In this episode, Maureen gets real about growing up constantly on the move, learning to roll with change, stay grounded, and find the good in every new chapter. Surrounded by family and friends who dedicated their lives to service, she reflects on what it really means to live with purpose and give back. Maureen also reminds us that careers (and life!) rarely follow a straight line and sometimes, the best moments come from the plans we didn't make. Tune in for an uplifting chat about resilience, purpose, and the beauty of embracing the unexpected. https://www.linkedin.com/in/maureenpeters/ ----------------------------------------- Episode Transcript:

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;33;10 Unknown You're listening to the Oracle Maven podcast, where we bring people together from the veteran affiliated community to highlight employees, partners, organizations and those who are continuing the mission to serve. Welcome to the Maven podcast. I'm your host, Chris Spencer, and in this episode, I'm joined by Maureen Peters, Strategic Employee Experience Program manager, Maven co-chair, and military ally. In this episode, Maureen gets real about growing up constantly on the move.

00;00;33;10 - 00;00;52;27 Unknown Learning to roll with change. Stay grounded and find the good in every new chapter. Surrounded by family and friends who dedicated their lives to service. She reflects on what it really means to live with purpose and give back. Maureen also reminds us that careers and life rarely follow a straight line, and sometimes the best moments come from the plans we didn't make.

00;00;52;28 - 00;01;10;20 Unknown Tune in for an uplifting chat about resilience, purpose, and the beauty of embracing the unexpected. We have all we need to become the person we want to be. So let's remember how to connect with others with sincerity and genuine intent. As we continue the mission to serve. Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoy this episode, and please remember to check in on your buddies and family.

00;01;10;21 - 00;01;37;12 Unknown Maureen's contact details are on the podcast description and you can always find me on LinkedIn. Maureen, what's going on? Hey Chris, what's up? Oh not much. What's what's going on? On your side. You know, busy, busy life. It's, kind of the standard around here. Just dealing with having a kid away from home for the first time. That's always fun to think that.

00;01;37;14 - 00;02;03;23 Unknown Yeah, you get used to it, I guess I hear. I don't know. Still working through it myself. Yeah. Yeah, it's a big change. It's a it's a big life transition. So that I look at you inserting the terms at that. Yeah. Nice. Well that's good. So you got the full background on your. I know the folks can't see this because it's audio, but the video background as far as how's how's Nashville in the fall?

00;02;03;25 - 00;02;22;26 Unknown It has been cold and rainy. So. But we are just getting the turning of the leaves on the trees, so it's great. I see all these trees and all this great color and everything else. It's. It's really nice. It's nice time of year. I just got back from, Florida, though. I've spent a long weekend in Florida, so it was warmth and sunshine and the beach.

00;02;22;26 - 00;02;51;20 Unknown And so, definitely hoping I can get back to that soon. Yeah, but, yeah, it's a nice place to visit. Yeah. Although summertime is probably not as moderate as now. Yeah, I was going to say that's why it's perfect. Fall spring. Not too hot. Gorgeous. Just again ordered. So. Maureen's here. Maureen has joined. Well, I'll let Maureen tell her story, but, Maureen's here as the co-chair of Maven.

00;02;51;20 - 00;03;14;20 Unknown So our military affiliated veteran employee network community inside of Oracle. And Maureen is an ally. And there there are some connections that again, I'll I'll pass the mic over and she'll she'll cover those things. But we're we're talking to Maureen today because this is episode two of season four. And we have a lot of things that are going on.

00;03;14;20 - 00;03;35;02 Unknown As was indicated just as we started talking, we want to talk about the perspective that Maureen has, the skill sets that Maureen brings to her role here, as well as what the vision for Maven is moving forward. If you listen to episode one, Scott pay for it briefly talked about what we were trying to achieve, some of the neat things we were working on.

00;03;35;02 - 00;03;53;05 Unknown It's what he said in the hopper. And so, you know, we'll take, perspective from Maureen, but before we do that, like we always do, Maureen, tell us a little bit about you. Well, I appreciate the opportunity to be here. And who the heck can follow? Scott's opening the season for that was, like, pretty good, wasn't it?

00;03;53;07 - 00;04;18;24 Unknown Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who is Maureen? Gosh, Maureen is, you know, a wife and a mom, and, you know, I grew up in a normal household, and, you know, I had friends and family who've served and everything else. And, I met my husband, similar to Scott. You know, he was saying that, you know, he was kind of not looking for the drama, the relationships or anything else.

00;04;18;24 - 00;04;39;15 Unknown And then bam, he found his wife. So it was kind of the same thing for for me in my world, you know, my husband and I wasn't looking for that relationship or that drama, but I, found my husband. He was recently transitioned out of the Marine Corps. You know, some people will say that I'm a military spouse, but the reality is, is, I don't deserve that honor.

00;04;39;15 - 00;05;10;11 Unknown He was in and out of the Corps before. I mean, once a marine, always a marine. So, you know, I live with that. But I never had to deal with PKS or deployments or anything else. I mean, my best friend deployed, the last year that she was in the Air Force, so, you know, spent a lot of time with her family, supporting her family, sending her monthly care packages with themed holidays and, you know, just trying to get her all the good stuff and help her through that last, that last year before she was ready to hit the button and leave the Air Force after 20 years.

