When Pam Maynard, CEO of tech-consulting giant Avanade, strode to the podium to collect her Woman of the Year award at this year’s everywoman Women in Technology Awards, it was just the latest plaudit for an industry leader who has come to stand for so much.
Avanade is a $2.5bn tech giant, a joint venture between Microsoft and Accenture, and led by Maynard since late 2019. Among her very first challenges as its new leader were navigating the company through the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the social upheaval resulting from the death of George Floyd.
Maynard credits Avanade’s overarching purpose of creating genuine human impact as a ‘north star’ guiding its success against stiff headwinds – a purpose that applies to its own people as much as it does to its clients and their communities.
Maynard’s own background informs a deeply empathetic leadership style that’s defined by a resolute determination to empower a hugely diverse global team. Her mother – a Windrush-generation immigrant to the UK and career nurse – remains her most important mentor.
As an overbearingly shy child, conscious of her difference as the ‘only black girl in the village’, Maynard’s route to the top contains lessons for any that would seek to follow a similar path.
