January 15, 2014

For the first time in its two-year history Executive Women in Tech invited a man to share his experiences last week. John McAdam, President and Chief Executive Officer at F5 Networks, talked about leading a growing technology company with more than 70 women executives. Veteran technology executive and moderator Susan Sigl joked that John was “falling through the glass ceiling” to speak at the event.

McAdam kicked off his talk by reviewing the history of F5, using slides to explain the ups and downs that transformed it from a company worth $108 million in 2000 into one worth more than $1.4 billion this year.

Then the down-to-earth Scotsman touched on core values that fueled that growth, focusing on one in particular that he stressed to employees. “The magic bullet (for success) is you do what you say.” McAdam stressed that customer satisfaction was one of the secret ingredients of F5’s success. It “has been the root of what we do at F5…and is the focus at all levels of the company.”

Given the tight labor market in Seattle’s tech industry finding new talent and retaining current employees are top priorities at F5. In fact, McAdam told the audience F5 employs 30 full-time recruiters. Audience members also wanted to hear about diversity on F5’s board of directors. When F5 sought three new board members last year, for example, McAdam demanded that at least one should be a woman. Today, 25 percent of F5’s board is female,  one of the highest percentages of any public company in the region.

Check out upcoming EWiT events in 2014 on our event page or EWiT LinkedIn page.

Be sure to read Emily Parkhurst’s article in TechFlash on the event.