Women in STEM: An introduction to Sony Electronics’ Cheryl Goodman
In an industry where the goalposts are forever moving, heading up corporate communications for a company such as Sony Electronics is no straightforward or indeed predictable task.
The likes of AI and the all-encompassing world of IoT are constantly finding ways of enhancing all aspects of commercial and consumer life, from manufacturing electronic goods to the way we discover content to play on them.
Such a task has been the responsibility of Cheryl Goodman since August last year.
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“Is it a headache? Yeah,” she tells me in an interview for Business Chief. “I think there's a lot of nuances. I don't know how big a TV buff you are, but when you walk into that aisle I'm sure you look at the TVs and you see new HD, 4K, and all these acronyms and you probably think to yourself, ‘why do I care?’
“So, we have to drive that why you care, and we have to drive understanding. I figure if I can explain to my mom why, what all these acronyms mean, and why she should care then we're at a good spot. So, we try to drive understanding down to the very base level. It all equals quality, that I can say.”
Goodman is certainly well-qualified and prepared to negotiate the communications conundrum of such rapid advances in technology. Having majored in political science and television media from San Diego State University, she has worked through the rise of web and new ways of consuming media.
As a web and tech reporter for ABC Affiliate KGTV News 10, she helped drive the digitisation of the channel’s content offering, and her next job at MP3.com arose from a KGTV interview with CEO Michael Robertson.
“Every day I would put together compelling thoughtful pieces of video, and add some graphics and combine with digital distribution, build web pages, and so forth,” Goodman recalls. “It was a really fun exercise. Again, I found that I love understanding how these things came together – it was really a poetic marriage of skills. I believe that's what's carried me through technology up here today.”
A long stint at Qualcomm started in 2005, and during Goodman’s time there she joined Athena, an organisation devoted to promoting professional growth for women in STEM industries.
Since then she has been a prominent figure in championing female participation in STEM fields, with Sony Electronics a prime example of a company where women can thrive in leadership positions.
To find out more about Goodman’s work with Sony Electronics, look out for the full interview in the June edition of Business Chief magazine.
