Women in Services "Profiles of Success"

Women in Services Advancing Women in Services Leadership Women in Services Profile—Carolyn Pineda, Vice President, Professional Services, PP&M Americas, Intergraph

Carolyn Pineda is vice president of professional services for Process Power & Marine Americas at Intergraph. She joined the company six months ago from the airline industry. Prior to Intergraph, she was with Sabre for 16 years, spending the last seven establishing their first services organization. One of the main things that attracted Carolyn to Intergraph was the way the company views its customers: always putting them first. "To be truly customer service-focused, we must care about our customers, have empathy in good times and bad, and even be willing to apologize when things do not go as planned," she explains.

She got started in services as a programmer and found that she liked working with customers. "I like working with people, solving problems, and finding win-win solutions. Services gives me an opportunity to effectively apply all of these aspects on a daily basis."

Carolyn first became involved with the AFSMI/SSPA/TPSA community of services associations by joining TPSA four months ago. Intergraph had joined TPSA six months prior to Carolyn joining Intergraph. Intergraph’s core competencies are to establish consistent service methodologies, service packaging, and fixed price offerings, and to evolve the organization from services for point solutions to integrated enterprise solutions. TPSA was a good organization to help them reach their business goals. "TPSA can provide some very good industry data and trend information, which we’ve used to help shape our decisions," she explains. "The networking opportunities are also a key member benefit I’ve discovered in just the short time I’ve been with the Association."

When asked what professional achievement Carolyn is most proud of and why, the answer comes easily to her: "Learning to operate in a man’s world and being promoted to VP in a company environment where only a handful of women were VPs. As well, at Intergraph there is only one other woman VP in my division."

Carolyn is also very proud of founding Empowering Women as Leaders, a non-profit organization that provides scholarships and mentoring to women ages 24 and up who are in financial need. "I have found that giving other women a second chance for a career has been very rewarding," she says. "Having begun my career as a programmer, it was largely due to the help and support of others that I have been able to obtain such valuable experience in a wide variety of roles."

Carolyn enjoys helping other women to be successful. She takes pride in being a mentor and is very enthusiastic to be a part of the AFSM/SSPA/TPSA Women in Services forum that was recently formed. "Being part of the Women in Services steering committee is very exciting," she explains. "It gives me the opportunity to provide direction to the group and to help other women who are in services to advance, learn, and perhaps one day become a mentor themselves."

She is a strong believer that the keys to personal success lie in knowing what you want, talking to your supervisors about it, asking for council and help in getting there, and reaching out to others for feedback. "Never giving up, being myself, and expressing what I felt was important for the business and our customers helped me get to where I am today."

For someone just starting out in the services profession, Carolyn offers some sound advice. "The service organization isn’t always an easy place to be," she says. "You have to be the customer advocate, but you also have to wear the company hat. Finding the right solutions at the right price for the customer is a key success criteria. Finding win-win solutions, especially when things have not gone as planned, are also key to success."