Sarah Lahav is exactly the kind of person the tech world says it wants more of: A woman with tech skills so smart she could one day run the company.
And while that is precisely what Lahav has become -- the CEO of SysAid Technologies Ltd. -- she hasn't been immune to the industry's gender problem.
After 11 years on the job, Lahav was named the CEO of SysAid Technologies Ltd., an international tech company, in 2013. But only 10 percent of employees at her company are women, well below the percentages that other tech companies have achieved and conceded to be inadequate.
“We do have women, but not enough,” Lahav told me in a phone interview.
Gender disparity is an issue throughout the tech industry and doesn’t stop at the U.S. borders. SysAid has offices in Israel, Brazil, Australia and Massachusetts and they do business in 140 countries around the world, in 42 languages. SysAid is a global IT service management and helpdesk software provider with more than 10,000 customers ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies like Coca Cola and LG.
Sarah Lahav has an extensive background in IT and customer service and was the company’s first employee in 2002. She worked closely with the founder Israel Lifshitz to grow SysAid until she was named CEO in 2013.
“When I used to be in IT, I was unique as a woman,” Lahav said.
SysAid’s diversity is worse than other tech companies who have released diversity data this year. Ericsson announced that 22 percent of its workforce is female while Apple has 30 percent and Polyvore has 59 percent women. And eBay, which had a female CEO until 2008, has a workforce of 42 percent women.
Like many other tech companies, SysAid struggles to attract female talent. Lahav said that SysAid wants to hire women but the company doesn’t receive many CV’s or resumes from women interested in tech jobs (who can also speak English).
“We need more CVs and more women choosing IT for careers,” Lahav said. She said she isn’t satisfied with the company’s diversity numbers and hopes to one day have gender equality at SysAid.
Lahav herself represents a woman who was able to carve a successful career in the male-dominated tech world. She graduated from the Open University in Israel with a BSc in industrial engineering and worked in an IT support position to pay for her education.
After graduation, she continued in an IT support position at a small company until she came across the job opportunity at SysAid.
“I jumped at the idea of joining SysAid,” Lahav said. “It was an opportunity to make a difference for everyone.”
Lahav started in a support position at SysAid but quickly moved to customer relations where she felt she could make an impact. She stayed in customer relations for 12 years until the founder left SysAid.
Lahav was on maternity leave at the time when Lifshitz asked her to be the CEO of SysAid in 2013. She was 38 years old at the time and returned from her leave to take charge of the company.
“I think I should have been scared, but I was so enthusiastic,” Lahav said. “After 12 years of the same job, I was presented something new and was excited to start.”
Since she’s become CEO she has continued to focus on customer service and travels frequently to meet with customers around the world.
“[Becoming] customer oriented was a turning point because it changed the way we operate and communicate with customers,” Lahav said. “Five years ago we decided to switch and put customers first.”
That is a challenge for the international, online-based company, Lahav said. Establishing meaningful relationships with customers is not as easy through technology. Her customer-first mentality is what caused SysAid’s founder to turn to Lahav when it was time to name the next CEO.
Lahav could not disclose revenue because SysAid is a privately owned company, but she said they’ve seen much growth since it was founded in 2002. According to the website, more than 100,000 IT administrators now use SysAid’s software.
originally posted in bizwomen
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