Business as Usual: Salutes Veterans and Families of Active Duty Military Personnel

Transcription: 

Okay, good afternoon, everyone. This is Audrey Russo, and today is Veterans Day. I'm president and CEO, the Pittsburgh Technology Council. And I'm thrilled every day. But I'm particularly thrilled that we can take a moment to give deep appreciation for people who represent us in the service. And I know most of us have had are just one degree of separation people who are representing the United States and ensuring our freedom and doing just pretty incredible work that many of us go unappreciated each and every day. So I'm very thrilled today that we have two people who will be joining us, Colonel John Pippy Commander 55th maneuver of enhancements the grave. But he also has a deep relationship with us at the tech Council for many, many years. I'm very excited to talk to him about all things that he's been up to and what he's doing. And Christy O'Hara founder and CEO of mutually independent and she is joining us from a little town in Japan, where it's 2am in the morning, and just outside of Hiroshima. So I want to thank them for joining us today. But before we get started, I would like to thank Huntington bank for their belief in us right from the onset, in terms of all the work that we're doing to make sure that we have a really wide range of people who are connecting us to all things in our ecosystem. In terms of tech business, and innovation, today is no different, you're going to hear some really interesting things. And I also want to tell you that we've muted your chat. And Jonathan kersting all things media and marketing is with us today, he will be monitoring the questions and give some opportunity for some exchange and engagement. So this is not an opportunity for you to sell your wares today are all eyes on our guests. And that's what we care about. So thank you all for joining us today. And again, thank you to our veterans and people who support our veterans in terms of the work that they do each and every day. So I mentioned that we have two guests, Christy O'Hara and Colonel john Pipi. And we're very excited always to host our member companies. But of course today on Veterans Day, it's more precious to us than any other time. So you're going to hear from our guests. They are both deployed outside of the Pittsburgh area. And I mentioned one is in Japan, and we will and john Pipi will talk about where he is located right now. So first, I'm going to start with Christie, thank you so much for joining us, 2am. And I know that you tried to stay on stateside time. And let's just talk a little bit because you're far from home. But you have ties to Pittsburgh, particularly Peters Township. So I mentioned where we are. And before we talk about mutual dependent, can we start off by hearing a bit about your background on your personal journey?

Sure. So as Audrey mentioned, I was born and raised in Pittsburgh. So I spent the first 18 years of my life in Peters Township, graduated from swiftly Academy left Pittsburgh to attend Georgia Tech where as an industrial engineer, I met my now husband there we were college sweethearts, and T joined the services. So he's an F 18 pilot in the Navy right now just got back from a seven month deployment onboard the USS Ronald Reagan. And over the course of the next we'll call it eight years from graduating until today. I worked in Atlanta, Texas, Virginia Beach, and now and Eva Cooney, Japan. So I've had a remote career pretty much the entire time that I've been a military spouse. And what mutually dependent does is bring those same type of careers to military spouses everywhere. So one challenge as a military spouse that I have seen throughout our community is the ability to find employment, and not just employment, but employment that meets the skill sets and educational backgrounds of military spouses. So really, what we try to do is is match them with remote work of which COVID-19 has made more prominent, and we're thankful for that. There's a lot not to be thankful about the pandemic but the shift to remote work we really believe helps our community and we're hoping to move right now military spouses, they approximated at 90%, underemployed and 34% unemployed and those were pre COVID-19 statistics so we're trying to impact those those a little bit and and move the military spouse community forward with regards to their Professional endeavors.

And so you founded on mutually dependent which I thank Lexi for putting the link out there you found it how long ago, eight months. So

we're fairly new. So we we founded the company in April of this year, myself and my co founder Mike Wilson, who's also on the call. She's a fellow FAA, teen military spouse, our husbands were flight school roommates, and we've been best friends for over a decade. So very similar problems within the community and teamed up to to once again put a dent in in the military spouse under an unemployment rates.

