The 2022 Women Leaders In Technology: Teresa Barreira

Raised in a small village of less than 1,000 people in northern Portugal, Teresa Barreira emigrated to the US as a student. Portuguese was her native tongue. She pursued a career in marketing and today has over twenty years of global business, tech, and IT transformation experience in marketing leadership positions for Deloitte Consulting, IBM, and Accenture. Since 2018, she has served as Publicis Sapient's Chief Marketing & Communications Officer and leads all aspects of marketing and communications to position the company as a leader in digital business transformation and to drive profitable growth. Known as an innovative, creative, and strategic thinker, she makes the complex simple and converts challenges into opportunities. Teresa has spent her career leading and evolving marketing approaches to be customer-centric, issues-based, outcomes-focused and digitally enabled. She has managed global and multi-disciplinary teams, fostered a culture of empowerment and experimentation and reinforced diversity. As an active mentor and advocate to grow talent, she mentors young women and disadvantaged youth and serves in non-profit committees and organizations in the Toronto area. Teresa earned a Master of Business Administration from Northeastern University in Boston and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

What do you consider your greatest personal or professional achievement?

On a personal level, it would be raising two amazing sons and watching them grow into thoughtful, curious, and ultimately happy people. Professionally, it would be building our marketing organization at Publicis Sapient. We worked extremely hard to create a culture where people can thrive and feel good about the work they do, all founded on three key tenets—a learning mindset, an entrepreneurial spirit, and an engaged team with diversity of thought, background, and experience. For me, creating an inclusive environment that allows for people to experiment, grow, feel valued and bring their best self to work is the greatest achievement.

What advice would you give a professional just beginning a career in consulting?

Consulting is an excellent away to start a career because it provides the opportunity to work in different industries and organizations, which opens the door to identify a career path that appeals to your strengths and interests. My advice is to learn different capabilities at an accelerated rate and raise the hand often for new projects and experiences —choose projects that challenge you and give you exposure to completely new experiences.

What have you loved most about your consulting career?

Early in my career, I had the opportunity to take on several roles, working within different lines of business, new ventures and in several countries, and it was a fantastic platform to learn the company, business, and experience immense growth. Having broad exposure to various functions, while being held accountable and working with new people are aspects of my career I absolutely love and have served me well.

What's the best advice—personal or professional—you've ever received?

Two key pieces of advice I think of often: 1. Trust myself—believe in myself and trust my instincts. 2. Be the CEO of my own career—don't let others define your path, you're the one who gets to decide what you want to do next. Be proactive and ask for opportunities and be open to them versus letting others manage you.

What does being honored as a Woman Leader in Technology mean to you?

I'm beyond humbled to work in an industry as impactful and powerful as technology. More than just help companies and businesses, tech has the power to impact people in so many ways—making lives easier, driving social good and advancing everyone, not just the few. With power comes responsibility, and I am honored our work benefits the greater society and people through the work we do with our clients and gives us purpose.