As President of Kyndryl’s US operations, which represents over a quarter of the company's business, Amy Salcido oversees technology services that keep everything from hospitals to airlines running smoothly. But beyond the servers and systems, Amy has focused intensely on building an empathetic, inclusive culture where employees can bring their authentic selves to work. With over 90% of US staff reporting they can do exactly that, her approach of grassroots engagement and active allyship appears to be paying off.
We spoke with Amy about her approach to managing her teams, her advice for aspiring tech leaders and how empathy influences her leadership.
Tell us a bit about yourself and your role at Kyndryl.
I'm President of our US business at Kyndryl, which makes up over a quarter of the company – and our largest market across the world. At Kyndryl, we run the mission-critical systems of the world—in every major industry.
We keep doctors focused on patients, planes flying, money flowing securely through banks, retail shelves stocked – the vital systems that power human progress. The definition of ‘mission-critical’ has really broadened, often moving to the edge, where our customer’s customer is. For a hospital, it’s at the patient’s bedside. For a retailer, it's about the store, both physical and digital. For an airline, it's keeping planes on schedule, managing pilot rosters and ensuring maintenance schedules. For banks, it’s regulatory readiness, risk management, payments modernization.
My role is thrilling because the conversations we have with customers are truly strategic problem-solving discussions. We're talking about their business priorities and challenges, where they're trying to go, and how we can help them get there.
We were formed out of a spin-off three years ago, and it's been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create something completely new, showing up in new ways for our customers—and each other. It's been the privilege of my career to lead the US team through this incredible adventure.
How do you approach managing your teams, and how does empathy influence your leadership?
When we were getting ready to spin off, we knew that creating our own identity and culture was going to be incredibly important. We started by asking our people what they wanted for a culture. Who did we want to be? How did we want to show up with our customers, with each other as teammates, with our new ecosystem of partners?
We brought everyone together to get their input. That was important because if people don't feel like they've been part of shaping the culture – if they don't feel like they've had a say in it – then it's tough to make them feel like it represents them. You can't force culture - that's an oxymoron. We spent a lot of time just getting the words right—and one of those was empathetic—describing how we engage with one another, with our customers, and with our communities.
We've continued to live by this ethos. We've created groups we call KINs – Kyndryl Inclusion Networks – company sponsored, employee-led resource groups that are dedicated to creating spaces where all Kyndryls can find and provide support and advice. We have more than 70 of them globally, covering communities from Black to LGBTQ+, Women, Indigenous, Asian Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino, and our True Ability KIN for people with neurodiversity or other abilities. It's very much a grassroots effort. These are led by people on the ground, and I'm always honoured when they invite me to participate, but I'm not driving it.
What I'm most proud of when I look at our employee engagement is that over 90% of our US team say they can show up at work as their full authentic selves every day. That creates an environment where people can put their energy into work because they don't have to worry about other things. It's incredibly powerful.
From a business perspective, if you don't have a team truly engaged with you, you don't have anything. And to have people with you, you need to make sure that they feel a sense of belonging and empowerment to shine and showcase their authentic selves.
It goes beyond the business aspect too. Creating a more level playing field – particularly in technology, which hasn't always had one – is important to me personally and to us as a company. We recently announced our Kyndryl Foundation, and we’re targeting organisations that focus on underrepresented backgrounds.
I was recently with one of our Foundation grant recipients, a group called Girl Security – it's for girls, women and gender minorities, mostly between 14 and 17, from historically underrepresented backgrounds.
It's a chance for us to give back to the community, but also maybe they'll see technology as a place for them, not just something that other people do. That's important both from a societal standpoint and a business one. I want to foster a place where everybody wants to come and be a part of it, but I know they must see that it's a possibility first.
Could you tell us more about your efforts to foster allyship and inclusivity across your teams?
I believe in the power of community and allyship. Our Kyndryl Inclusion Networks aren't just for people who identify as part of a particular group. We really stress allyship as a key part of the success of these networks.
When I'm invited to participate in KIN events, we usually talk a lot about allyship. We discuss the importance of creating a space for those who identify as part of a particular KIN community but also having others join. There is tremendous power in that. Some of our KINs have decided to focus on mentoring, ensuring members have mentors, who are both community members and allies. It helps ensure the group becomes inclusive instead of exclusive, and allies can learn things they didn't know before, step up as advocates, or take on additional responsibilities.
One thing I'm really pleased with is the number of people who belong to more than one inclusion network. Maybe they identify with one but want to be allies to others. It creates this crosstalk across different networks, which I think can be incredibly enlightening and powerful.
