Internationals Women's Day - Quantum spotlight - Katherine Londergan

Highlighted purple in every calendar, 8th March 2022 represents International Women's Day! Here at Quantum.Tech, we shined the light on Katherine Londergan, Chief Marketing Officer at Zapata Computing to explore her journey in the Quantum industry, why she loves working within the Quantum industry and her role models.

What is your current role at Zapata Computing?

Chief Marketing Officer

How did you enter the quantum world?

In late 2019 I was connected to the team by The Engine, one of our investors, to consult on Zapata’s brand. After meeting the founders and understanding the team’s purpose and what they were building, I was compelled to help tell their story and build their brand.

Every career decision I’ve chosen has been motivated by learning. I’ve always been motivated to make career changes based on what I would learn: and from physics to enterprise software to how to create market momentum in edge tech and enterprise software—as well as some intricate and non-intuitive science concepts! Before Zapata I spent about a decade at IDEO learning customer centricity, design and advising the C-suite on innovation. Previous jobs had similar learning missions.

Are you seeing more women breaking through the tech industries glass ceiling?

Yes, but I consciously notice myself noticing women breaking through—whereas in other fields and industries I’ve worked in, it’s less unusual.

What advice would you give other women in the same position as you?

• Live your boundaries. Working from home during the pandemic with three kids has been challenging, especially collaborating across time zones. It has forced me to actively create boundaries so I can deliver the things I care about at work and outside work.
• Have a diverse set of mentors (varied genders, ages, backgrounds) to learn from their various lenses.
• Lead with curiosity. This is especially true for disruptive technologies which are still early in their adoption. There are more questions than answers in this field, and those that can adapt and learn have a better chance at winning.
• Take a seat at the table, voice your thoughts, and help make critical decisions. At certain tables, this means pushing through imposter syndrome.

Who is your role model? (in the industry or out)

I am lucky to have a constellation of them! Two that come to mind:

• Katie Rae: CEO of The Engine (VC fund built by MIT) and leader of its “Tough Tech” investment thesis, early-stage tech investor, advisor to countless founders. She is a pioneering leader in the Boston-Cambridge innovation and catalyst in our investment ecosystem.
• Les Charm: Board director, lecturer at Babson’s business school, amazing at finance and operations and more amazing at the human elements behind business. Les is ever-curious, brutally honest, and asks the toughest questions of all time.

Quantum is changing rapidly; what are your big picture predictions for next 5 years?

Hard to say for all of us, I think. A few (shareable!) ideas.

• Hype-filled marketing efforts will continue, and this will cause real damage to customers’ perception of the industry and harm adoption in the near-term. Eventually, the market will force us all to lead with evidence of business impact, enterprise-hardened engineering, and robust scientific progress.
• Product design will democratize quantum programming, make it more effective (and delightful) and open the field to a broader talent pool. This is necessary for adoption at real scale, and for efficient use of our quantum tooling.
• Governments will increasingly foster their long-term talent pipelines, but it won’t close the gap in the near-term and we’ll be playing catch-up for a while.
• Some standardization for interoperability (efforts like PIRQ via QED-C are one example) will accelerate ecosystem collaboration so we can work more effectively across the stack.