From the Community: Why this Nominee Stands Out

“Anna is dedicated to consistently innovating new ways to attract early career talent to Akamai. Anna currently oversees a 4-person emerging talent team at Akamai, which has internship programs in over 10+ countries globally for an 11,000-person company. While leading these high-quality intern/co-op programs, Anna has also created a new apprenticeship program for Costa Rica, India, and Poland for career changers looking for technical training, a veteran apprenticeship program in the U.S., and works to forge partnerships with different diversity recruitment organizations worldwide. Under Anna’s leadership, the team maintains strong diversity in their programs to ensure they fulfill their mission of recruiting the next generation of underrepresented tech talent. Anna is also heavily involved in the employer branding efforts for Akamai, organizing video shoots to showcase the culture of Akamai for prospective candidates. 

As a manager, Anna consistently uplifts her direct reports. While managing a global multi-generation team in 4 different time zones is no easy feat, Anna makes time to meet multiple times weekly with all of her reports to ensure they have the tools and support they need to be successful. As a manager, she is always happy to help while also challenging her reports to think through problems for themselves and advocate for their own ideas. She asks for feedback consistently to ensure she is the best manager that she can be. She will encourage her reports to gain leadership experience leading team meetings, presenting in front of team leadership, and speaking at all hands meetings. She also leads training on project management, branding, global communication, and leadership development for her team, ensuring we are able to learn together while working remotely. Anna doesn’t shy away from talking about career progression opportunities with her reports, encouraging each of them to network, seek out mentorship opportunities, and spend time thinking about what they want their next career step to be. 

Working under Anna is a fantastic learning development opportunity for her team, and her ability to keep a pulse on early career opportunities and candidates while also managing global programs is inspiring.”