Celebrating International Women’s Day: Interview with Nancy Hegarty

In celebration of International Women’s Day (#IWD), we sat down with Nancy Hegarty, VP of Marketing at Anaqua, to hear her take on the importance of IWD, and how she works towards a gender equal world in both her personal and professional life.

What does IWD mean to you?

I’ve celebrated International Women’s Day for as long as I can remember.  It is a time to recognize the achievements and contributions of contemporary and historical women.  The companies I’ve worked with have always acknowledged the day and encouraged all employees, but mostly women, to take time to reflect.

As the years have passed, it has become more personal for me.  It’s far more than recognizing the “day” but rather recognizing the meaning behind the day and working to live it out intentionally.

When you say intentionally what does that look like?

Well, there are two facets to that – what do I do professionally and what do I do personally.  Let’s start on the personal side. About twenty years ago I wanted to become more involved in the social sector.  My observation is that millennials do a better job at balancing professional and personal activities, however for the boomers (me) it tended to be an either or.  I had a very full professional life but looked around and thought, I might be able to put my skills and talents to use in a more meaningful way.

I went looking for opportunities and came upon a budding organization, Strong Women Strong Girls, (SWSG).   I was intrigued by the name, the mission, and also by their ask.  They were looking for someone to help them with their Strategy and that was my professional role at the time, so I thought, “oh, I can do that.”

I wanted to dip my toe in the water but once I got involved, it was a full plunge and I worked with them for about eight years.  I served on the Advisory Council, then the Board and then served as Board Chair for four years.  The organization, still strong today, provides a structured mentoring program in a group setting matching 3rd-5th grade girls with college-age women and college-age women with professional women for 1-1 mentoring.  It’s a very interesting model and the programming focuses on learning from strong women, contemporary and historical.  It  helped me better understand the role of mentoring, the need for gender-focused mentoring and the benefits of formal versus informal mentoring.  Since then, I find it easier to understand what I need from my mentors and what I can provide prospective mentees.

When it was time to pass the baton, I  stayed connected with SWSG, however directed my focus to addressing food insecurity.  To me, the fact that we have children and seniors often not knowing when their next meal will come is unconscionable.  Women are the backbone of families and often are automatically expected to shoulder the weight of this responsibility, which I believe stems from bias and inequality, intentional or not.

I became actively involved with Share our Strength – No Kid Hungry and have been serving on the Innovative Development Committee of The Greater Boston Food Bank for the past four years.  These organizations do amazing work, day in and day out, yet the need grows.  In a way, food insecurity should be seen as a pandemic and a solvable problem but unfortunately unlike COVID-19, there is no end in sight.

Switching to the professional perspective, I am both an employee and a leader, and I have expectations of myself through both lenses.  I was raised to believe “do your job” and things will fall into place the way they’re supposed.  In reality, sometimes that happens and sometimes it doesn’t.  So as an employee, I made decisions early on in my career about what I wanted and, equally important what I didn’t want.  And that extends to my approach as a leader.  I want people on my team to know they’re valued, respected, and are critical to the success of the team and the business.  And that’s not only the functional team I may lead but it’s any team I’m on and/or lead.  I work to create an environment in our team meetings where open dialog and thinking-out-loud is welcomed.  As we build our comfort and confidence in those settings, we are more likely to share our expertise in other settings.  We all bring expertise and experience to the table, it is our responsibility to share and our responsibility to listen.

If and how has Anaqua lived up to your expectations?

I joined Anaqua about 18 months ago and I knew when I joined it was going to be a very different experience than any thus far in my career.  As with any opportunity I was very excited yet also nervous.  I knew that I would need to understand Anaqua’s DNA very quickly.  I needed to know “what made us click.”  Well, very quickly I figured out there were two driving forces – our customers and our employees.

What I learned quickly at Anaqua is, if you are in the meeting, you have an equal voice to anyone else in the meeting – there are no levels, there are no personal agendas, and there are no gender differences.  Questions can, and will, come from anyone and to anyone because we have that laser focus on the customer.

We’re a global organization and we serve IP professionals across the globe in a variety of roles and in a number of capacities.  Every decision we make as a company centers on how will the outcome make IP professionals more effective or efficient?  Is the outcome something they need and want?  When you are as laser focused as Anaqua is on the customers, it’s extremely effective in keeping teams aligned and motivated.

The other driving force is our employees.  We are a global workforce with an employee base that is steeped with IP experience and expertise.  Most of our employees have extensive tenure in the industry and with Anaqua.  I am a member of the leadership team and again, we are a global team and 40% of us are women which is also consistent with the industry.  As a member of the team, it is my responsibility to participate and actively share my perspective on decisions being made.  My input is sought not only as the head of Marketing but also as a member of the team.  And this approach permeates the business.

The leadership team is actively involved in the business in a productive and constructive way.  We are on many project teams with employees across the organization that hold a variety of roles.  What I learned quickly at Anaqua is, if you are in the meeting, you have an equal voice to anyone else in the meeting – there are no levels, there are no personal agendas, and there are no gender differences.  Questions can, and will, come from anyone and to anyone because we have that laser focus on the customer.

So you asked, has Anaqua lived up to my expectations – the answer is yes.  The two driving forces for Anaqua are also my driving forces.  I believe when you serve these two constituencies well, your shareholders are also taken care of.  So in many ways, how I was raised “do your job” and things will fall into place the way they’re supposed, actually rings true here.

How is Anaqua recognizing International Women’s Day?

I mentioned earlier the companies I’ve worked with have always acknowledged the day and encouraged employees to recognize the significance of the day.  The difference at Anaqua however is the involvement and participation of the men in the company.  Employees submitted quotes and photos recognizing the day and we have as many men participating as women, actually the first submission I received was from our CIO, Erik Bailey.  With this type of explicit support, the benefits of gender diversity will only go from strength to strength.