What was your first job and what did you learn from it?
My very first job was preparing, planting, harvesting, eating and even selling produce from my parent's garden. Before I was even 10 years old I experienced the satisfaction of accomplishment from a job well done. This also taught me about the length of time it can take to experience the final benefit from your labors. While the money is great, so are the steps to the achievement such as spending the day outside with nature. My first "official" job was working in a Wendy's fast-food chain. My belief is that everyone should work in the food service sector to experience serving others and learning that the "customer is always right." It is a tremendous opportunity to learn patience and respect and prepares you well for whatever career path you pursue.

Who is your hero, mentor or person you most admire? Why?
The people I admire most are my parents. They are fascinating, caring and entertaining people who worked hard to make their children's lives comfortable and exciting. They both speak several languages and met each other working for the national security agency over 40 years ago; they are still best friends. For fun they play golf, tennis and watch the birds from their gardens. My parents still work full-time. My father is an attorney and my mother is a realtor. True renaissance individuals, they enjoy life, work and family and have been tremendously supportive of my two sisters and me.

My mentor is Tom Depasquale, the current CEO and President of OUTTASK, a leader in the business services provider market. I spent close to 10 years working for Tom in multiple jobs in two different companies. He taught me a great deal about business and technology. One of the lessons he helped me learn taught me prioritization and "casting aside" some issues in order to accomplish more.

My hero is XMLSolutions CEO, Kevin Kail. Kevin is an exceptional leader, manager and partner. His passion for people and life combined with his vision for the business surpasses anyone I have ever met. The lessons I have learned from Kevin are ones of interpersonal trust, true compassion for others as well as business and sales strategy. Kevin maintains balance with his life through his family ­ his wife Angie and two children - all of whom extend the family feeling to the entire company. Kevin is a person of strong character and intellect who is destined to be one of the greatest executives and leaders of this century.

What is your favorite book?
I have to mention three books because I love to read. I find it inspiring, educational and often a release to everyday stress.

To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. The main character displays strength and integrity that represents the respectful human values I strive to achieve and apply to my personal and professional life. It also illustrates that if you believe in something and fight for it the ultimate success for the right people can be achieved.

"Lincoln on Leadership" by Donald T. Phillips points out the value of "walking amongst the troops" to really understand the heartbeat of an organization. Applying successful strategies learned from managing an army during wartime and during leading a country to managing people and leading people in a company has been invaluable.

From a technical standpoint I have a special place in my heart for "The XMLHandbook" by Dr. Charles Goldfarb, known to many as the grandfather of markup languages. It's a must read for understanding the answers that XML's syntax and semantics provide for electronic business challenges.

What advances in your field do you envision over the next 10 years?
The Wall Street Journal reported September 16, 1999, "XML will reshape industries, displace incumbents, reduce prices, accelerate global trade and otherwise revolutionize all commerce." Hadar Pedazur, founder of Opticality Ventures, stated at the XMLeadership Conference in October 1999, "90% of applications and usages of XML have not yet been thought of nor implemented." XML provides amazing opportunities for handling information in a format that is both human and machine readable within an enterprise or over the web. A key realization is that XML can help access and share core business information using the web. This enters the world of direct materials going far beyond the popular use of XML in Exchanges and Marketplaces for indirect materials only.

Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is enabling wireless communications all over the globe. The relationship of WAP and eXtensible Markup language (XML) today uses wireless markup language (wML) to display information to wireless devices such as handheld PDAs and telephones. The technology is actually more advanced and utilized in parts of Europe such as the Nordic Region specifically in Finland where people buy movie tickets, make reservations, and pay bills from their cell phones. As displays on the devices grow in number of rows and characters allowed, in addition to the speed and availability of the transfer of information, the tasks that can be done are unimaginable. Also, as more businesses begin using XML allowing them to share and reuse metadata for common vocabularies we are moving into a new era of internal and external electronic business.

The Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) and Information Management areas such as Data Warehouse (DW), and Business Intelligence are converging. Also the WWW has enabled society to communicate across cultures, helping countries with political issues and used in conjunction with XML is advancing and revolutionizing one of the oldest professions ­ commerce. This is truly a time of forging new territory in my field.

What do you see as the single most interesting element of your work?
Over the past 15 years I have had the opportunity to meet people all over the world in so many different but surprisingly corresponding environments and situations. In working with the different industries within the Global 2000, I've found that many organizations share similar issues such as internal and external communication, evolution and growth, and unpredictable market changes. Each have information but their wants and needs can vary considerably. Most companies have employees and customers but how they use the information surrounding them makes a difference as to whether they will survive profitably in the long run. I enjoy exploring organizations, information and people - listening to their needs and trying to provide a beneficial solution.

What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?
My greatest accomplishment is yet to come.

What was your greatest challenge and what did you learn from it?
This is a tough question because when I am faced with a challenge it can often seem insurmountable. However, once taking on that challenge whether it is winning a tennis tournament, speaking in front of a crowd of 1000 or jumping out of a plane, it becomes a whole other experience. During the last year I have worked with my other partners to build from scratch a financially and interpersonally successful company in the evolutionary B2B e-commerce world. Starting with only 6 people we have over 150 "team-owners" and 30+ customers implementing XMLSolutions software solutions. We have built a powerful culture of respect. We have signs throughout our offices reminding us to respect ­ our colleagues, customers and investors. My day-by-day activities that deal with all internal and external issues have been phenomenal business and financial education. I have never before experienced responsibility and concern for employees professionally and personally because I have never been an owner in a company. When I managed people before I was not always empowered to resolve the issues. With this role there is an extra level of pressure to apply some of the points of advice I suggested in the last question such as listen, focus, and be honest and respectful. As a manager and mentor people approach you with their personal issues and you have to be careful to be appropriate in your involvement.

What strategies do you use to maintain balance in your life?
So many people advise maintaining balance in one's life. It is crucial and yet everyone's approach is different. Family, friends and exercise are critical for me. I try to schedule my workouts early in the morning before the day gets too hectic. Since travel can pose challenges to an exercise routine (i.e. arriving late to a hotel with a closed gym or traveling in a country where gyms are not as available as in the US). I hired a personal trainer who taught me some exercises to do wherever I might be. Scheduling vacations and weekend events in advance with friends and family further provides balance by giving me something to look forward to and also enforces my commitment to get time away from work.

What advice would you give to young women who want to enter your field?
This is a tough question. I believe that women should be confident of their skills and knowledge while realizing it's acceptable to maintain their feminine characteristics because, after all, we are women. Of course, we are different than men and we are also different from other women. That is OK. There is opportunity for men and women of all races and religions in the technology field and in executive management. Don't allow others to make you feel bad or inadequate for being who you are - As Shakespeare said, "to thyne own self be true." One other tactic I still am trying to master ­ always think before you speak and be sure and listen carefully. If someone is taking the time to talk to you give him or her the focus and attention they deserve. Someone told me that the fish who keeps his mouth closed never gets hooked!