Credo was honored to host the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) “Lunch and Learn” event on Tuesday, August 26 at its offices in San Jose. The program brought together 120 women from companies across the entire semiconductor industry ecosystem to connect, to network and learn from one another’s successes. The collective energy and enthusiasm at the event helped set the stage for the inspiring celebration of innovation and empowerment at WISH 2025, GSA WLI’s technical conference that brought around 1,000 attendees to the San Jose Convention Center on October 1. The impact of the event at Credo shows that WLI is a year-round effort. In its most recent study of women in the semiconductor industry, GSA and Accenture found that the median representation of women in the total semiconductor workforce lies in the 20% to 29% range. WLI was created to significantly increase the number of women entering the semiconductor market and elevate women’s participation on both boards and leadership positions. “Our GSA WLI ‘Lunch and Learn’ series is designed to support the career growth and professional aspirations of the women in semiconductors,” said Traci Brandon, vice president of GSA Women’s Leadership Initiative. “The event at Credo is an example of the power of community in advancing our charter to ensure women are an integral part of the leadership in the industry.”
Keynote and Panel Highlight Pathways to Success
Ann Minooka, chief marketing officer at Synopsys, delivered a perceptive and inspirational keynote in which she shared highlights of her career journey up to present day, as well as the impactful role and value that technical fluency brings to the marketing function. Ann’s presentation focused on the ways to harness technical fluency as a “superpower” in brand positioning, communications, go-to-market, and Martech segments. She also dove into how AI is disrupting marketing — from changes in how customers search for content online, to how content is created, and how companies engage with customers.
Following, Grace Yang Padovani, director of strategic accounts at Synaptics (now with Credo), moderated a panel discussion of industry leaders that included Sylvia Acevedo, board member at Credo and Qualcomm; Fariba Danesh, also a Credo board member and
chief operating officer, PsiQuantum; Lakshmi Ramagiri, partner director, Microsoft; and Paroma Sen, vice president of corporate marketing, Astera Labs. The panelists shared perspectives on their pathways to leadership positions, the defining moments in their careers, how they approach challenges, lessons they learned, and AI’s impact on jobs and the industry.
“Credo was honored to support WLI with this event at our headquarters. Hosting the ‘Lunch and Learn’ program brought together an amazing and accomplished group of women to share their experiences,” said Diane Vanasse, vice president of Marketing Communications at Credo. “Our work with WLI is focused on supporting its mission of a more inclusive, innovative, and future-ready semiconductor workforce.”
“As an engineer in the semiconductor industry for almost 20 years, I continuously see the incredible value that connecting and networking with other women brings both professionally and personally,” said Lyndsi Parker, senior director of Custom Silicon Solutions at Marvell and the 2024 Rising Women in Semi award winner. “As I have said before: We’re a minority, and we know that when one of us succeeds, we all succeed. The GSA WLI events help us all rise together.”
As a special parting gift, all attendees received a signed copy of Sylvia Acevedo’s new book, “The Trailblazer’s Playbook: Practical Tactics to Rise Against the Odds and Achieve Excellence.”