And so what types of jobs? What do you What are you discovering over these last eight months? For sure. So

we actually have 10 military spouses currently working for us, that we've placed over the course of those eight, eight months. And the three pillars that we really look at our sales and marketing, content creation and data entry. And what we aim to do is to get military spouses in short term projects initially, because we believe that once they're in the door, organizations will realize their value, their adaptability, their hard work, all of those qualities that come from being a part of the military community. And then from there, they can grow within the organization, find additional projects and whatnot. So our goal is to really get military spouses in the door. And we have no doubt that they'll prove their worth from their

very, very exciting. So we just had a career fair yesterday. So you can hopefully that there are opportunities all over in terms of work from home. So How much longer will you be in Japan? Yeah, so

I am only here for another month, we moved back to the States on December 19. So very much so looking forward to that has been here for almost three years. So a substantial amount of time, working abroad, working in a remote capacity abroad, and then ultimately, founding mutually dependent as another kind of tied to the Pittsburgh area that I did not mention earlier. I'm a current Tepper MBA student. So I'm in there part time online hybrid program will graduate in May of 2021. So prior to COVID-19, was actually traveling back to the Pittsburgh area every two months for access weekend, which is class Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Right? Well, good. So good to hear from you. And again, thank you for staying with us. It's now about 2:07am. So thank you for staying awake. So we're going to switch and welcome an old friend of ours, john, and I think you're old john, but just a long friend of ours, Don Pipi, and I'm gonna bring him on, and we're going to talk you're also away from Pittsburgh now. But really, let's just set the table for everyone. So they understand, you know, the journey that you've been on, because it's quite remarkable in terms of public, you know, your role as the public servant and your role in the military. So thank you. It's really great to see you, john.

ardrey, thanks so much for having me. It's great to be back. I mean, I've been working with you guys since basically the first time I was elected in 96. That tells you that was a long time ago. Just real quick on my background, on the opposite Christie. I actually was born in Thailand on Thailand on an airbase who bombed Thailand. And my father was a tech sergeant in the Air Force, went back to Boston where my family was from. I grew up as a child, I end up going to West Point, the US Military Academy, and I met my wife Cathy at West Point, who's a proud moon township resident at the time, I fell in love with Pittsburgh. And so after my active duty time in the Fort Hood, Texas, and we came back and I started working at a company called us steel. So that was back in the mid 90s. raised my daughter, I'm an environmental engineer. As Audrey mentioned, I was a rent and decided to run for office as a state representative from 96 to 2003. Most of Western Allegheny County suburbs, Moon townships quickly, Ohio Valley area. And then I was elected to the Senate and I served basically from 96 to 2012, as first house and senate. And after that I end up as recruited to run this be the CEO of Pennsylvania coal is one of the largest fourth largest coal trade association in the country. And that was a great experience, why challenges reorganize them. And as you can see, I'm still in uniform today. Because I've been I meant to remember the Pennsylvania National Guard. So in 2015, the guard needed someone to lead an engineering team to the Middle East, be the direct support for Special Forces. So I was a special forces engineer and Middle East in Iraq and Syria, from 16 to 17. And when you do something like that, and Christy, I can appreciate what you've been doing doing the school, I was getting my masters from the Army War College, while I was in a bunker, and having to write a paper about geopolitics and in the Chinese population, demographics and how that's going to impact energy usage healthcare, while I'm getting shelved in a bunker, and in northern Syria, and it was at that time, I said, Well, when I come back, I'm not sure I want to go back to do straight lobbying. You know, I kinda, I wanted to do something different. And so I started a company called Pipi global solutions, renamed it to PGS tech, and I still do my army stuff. I have a consulting business when I'm not in my uniform. And I help companies with digital integration. I'm a strategic partnership with a company called onlines, who I know is very, very involved here with the tech but today, I really want to talk more about the what to do on the army side. So I, I command, a brigade in Pennsylvania, headquartered at Scranton, my brigade as a little over 3000 soldiers spread out all across the eastern part of the state. But one thing we do have, and if I could show you which I can't, because it's all secret, is a nothing we do in the military in the army in particular, is done without tech. So we have a lot of tech capability. I look forward to talking about that. I think Brian asked me to talk a little bit about Pittsburgh hires. That's, which is one of the nonprofit's here in Pittsburgh. So that's, that's who I am. I'm proud. And happy to be here with you guys. And I've been always been impressed with the work you guys have done here. That's

a little bit about Pittsburgh hire events. Can you talk about that?

