BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Women In Technology Series: Interview With The CIO Of The IMF

Following
This article is more than 7 years old.

When Susan Swart joined the International Monetary Fund as the Chief Information Officer and Associate Director of Technology & General Services Department in June of 2012, she was only the second CIO of the institution. Though the purview of the IMF is global, most of her team is centralized in Washington, DC. She and her team have worked to modernize the IT department's processes and technologies during her tenure. This came after a four year tenure as CIO of the United States Department of State. All the while, she has served as an inspiration to other women who might wish to follow in her footsteps. We discuss all of the above and more below. 

(To listen to an unabridged audio version of this interview, please click this link. This is an interview that is a part of the Leading Women in Technology series. Please read past interviews with the CIOs of the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Ford, and Intel, among others. This read future articles like this one, please click the "Follow" link, and follow me on Twitter.)

Peter High: Susan, you are the Chief Information Officer at the IMF. Can you set the stage and talk about some of the priorities you have on your strategic roadmap heading into 2017?

Susan Swart: Some of the priorities we have at a strategic level are to change the way IT delivers its services to the institution. We generally have positive feedback from our users on the basic services that the IT organization provides to the broader organization. However, the way we deliver some of those services today will soon result in our inability to do new things in direct support to the key goals of the IMF, and to the business departments, because we are crowding out our ability to invest in new technology. With that in mind, we evaluated what we were doing and how we were doing it. We came up with a series of initiatives that we are calling “Transform IT” that will lead to more efficient delivery of IT services,  resulting in budget space to do more that will provide technology to the business, enabling them to meet their objects more effectively. The business will do what it does better with the help of better technology.

One of the initiatives is the  move to managed services for our infrastructure. We are also changing the way we do some of our contracting—doing our projects with statements of work, as opposed to hiring individuals; focusing on what we are supposed to be delivering to the business, as opposed to how many people we need to hire. We are looking at knowledge management at a more specific level: how do we provide better knowledge management capabilities to the institution? It is a knowledge-based organization. How can people create knowledge and then find that knowledge and re-use it across the institution? Also data management and analytics: how can we take advantage of the data that we already have and use that more effectively across the organization, breaking down some of the stovepipes? And new analytic capability and AI: how could that potentially be used to further the work of the Fund? Those are some of the high priorities.

High: As you think about more innovative, forward-looking type topics, how do you and your team carve out the time to think about those versus more business type activities?

Swart: Obviously, there is a lot of interest in doing new, innovative technology within IT. There is the realization in the business that new technologies can change the way everyone works internallyat the Fund, and also how new technology, for example, Fintech impacts member countries. We need to focus on both.  We need to understand how Fintech is operating in the world because it impacts some of the core functions of the Fund, that is, what is the impact of technology when looking over financial markets? We are involved in that area because we bring some technical expertise.

When you look at something like AI, how could we use AI and Big Data to perhaps better understand what’s happening in the world today? We are using a couple of methods to bring the business idea and technology together. We are implementing a series of challenges around Big Data where the business or IT could put forward some projects that would take advantage of Big Data, whether internal or external, using new technologies, for delivering a business value. They are small projects to start with. We have an innovation fund, so we are allowing minimal investment, and we are allowing them to fail, which I think is very significant in how we get more innovation into the organization. It takes some of the risk proposition out of it. We eagerly awaiting the outcome of these projects. We are also looking for innovation opportunities, even in our  standard IT investment processes, where new technology could bring some value.

High: Given the scope of the IMF, a global organization, how do you organize IT to support such a broad purview?

Swart: We are very headquarters-centric. Overwhelmingly, people are in Washington, D.C. We do have offices spread across the globe, but they are generally very small so we support them as  a satellite from an IT perspective. We do not have IT support people or significant infrastructure deployed globally; we might have local support under contract that are called in when needed, but we generally  provide  support from Washington.

High: I know from past conversations that the team you have put together in Washington has a very international make-up and is reflective of the broad, global purview of the IMF. Can you talk about what you look for in terms of skills or qualities for your IT teams?