For me personally, allyship is about being very public with my support and advocacy. During Pride Month, for example, I had the chance to do a fireside chat with our US LGBTQ+ KIN, but I also got to participate in the Pride Parade in Madrid where the local KIN leader is one of my mentees. I think it was important for everyone representing Kyndryl there to know they had support even beyond their country and immediate workplace.
I truly believe that being an ally is an active state. It's not allyship if it’s passive, in my opinion. It's about showing up, being visible, and actively working to support and shine a light on others.
What advice would you give to aspiring women leaders in tech, and what do you see as the biggest challenge facing the industry today?
We've made some progress on diversity and inclusion in tech, but we still have a long way to go. One of the main reasons we need to keep pushing on this, even if we just look at it from a business perspective, is that technology is rapidly changing.
We all walk around with tech in our hands every day. Kids grow up with it, so there's a huge opportunity to use that excitement for tech to create a whole new generation of people who want to come into tech roles. They inherently get it because, in many cases, they've lived it since day one.
But we need to help people – particularly young women – believe that they could have a career in tech. We need to give them more role models - more executive women they can look at and say, “Okay, I can aspire to be that.” We also need to help them with that first step forward, saying, “I will try this; I can see myself there.”
I remember when we hosted some high school students at our headquarters in Manhattan. We had fewer girls attend than expected, and we found out some had dropped out at the last minute because they weren't sure they'd fit in or see people who looked like them, particularly women. It honestly broke my heart, but it also reinforced how important it is for people to see someone who looks like them to think it's possible for them, too.
As a woman in technology, I feel a huge responsibility to be visible. Not because I need myself to be seen, but because I recognise that somebody else needs to see me so that we create an environment where people can look and say, “I can do that, it’s not just for someone else.”
We need to focus on getting the next generation excited about tech careers, even before they go to university. Then we've got to stay with them, continuing to mentor and foster that excitement, and get them on the path to be part of this great transformational opportunity that technology gives us. But we must step up. We have to reach out a hand and lift people up so they see the possibilities and believe they can do it.
How do you approach managing your teams, and how does empathy influence your leadership?
When we were getting ready to spin off, we knew that creating our own identity and culture was going to be incredibly important. We started by asking our people what they wanted for a culture. Who did we want to be? How did we want to show up with our customers, with each other as teammates, with our new ecosystem of partners?
We brought everyone together to get their input. That was important because if people don't feel like they've been part of shaping the culture – if they don't feel like they've had a say in it – then it's tough to make them feel like it represents them. You can't force culture - that's an oxymoron. We spent a lot of time just getting the words right—and one of those was empathetic—describing how we engage with one another, with our customers, and with our communities.
We've continued to live by this ethos. We've created groups we call KINs – Kyndryl Inclusion Networks – company sponsored, employee-led resource groups that are dedicated to creating spaces where all Kyndryls can find and provide support and advice. We have more than 70 of them globally, covering communities from Black to LGBTQ+, Women, Indigenous, Asian Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino, and our True Ability KIN for people with neurodiversity or other abilities. It's very much a grassroots effort. These are led by people on the ground, and I'm always honoured when they invite me to participate, but I'm not driving it.
What I'm most proud of when I look at our employee engagement is that over 90% of our US team say they can show up at work as their full authentic selves every day. That creates an environment where people can put their energy into work because they don't have to worry about other things. It's incredibly powerful.
From a business perspective, if you don't have a team truly engaged with you, you don't have anything. And to have people with you, you need to make sure that they feel a sense of belonging and empowerment to shine and showcase their authentic selves.
It goes beyond the business aspect too. Creating a more level playing field – particularly in technology, which hasn't always had one – is important to me personally and to us as a company. We recently announced our Kyndryl Foundation, and we’re targeting organisations that focus on underrepresented backgrounds.
I was recently with one of our Foundation grant recipients, a group called Girl Security – it's for girls, women and gender minorities, mostly between 14 and 17, from historically underrepresented backgrounds.
It's a chance for us to give back to the community, but also maybe they'll see technology as a place for them, not just something that other people do. That's important both from a societal standpoint and a business one. I want to foster a place where everybody wants to come and be a part of it, but I know they must see that it's a possibility first.
Could you tell us more about your efforts to foster allyship and inclusivity across your teams?
I believe in the power of community and allyship. Our Kyndryl Inclusion Networks aren't just for people who identify as part of a particular group. We really stress allyship as a key part of the success of these networks.
When I'm invited to participate in KIN events, we usually talk a lot about allyship. We discuss the importance of creating a space for those who identify as part of a particular KIN community but also having others join. There is tremendous power in that. Some of our KINs have decided to focus on mentoring, ensuring members have mentors, who are both community members and allies. It helps ensure the group becomes inclusive instead of exclusive, and allies can learn things they didn't know before, step up as advocates, or take on additional responsibilities.