00;05;10;11 - 00;05;32;21 Unknown So I'm a wife, obviously to my husband, Sam. I hope that my husband would say that is his lucky man. I know I'm a lucky woman. We had two beautiful kids. As I mentioned at the beginning, my daughter, just started at the University of Tennessee this fall. So goggles and I have a 16 year old son, who was a junior in high school and just starting his wrestling season.

00;05;32;23 - 00;05;55;12 Unknown So, as you can imagine, you know, between work and life and, you know, everything else, there's just a lot going on. It's always busy, always busy. Oh, now you're not. You're not originally from Tennessee. I am not I'm, one of the California transplants that the Tennesseans love so much. I left California, we left California about three and a half years ago.

00;05;55;13 - 00;06;17;21 Unknown But I'm not a California born and raised, either. I actually moved to California from Michigan. Let's see. I would have been almost 11 years old when I moved to California. My dad was on contract at Apple back before Apple was super cool, and he had been commuting back and forth for about a year and a half. And so when they asked him to extend his contract, he said, well, only if you move my family out to California.

00;06;17;24 - 00;06;40;18 Unknown So we moved to California in January of 89. And, it was amazing. I mean, going from, you know, Michigan cold winter to California in January and it was like 50 degrees outside. We were running around in our shorts and t shirts and everybody thought we were nuts. So when his contract ended, we had the opportunity to either stay in California or move back to Michigan.

00;06;40;18 - 00;07;02;00 Unknown And who wouldn't want to stay in California? There's a reason that it is the Golden State. It is beautiful. It is. Yes. And it always will be. So, you know, around 11, you said that you came from Michigan to to California. And what was it like moving from the Midwest into the West Coast? Yeah. You know, that's a that's a hard it's a hard transition.

00;07;02;00 - 00;07;27;05 Unknown My parents both grew up in Cleveland and or outskirts of Cleveland, Rocky River and, Lakewood for my mom and my dad went to UD. So that's what, you know, brought us to and brought him to Michigan. So it's really hard. I we had no family west of the Mississippi. All of my parents, siblings and family members were all in the Illinois, Ohio, you know, Indiana, Michigan area.

00;07;27;05 - 00;07;51;19 Unknown So it was really hard. It was a new start for us. But, you know, church and school and sports got us our own little network of people that have become our family, nice and and we're. Whereabouts in California? You don't have to be specific. Was it Northern California or where exactly? Where? Yes, absolutely northern. So, you know, Silicon Valley, my dad worked at Apple and he worked at tandem.

00;07;51;19 - 00;08;07;10 Unknown Both my parents worked for Cisco. I worked for Cisco. My brother worked for Cisco. You know, we all kind of had our little tenure there at one point in time. So we were in the Bay area, and about a year or so, I think, after my husband and I got married, we moved up to northeast of the Sacramento area.

00;08;07;10 - 00;08;30;14 Unknown So, and as expansion kept getting, you know, more and more and everything was growing, we just kept moving further and further out to kind of get away from it all. And, you know, so we loved it. Absolutely loved it there, but it was just too busy. And so when we after Covid and everything else, we decided that we weren't going to move, you know, we were trying to figure out where we wanted to go.

00;08;30;16 - 00;08;49;25 Unknown And a morning was not about to move back to Michigan. I did not want grand jury weather from November until April. So we were kind of figuring out where we wanted to land and, I had been traveling to Tennessee when I was working with Cisco. You know, they had an office in Franklin, which is just south of Nashville.

00;08;49;25 - 00;09;19;28 Unknown And so I had been traveling there, you know, fairly regularly and, loved it. You can't beat Nashville live music on Lower Broadway, which is totally my jam. So it was just one of the places it was a little, little south of, you know, where the family was closer to them, but not nearly as south as Florida. And the heat, although I really do miss the water, having lived in Northern California, being about an hour from North Shore and being, you know, like an hour and a half, two hours from San Francisco.

00;09;20;06 - 00;09;36;19 Unknown We had the best of all the worlds, right? I could go to the beach, I could go to the mountains. You know, now I'm kind of landlocked in Tennessee. I love it here. Great. I'm in a rural community. So I am I'm like an hour north of Nashville. So, just shy of the Kentucky border. And it's beautiful.

00;09;36;26 - 00;10;03;24 Unknown Beautiful here. I absolutely love it, but I do miss my water. Yeah. So North, you said North Shore. Is that Tahoe? Lake Tahoe? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we we spent most of our time, honestly, in South Lake Tahoe. That was my little happy place. And, you know, it's kind of the same, you know, as I, as we drive to eastern Tennessee and kind of hit that plateau, we start to climb those hills and, you know, get those Rockies, like, you know, that that hits home.

00;10;03;24 - 00;10;21;03 Unknown That's I'm like, oh, I really love this part of the state. It's just gorgeous, nice. But there's something to be said about the fact that I pretty much drive two lane country roads everywhere and get stuck behind a tractor and you're like, okay, you're just behind the farm equipment. It's all right. You know, it's a slower pace of life.

