2023 Women Leaders in Technology: Gretchen Peri

Gretchen Peri serves as Slalom's Managing Director for the Americas Public & Social Impact team, helping Slalom build better tomorrows for all with its government, education and nonprofit clients. During her time with Slalom, she has led the Seattle market's Public Sector Practice, Innovation Program and Women's Leadership Network.

Gretchen began her career with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and US Mission to the United Nations. Her early experiences in government inspired her passion for helping public sector agencies deliver the best services to their communities. After completing her MPA, Gretchen spent several years consulting justice and public safety agencies on how to best leverage technology to improve operations and data sharing. She joined Slalom in 2011 where she started the firm's inaugural public sector practice. Today, Slalom serves its public and social impact clients across the globe through a network of 45 local markets.

In the community, Gretchen serves on the King County Strategic Advisory Council, providing guidance to local leaders on how King County can best use technology to enable a community where everyone can thrive. She and her husband live on a small farm on Bainbridge Island, a short ferry ride from Seattle, with their two children.

What has been the biggest factor in your success so far?

Courage. One of my favorite quotes is "Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will." To truly innovate in technology consulting you must embrace uncertainty and be willing to fail, which takes courage and vulnerability. When a new idea achieves great success, that's a wonderful time to celebrate. When an idea doesn't work or you fall down, learning how to pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and get back in the 'arena' also takes courage and builds resiliency.

What do you enjoy most about your career in the consulting industry?

I love helping clients solve complex problems by dreaming big, being bold, and building the future we want to see. The process of helping Slalom's government, education, and nonprofit organizations set a vision for where they want to go, assess where they are today, and then decompose the work into achievable initiatives and tasks is an incredibly rewarding process. Helping clients reach for and realize their vision is the most impactful part of consulting.

I'm also grateful to be surrounded by people at Slalom who inspire me to be a better version of myself every day. Our talent, our culture/values, and our focus on driving impactful client outcomes help bring joy and purpose to our work.

What is your proudest achievement to date?

I'm most proud of the impact we're making to address gender-based violence in our communities. Using technology to tackle problems such as domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking is a passion of mine. Several years ago, Slalom helped a state law enforcement agency plan for and procure a statewide sexual assault kit tracking system that improves the tracking of kits across the state and provides information to survivors, regardless of how the case is handled by the criminal justice system. I'm incredibly proud of our client for being a leader in this space and grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this impactful project.

What's the best advice you've ever been given?

There are areas in your life where you have influence and areas in your life that you care about. Try to spend your time and focus your energy where your influence and your concern overlap. I operate as my most energized, courageous, creative, and resilient self when I'm able to impact something I care deeply about. Therefore, I look for opportunities to bring my passion areas to work at Slalom and encourage others to do the same.

What does this recognition mean to you?

This recognition is an incredible honor and I'm grateful to be in the company of such amazing, powerful women. Innovation is hard—especially in the technology industry where the pace of invention is lightning speed and only getting faster. It can be messy and requires you to embrace uncertainty and trust the process (and yourself). It's also how we have a positive impact on our communities and build the future we want for ourselves and future generations.