One thing I'm really pleased with is the number of people who belong to more than one inclusion network. Maybe they identify with one but want to be allies to others. It creates this crosstalk across different networks, which I think can be incredibly enlightening and powerful.
For me personally, allyship is about being very public with my support and advocacy. During Pride Month, for example, I had the chance to do a fireside chat with our US LGBTQ+ KIN, but I also got to participate in the Pride Parade in Madrid where the local KIN leader is one of my mentees. I think it was important for everyone representing Kyndryl there to know they had support even beyond their country and immediate workplace.
I truly believe that being an ally is an active state. It's not allyship if it’s passive, in my opinion. It's about showing up, being visible, and actively working to support and shine a light on others.
What advice would you give to aspiring women leaders in tech, and what do you see as the biggest challenge facing the industry today?
We've made some progress on diversity and inclusion in tech, but we still have a long way to go. One of the main reasons we need to keep pushing on this, even if we just look at it from a business perspective, is that technology is rapidly changing.
We all walk around with tech in our hands every day. Kids grow up with it, so there's a huge opportunity to use that excitement for tech to create a whole new generation of people who want to come into tech roles. They inherently get it because, in many cases, they've lived it since day one.
But we need to help people – particularly young women – believe that they could have a career in tech. We need to give them more role models - more executive women they can look at and say, “Okay, I can aspire to be that.” We also need to help them with that first step forward, saying, “I will try this; I can see myself there.”
I remember when we hosted some high school students at our headquarters in Manhattan. We had fewer girls attend than expected, and we found out some had dropped out at the last minute because they weren't sure they'd fit in or see people who looked like them, particularly women. It honestly broke my heart, but it also reinforced how important it is for people to see someone who looks like them to think it's possible for them, too.
As a woman in technology, I feel a huge responsibility to be visible. Not because I need myself to be seen, but because I recognise that somebody else needs to see me so that we create an environment where people can look and say, “I can do that, it’s not just for someone else.”
We need to focus on getting the next generation excited about tech careers, even before they go to university. Then we've got to stay with them, continuing to mentor and foster that excitement, and get them on the path to be part of this great transformational opportunity that technology gives us. But we must step up. We have to reach out a hand and lift people up so they see the possibilities and believe they can do it.
What are your top priorities for the coming years, and how do you envision Kyndryl's role going forward?
We've done a lot to transform ourselves since spinning off. When you're one slice inside a bigger pie, you conform to serve a specific purpose. But when that slice gets out on its own, you can become whatever flavour you want to be. That's been part of the great fun of this adventure.
We've doubled down on investments in areas like hybrid IT modernization, security, data and AI. Because we manage these mission-critical systems, we've spent a lot of time thinking about how we show up as the grown-ups in the room in these new spaces. Our customers trust us with their mission critical systems, so how do we keep that part of our reputation while capturing these new growth areas?
It's been exciting to look at where we want to invest and ask: “How do we do more, but also stay on brand with who our customers know and trust us to be?” They know we have the best people, with the most extraordinary experience and expertise. They know we're going to be there in the critical moments. And now they are experiencing that we're also going to help them see what’s coming around the next corner and help them get there, often through our expanded technology partnerships such as Microsoft, AWS, Google, SAP, ServiceNow, and industry-specific leaders like EPIC in healthcare.
I think it's about finding that sweet spot. What other problems do they have, not just from an IT perspective, but from a business perspective? Are they trying to capture new customers? Give their customers a different experience? What are they trying to accelerate or fix? How do their stakeholders define success? What makes their stock price move? Those are the important things we think about as we marry that mission-critical lane we're in with their priorities and where they want to go.
For example, we work with several hospitals. There's nothing more mission-critical than making sure a doctor can care for a patient in real time. You don't want that doctor having to spend time wondering why the tech doesn't work or why they can't see the results they need when they need them. You want them focused on the patient.
Early in my career I used to absent-mindedly say, "We're not curing cancer here." Yeah, actually, we are. My grown-up self has a different point of view on the impact technology and our work can have on one person, one life, not to mention the broader ripple effect.
Underlying all of this is our focus on culture and team. How do we create a culture that supports continuously improving and changing for the greater good? How do we do it in a way that really takes advantage of all the best talents in the world in a very inclusive way? How do we bring more people on that ride with us for the future?
It's incredibly special to feel like you can have that kind of impact on the world. And for me, that's what it's all about – building a culture where your employees feel they can show up to work as their full, authentic selves every day and in turn want to show up in profound ways for our customers, helping them to use technology to make a real difference, in not only business results, but in people's lives.
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