00;10;21;05 - 00;10;43;02 Unknown Sit on the front porch or the back porch. Drink some bourbon. That's a big change to, you know, wine country and everything else was so close in California. And there's no wine in Tennessee. Unless you're like strawberry, a blackberry wine. So became bourbon drinkers. Okay. Yeah. So the change, the change in the adaptation, then, I guess is something that you're familiar with.

00;10;43;04 - 00;11;04;22 Unknown What are some of the things that stand out as kind of the prominent considerations of when you're getting ready to make those types of decisions? Family first, you know, honestly, like what's going to be best for, for my kids, that's, you know, they are the driving force behind pretty much everything I do. I lost both my parents before I was 40.

00;11;04;22 - 00;11;25;21 Unknown So they are they are my everything. You know, it was what's going to be good for them. What's going to be healthy for them. You know, how do we make sure that they're going to be set up for success? So was there a lot of planning going into it before? I mean, you're talking about coming out of the pandemic, just trying to figure out what you're going to do, and then you decide that you're going to you're going to relocate.

00;11;25;24 - 00;11;44;28 Unknown Yeah. You know, it's funny, my husband was born and raised in the Bay area and, so he joined the Corps because he wanted to travel and see the world. And he didn't get very far and, stayed in California. So it for him, it was really nice because when we go back to visit family, it gave him an opportunity to see a different part of the country.

00;11;44;28 - 00;12;07;09 Unknown So different outside of California. So he had always wanted to move, but like I said, my parents, you know, both had their cancers. They, we struggled, you know, through their, their trials and tribulations. And so it was never something I was going to do or leave, just, you know, so after a while, we just kind of decided through the pandemic, why are we still here?

00;12;07;10 - 00;12;27;05 Unknown You know what? Where could we be that suits us better? And, after my dad passed, my parents had had this trip planned where I'm okay in the family. Everybody has to get all 50 states. That is a that is a goal that everybody in our family has, you know, tried to achieve and you can't, you know, can't be in an airport that doesn't count.

00;12;27;05 - 00;12;46;02 Unknown Your feet are on real ground. That's airport ground, and you can't fly over it. So you got to actually, like, touch the land. And, so my mom was trying to get her last seven states when my dad passed unexpectedly. And so they had this big trip planned. And, we had told her that we would go on the trip with her.

00;12;46;02 - 00;13;05;13 Unknown So we did a five week road trip in a minivan, and my kids and my husband racked up 26 states. So that's that was kind of our thing is we're driving this five week road trip. Where do you want to go? What do you like? What do you seem that, you know, speaks to you, Nashville or. Well, Tennessee was one of the one of the states.

00;13;05;19 - 00;13;36;26 Unknown Tennessee's South Carolina, we really like the South is. And so what specifically or explicitly got you to to to decide on Tennessee, what do you have any influence on that work did not have any influence actually. And maybe this will go into the kind of conversation that we've got today. But I have I have worked for Mote since my son was an infant and I was in mergers and acquisitions for, you know, a little over a decade, both here at Oracle and, and at Cisco Systems.

00;13;36;29 - 00;14;01;08 Unknown And so, I mean, the conversations I'm in due diligence. You can't sit in a cubicle and ask questions and, you know, do the things that you're supposed to do when you're under NDA. So my role had always been remote. My kids learned from a very early age to walk silently into my office and to not be anywhere where they could potentially show up on camera.

00;14;01;11 - 00;14;27;10 Unknown So yeah, so work didn't have any place in it, but huge value add and benefit that Oracle was going to be moving into Nashville. So I got here and the office was brand new and and by office we are leasing an office at the moment. So when when I came to Nashville, we I think we have to provide one floor and we have slowly taken over, pretty much every floor in that building and acquired space in a building a block away.

00;14;27;10 - 00;14;43;28 Unknown So, I love to go down when I can, when we've got events to do, especially with Maven. I'm an owl leader in Nashville as well. I go down, I try to be down there, at least, you know, once or twice a month. But, that commute over the ridge is not something that something I want to do every day.

00;14;44;00 - 00;15;02;24 Unknown Kind of like everywhere else, traffic in those big cities is is no joke. Yeah, I got better things to do with my time, man. Yeah. Yes you do. And we're going to talk about those things here shortly. What is what is owl. Owl is Oracle's women's leadership. It is another ERG that Oracle has is focused on women's leadership.

00;15;02;25 - 00;15;22;15 Unknown Owl is like all the other ERGs, is open to everyone and to all the allies. So it's not just women. We have men that come and attended as well. Right? When you're talking about leadership development, it shouldn't make a difference whether it's male or female, right? That doesn't have any bearing on it. It's all about, you know, who you are and what you're trying to do and achieve.

00;15;22;15 - 00;15;45;08 Unknown And so we have a lot of early in career people in Nashville that are our, you know, sales development groups and whatnot that are in office. It's been it's been really wonderful to to be a leader to help, you know, mentor these young ladies, through their tech journey. What are some of the things that you do for Owl that stands out is probably something that you look forward to doing most.

