1) What is your name, title, organization and accountability?
Tama H. Olver
Vice President Global Information Technology and CIO
Applera Corporation

I am accountable for the use of information technology within our business to achieve business goals and create value for our employees, customers, and shareholders.

2) When and why did you attend WLC (Women Leading Change)?
I first attended the Women, Leadership and the Future program in 1994. I participated in WLF as a leap of faith after meeting Rayona through a colleague.

(Editor's Note: WLF was the predecessor to the current Women Leading Change program.)

3) What skills have you used the most since the program?
I most often use the skill to form conclusions that give me freedom to act in support of my commitments. I also use the process of having a set of living commitments and using them to guide decisions, especially about how I spend my time.

4) What results are you most proud of having produced?

I always have trouble answering a question about pride in accomplishment. It may go back to my Puritan upbringing where pride is not a cherished attribute.

In general, I am most excited about the impact of lifelong learning on my ability to have a positive impact on the people around me, especially what I have learned from the women of IWL. The training and coaching led me to stop trying to teach and start creating learning experiences. Since I stopped trying to teach, virtually everyone I work with says they learned something from me.

A concrete example is the final project I led at Quantum Corporation. As part of the divestiture of a $3.3 billion disk business, the company decided to shut down our corporate IT function. Over the period of about 9 months, I led a team who shut down a 10,000 square foot corporate shared data center and went from a staff of 250 to two.

We divided $39 million in assets between the two companies without contention and with numerous win-win outcomes. We created new IT facilities to serve both companies and found creative ways to use the existing assets as "swing equipment" so that applications could be moved without service interruptions.

We brought up the $3.3 billion disk business on SAP (previously running on ORACLE applications) within 30 days of the merger close.

We exited the data center 2 months early adding $600,000 to the bottom line at Quantum.

Above all, despite the potentially difficult nature of the work, involving lots of endings and "good-bye's," we had a great deal of fun.

5) What resources do you want from or do you have to offer the rest of the IWL community as you continue your leadership journey?

I offer to share my experiences and provide coaching. In return I request that you share experiences and provide coaching whenever there is an opportunity.

Tama can be reached at OlverTH@applera.com