Yeah. So many of you from the Pittsburgh area would know, Senator jack Wagner, otter, General jack Wagner, and I are from different sides of the political fence. And unlike, well, I won't talk politics. But jack and I have been good friends for a long time, we share a lot in common. And even though we're different political parties, and he asked me to join the board for Pittsburg is vast, and we have one simple mission. We have a small staff, and we've been placed about 200 150 200 vets a year. And we help connect vets or their spouses with jobs in not only in our region, but also it's starting to expand across Pennsylvania. And then the key thing was Pittsburg highs, that's his and Christy can speak to this too, as he may times it's hard to translate the qualities and skill sets a veteran or even not even but even our spouse like the skill sets we have and the experiences because you don't build that on a typical resume, you want a certain number for a certain job for a certain capability. So we do we help pre screen people and help them find jobs where they have growth potential. And it's worked well, we don't charge for that service. We raise money. Hopefully companies that have hired people from Pittsburgh eyes that appreciate that help sponsor events, but there is no cost to it. We are fully funded, all our money goes into supporting the costs. So it's a great program.

And so, you know, you mentioned something that I just want to just dig a little deeper on with you, john, in terms of the military skills and the translation there. I mean, you're a good example of private sector, military, private sector, you know, Association, leadership, etc. The What about how do these leaves actually translate into skills, so that, you know, our listeners can really understand that they're not always conveyed easily on a resume.

So I think one of the keys here is you look at from from our perspective, you always go, Hey, we're great leaders, we're great workers, you have an attitude about the can do attitude, teamwork, and those are all good soft skills, which everyone who studies leadership understands. If you don't have the people that can work together, it doesn't matter how smart people are. So that that is always part of the core function when you're when you're interviewing people who, like myself have worked with a lot of different organizations, we are trained and tailor to go to into an area and partner with people we may have never worked with. And we don't have a lot of time to build up that capability. So I actually sat down with my signal company commander, he's a senior officer. And he manages all the network cybersecurity for me. Locally, I have about 80 people that support everything from our satellite feeds, so our help desk operations, and I said, I told him I was talking and I said What should I tell him? And he emphasized which I didn't know because I don't run that side. The security, the certifications, we all are people get the training. If you if you hire one of my signal company members, they all have a secret minimum a secret clearance. Most of them are top secret because as systems we do everything from putting the networks in to manage To the whether it's McAfee hvss, all the all the different certifications. So it is what I think what's lost is the technical capabilities of the people we're hiring now to join the military. We're very selective. And we can be. So that is actually helped us develop a better employee for your companies.

Yeah, I mean, so I'm gonna jump back to Christy. Thank you, john. So in addition to, you know, the challenge of finding employers who are willing to hire, you know, remote employee, you know, employees, what are some of the other barriers that, you know, the military spouses face? You know, Yeah, no kidding, of course, yeah. So, like, so.

Yeah, so, so I like to tell a story kind of, of what I know, which is the the spouse of an aide of naval aviator. And if you get married right out of college, you're basically swept up and you send your your you go to Pensacola for roughly six months, and a lot of people don't want to find employment there. Because it's six months, they know they're leaving. And then the next stop is kingsville, Texas, or Meridian, Mississippi. So once again, big metropolises and tons of job opportunities for military spouses that was obviously sarcastic. So for two years, they're they're trying to find work, they can't find work. And now what we call the gap in their resume exists. So from the time that they graduated college, to the time that they're now in more of a permanent duty station, which can be two and a half to three years later, they now have a significant gap in their resume that they have to explain to an employer. So what we try to do is to get them in remote positions early on, to prove their value, or coach them and say, Hey, why don't you have a position right out of college, wait a year, so really lean in kind of Sheryl Sandberg style, and find your value in that organization and then propose the remote capacity. So really, what we try to do is minimize the gap in resumes and get people into remote positions. And you've probably heard me say, remote 100 times and why remote is so key to military spouses, is because they move every two to three years. And employers and a lot of cases don't want to hire military spouses because they're constantly moving. And which means they'll leave have to find a new job. And that cycle continues. What we've actually seen in the remote capacity is that military spouses have a extreme sense of loyalty to organizations that allow them to work in remote capacities. So instead of them leaving, when other opportunities may present themselves, they say to themselves, this company gave me a chance, this employer gave me a chance when no one else did. And it really kind of creates the opposite effect and gets these really talented, highly skilled, highly educated individuals to stay at companies for longer periods of time, then kind of the, the, the standard person so

so when you've been doing your idea about this was before COVID, but COVID exacerbated your idea. 100% are you finding any changes like in terms of your original hypothesis for starting a company,

I'm a little bit so our our kind of shift and it's always really been there, but we don't necessarily look at full time employment. And, and and careers as as one in the same. So our job is to get military spouses into fair paying jobs. And really where we found success is in contractor type work. And the reason for that is a lot of military spouses are balancing deployed spouses, families, kind of all of these these life responsibilities that go with having a spouse deployed. So having a job or a position that's less than 40 hours is sometimes advantageous to military spouses. Additionally, while you're an active duty military spouse, there are benefits that come with that role, that a lot of spouses don't necessarily need to be their employer and can actually bring in more cash being a contractor. So one thing that we've we've really tried to focus on is contractor flexible employment, because we feel that's beneficial for both the military spouse and the employer.