00;15;45;11 - 00;16;06;09 Unknown Oh, so last year I created this, what we call munchkin learn because we didn't know if it was going to be breakfast or lunch or happy hour or something along that line. So we have a we have a quarterly lunch and learn that we do. So it's a lot of things like last year's programing we started off with mentoring, then the importance of mentoring.

00;16;06;11 - 00;16;33;21 Unknown Then we moved to your brand and knowing what your brand is. And from there we moved to strategic networking and about how to, you know, network and meet the right people and, and grow that network and how wonderful your network can be for you and helping you throughout your career journey. And then our last one was about, kind of internal mobility, like how do you navigate what that looks like?

00;16;33;23 - 00;16;53;06 Unknown You know, again, a lot of them are early in career. So this is our first job right out of college. And, you know, they maybe didn't go to school to be in sales or, you know, one of my mentees went to be, you know, supply chain management goes like, well, how do you how do you pivot your career from sales to supply chain management?

00;16;53;06 - 00;17;18;17 Unknown And Oracle's a huge, vast company. And, I'd like to think that I've, you know, I've got a lot of connections throughout all the different, you know, lines of businesses being in mergers and acquisitions. Yeah. We were acquiring like, man, the first time I was at Oracle, I mean, I think I worked on not all of them came to fruition, but I think I worked on 42 acquisitions in the two and a half years that I was at Oracle the first time, because I am a boomerang.

00;17;18;20 - 00;17;43;09 Unknown So I was here, 2011 through 2013. Those were our big acquisitions like Taleo and Right now and Eloqua and everything else. It was chaotic and fun and, and everything else. But there's a lot and I think people, you know, they come in and they have their their role and they know their role, but they don't really know how big Oracle is and where they can go.

00;17;43;14 - 00;18;04;24 Unknown I mean, you know, I had a, one of my favorite VP's that I worked for, Suzanne Posner. She just retired, spent 25 years at Oracle, had been in, you know, marketing and sales and finance and operations. And, I mean, there's just so many different places that you can go. You don't have to have a linear career path.

00;18;04;27 - 00;18;26;06 Unknown You know, you can have a nonlinear career path and, you know, experience so much and you don't even have to leave the company to do it. So second that, yeah, I, I've been here forever too. Almost forever. I was like, we won't date you. Don't do that. Okay. No, no. You got to leave some some mystery to the experience.

00;18;26;09 - 00;18;55;18 Unknown So M&A so you said you joined in 2011 stayed in 2013. Yeah. And during that time with all of that activity around M&A, what was the common theme amongst all that change that was occurring from people that were coming into Oracle as a result of that M&A? Yeah, it was really hard. The hard thing about M&A, I think what people don't don't realize is that people, people and talent, to me, that's the most important thing.

00;18;55;19 - 00;19;15;24 Unknown Right. But there's a lot of redundancy. So I was specifically focused on sales, go to market, and incentive compensation, which is always just such a touchy topic anyway, you know, so you want your salespeople to come over because it's going to take time for your Oracle reps to, you know, learn the product, the technology and how to sell it and position it.

00;19;16;01 - 00;19;36;11 Unknown They have their own finance people. They have their own HR people. When you're acquiring them and integrating them into a line of business that already has H.R. Support and, you know, finance support and arts support and things like that, there's a redundancy in jobs. And, so, so that was hard. That was very hard on me, that weighed heavy on my heart.

00;19;36;11 - 00;20;02;19 Unknown And in a lot of ways, because, you know, well, you don't know everybody, you know, you can't keep everybody. And so that makes it a little challenging. So with that and you talking about roles and how you're going to integrate roles into what already exists, does any of your experience help with how you're going to manage those things that people are thinking, or what they're wondering about as they're coming into the company and the unknowns?

00;20;02;21 - 00;20;21;10 Unknown I think that that's kind of what drove me as I'm. Yeah, innately just, you know, I want to help everybody. And, and I don't like to say no. And, you know, I want to make it easier for people to do their thing. And so I think that's kind of how I ended up in, you know, the strategic employee experience world.

00;20;21;11 - 00;20;41;20 Unknown I want people to have a good experience. That's why I mentor so many people, because, you know, as as hard as it is to navigate your career and everything else, it's it's hard to do it alone. So, you know, I try to do everything that I can to take on as many mentees and share my knowledge and my wisdom and, you know, just help people through it.

00;20;41;20 - 00;21;03;27 Unknown Because at the end of the day, it's the people that matter. So you left. I did leave, I went to I went to Cisco Systems. I was there for about five years. That's a whole nother story. And, so Cisco was doing a lot of layoffs, and, you know, I got impacted, and, it ended up being a blessing in disguise.

00;21;03;27 - 00;21;23;19 Unknown You know, my mom was. I'd already lost my dad at that point in time. He had retired from Cisco and passed away six months to the day that he retired from Cisco. And, my mom, was ill, and, you know, so that time away, I took time. I got laid off, I think, and end of October, maybe.

