Women in SaaS Management You Should Know

Think of a woman or ally who has made an impact on your life. Did you feel empowered? Supported? Encouraged?

Hopefully you can think of one. Certainly in the IT, Software Asset Management, and Procurement worlds, there still aren’t enough women in leadership roles. Today, we’d like to take a moment to celebrate remarkable women leading the SaaS Management charge in their organizations. 

While this list is nowhere near all-inclusive, it is just a few of the females that we’re fortunate enough to see empower their organizations. They’re doing incredible work – so take notice!

Learn how these remarkable female leaders are kicking SaaS and their approaches to managing it.

IT & Software Asset Management

Julie Day

Julie Day is the Staff IT Asset Manager at BlackLine. She’s built a single source of truth for SaaS for BlackLine and focused on rationalization to cut applications by 15%. With her sights set now on license optimization, Julie’s expertise and enthusiasm for SaaS Management has made her an admired figure within her field.

Julie is also a 2023 SaaSMe “SaaS Superhero of the Year” award winner.

Samantha Griffin

Samantha Griffin is the Sourcing Manager at Genesys. She takes an impressive and intentional approach to collaborating with all possible internal SAM, IT, and Finance stakeholders. Not to mention, she thoughtfully showcases the benefits and wins of their SaaS Management program and actively drives new initiatives at a rapid pace. Samantha has created the type of program where internal stakeholders applaud all reclamation efforts and view these activities as strategic to ongoing license management health. 

Samantha is also a 2021 SaaSMe award winner – a recipient of the SaaS Supherhero of the year award – and one of the first featured guests on the SaaSMe Unfiltered podcast.

Siroui Mushegian

Siroui Mushegian has been a staunch supporter of SaaS Management since her role as VP, IT at BlackLine. In just one year, her team made incredible progress on their SaaS Management program — from realizing cost avoidance to creating a more secure software environment. She takes this exceptional leadership to her role today as CIO at Barracuda Networks where she’s building the company’s program from the ground up.

Siroui is also a 2023 SaaSMe Award winner of the “Growth IT Leader of the Year” award.

Lindsay Stokes

Lindsay Stokes is the IT Asset Program Manager at Netflix and was brought on to jump-start its SaaS management program. The company’s culture is critical in driving her approach to employee tooling and governance. From educating employees to being a critical partner in reducing OpEx, Lindsay is transforming the way Netflix manages software. She’s passionate about solving impactful business problems and is proving that every day in her role leading the ITAM team.

Lindsay is also a 2023 SaaSMe “SaaS Superhero of the Year” award winner. 

Learn how Lindsay and her team are addressing the abundance of optimization opportunities they’re seeing across their stack on the SaaSMe Unfiltered podcast.

Procurement

Karen Hodson

Karen Hodson is the Chief Procurement & Real Estate Officer at Marigold (formerly CM Group). Karen’s experience working for growing SaaS companies set her up to be an early adopter and advocator of SaaS Management. But it’s not an easy task. Among seamlessly leading Marigold through acquisitions, such as Cheetah Digital, she continues to maintain a well-oiled procurement machine and hone the company’s application onboarding and offboarding process. Karen’s work is incredible – and the results speak.

Karen is also a 2022 SaaSMe award winner – a recipient of the Procurement Leader of the Year award for growth organizations. Learn how Karen approaches SaaS management by listening to our conversation with her on the SaaSMe Unfiltered podcast.

Tara Kalkwarf-McGee

As Manager, Vendor Management Office (VMO) at SADA, Tara Kalkwarf-McGee has been instrumental in refining the software vendor lifecycle – including onboarding, renewals, and terminations. Her relentless pursuit of efficient cost management has led to significant savings using Zylo’s pricing benchmarks. Tara’s collaborative and determined approach has made her a standout team player and leader in her field.

Tara is also a 2023 SaaSMe “Enterprise Finance Leader of the Year” award winner. Learn how Tara uses SaaS benchmarking data for driving cost savings at renewal in this SaaSMe 2023 breakout session.

Maggie Mingione

Maggie Mingione is the Procurement Director at Nutanix, spearheading progressive change in the way Nutanix manages and addresses SaaS. Not only is her team able to stay on top of renewals, they’re experiencing huge savings as a result. Not to mention, Maggie has positioned herself as a true business partner across the organization, collaborating with other leaders to uncover optimization opportunities. She’s an incredible leader, and we’re proud of the positive impact she’s had on Nutanix.

Maggie is also a 2022 SaaSMe award winner – a recipient of the Procurement Leader of the Year of the year award for enterprises.

Brittney Linville

Brittney Linville is the former Sr. Manager, Global Enterprise Procurement at Highspot and incredibly passionate about SaaS Management. She is laser focused on following best practices and finding opportunities to improve the business. We admire Brittney’s tenacity in driving efficiencies across Highspot’s stack and SaaS spend. Over our time working together, she’s helped the organization reduce their total application count by 30%. Impressively, she also drove a reduction in expensed applications by moving them to purchase orders – from 40% to 90% on P.O.

Brittney is also a 2022 SaaSMe award winner – a recipient of the SaaS Superhero of the Year award. Learn more about how Brittney approaches SaaS procurement and the impact she’s had at Highspot in this SaaSMe 2022 breakout session.