in Hong Kong and was raised in a very traditional family. At a young age, her female cousin, an MIT graduate, who took over the family textile business when her father became ill, inspired Sabrina. Without a male heir, she stepped in, implemented many changes to save the company money, and the business has prospered. It’s key to note that in a traditional Asian family, females are often not considered eligible to hold high positions with the business.

Many cultures are bound by tradition. Our family traditions help shape our values and may often influence the career choices we make.

We cannot control our gender. Our fearless women share a common experience: Often for the same behavior, women are seen as aggressive, while men are seen as assertive. Sabrina inspires her team by giving them the opportunity to take risks and will support their decisions, even if they fail. Think differently! How often do we hear those words? It’s always feels safer to do continue to follow traditional “tried and true” ways of doing thing, but Sabrina encourages curiosity to experiment and try new things.

In Sabrina’s quest to be fearless and disrupt gender bias, which is still prevalent in Asia, she became a successful businesswoman after spending ten years in software engineering. Sabrina graduated from Stanford University with a BA, MS, and PhD., Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude in Statistics and Cognitive Science/Social Psychology. Since 2010, she’s been an adjunct associate professor at Hong Kong University Of Science and Technology.

Sabrina is unpredictable and has always kept her family wondering what she’d do next. As a teenager she played rhythm guitar in a girl band. Wouldn’t we all like to see that YouTube video?

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

Follow our Fearless Female, Sabrina Lin on Twitter @SabrinaLin_Asia. 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!