00;21;23;19 - 00;21;46;07 Unknown And so I was like, well, I'm not going to even attempt to look for a job until the beginning of the new year. Having been an HR and recruiting in the past, like, it's a tough it's a tough time in November, December to be looking for a job. So I was just going to take the the severance that I had and just enjoy my time and, you know, funny, I had my my great Oracle M&A people that I had worked with was like knocking on my door, hey, you should come back.

00;21;46;07 - 00;22;08;13 Unknown I was like, no, no, I don't know that. I want to come back to Oracle and look at me now. I've been here, come back for, seven years. So, well, my boomerang and the way that Oracle calculates their, you know, time and service, I think I'll hit my ten years, in January. Nice. Yeah. Congrats.

00;22;08;15 - 00;22;33;03 Unknown Yeah, that's a pretty good. So let's stay there for a minute and talk about an antidote and anticipate a change. Life change. Prioritization and then goals. I mean you had unplanned change in career and then clearly you had the mindset to, to look at it from a perspective of an opportunity to do something else and focus on something else, which is your family.

00;22;33;03 - 00;22;58;11 Unknown And you said that early on. Family first. Yeah. What's interesting is you gave yourself the time. Help us understand, how did that go down to where you decided that I'm going to do this until I don't want to? And you, you gave yourself an end state of when you wanted to go back and continue on your career. You know, I don't know that I, I don't know that I've really put a lot of time and like, a lot of thought into it.

00;22;58;11 - 00;23;33;10 Unknown I just. I, I've worked for people in the past that taught me a lot and, you know, good relationships and unhealthy, toxic manager relationships. So I knew when I left Cisco that it was time to allow myself to be picky about who I wanted to work for. When you get bounced around from manager to manager to manager and it's not your choice, it doesn't feel good all the time and, I'm a big believer in people and personalities.

00;23;33;10 - 00;24;05;25 Unknown And if I were to think about my 515 strengths, positivity is is one of mine. Shocking, right? Blows my mind. Didn't see that coming. Arranger achiever positivity. Individualization. What in the world is my other activator? So yes, probably no surprise whatsoever. So individualization is one of my strengths. I. I always see the good, I always look for the upside in people, and I always try to find something that I can relate to them with.

00;24;05;25 - 00;24;25;13 Unknown Like, you know what? How can we connect together? Because connectedness is very important. So I knew I wasn't going to just work for anybody. I wasn't going to just take a job to take a job. I had done that before, you know, I've been down that road. So when Oracle came knocking again, my coworkers, they were like, it's really different.

00;24;25;13 - 00;24;47;19 Unknown You should think about it. So I came back to Oracle in April of 2018. I think I was back for not even a whole month, I think. And my mom was told she had about three weeks to live. And so I looked at my boss and I was like, I'm sorry, but you know, I've gotta I gotta spend some time.

00;24;47;19 - 00;25;06;12 Unknown And they were like, do what you need to do. Take it, take as much time as you need. And that was a huge change from an Oracle perspective. I was not expecting that. I was thinking, how am I going to manage this? And, so yeah, so it's gone a long way. I had some really great, really great managers.

00;25;06;15 - 00;25;09;29 Unknown Being back at Oracle.

00;25;10;02 - 00;25;30;27 Unknown So let's talk about that culture selection. You decided things leading up and and then for painting the picture for everybody that's listening, you know, the story, the reason why we talk about an individual and we ask for a little bit of backstory so we can see things develop and look where the true heart of someone is sitting when decisions are being made.

00;25;30;27 - 00;26;01;00 Unknown And of course, contributions to things that are for the greater good or bigger than one individual where it comes from. So how how did that make you feel when you came back and sorry for your loss on both your mom and your dad? And when you're now faced with a new situation in your career and what you heard the news about your mom, and you are allowed now to take the time that you needed, what did that do for you?

00;26;01;02 - 00;26;16;16 Unknown Yeah, I think it just took one of those many balls in the air that I have to figure out how to juggle every day. I just took it out. I didn't have to worry about it. And let me be clear, like, I mean, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 17 years. Yes, 17 years old.

00;26;16;18 - 00;26;32;00 Unknown You know, she lived for 23 years battling this. You know, my dad had his cancer. My parents. I think one of the things that I learned, one of the best things I learned from my parents was like, like a short live it to the max. So when I say that my parents, like, struggled with their cancers. Sure.

00;26;32;00 - 00;26;48;24 Unknown Absolutely. But that they still travel the world, did they still act semi-retired while they were still working? Yes, because they knew like they didn't know how long they were going to have. And that's one of the things that, you know, I've really tried to instill in my children and in my family life is too short. You know, you've got to do the things that you're interested in doing.

00;26;48;25 - 00;27;11;19 Unknown You can't wait until you're financially stable to have babies, and you can't wait until you know you're this old to be able to travel. No, go live life. I mean, don't put yourself into debt by any means, because, you know, I'm definitely fiscally responsible. But, you know, there's there's something to be said, you know, go out to dinner, go have the laughs, go do the fun things and, that's kind of how I live my life.

