Gilead Sciences, Inc

The main event for today was a meeting with Robin Washington, board member at Salesforce and CFO at Gilead Sciences, Inc. I had never been to Foster City before, but this meeting was definitely worth the drive. The interview was incredible; she was poised and ready for any question I threw at her. If there was an award for most quotable interview, she would win by a landslide. Every comment she made had purpose, intention, and great thought behind it. For example, when asked if she felt her gender had any impact on her career, she confidently stated, "I feel that sometimes what I do is not only for me but for generations of other females and African-Americans." It is that depth that truly makes her interview stick out in my mind. It takes an incredible leader to lead by example but an even more incredible leader to aspire to make a bigger impact, bigger than the people she knows, bigger than people in the United States, and bigger than just her generation. Similarly, she again brought the conversation to a more global perspective when she explained that "the youth of America need to be sure that our skills continue to get honed" as globalization becomes a clear reality. I love that she always thought about the bigger picture; business is no longer a matter of one country but of an entire world. The last thing that really stood out to me in my interview with Robin Washington was her humbleness. As she stated, "We'll never be in a time or place where I know everything I need to know. So I think you have to learn how to teach yourself new things constantly." It is this dedication to being a lifelong learner, recognition that there are always new topics to explore, and acceptance that her knowledge is limited but constantly expanding that makes her an incredible executive, employee, and person.