It’s officially been a year since Tercera kicked off its Women in Services (WiSe) initiative – a focus and dedicated program designed to elevate and empower women leaders in tech services.
We created the initiative for one reason: there simply are not enough female leaders in tech services, and there are business, technological and socioeconomic forces that are making the situation worse, not better.
According to McKinsey’s most recent Women in the Workplace report, women continue to be underrepresented at every level of the corporate world, especially in the most senior roles. Less than 30% of C-suite roles are held by women. The good news is that those numbers have increased slightly over the last year. Interestingly, the companies with the largest increases are also the highest-performing.
However, the picture is even starker in AI and technology. According to Women in Tech Global, women represent only 28% of tech leadership roles globally, which includes roles beyond the C-suite. In tech services, the numbers are even lower. In our updated review of 137 tech services investor presentations, we found:
- Less than 3% had a female founder or CEO
- The median percentage of women noted as part of leadership teams was a mere 15%.
- 36% had zero women noted on their leadership teams
If higher-performing companies have more gender equity across levels, this should be concerning for investors and shareholders.
Playing the Ground Game – Individual Sponsorship
While there are many root causes for this issue, in our formal WiSe program, we chose to focus on one specific issue: sponsorship.
By sponsorship, we mean actively advocating for, promoting or creating opportunities for career advancement. Unlike mentorship, sponsorship involves someone in a position of power putting their reputation on the line to help someone move forward.
According to many female leaders we’ve spoken to, sponsorship has been vital to their success. McKinsey’s research reinforces this, showing that employees with sponsors are promoted at nearly twice the rate of those without a sponsor. Unfortunately, women are less likely than men to have a sponsor and to be offered career and leadership training, especially at senior levels.
This was the impetus behind launching our WiSe sponsorship program – a year-long program we kicked off a year ago to give high-potential women leaders the coaching, network, opportunities and confidence to lead at the highest levels.
In 2025, we selected four high-potential women leaders who were nominated by their CEO or board member. We guided them through a year-long program that included:
- 1:1 coaching with a certified leadership coach
- Tailored cohort discussions and peer-exchange sessions
- Quarterly mentorship and sponsorship sessions with a Tercera partner
- An invitation to speak at Tercera’s annual in-person executive leadership retreat
- Invitations to relevant networking events, meetings, etc.
The program’s goal was simple. We wanted to see 100% of participants take on new growth opportunities, and at least one cohort participant become a CEO or founder over time.
We’re excited to say that earlier this year, one of the four participants in our inaugural WiSe cohort, Rebecca Harris, stepped into the CEO position at her current firm, Huble. And 100% of the 2025 cohort have stepped up to take on new responsibilities or roles within their firms.
In speaking about the experience, this is what Rebecca had to say, “The WiSe program helped me build the confidence, the techniques and the network to get myself ready for this moment. Who would have thought this could change the trajectory of your whole life? But it has.”
Learnings to Evolve the Program
Year one of the program gave us a good sense of which elements added the most value to participants and how to evolve the program for future years.
The dedicated leadership coaching was cited as the biggest needle mover. One participant likened these sessions to rewiring the brain for new ways of thinking, to be bolder and more decisive.
The two executive coaches who partnered with Tercera for the program – Heidi Spirgi and Dr. Shannon Anderson-Finch – brought a powerful blend of operational and services expertise and a proven process for human-centered leadership development. Shannon is a former global people leader at Google and Deloitte with over two decades of experience in culture, talent, and transformation, while Heidi is a former C-suite executive and strategic advisor with nearly 30 years of experience building and scaling high-performing software and services teams.
View this video to hear more about the impact of the program’s coaching.
The small size and diverse makeup of the program were also impactful and will be carried forward into the 2026 program. Participants and the sponsoring CEOs cited the value of bringing together leaders in the same industry who come with different perspectives.
Greg Smith, CEO of Stridepath, who nominated Stridepath COO Brandy Bass, had this to say: “By connecting emerging leaders from a variety of consulting ecosystems, the program creates a unique space for knowledge sharing with diverse technology and industry backgrounds. This translates into each participant bringing actionable ideas back to their respective organizations. That adds new capabilities, fuels revenue growth, and optimizes the bottom line.”
Nominations for the 2026 WiSe Cohort
Nominations for the 2026 cohort are now open through April 25, 2025. We are seeing nominations for VPs and above who aspire to be a founder or CEO of an AI or tech services firm and who can commit to a one-year program. Nominations must be submitted or approved by the nominee’s current or previous CEO so they can play a role in sponsorship to drive the greatest impact.
If there is someone in your organization that you think could be an ideal candidate, please visit this site for more information: https://hub.tercera.io/wise