Flash Memory Summit (FMS) and the Evaluator Group announced Calline K. Sanchez winner of the SuperWomen in Flash Leadership Award. At IBM, Calline led the award-winning next generation DS8880F Enterprise Storage systems and received numerous awards for her work in diversity and women in science and engineering. Now in its second year, the SuperWomen in Flash Leadership Award recognizes women who make invaluable contributions to the flash memory ecosystem and who serve as role models for women in leadership.
“Calline’s career is full of accomplishments in challenging technical disciplines, from statistical analysis to leading large-scale flash storage system development and sales,” said Chuck Sobey, Flash Memory Summit Conference Chairperson. “In addition to her success in technology and business, Calline has made it a priority to reach out to others to help them see the opportunities in tech and beyond.”
“I’m sincerely grateful to be recognized as a flash technology leader among all of the tremendous rock stars,” said Sanchez. “I very much appreciate SuperWomen in Flash bringing visibility to the great work done by women in our industry.”
SuperWomen in Flash
SuperWomen in Flash was formed five years ago to promote and celebrate the success of women in the flash memory industry with the goal of encouraging more women to enter and succeed in the marketplace. It continues to grow each year and is supported by a broad group of women and vendors including IBM and Intel. SuperWomen in Flash draws all genders and nationalities that are interested in expanding the enthusiasm and devotion in the data storage industry.
“The SuperWomen in Flash Leadership Award furthers our purpose, recognizing women who have shown outstanding leadership in the growth, development and use of flash and related technologies and systems,” said Camberley Bates, Managing Director of Evaluator Group and founding chair of SuperWomen. “We are very pleased to recognize Calline Sanchez, a leader in the data storage industry and a champion of diversity and women in STEM.”
Since joining IBM full-time in 2001, Calline Sanchez has held three executive leadership positions. She is currently Vice President, IBM Worldwide Systems Lab Services and Technical Universities, leading a worldwide team of technology consultants to deliver systems and solutions to end users. With the rapid expansion of data-intensive computing technologies, Calline was charged with driving IBM Enterprise Storage into the forefront and led the next generation FLASH optimized systems. Ms. Sanchez’s responsibilities spanned development, manufacturing, distribution and sales across the spectrum of the IBM Storage Portfolio, including Flash, Disk, Physical/Virtual Tape, and Data Back-up solutions.
Calline began her career at IBM in Markov Chain Statistical Tools and followed that with a stint at IBM Armonk headquarters under Nicholas M. Donofrio, IBM Fellow Executive Vice President, where she traveled the world promoting Innovation, Corporate Citizenship, Research and Education projects. Prior to IBM, Calline worked at Sandia National Laboratories as a coder and database developer on Department of Energy projects
Beyond data storage, Calline has received numerous diversity and business leadership awards, including the 2019 Arizona Fifty Most Influential Women in Arizona, 2018 Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Business Women of the Year, Top 5 Working Mothers of the Year in 2012 and 2016, plus Outstanding Technical Leadership by IBM.
Today, among her responsibilities as the Lead Executive for IBM to the state of New Mexico and Southern Arizona, she works on the EXCITE camp for young women and the board of advisors for the University of Arizona’s Management Information Systems Department.