And so have you found that the there's a tendency for being an embracing this from big companies or small companies or any patterns?

Yeah, so so a lot of the placements that we've had are startups and nonprofits. And the reason for that is because of their flexibility, their openness to to remote work, their openness to having people that were kind of multiple different hats and those environments. So really tapping into the Tepper community of startups and and kind of looking outside the, the the Tepper and then into the Pittsburgh walls to to find companies open to this type of employment and open to people I keep using the word adaptable. military spouses are some of the most adaptable people out there. Having to kind of recreate themselves in their lives. Each time they move in. those skills we believe are highly transferable to the professional setting.

That's great. That's great. So let me let's switch back to john. So john, you know, you recently formed a tech business we met, you mentioned that briefly, not only can you talk about that venture, but talk about what the real benefits are, the real benefits are in terms of, you know, working with veteran owned businesses.

Very much. So. So the, as I mentioned early, I started a consulting business and, and really, my background has been, I've mastered strategic planning and consulting. And then really merging what in this field we call the digital integration side, the people in the processes with the upgrading the equipment. And so I partnered with a well established tech company, all eyes technology, and AI. And we've started working with organizations that do first, once someone that has that background, that capability, 25 years of operational experiencing, and global, with also a strong and trusted technology partner, the subcontract, as Christy had mentioned, and the The reason I approached it from that perspective is when when I got my degree in environmental engineering, and 99, do, I know what I like to do, and I like running things, I like processing, I like thinking, Well, back then I was seeing this thing about how important the environment was. So I was actually the first class to graduate from West Point with environmental degree. Now take this 30, almost 30 years later, everything we do with the internet of things with the data demands, with all the cybersecurity requirements, this is a field frankly, on the government side, we'll be we'll be growing even more. And then also on the commercial side, I see some value in having a veteran owned it company that understands that can actually bridge some of that space, whether it be the cybersecurity if you do governmental contracts, that type of stuff. So for me, it's the people, the processes, the equipment, it's exciting. And the skill sets that Christina mentioned, with spouses also applied to the members in the military themselves with regards to their branch. And so that's why I'm excited because I see the IT world as a growth world. It's not the same every day. And as an as a consultant, I get to not pick and choose I'm not that level yet. But I get to align myself with organizations that are that are growing and that see some value in having some what's my background? And then, you know, with a solid foundation, with my strategic partners, so it's, it's been it's been exciting for me.

What about entrepreneurship? I mean, in terms of your career, and sort of, you know, melding all those skill sets together. What

was the

talk? Can you talk about that

being an entrepreneur has probably been one of the most challenging things that I never trained for that, frankly, I've been working with a small business development council, Huntington bank happens to be my bank. So thank you very much for sponsoring this today. You guys. So I know Suzy well. So I, you know, it's interesting. Entrepreneurship is not easy. And so I did a lot of research, I didn't know what I didn't know, luckily, I have a lot of mentors and friends that they can reach out to, and, you know, Brian being one of them, and we talked about stuff. But I have learned in order to be successful in any operation I've ever been involved in, and whether it's been in northern Syria and Turkey and working all those is, you know, if you, if you could frame the problem set, and you'd have the people in the tech skills to help solve it, then it's rewarding. And that's why I am now focused 100% on this side is because your entrepreneurship, it's challenging, but also I like a challenge. And I like the reward of being successful, and having my customers and clients be successful. So it's, there's, there's a lot of upside, but there's also a lot of risk. And, Chris, you mentioned earlier about the benefits. Yeah, one of the nice things for me is because I'm a consultant, you know, it's, it is easier for me to partner for a period of time with a company then step back, you don't have to hire me full time. And, and so there's, that's what I also like about this, this opportunity right now.

So here you have Christine, who's also a new entrepreneur, are you a new entrepreneur? Have you tried this before? Do and now. So what are you think so far?