Swart: From an IT skills perspective, we look for the skills that the specific job requires, and then  general management and leadership capabilities, including international experience since we have a truly international staff. International experience, living and working in more than one place (not just where you are from)—that is very valuable. You have to fit in to the culture. We definitely lean towards experience in central banks or international financial institutions, but are doing more to bring people from the private sector and banking, combining the two, to get a different perspective on how things are done. There is a similarity, I think, between government entities and how things are done at  the IMF. It is great to get some mix and flavor of what drives the private sector, into our ranks.

High: You mentioned some changes that are just starting, such as managed services and engagement of new kinds of partners. As you think about the ecosystem that you are putting together, does it also reflect that broad, international purview of the organization, or would it be more similar to a traditional organization that is entirely U.S.-based?

Swart: Whether we are hiring staff or working with vendors,, generally  we do not limit it to U.S. vendors. Even software development has the same international flavor. When you think about servicing our member countries, part of providing service in the very broad perspective is making sure that our institution looks like our membership in terms of focusing on underrepresented countries and gender when hiring staff. We take a similarly broad purview when we are talking about our contracting, too.

High: How technically savvy is the organization, generally, outside of IT? Do you find people are more curious or more knowledgeable about IT as they are engaging you, or are you getting more specific questions, perhaps, than you have in the past?

Swart: Yes, definitely. The nature of the work that many do, the analytics around data, the modeling—they are familiar with technology and, like everybody else, they use more and more apps, which changes the demand for the way our services are provided. They are becoming more savvy through investment decisions and risk-based decisions that a broader group of people beyond IT are involved in. Take the cloud, for example. We have plans  to move systems to the cloud, to move services to the cloud, and we make those decisions based on risk. We have a group that, using a framework, makes those decisions and they have become much more educated. I would say overall, across the spectrum, whether you are talking about a person looking as an individual user or as somebody who is helping make investment decisions or risk-based decisions, they are generally well-educated on IT and what IT can do, and what they should expect from IT. This is true also when looking at carrying out work with member states. What member states expect us to do as an institution is driving more knowledge of technology because technology is everywhere and influencing everything.

High: When you started your career in IT, I would imagine there were not a tremendous number of women to look to as role models. What was your path into IT? Who were some of your early mentors?

Swart: I chose IT because it was definitely not a humanities-type thing, but was more absolute.  I started out as  a programmer—there is a problem that you can solve and see the results. I liked that. I did not think about gender at all at the beginning. I noticed that there were not very many women, but it was not something that I thought about. I just noticed it as a fact and I did not, particularly very early on, feel like I was at a particular disadvantage as a woman. I felt I fit in and I thought that was fine.

It was only as I got into mid-management that I started to notice that maybe women are treated differently, or thought about differently. During my whole career I had had male mentors who were very supportive of me and gave me good guidance. I also hada couple of women bosses,, and they were obviously very supportive. The differences that I noticed were in the expectations around assignments and how special tasks were assigned. I definitely think there was some gender bias in that, maybe not consciously, but subconsciously. At that point in time, it was just demonstrating that you could do it as well as a man and educating the decision makers that that was the case.

As I advanced in my career I started being more conscious of some of the biases around hiring and selecting people. I think women can have biases, too. You come up in that male dominated field and you have obviously fit in because you have advanced. I think you have to be very conscious of selecting people for special projects or in hiring people to make sure that those biases are not keeping you from hiring good women. I also think in selecting women for jobs, you need to approach those interviews and conversations differently. It is a generalization, but there are often things that women do differently in those situations than men.

Coming back to my personal path, I also have not been risk averse. I have been personally willing to take risks. In cases where I have taken a risk and failed, the consequences have never been horrible—and you always learn something. I have not mapped out my career. I was very happy when I got my first job that I just had a job! But I always looked for the next opportunity,--something that was more challenging. I weighed professional opportunities against my personal life, too, but I definitely paid attention to the issue of whether the next job or opportunity was better than what I was doing at the time.. I did not hesitate because I was a little bit afraid, or because it was a challenge and I did not know everything I thought I should for the next step.  I accepted the challenges. From a career point of view, I think that is key to being a success and moving up.

