Nov 12, 2025
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.