New Sunday Times, August 9 2009
Bobbi Dangerfield, the managing director of Dell Global Business Centre, is passionate about promoting diversity in the work arena, writes INTAN MAIZURA AHMAD KAMAL
SHE’S someone who has navigated through the male environment and countered varying degrees of adversity with much aplomb. So really, Bobbi Dangerfield, the managing director of Dell Global Business Centre, is the right person to be on the panel of the forthcoming Women’s Summit to be held on Aug 18 at the Sime Darby Convention Centre.
At the event, the gathering of dynamic and successful women who’ve managed to turn adversity into amazing opportunities, will share their personal experiences and discuss issues affecting women in the workplace.
“Personally, I’m very passionate about promoting diversity and inclusion in the work arena,” says Dangerfield, who was included in the international Who’s Who Among Women In Business in 1998.
“Before Dell, I was fortunate to have worked for IBM, a company that values respect for the individual as well as diversity and inclusion.” That’s also true for where she’s now. “At Dell, diversity is important for many reasons.
Firstly, we need our employee population to look like our customer population,” says Dangerfield, who’s been with Dell in various capacities for the last 10 years. “If we want to sell products, we need to ensure that these products are going to meet customer needs. If we have a diverse workforce, we can better understand the needs of our customers.” Secondly, innovation at the workplace can only come when there’s a variety of thoughts and backgrounds, says the 49-yearold Aquarius. “When most people think of diversity, they think only about gender or race, but here, we also look at diversity in terms of educational background, thought, and culture.” Prior to Malaysia, Dangerfield was general manager of Dell El Salvador, leading customer tech support, consumer sales and care for both the US and Latin America markets. She was also in charge of the only site supporting Spanishspeaking customers in the US. Her leadership helped to forge lasting bonds between Dell and the Salvadoran government through community efforts geared at health, environment and education.
“When I got to El Salvador, we received some money from the Dell foundation to support AIDS.” says Dangerfield. “We worked with the AIDS foundation in conjunction with our sales business and ended up setting up a doctor’s office and a dental office with all of the technology for patient tracking and medical records.” The team also expanded their reach into education and technology. Recalls Dangerfield: “We worked with inner city schools, set up technology labs and put together English as a second language course. We started training kids in first grade all the way to high school. There were 90 Dell employees in El Savador certified as English instructors.” It was this international experience coupled with the strong government relations that she’d built that eventually saw Dangerfield being offered her present posting.
“They needed somebody to come in and develop those same kinds of ties and really build out the services business here.” Before Dell, the Texan had worked for over six years at Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, as assistant vicepresident, in distributed technology and marketing systems development.
“That was interesting. The environment was very different from where I’d come from.
The top three levels of the organisation comprised men, all white men over 50 years old, who’d gone to Harvard or Stanford together – a very closeknit group of guys.” It was also very union-oriented, which brought different work dynamics to the table.
“I had to learn a lot about labour organisations and how to deal with this huge male population. I was lucky that we had a woman, Barbara Jordan, a Texas state senator, on our Board of Directors. She brought the whole notion of ethics and diversity and their importance into the railroad,” says Dangerfield.
Smiling, the mother of 16-yearold twins continues: “I worked with her on a task force to bring ethics and diversity to the company and really learned a lot about standing up for what you believe in and how to make the workplace a more friendly environment.” Dangerfield, who aspired to be a doctor when growing up, confides that she’s driven by challenges.
“At school, I was a Maths major. I loved problem solving, especially big problems which I could break up into pieces, and attempt to figure out the solution.” Her source of inspiration comes from the people around her and her family. “Just watching the challenges and adversity that some people have to deal with and the fact that they can still be committed to what they’re doing, really motivates me.
“My family also inspires me. My husband is an artist but he used to work in the IT industry as well.
When we moved to El Savador he retired so now he paints full time.
Having a life partner like that who’s in a totally different world really keeps me balanced. And my kids… just watching them grow and develop as young adults have also been inspiring.” As for role models, she has a few. One of them is her 97-yearold grandmother. “She came to the US from Poland and couldn’t even speak English at first. My grandfather went to fight in World War Two so she had to stay home and take care of the family.
Basically, she worked while he was in the service and this was in a time when most people weren’t working. Today, she’s living in her own apartment and still writes letters!” When she’s not answering conference calls in the early hours of the morning or giving briefings, or going for meetings with the members of the American Chambers of Commerce (of which she’s on the board), Dangerfield enjoys reading.
“I’ll have three or four books going at any given time. I love historical fiction and Jodi Piccoult’s books,” she says. “My husband and I love to dance, so we do that when we get the chance.” She’s also a fitness buff who loves her food. “I love to swim, exercise and, on weekends, my daughter and I would go running.
I try to work out at least five days a week. I like to hit the stalls too.