The Wall Falls, a Woman Rises, a Memoir How a U.S. Tech Entrepreneur Broke the Glass Ceiling and Helped Modernize Latvia
Get This Book
Prices may vary. Links may earn us a commission and open external websites.
Publisher
OakTreeBear Publishing, LLC
ISBN
ISBN-13: 9798990489004Synopsis
The story of this trailblazing entrepreneur opens when, as an infant, Dagnija Lacis fled the Communist takeover of Latvia with her family. They immigrated to Indianapolis in 1950 after spending five years in a displaced persons camp in Germany.
After graduating from Butler University in 1964, at a time when math and chemistry were not considered subjects for girls (yes, girls), Dagnija broke her first glass ceiling: WOMEN IN IT. Dagnija was the first woman programmer at Burroughs Corporation, then the second-largest computer company in the world.
In this compelling memoir, Dagnija shares stories and strategies as she built her successful career in IT, a man's world, and became the first woman line VP for Unisys. Crash went glass ceiling #2: WOMEN IN MANAGEMENT.
Dagnija visited her homeland with her husband and his father in 1978, to find Latvia with systems frozen in time after decades under Communism. When the Berlin Wall fell, the newly elected Latvian prime minister and foreign minister asked Dagnija to install modern technology in the foreign ministry. That began her work to modernize Latvia and connect it to the West.
Dagnija describes how she and the team she assembled applied strategy, smarts, energy, expertise, and passion to help modernize Latvia. In the process, she launched her own technology company, Baltic Technology Group (BTG), and became an international IT entrepreneur.
Dagnija's message was and is: "Stick to your goals. When confronted with obstacles, don't give up, find another path forward."
The stories and strategies Dagnija reveals in The Wall Falls, A Woman Rises, a Memoir are for readers of Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg and anyone interested in trailblazing women in business, women in international business, women in IT, women in STEM, and those interested in Latvia and the modernization of Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall.