Meet the Women Behind Faces of Change: Kira Mondrus, SVP of Global Marketing, Tricentis

Last year, Insight Partners launched the Faces of Change Executive Leadership Academy with a cohort of six inspiring women from our portfolio of ScaleUp software companies. The program provides these executives with resources, connections and coaching to support their development and the advancement of female and minority employees.

To celebrate Women's History Month, we interviewed each of the women who were selected to be a part of the program. In the interview below, learn more about one of the members, Kira Mondrus, SVP of Global Marketing at Tricentis.

What’s your superpower that’s made you successful in a ScaleUp?  

I’m more of a scientist than an artist when it comes to marketing. Having worked in much larger organizations, I understand the importance of a building good foundation so you can more easily scale for growth. Decisions are data driven and results are measurable. 

How did you get to where you are? What was your career path?  

I did not train to become a marketer, but I have been in B2B tech marketing my entire career. I studied business, policy and languages and had planned on foreign service in Canada but ended up at a startup in Tel Aviv. Between my time at a few smaller companies and becoming the CMO at Tricentis, I worked at BMC for 10 years and managed a large team at Dell SecureWorks where I was focused on driving growth. Over the course of my career, I’ve had the privilege of working in companies ranging from early stage startups to multi-billion-dollar enterprises and all facets of marketing. 

Have you had a mentor? Share a story of how they impacted your growth.  

I’ve had many mentors throughout my career, but the one that made the biggest impact was my first mentor, Sharon Hess. She made introductions to top vendors, taught me best practices, and helped me identify pitfalls before I ran into them. I remember asking for funding to take an HTML class so that I could update our website. She responded by asking me what my career aspirations were, and I said that I want to be a great leader like you, to which she said, "Don't sweat the small stuff. You want to learn management, not the tasks itself." That mantra stuck with me over the year and I'm thankful to have had her as a mentor. 

What advice would you give yourself 10 years ago?  

I would have told myself to give other professions a try. While I love the field of marketing, I think I could be a stronger marketer if I had spent some time in sales or customer success. When I mentor my team now, I always encourage them to look at their strengths and see if there are other areas of the business, they would be interested in.