In a quest to gain insights on the steps to take to become a CPO, Rashmi Ramesh interviewed 9 female CPOs, creating our most popular podcast, the Path to CPO. Rashmi will be joined by Ketaki Rao, CPO of data.ai, and Malaika Paquiot, CPO of Avalance Insights, for a keynote roundtable. During this talk, they'll dive in deep on the steps they took, and lessons they learned and share tips for anyone looking to level up their career.

📍Malaika Paquiot • Chief Product Officer, Avalanche Insights   / malaikamose  

Malaika Paquiot is Chief Product Officer at Avalanche Insights where she leads the tech organization of product managers, designers, engineers, and data scientists. She’s spent half of her 20 years in tech as a software engineer or manager of engineers, and the other half as a product manager or leading products teams for web, mobile, voice, and IOT products. Malaika has won the National Women of Color Technology Award, judged Triangle Startup Weekend, and serves on the boards of Cucalorus and Working Films. She also keeps chickens.

📍Ketaki Rao • Chief Product Officer, data.ai   / ketaki-rao-76b404  

As Chief Product Officer, Ketaki leads the evolution of the next generation of products at data.ai. Her team is responsible for product discovery, roadmap, design, delivery, and enablement. 

Ketaki brings 20+ years of experience developing products at small and large technology companies including Salesforce, Amazon, Sun Microsystems, and multiple startups. She has worked in several verticals including microprocessors, eBooks, mobile devices, mobile apps, DCO platforms, DMPs and CDPs. Most recently, she led the launch of Identity and Consumer Rights capabilities for the Salesforce Customer Data Platform (CDP). 

Ketaki has academic credentials from three different continents — she earned a bachelor's degree in electronics from Mangalore University in India, a master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University in the USA, and a master's degree in business administration from INSEAD in France.

📍Rashmi Ramesh • Director of Product, Data Analytics Startup   / rashmi-r  

As a product leader in the enterprise/B2B space, Rashmi brings a wealth of experience from working across both large companies and startups. Her journey started as a software engineer, and she transitioned into product management and has been in PM for the past 10+ years. What excites Rashmi the most about being a product leader is that every day is unique. Every day presents a new set of challenges, potential roadblocks, and hence new opportunities to explore. This level of variety keeps her engaged and continuously pushes her to think outside the box. For someone who is passionate about customers, problem-solving, and innovation, this is an incredibly rewarding and exciting career path. Rashmi firmly believes that nothing is impossible in this world if you put your mind to it and this mindset has been critical in her career, as she has faced her share of challenges. She also has an MBA from Wharton which has been an asset in her role as a product leader. On a personal note, Rashmi lives in the Bay Area with her husband and two kids (10-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter). They love to travel and explore new places together. She also has a passion for trying different cuisines and is always up for trying something new.