00;27;11;20 - 00;27;37;18 Unknown You know, I don't live to work, but I, you know, I don't necessarily work to live either. You know, you have to you got to find all of that balance and coming back to Oracle's been has been a great thing for me. It's really allowed me, the space to just explore what I'm interested in doing. So I came back doing M&A and I had a manager that was very supportive and, you know, it was like, hey, like, are you doing what you want to be doing?

00;27;37;18 - 00;27;54;05 Unknown Are you happy with what you're doing? And, you know, having a manager that says, hey, get involved? I mean, you know, that's how I met you. You you ended up in our organization. I found out about me. Then I was like, what is this organization? How do I get involved? Actually, I think I'm pretty sure you said to me, you need to come be involved.

00;27;54;07 - 00;28;22;07 Unknown But, you know, I was, you know, I'm like that. Something like that. Hey, we need you. You can be part of our team. And and it was like, the minute I joined Maven. The minute that I came aboard, it was like coming home. It was. It was familiar. It was, you know, people that just have the same, you know, mentality and that, you know, love of other people and camaraderie and teamwork and support.

00;28;22;07 - 00;28;46;16 Unknown And, you know, we're all going through different things and different stages in our lives. But, you know, that's how we connect. That's how we, you know, pull together as a group and, and support each other. So it was like coming home and having that sense of belonging has been I mean, tremendous. Now, thanks for that and thanks for sharing that that the perspective is, is nice.

00;28;46;18 - 00;29;16;04 Unknown One, two here, to to make the correlation between, the, you know, of the multiple sides there could be in one's life. You know, there's the, the personal and professional. And when you find an alignment in seeking opportunity and it seems like with your enthusiasm of all your strengths, as you mentioned, no surprise that when you when you look at things, you see things a certain way and opportunistic is is one way of saying, well, that looks like something I want to get involved in, and then you do it.

00;29;16;06 - 00;29;40;03 Unknown That is, in fact, if you haven't yet met Maureen, that is her M.O., you know, she sees something and it seems to be aligned with what needs to occur, and she'll drive it. And there's a lot of excitement that will come out of that from from the people around her to and, and so that that energy is not only appreciated, but it's, necessary in sometimes when, you know, we try to boost people up, keep moving things like that.

00;29;40;03 - 00;30;08;27 Unknown So, so around 2021 ish, 22, you got involved and you started to do things, talk about some of the things that were happening back then and where things are now. One, 2 in 2 areas, one your career and then two with Maven. I think I was still working in M&A when I joined Maven, but I think I really quickly transitioned into a new role.

00;30;08;29 - 00;30;38;10 Unknown My VP that I was telling you about, Susan Posner, she had posted in the Women's Apple Channel, that she had her role open, focused on customer and employee experience. And I've read the job description. Oh, that sounds amazing, right? If I have the ability to like, you know, touch the employee experience and make that something that can be so much better and so much grander, and, and help our customers, you know, at the same time, that would be a huge shift.

00;30;38;10 - 00;31;15;23 Unknown And again, I worked at M&A, so, you know, was never in the depth of an organization, you know, like a sales organization. I supported them. I help them from an operational perspective and everything else. But I never actually been in the business. So that was a big change. And, I really enjoyed that. I it was a lot of fun and, you know, for an org to actually put some people and money behind having an experience at work, not just here to make your number, but we want to we want to look at you holistically as an employee, and we want to look at we we designed, a program called Living Your Best

00;31;15;23 - 00;31;47;25 Unknown Life. And it had five pillars focused on career development, continuous learning, social, getting involved and, you know, everything else giving and wellness because all of those things are what make up people and the things that make them happy and feel fulfilled. And we wanted our, you know, our employees to feel like they're, you know, they were valued and that, you know, we cared, that we encourage them to go learn.

00;31;47;25 - 00;32;10;11 Unknown We encourage them to pursue, you know, careers. And so we wanted it to be like this destination location and within Oracle to say, you've got all of this opportunity to, you know, to be who you are, bring your authentic self. And you know, that spoke to me because that's how I live my life. I'm 100% authentic. And, you know, some people like it.

00;32;10;11 - 00;32;31;21 Unknown Some people might be a little much for, you know, sometimes more. You can get a little crazy with her energy. I'm pretty sure there's somebody sitting across the microphone. For me, it was like, hey, I need to tone that down a little dosage, right? Moderation. So I know I can be a little much and that's and that's cool.

00;32;31;23 - 00;33;03;14 Unknown But, you know, it gave us it really just it allowed us to focus on so many different things, you know, and when you can plan quarterly giving events, you know, things where we are, you know, for example, we we created, these volunteer projects that we would run across, you know, eight major locations. Right? So imagine the imagine the lift of trying to get people to help you because you're not boots on the ground in those locations to run these volunteer projects.

00;33;03;16 - 00;33;23;05 Unknown We did all we did a lot of to lift ourselves so that they just had to, you know, make it happen on the ground. But, you know, get our remote employees to use an Amazon wishlist to donate school supplies, get the People's in the hubs to fill the backpacks, and then to give them to our customers to give out to their customers.