It's hard, it's hard, but it is it's so rewarding. I can't tell you how many emails that Meg and I've gotten or I woken up to from Japan, from military spouses or from employers that we're currently partnered with just so incredibly encouraged by either the the talent that they're seeing out of the military spouses that they're working with, or on the military spouse side, just encouragement for us of finally giving them a chance and following up and I mean, it's, it's Just awesome. So

that's great. So what what would be some of your final comments that you might want from the tech community? That's both of you. So Christie, what what would you want?

Sure. So So we say mutually dependent that people marry their intellectual counterparts. And so that applies to military spouses and active duty servicemembers. These are some of the best and the brightest people out there, I can promise you that. And really, there's there's as as john will speak to there's a there's a large retention problem in the military right now. And they're looking to retain these individuals, and a lot of it is because their family life at home isn't, isn't 100% for one reason or another, and we believe that military spouse employment and giving military spouse meaningful careers is one step towards that. So we don't only believe we're doing good in the world and connecting people with quality jobs that that they have the skill sets to achieve, but we're also helping kind of the larger military organization to to retain top talent, because their family life at home is is settled and ready to go. And, and both parties the both spouses feel fulfilled. So if anyone out there has any type of contractor work in sales and marketing, content creation data entry, or, or really, we can reach out to our community right now we're connected to over 50,000 military spouses looking for employment, we would love to partner with you, we'd love to have a conversation with you so so please reach out. I know our website was posted in there, our general info is info at mutually dependent calm or you can reach out to me personally at Christie at mutually dependent calm.

Yeah, that's very, very inspiring. And I think that you will get traction, your, your attitude towards this is infectious. So I really give you, you know, big, big athletes for that. So john, what about you? What's your ask of the tech community?

I think from my perspective, the ask is, on behalf of Pittsburgh hires, veterans, I think I spoke to it briefly earlier. Look at the template bahding, the aperture, what you're looking at, when you're hiring, how many times have you gone on indeed or something, you're going to immediately eliminate people who may have the skill set for here and my organization, you can't even touch our it stuff unless you have a score of 116 for as fab. So the military has a lot of screening. You can't be a fighter pilot as you breathe good. And a lot of different things, especially haircuts. But anyway, the military has a lot. That's an inside joke. You know, I never saw Tom Cruise with bad haircut. But the military, we do a lot to help filter in and we have a filter and provide opportunities for people who I think would fit very well with with your companies. And so it's just a matter of bridging that gap. And I know you work very hard you and Brian and the whole team on supporting the military. So they'll Pittsburgh, guys that is a wonderful organization. We help place we're very successful, we follow up. And then if you ever need someone on the IT world, and I partner with a lot of different organizations, and we'd love the opportunity to talk, but it's on the strategic planning consulting side or you're on the it and Employment Development side. I appreciate the opportunity here with everyone and thank you.

We appreciate the work that you do each and every day. So that not just on Veterans Day. I see that Isabel love says that hiring a veteran offers 90 $600 in Work Opportunity Tax credits for employers as well. So really, I don't know if that probably doesn't apply to spouses, right, Kristin, but it

definitely I'm not sure on that side. But actually in the last 12 months, for any companies that are looking to do contractor with with with the federal government, they have to hire a percentage of military affiliates. And that historically did not include military spouses today It does. So one step forward around hiring additional military spouses. So we're super excited about

that. That's really great to know, because I bet you no one on this call knew that. And now we're equipped with information that we can help spread the word. So on this Veterans Day, I want to thank all all both of you, and Chrissy as well as your spouse for the work that he is doing. And we none of us take that for granted. But I'm glad that we have a moment to just appreciate the work that you all do on behalf of all of us across America, because we need to be reminded of that. So I want to thank everyone I see that john Pippi being john Pipi, he has shared his information. He has responded to the questions that are on the chat. Christy made herself available. And if by chance you don't grab that information reached back out to any one of us at the tech Council, and we will help make those connections. So on this Veterans Day, please remember those who have served and can Continue to serve. And we cannot take this for granted. Really appreciate it. So thank you Christy, you can go to bed now and know that it's 2:30am john Pipi, you can eat your most delicious lunch that I know that you've been holding off on. He shared with us some of the lunch that he was planning to eat soon and the packaging design was very, very interesting. fell and hope to see you both in real person at some point very soon. Stay safe. Christy, welcome back to the states and john Pipi. We will be in touch. Thank you everyone. Stay safe like to mark Roderick,

thank you for being on the call. Bye bye

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