What was your first job and what did you learn from it?
My first (vacation) job during high school was in an ice cream factory packing ice cream. I was bored after the first day and was constantly watching the clock. This was an effective way to learn that I wanted to get a good education to ensure a challenging, interesting and satisfying job.

Who is your hero, mentor or person you most admire? Why?
It would be very hard to pick a single individual. I have been fortunate to have had mentors along the way who showed up at the time when I needed them: men, women, managers, colleagues and friends. I have made several significant career transitions because of mentors and strongly believe in mentoring as a result. I actively participate in several mentoring programs both within Sun as well as outside of Sun.

What is your favorite book?
I usually spend most of my reading time on business magazines and related articles. But two (non-business) books have made quite an impression on me for different reasons. "Cane River" by Lalita Tademy describes slavery and its impact on women in particular in a very insightful manner. Very much worth reading. The second book is "Reviving Ophelia" and the sequel "Ophelia Speaks" about teenage girls in today's world. Having a 10-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old son have made me realize how different their lives are compared to what I experienced as a teenager 30 years ago. These are "must reads" for everyone who has teenagers.

What advances in your field do you envision over the next 10 years?
I expect this decade to be the time when Web Services become a reality, taking full advantage of the Internet. For many years the technology of objects and components has been evolving and it is now at a point that B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to consumer) type applications can truly be implemented in a satisfactory manner. This will be the type of intelligence that will help you find restaurants and theatres of your taste wherever you are in the world, online banking that actually helps you with your finances and investments depending on your personal philosophies, developer tools that are personalized to accommodate the type of developer that you are, etc.

What do you see as the single most interesting element of your work?
The most interesting element of my work is to bring out the best in the people with whom I work, combined with a challenging, technical environment.

What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?
It always seems to be the current project that I am working on, probably because I continually aspire to bigger and better accomplishments. My current job of heading up the Forte Tools group at Sun is a wonderful challenge as we integrate two acquisitions and at the same time pull together the Developer Tools product line with aggressive schedules, radical engineering approaches (open source and partner alliances) and constantly changing requirements. And looking beyond my professional accomplishments, my most satisfying (and never ending) "project" is keeping the relationship with my husband (of 25 years) lively and fun as well as raising our two kids.

What was your greatest challenge and what did you learn from it?
It is hard to pick just one challenge, but I will zoom in on a work- related one. A few years ago I joined a start-up that had a great vision and a smart set of people. The work culture was not very supportive (prima donna syndrome) and a fair amount of backstabbing was going on. I tried hard to change it but did not succeed and finally had to give up and leave. I learned that not everyone has the same perspective, priorities and values and that I needed be clear with myself about how far I was willing to go in banging my head against the wall. I also learned to constantly reassess how realistic my goals were and that I had to be ready to give up when I could not make enough progress.

What strategies do you use to maintain balance in your life?
I have a whole set of strategies to ensure that I don't go overboard on the work front. Here are a few: regular vacations with my family, making time to exercise, setting aside time to spend with my kids, husband, friends and family, realizing that oftentimes 80% is actually good enough, outsourcing as many activities as I can, delegating as much as I can, having very clear priorities on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis.

What advice would you give to young women who want to enter your field?
Go for it! The combination of challenging work that will evolve constantly, working with the smartest people in the industry and excellent compensation make for a great work environment.