High: For a woman who wants to advance in a career in IT, is there other advice you might provide from your own experience or based on what you have seen work well for women who have been successful?

Swart: I would say first that you need to be bold, though “bold” might be expressed differently in different cultures. I think women tend to be a little bit hesitant sometimes and they are judged differently. If you know something and you understand something, you need to make sure that people know you have something to contribute. Do not be hesitant and do not second guess your own capabilities. Women are generally much more likely to second guess themselves. Do not be hesitant about saying, “Yes, I am good at this” in a non-arrogant way.

I would also say you do not have to have a master plan. You do not have to say “Today I am starting at the bottom and I want to be whatever the highest tittle is.” You do not need to have a concrete roadmap. You just need to have an understanding of what you are doing now, doing a good job first and foremost, and think about the next step and the skills you need for that next step. It does not have to be a grand plan. Make decisions that support that next move. Do not be hesitant, and do not be afraid to take risks. The worst thing that can happen is that you will be right back where you were and not any worse off by having taken the risk.

High: As someone who has worked in Washington in IT for quite some time and has a team largely based there, what are your thoughts about the DC marketplace for IT talent? Have you found that the positions you have are easily filled? Are there things that either impress you, or not, about DC as a technology hub?

Swart: Luckily, we actively hire from all over the world for diversity, so we are not limited to D.C. I would say if you compare it to a few years ago, I think it is harder to find good talent locally because the market is tight. The talent is out there, but we may  need to pay more  than what we paidthree or four years ago. It is more competitive. And when you think about some of the newer technologies—data scientists, data analytics, information security, those area—those are harder skills to acquire High: We have talked a little bit about trends, such as AI and Fintech. As you look to the future, what are some of the things on your roadmap going forward?

Swart: We are definitely looking at block chain for implications in the financial and banking sector and also for ways to take advantage of the technology internally. We have a pilot going on now that are looking at what the impacts could be internally. We are consideringartificial intelligence and how it may impact surveillance responsibilities. We are looking at natural language processing: how can we use it to identify knowledge that might not be readily apparent and give it broader visibility than it might have in the current stovepipes?

High: You have talked about your own path as a female executive. As you now think about mentoring others, what are some of the things that you are doing?

Swart:  From a mentoring perspective, we have a Women in IT effort  in cooperation with  other IFIs [International Financial Institutions], but also internally, that has brought women together, done group mentoring as well as individual mentoring. An interesting component of the initiative started last year (Women in IT started before I came to the IMF so I cannot take credit) is bringing men into the conversation. Since IT is such a male dominated field, we are trying to give men the opportunity to speak freely and comfortably about women in the workforce. What are some of the things that women could do to improve their representation in the workforce, and their upward mobility, and their engagement in IT? We are also looking for training opportunities and making sure that we are paying attention to the mix of men and women, and identifying women who would get the most advantage out of certain training opportunities. We are taking a diversity look at those types of opportunities—not to disadvantage men, but particularly paying attention to the balance and progression of women.

On the hiring side, we have been very effective at increasing our pool and the number of women candidates that we interview. That has ultimately made a difference in the number of women hires. I think it  has been a very effective approach, not just in hiring more women, but ensuring a woman is selected because she meets the requirements for the job. I think women might hear in their career, “Oh, you were picked because you are  a woman.” Increasing the number of women in the hiring pool avoids that conversation. It does not happen. You had enough women candidates and you are hiring a woman because she legitimately had the qualifications to get the job.

High: Are there any tactics that you have used to increase the pool of potential hires?

Swart: We have done some targeted recruiting, even mixing the desire to have more women and to have more underrepresented countries. If we get more women in the pool of applicants, and more women from an underrepresented country, that is even better from the standpoint of diversity because those people definitely bring different ways of thinking.

Peter High is President of Metis Strategy, a business and IT advisory firm. His latest book is Implementing World Class IT Strategy. He is also the author of World Class IT: Why Businesses Succeed When IT Triumphs. Peter moderates the Forum on World Class IT podcast series. He speaks at conferences around the world. Follow him on Twitter @PeterAHigh.