Renee Perkins
Certified Consulting IT Architect
International Business Machines
Nominated by: Patricia Chastain
Excerpt from nomination: "Renee Perkins was one of the first architects within the 40,000 strong technical population in IBM to achieve certification. She is a true leader in the technical community, as a mentor and a role model to those less experienced women in a technical role in IBM. As a certified IT Architect, Renee is considered to be a leader for IBM Global Services in Atlanta.
In addition to the technical skills she possesses, Renee has the ability to transfer these skills along to other employees in a way that makes it fun and easy for them to learn. Even though she carries a very heavy workload, Renee assists with the I/T Certification Work Groups to help her peers receive their certification.
Renee was a key player on a worldwide Year 2000 project for IBM. She was responsible for ensuring that internal applications were ready to transition into the new millennium. This project took her all over the world in order to ensure that IBM was able to move into the year 2000 with no glitches.
Renee has a "can do" attitude that enables her to handle high risk and pressure filled projects. Renee also designed and implemented the results system for the Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996. She was responsible for the development, technical direction and training for a team of 21 programmers, testers and data base analysts. 1996 was not her first exposure to the Olympics, in 1994 she was responsible for the ice hockey results system in Lillehammer, Norway."
What was your first job and what did you learn from it?
My first job following graduation from Grambling State University was
working with the IBM Series/1. This is a small IBM processor that utilized
the Event Driven Language (EDL). This first assignment turned out to be a
tremendous learning experience for me. The development was done by a very
isolated and concentrated group of technical professionals whose ambition
centered around excellence. As a developer, a single error in the latter
stages of testing were addressed on an individual basis by the management
team. A production level error was unheard of. The basic concept of how to
run a project that led to an ahead-of-schedule, error-free systems was the
main concept I took from this project. I also gained greater self-confidence in that I could rise to meet any challenge even if the
development language was totally new and minimum expectation was
perfection. This project also taught me that a work environment could be
not only productive, but fun. The team celebrated every special occasion
they could find while maintaining a focus and commitment to the task and
schedule at hand.
Who is your hero, mentor or person you most admire? Why?
Rev. Dr. Frederick D. Perkins (my father). Rev. Perkins worked for 40 years in the Louisiana School System while
acting as pastor to several churches. His total dedication to the job as
well as his dedication to his family taught me that I can do anything and
do it well. He proceeded through 40 years of work without complaining
about being too busy or overworked. He simply performed the task to
perfection with a smile, while ensuring that all individuals he came in
contact with enjoyed the experience of working with him.
What is your favorite book?
The Bible.
What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?
My greatest accomplishment was working with the Winter Olympic Games in
Lillihammer, Norway. I was responsible for the results system for ice
hockey. My responsibilities included the development and execution of all
software required to support ice hockey during the Winter Olympic games in
1994. This responsibility included the calculation of scores and
statistics for all printed reports, electronic feeds to scoreboards, live
television and the real time system in each venue. This system performed
without a single error. All of the ice hockey customers were extremely
pleased with all aspects of our system. This truly represents one of my
greatest accomplishments.
What advice would you give to young women who want to enter your field?
As a person striving to become a Information Technology professional, your
key objective should be to strive for perfection. If you shoot for the
most distant star that is visible to the human eye and slightly miss the
mark, you might just reach the moon. This far outpaced those who simply
aimed for the top of the tallest tree or the moon itself. Always aim for
perfection and the set your goals extremely high!!!!