00;33;23;07 - 00;33;47;11 Unknown We did it with, chemo goodie bags. We did the same thing. So yeah. So we were able to bless our customers with items that our employees were donating, you know, the goodness of their own hearts to want to contribute to these projects. And, you know, we had, Johns Hopkins and Vanderbilt and Stanford and, you know, we were able to say, hey, we've we've made these 100 chemo goodie bags.

00;33;47;14 - 00;34;06;26 Unknown We care about your patients to help them while they sit in the chair for four hours and get an infusion, you know, so we did volunteer projects. We did heart healthy bingo. And you know, February, you know, we get our employees, hey, get up, go be active. You know, we do the same. Maven, right. Hey, Maven. Friends coming up.

00;34;06;26 - 00;34;27;20 Unknown We want people to be out there. Go do something. If that's meditating, that's fantastic. It's all about, you know, your mental wellness and your and your health, well-being and everything else. And so it was really, really impactful for a line of business to have employees that were driving these programs, you know? So I try to do the same.

00;34;27;20 - 00;34;48;03 Unknown I try to try to do that with Maven. I try to do that with our, you know, try to, you know, where we can make sure that people understand we're we're not just looking for you to be the little worker bee and not care about anything else. We really do want you to have that exceptional employee experience, and that's important work.

00;34;48;03 - 00;35;24;21 Unknown And to think the thing that I was looking at around the time that you're talking about, where these things started to become more prominent in our workplace, it it was a little confusing at times because there's a separation from work and personal activity at times where people are like, I just want to come to work, you know? But if you think about the majority of the time that one spends with their mind on work and then being at work, you know, these things, you had to unravel how you felt about this stuff because you did find value once you participated in these things.

00;35;24;21 - 00;35;47;01 Unknown It was a nice break in the monotony of of a concentrated effort to do what was required of you and your role in the workplace, and these breaks allowed you to distribute your focus. The relationships evolve in different capacities, you know, explore different ways of doing what you do, whoever you are, and whatever it is that you were doing, it was it's important work.

00;35;47;08 - 00;36;10;25 Unknown And so the volunteering component is as important as the work itself because of the things that you talked about, the philanthropic outcomes and the benefits in those types of things, of whoever's receiving these things. But you feel good, you know, and you feel like you're doing things that are personally adding to who you are and who you want to be.

00;36;10;27 - 00;36;32;23 Unknown So that's the essence of continuing the mission to serve, right? It's it's not just service in the military or in that sphere. You know, the military affiliated community is, you know, your service to people is to service to self. And some of those things, you become selfless and you do things for other people. You feel good, you're helping other people feel good, and then you're bringing harmony and unity.

00;36;32;23 - 00;36;54;07 Unknown And in the sphere of where you are, your circle. Yeah. So you when you came in to Maven, you were helping in key areas and then you, moved into an operational role where you drove a lot of activity. There was a spurt there. So a couple of years ago where we were doing a lot of events.

00;36;54;09 - 00;37;27;19 Unknown Yeah. And, you know, coming out of Covid, man, I was just going to say, yeah, people only had that interaction. They were, you know, craving that engagement, you know? So the timing was really great between both me joining Maven and me joining the sales organization. And, you know, because people were they were hungry for that, you know, that ability to connect and, you know, do things and maybe, you know, with as many people as they are remote, you know, you can still engage people and do amazing things together, even though your remote.

00;37;27;22 - 00;37;58;08 Unknown Yeah, it changed the whole dynamic of what what connectedness means, right. And and adapting to the new way of doing it, the new style of connectedness through remote or virtual engagement, you know, and reintegrating face to face interactions became equally important. So now you have that balance. And so we've done pretty well in managing that. You've been a key part of that, having you move into the co-chair role and helping lead the vision and the strategy, and not just the operational functions, where you you're now kind of the trifecta, the triple threat, right?

00;37;58;08 - 00;38;21;16 Unknown So you have the experience and the passion and the purpose deep inside your heart of wanting to do this, as demonstrated through what you just talked about for years, you've been doing these types of things with M&A activity, bringing on new employees from an acquisition in high stress environments, getting them assimilated in and integrated inside now their workplace, making them feel like they're a part of something which is a huge challenge.

00;38;21;19 - 00;38;41;09 Unknown And then, you know, you moved into a role where that was your job, which is amazing. And then now it's an all volunteer environment to where it's it's not even a hobby. It's a passion where all of those things meet each other. Talk a little bit about what you're doing now in that space as a co-lead, and then the strategy and the vision for what's to come.

00;38;41;11 - 00;39;07;00 Unknown You know, I still suffer, you know, from this imposter syndrome. Like, how am I the co-chair? Why am I the co-chair? There's got to be other people who are, well, more suited for this. And, you know, I didn't serve. I mean, I've got so many friends and family that have served, but I didn't. And, you know, so that it it's been a little bit, challenging, but I, I, I think about it, from the people mindset.

00;39;07;00 - 00;39;27;04 Unknown What do they need? What are they looking for? You know, Scott talked about servant leadership and everything else. So I feel like that's definitely, a huge play. And what I do and why I'm here and everything else. Because it is about giving back, and it's about, you know, touching those people and the things that we can bestow upon them and bless them with.

