What does it take to reach the top of one of the largest tech organizations on the planet, and then walk away to fix the pipeline that got you there?
In this episode of B the Way Forward, host Brenda Darden Wilkerson sits down with Judith Spitz, former CIO of Verizon and founder of Breakthrough Tech, an initiative reshaping who gets access to power and influence in a tech-enabled world. Judith’s path from applied research scientist to Fortune 10 C-suite leader to movement builder is not a story about climbing a ladder. It’s a story about learning when the ladder stops serving you, and having the courage to go build a new one somewhere else.
Brenda and Judith dig into what authentic leadership actually costs, why imposter syndrome is a conversation worth retiring, what happens to AI when the wrong people are in the room, and why the moment we are living in right now may be a once-in-a-generation opportunity to break a broken talent pipeline before it locks into place again. This is a conversation about humility, urgency, humanity, and the radical act of lifting others as you climb.
Connect with Judith on LinkedIn
We Learned About:
- How Judith built her leadership identity through applied research rather than corporate command-and-control, and why that unconventional start gave her the freedom to lead authentically from the beginning
- Jim Collins’ definition of great leadership as “a paradoxical combination of personal humility and professional will” and why that framework reshapes how we think about authority
- Why Judith wants us to retire the imposter syndrome conversation and replace it with a more empowering reframe: you don’t have to know everything, you just have to surround yourself with people who do
- The moment Judith looked around the C-suite and realized women weren’t coming up behind her in 30 years, and why that observation became the foundation of Breakthrough Tech
- What “democratizing privileged access” actually means in practice, from Sprinternship micro-internship programs to AI-focused work-based learning cohorts
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction & Season Theme
1:00 Meet Judith Spitz, Former CIO of Verizon and Founder of Breakthrough Tech
2:30 What Pressure at the C-Suite Level of a Fortune 10 Company Actually Looks Like
4:00 Relationships as Rocket Boosters: How Judith Survived the Peak
5:30 The “March”: Suits, Pumps, and How Women Were Taught to Perform Leadership
7:30 Judith’s Unconventional Path: Why Coming Up Through Research Changed Everything
10:00 Authenticity as the Non-Negotiable Foundation of Leadership
13:00 Jim Collins, Personal Humility, and the Paradox of Great Leadership
15:30 Why Judith Wants to Retire the Imposter Syndrome Conversation
18:00 Leaving Verizon: How Do You Know When It’s Time to Go?
21:00 Fall in Love With the Problem, Not the Solution
23:00 The Origin Story of Breakthrough Tech
26:00 Women in CS Peaked in 1986: The Data That Would Not Let Judith Rest
27:30 Democratizing Privileged Access: What It Means and Why It Matters
35:00 How to Hear the Voice That Tells You It’s Time to Do Something Different
38:00 What Happens When You Give Overlooked Talent a Foot in the Door
41:00 How Judith Stays Motivated on the Hardest Days
43:00 Was Your Drive Rooted in Achievement? Judith’s Honest Answer
47:30 Who Is in the Room When AI Decisions Are Made, and Who Is Not
53:00 The AI Skills Gap: What Hiring Managers Say vs. What Technical VPs Need
58:00 The Medical Residency Model and the Once-in-a-Generation Pipeline Opportunity
1:01:00 Defining Leadership by Integrity, Not Title
1:02:00 Closing Thoughts: You Don’t Have to Lose Yourself to Lead Change
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