Progress Employees Share Their Expertise to Audiences Worldwide

At a handful of events this fall, Progress women addressed crowds and offered their guidance and expertise on a variety of subjects—from software engineering to human capital.

Progress is filled with employees who are experts in their fields and we are proud of all their achievements and contributions. One of the most rewarding experiences is being able to watch our colleagues speak at leading industry events and local events, where they can share their insights with audiences worldwide.

And because we’re #ProgressProud, we wanted to take some time to highlight their recent speaking engagements.

Lilia Messechkova is a senior director of software engineering at Progress. With her 15-plus years of experience in the tech industry, she’s seen as a role model for women, both at Progress and in the community, who want to pursue a career in STEM. A respected professional, leader and mentor, she is often invited to speak at industry events with the most recent one being Forbes Women Forum. Before a sophisticated audience of female leaders, she delivered a talk reflecting on success as a continuous journey and how can the right support system help us grow as leaders. Through her personal story Lilia elaborated on the roles of the coach, the mentor and the sponsor and the importance of identifying diverse talent and helping them grow.

"Whenever I reflect on what success is, I recall the sports classes at school. They would teach us how to fall, but then how to get up and try again. Success is not a specific moment, not even a ladder we're climbing. Success is what happens to us when we overcome new challenges," Lilia said during her keynote at the Forbes Women Forum in Sofia.

Maria Atanasova is the EMEA human capital director at Progress. Her career journey with the company dates to 2010 when she did an internship at Telerik (acquired by Progress in 2014). With her infectious smile and endless energy and ideas, she quickly became an important part of the company’s human capital team, and a member of the Sofia leadership team. Seen as the fresh face of the HR profession in Bulgaria, Maria is often invited to speak at industry events with the most recent one being DigitalK, one of the most influential entrepreneurship, marketing and technology events in Bulgaria. She delivered a talk on “Finding Your Allies: The Good, the Bad, the Great” sharing why is it important to build your own personal board of directors to help guide you through your career journey referring to her own experience.

"In the middle of the stormiest season of my career I truly understood the power of my personal board of directors. Always make sure to include people to be your mentors, your cheerleaders and at least one critic to challenge you. Once you change your goal, don't forget to change your board and pay it forward by joining someone else's board," Maria said at DigitalK.

Natasha Walwyn-Robinson is a senior counsel at Progress and she speaks at many events in the legal industry, sharing her knowledge on intellectual property, litigation, and general corporate matters. Most recently, Natasha spoke at the Women in Law & IP Virtual Summit, where she joined a panel session, titled “IP Portfolio Management During Economic & Market Uncertainty.” The session explored big questions around portfolio management and economic uncertainty, from dissecting the impact of COVID-19 on your IP portfolios to managing a portfolio through a recession; certainly, a session inspired by the times.

When it comes to addressing the question of COVID-19’s impact on your IP portfolios and portfolio management, Natasha said, “Fortunately, we have not seen much disruption of our IP portfolio due to COVID-19. COVID-19 has reminded many of us of the importance of relationships. When you invest in building quality relationships with your internal and external stakeholders, when times get rough or unexpected things happen, it can lessen the anxiety when you know you have trusted and reliable people on your team who can assist you.”

What’s next? You can catch Natasha at the Legal Accelerators virtual conference Nov. 26-27. Learn more about the event here.

Sara Faatz, director of developer relations at Progress, recently tackled the topic of imposter syndrome at two events: FemTechConf, a female founded tech conference made to empower the women in tech community, and MassTLC Professional Women’s Group Meeting. In both sessions, Sara shared her own experiences with imposter syndrome and provided tips everyone can use to conquer those feelings of self-doubt and inadequacy. She recommends to “identify what you’re fearing and address that head on,” and to celebrate those small successes “because even the smallest accomplishment is still an accomplishment.” Watch the full discussion from the MassTLC event here.

Sara spoke MassTLC’s Professional Women’s Group Meeting in the midst of planning DevReach 2020, Progress’ premier developer conference, which took place Oct. 19-23. The 5-day virtual event that streamed live on Twitch went on to become a huge success, attracting more than 3,000 developers worldwide. Learn more about DevReach here.

We hope you enjoyed reading about the latest whereabouts of a select few Progress employees. We are #ProgressProud of everything they’ve accomplished, and we’re thrilled that others in their respective communities can learn from their insights.

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Tsvetiana Zaharieva contributed to the writing and interviews for this blog post.