Women+ in Technology of New Jersey National Leadership Team
Tiffany Benitez - National President & Founder
Tiffany grew up in the beautiful islands of Hawaii. She currently lives in Bentonville, AR with her husband and children. She has spent her career in technology, across several industries. She started her career in the finance industry, with 12 years at Bank of America. Tiffany then made a move to the retail industry and took a role in technology at Walmart’s Home Office. She led several transformation and continuous improvement efforts, to progress the Global Data organization to Agile & Product ways of working. She then made a career move to Lowe’s Companies, Inc. and led the strategy, portfolio, Governance, Awareness, and communications areas for cyber-security in technology. With her time at Lowe’s, she led the Women in Technology group and served with the Women Empowered Business Resource Group leadership team. These roles allowed her to use her passion to drive change and advocacy for women across the organization. She is currently serving as a Senior Director in IT Applications for Tyson Foods, Inc. Tiffany is an Author, Speaker and Advocate for women, who uses her strong connection with people to drive change and empowerment.
Tara Kendrick - National Expansion and Operations Lead
Tara Kendrick was born and raised in a small town in Southern Virginia. She recently relocated to the Northwest Arkansas area, where she currently resides in Bentonville, AR. Tara graduated with a Business Management degree from Virginia Tech, specializing in Consulting and Analysis. She has spent her entire career in technology, holding various roles across multiple industries. Tara is currently serving as AVP, Agile Delivery for Live Oak Bank, a digital, cloud-based bank focusing on serving small business owners. She plans to use her extensive experience in program and project management to develop strategies that will expand the WIT organization into new areas, continuing to drive change and empower women and girls across America. Outside of work, you will find Tara trying new recipes in the kitchen, going on long walks (or playing fetch) with her dog, June, reading all the Kindle Unlimited books, spending time with friends and family, and empowering women through fitness as a Pure Barre instructor.
Women+ in Technology of New Jersey Leadership Team
Heather Johnson - President
Heather Johnson is an SVP at LPL Financial where she leads the NextGen Advisor Platform. Heather is passionate about customer-centric product development and gets particularly excited about innovation in the Wealth Management space. Prior to joining LPL, she was at Wedbush Securities, Merrill, and Morgan Stanley. Heather loves to play guitar, hike, and practice speaking Mandarin Chinese (her minor at Clemson University).
Mythili Madhira - Chapter Operations Lead
Mythili Madhira is an SVP in Technology at LPL Financial leading the Banking, Lending, Wealth Planning & Business Solutions Platforms and reports to the CIO of the Investor Experience Organization. Prior to joining LPL, Mythili held technology leadership roles at JP Morgan & Chase and Goldman Sachs & Co. Over the years, she has led technology leadership positions supporting trading and large-scale data distribution for front office and customer facing applications. Mythili has a strong track record for delivering digital transformation initiatives that support business growth and significant scale for US & Intl Private Bank businesses. Mythili is passionate about diversity and inclusion and mentoring programs. She has led several commitments to further the growth of women technologists including leading the “Sit with me” red chair campaign and “Girls Who Code” programs. Mythili currently resides in New Jersey with her husband and three boys. She holds a master’s degree in computer science from Univ of Texas at Dallas and an MBA from Wharton School at Univ of Pennsylvania.