Wanda Denson-Low ’78, Linda Pitzi Jojo ’87, ’92G, Linda Sanford ’75G, and Kristin Ann Seaver ’90, ’98G
On Saturday, October 14, President Shirley Ann Jackson will moderate a discussion with Rensselaer alumnae who are top executives in major businesses and industry. During the talk, titled “Impact on the Global Challenges: Rensselaer Alumnae in Position to Create Change,” participants will talk about how they are positioning their companies to address the global challenges—including cybersecurity, data exploration and applications, technology, and advanced materials—and to change the world.
The panel will discuss the contributions of Rensselaer alumnae across all disciplines. In addition to President Jackson, the panel will include:
Wanda Denson-Low ’78, Vice Chair, Board of Trustees, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Retired Senior Vice President, Office of Internal Governance, The Boeing Company
Linda Pitzi Jojo ’87, ’92G, Executive Committee, Rensselaer Alumni Association Board; Executive Vice President, Technology, and Chief Digital Officer, United Airlines
Linda Sanford ’75G, Emeriti Member, Board of Trustees, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Executive for The Carlyle Group; Retired Senior Vice President, Enterprise Transformation, IBM
Kristin Ann Seaver ’90, ’98 EMBA, Member, Athletic Leadership Council, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Chief Information Officer and Executive Vice President, USPS
Wanda Denson-Low ’78
Wanda Denson-Low retired in 2014 as senior vice president of Boeing’s Office of Internal Governance, a position she held since 2007. She was responsible for the advancement and effective implementation of the company’s internal governance strategies. She also maintained management oversight for internal audit, ethics and business conduct, and global trade controls, which included import-export policies and compliance, and other related regulatory and compliance matters.
Prior to that, Denson-Low served as the company’s vice president and assistant general counsel with responsibility for leading the legal staff for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems (IDS, now BDS, Boeing Defense, Space & Security), and its Phantom Works advanced product development unit. Prior to that, Denson-Low was the vice president of human resources for IDS and was responsible for the successful implementation of employee policies, strategies, and processes for the more than 75,000-person IDS workforce.
With more than 30 years of experience in corporate law, commercial transactions, mergers and acquisitions, data rights, government contracts, and intellectual property law, Denson-Low had a distinguished professional career that began in 1981 as a patent attorney at Union Carbide Corporation. She joined the $16 billion Hughes Aircraft Company in 1985 and in 1989 was named Hughes’ chief patent counsel, making her the first minority woman chief patent counsel of a Fortune 500 company. Denson-Low became a member of the Boeing legal team in 2000, as part of the Boeing acquisition of Hughes Space and Communications, where she had risen to the position of general counsel for the $3.5 billion company
Linda Pitzi Jojo ’87, ’92G
Linda Jojo is executive vice president, technology, and chief digital officer of United Continental Holdings Inc., the parent company of United Airlines. She is responsible for the airline’s digital and mobile presence, including United.com and mobile apps, as well as its technology systems, platforms, and infrastructure.
Prior to joining United in 2014 as its CIO, Jojo was the CIO at Rogers Communications, Canada’s largest provider of wireless services, home entertainment, and media services. She was previously the CIO at Energy Future Holdings and at Flowserve Corporation, and spent nearly 15 years at GE in various technical leadership roles, including the CIO, GE Silicones in Waterford.
In 2017, she was named Chicago’s “CIO of the Year,” and was named to Craig’s “Tech 50” in 2016, both recognizing the way she and her team are leveraging mobile, analytics, and machine learning to transform the way customer service is delivered at United Airlines.
Jojo is a member of the board of directors at Exelon Corporation, a Fortune 100 company that operates the country’s largest nuclear power fleet and serves the electricity and gas supply needs of over 10 million. She is vice chair, board of trustees at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, whose mission is to engage and excite young people in STEM, and is vice president and treasurer of the Rensselaer Alumni Board of Trustees.
Linda Sanford ’75G
Linda Sanford is an operating executive for The Carlyle Group, focused on the technology industry. The Carlyle Group is a global alternative asset manager with $176 billion of assets under management across 128 funds.
Prior to retiring from IBM in December 2014, Sanford was senior vice president of Enterprise Transformation and she was responsible for IBM’s internal transformation to the premier globally integrated enterprise. In this role, she worked across IBM to transform core business processes, created an IT infrastructure to support and integrate processes globally, and helped to create a values-based culture that fostered innovation.
Previously, Sanford was senior vice president and group executive, IBM Storage Systems Group, where she helped take IBM from fifth place in storage market share to second in two years. She also headed IBM Global Industries. During the 1990s, Sanford guided the S/390 Division through one of the most comprehensive and successful product transformations the computer industry has ever seen, reinventing S/390 as an open, enterprise-level server. Throughout her 39-year career at IBM, Sanford held numerous senior leadership positions including senior vice president and group executive, IBM Storage Systems Group; general manager of IBM Global Industries sales organization, and general manager of IBM’s Mainframe Division.
Sanford co-authored Let Go To Grow: Escaping the Commodity Trap, a book that details how successful companies are pursuing strategies to drive long-term growth and innovation. Sanford is a member of the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame and the National Academy of Engineering. She has been named one of the 50 Most Influential Women in Business by Fortune magazine, one of the Top Ten Innovators in the Technology Industry by Information Week Magazine, and one of the Ten Most Influential Women in Technology by Working Woman Magazine.
Kristin Ann Seaver ’90, ’98G
A 26-year-veteran of USPS, Kristin Seaver was selected to serve as chief information officer and executive vice president of the United States Postal Service in April 2016. She leads the Postal Service’s efforts to drive innovation across enterprise analytics, business insights, mail intelligence, engineering systems, information security and infrastructure, and payment technology.
She will also lead the advancement of Informed Visibility (IV), which Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan called a “supercharged information platform…designed to transform mail.” A primarily data-fueled initiative, IV uses laser scanning and barcodes to track packages as they move through the mailing system, offering better insight to mailers and recipients. Previously, Seaver was vice president of area operations for the Capital Metro Area, from October 2013 to April 2016. In this position, she was responsible for overseeing operations throughout eight districts of Atlanta, Baltimore, Capital, Greater South Carolina, Greensboro, Mid-Carolinas, Northern Virginia, and Richmond. The Capital Metro Area encompasses 132,370 square miles, over 63,046 employees, more than 2,749 post offices and approximately 15.9 million customers.
Seaver started her career with the United States Postal Service in 1991 in the Albany District, where she served as an industrial engineer and manager for Remote Encoding Operations.
The panel discussion will be held in the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center Theater beginning at 10:30 a.m. ID is required.
To register, go to alumni.rpi.edu/reunion. A valid ID will be required for entry.