00;39;27;06 - 00;39;51;02 Unknown And it and it's not even tangible things. Right. It's the time, it's the support, it's the energy and those types of things. So that's kind of what I think of when I'm thinking about, oh my gosh, how did I end up in this position? Why am I in this in this role? Because I do. I have such an innate love for people who are serving our country and who have served our country.

00;39;51;02 - 00;40;08;26 Unknown I mean, I have an immense pride in our country. I have an immense pride in the people that do this. It's very honorable. And I know that there are so many veterans that I talk to regularly that are like, I don't need you to thank me for my service, you know, or, I say things like, they selflessly are serving our country and they're like, no, I was selfish.

00;40;08;26 - 00;40;28;16 Unknown I did it because I wanted the benefits. I'm like, nope. I'm pretty sure you put yourself, you know, on that line that, you know, and you probably know a whole lot more about the statistics behind, you know, how many people actually serve. We've got law enforcement. We have our first responders and and the military. And I think that is just huge.

00;40;28;16 - 00;40;51;03 Unknown And, you know, Maven and what we're trying to achieve from a maven perspective, I mean, I fell in love with the mission. You know, that ability to continue to serve. Am I the person that's going to show up and take on a tough job and totally slay 100%, you know, hard work? I love that. I love that about our community and love that, you know, that is a driving force.

00;40;51;03 - 00;41;16;14 Unknown So my messages to hiring managers and to companies that they that people that they can get, you know, that you can talk about talent and you can talk about smart people and you know, everything else. But those soft skills, that resilience, you can't tell me, military spouse, I mean, those spouses go through so much, right? They are managing so much.

00;41;16;14 - 00;41;38;23 Unknown And and I think that that's just we have to we have to advocate for them. We have to, you know, do everything that we can to keep these military spouses employed to, you know, that when they change stations, they shouldn't have to give up their entire world. Oracle's very lucky we have that flexibility. So why are we not doing everything and shouting from the rooftops?

00;41;38;25 - 00;42;04;14 Unknown You know, about the things that we can do to, you know, support more military spouses through these, in these changes, you know. Yep. No. That's good. That and very specific and intentional. So thanks for thanks for yeah. Revealing yourself to that part and how important it is is obvious. So as we wrap this up what's what's big coming up that Maven is going to help support and drive.

00;42;04;17 - 00;42;25;06 Unknown Yeah. Yeah. So I think it's it's really about how do we support our military spouses, how do we get our word out and advocate and talk to people about transitioning out of service and and coming into Oracle and what that looks like? And I think that's going to be a huge thing. You know, we're hiring right now like mad for data center technicians.

00;42;25;08 - 00;42;41;02 Unknown This is a great opportunity for people that are transitioning out of the service to come in and take those types of roles, right. They've got the skill set. They know what it's like, spend a couple years and you go and you learn the skill and the training and everything else, and then you see where it takes you from there.

00;42;41;02 - 00;42;59;17 Unknown And so I think that's that's a lot of what we're going to be focusing on is, you know, how do we, you know, how do we support those that are transitioning out of service. How do we make Oracle a place that they want to come to, and how do we support our military spouses and offer them, you know, flexible employment?

00;42;59;19 - 00;43;42;02 Unknown Yep. No, I gotcha and thanks for that. So, Maureen, thank you for being consistent with who you've been and then bringing those traits and values inside what you do for others. And again, you know, the mindset of looking at what other people are going through and considering, you know, where their their minds are set under pressure on change, you know, whether it's a merger and acquisition, where your professional career is up in the air based off of things that are uncontrollable, settling in to what you need to focus on and having you as a as a representative, along with the others that do this kind of work, have them settle into some norms that they

00;43;42;02 - 00;44;04;23 Unknown can wrap their head around and focus on, maybe be distracted by until things are worked out and a little bit more concrete. Change is tough. You demonstrated the experience by choosing to go through change in your relocation and of course, the things that go along with family and and the unfortunate realities of what goes along with family as well.

00;44;04;27 - 00;44;23;29 Unknown There's a lot of things that you're doing that you're paying it forward to those coming up behind us. And so we're grateful for that. Grateful for your support. Final comments. Yeah. So, you know, as as we're talking about it and as I think about it, you know, that linear career path is something I think that those that are in the service are so used to.

00;44;24;03 - 00;44;50;15 Unknown And, you know, you climb those ranks and you know, and at Oracle, you don't have to have a linear career path. You have the flexibility. You have the ability to change, you know, different lines of businesses, different job functions. There's so many different things that you can do and try your hand at. And, you know, I think it just provides a lot of opportunity for people to, grow in whatever areas they're looking to, to grow themselves.

00;44;50;15 - 00;45;11;09 Unknown So I'm blessed, you know, I'm blessed to be here and I'm blessed to be a part of Oracle. I'm blessed to be a part of me. And there's something to be said about finding joy in all the things and and finding joy in your work. And and maybe as if it's another full time job, I feel like. Right.

00;45;11;11 - 00;45;27;20 Unknown But I love it. I absolutely love it when you're when your heart is happy and your heart is full. There's no better way to live. And we will leave it there already. One. Keep moving forward.