Karen Tegan Padir: Master of her Craft and Mentor to Women in Technology

As Women in History month comes to a close, we wanted to recognize another elite Woman of Progress. Karen Tegan Padir is the President of the Application Development and Deployment business unit. She is a 20-year veteran within the software industry, having served a multitude of technology leadership roles at organizations including EnterpriseDB, Oracle (Sun Microsystems) and Red Hat.

Early on in her career Karen had a passion for understanding the “big picture” of how people interact with technology in business. She made it her mission to experience firsthand all aspects of this Business-IT connection—from development, development through customer support and on to management. This path has given her insight beyond compare and has fueled her success--as well as the success of the teams she leads.

Karen Padir Pioneers Java in the Enterprise

Karen has a natural ability to identify the next hot technology. In her early days, Karen involved herself in Java development because she knew it was a game changer within the enterprise. In fact, she was a founding member of the Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) organization within Sun Microsystems. Her ability to connect the dots to the bigger picture also led Karen to the Open Source community—another enterprise game changer.

Her track record of success for identifying the next big thing has not slowed within Progress. As the President of the Application Development and Deployment business unit, she has led the charge on key company acquisitions such as Modulus and Telerik, helping bringing Progress to a new generation of enterprise application developers. It was due in large part to her efforts that Progress became a Visionary in the newly published Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Application Platform as a Service, going head-to-head with the likes of Salesforce.com.

Paying it Forward: Mentoring Young Women in Technology

Aside from Karen’s prowess as a technology rock star, she also has a few passions and best practices that have carried her over the years. Foremost is her passion for encouraging kids to get involved in the sciences. She is a very strong supporter of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education) programs. Karen is also on the Board of Trustees for Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) where she regularly mentors female students getting ready to enter the workforce.

She also acts in a mentor capacity for other women in technology, often speaking at events and authoring articles about being a female executive, such as at the Women Bar Association Cloud Seminar. Karen also spearheaded a “Women of Progress” initiative, which encourages women in the workplace and offers support to those struggling to succeed or needing guidance along the way.

Just a week ago, Karen participated in a panel session in which she discussed best practices pulled from her own life. For example, Karen encourages the idea of not trying to “find” a work-life balance, as she believes you should not have to sacrifice one for the other. Rather, she’s a staunch believer that you make the time for the things you’re passionate about. In her case, Karen loves technology and she loves to ski. So she makes time, one way or the other, for both.

She also lives by the principal of “don’t sweat the small stuff.” If you’re focused on the little things, you don’t have time to enjoy what’s really important. “Love what you do,” Karen says, “So you won’t want to do it less.”

Karen is a unique individual, a master at her craft and one who understands how to transcend the struggles of work and home life. She is a leader and a mentor, and that is why we are recognizing Karen Tegan Padir as a Woman of Progress.