Women in Tech Leadership: How Cultural Identity Shaped My Career Path | Sumi Shukla
Mon Dec 15 2025
What if the most powerful leadership lessons start long before your first title? We sit down with Sumi Shukla, VP of Global Marketing at Riverbed, to explore how immigrant roots, blended cultures, and early responsibility shape a career built on resilience, fairness, and authenticity. Sumi’s story moves from a childhood balancing identity in a predominantly white town to leading global teams across field marketing, ABM, partners, and digital. Along the way, she learned to trade control for trust, to define outcomes clearly, and to give people the space to deliver in their own way.
We get into the big tension leaders face: courage versus perfection. Sumi argues that fearless presence beats “flawless” execution when it carries substance—evidence, iteration, and accountability. She shares concrete examples from marketing, including how her team launched ambitious account‑based marketing programmes, read the data honestly, then made the tough call to scale back and reinvest where results were strongest. You’ll hear how to normalise experimentation without recklessness, drop sunk costs without leaving gaps, and build a culture where learning is a habit, not a post‑mortem.
Mentors and representation play a central role here. Sumi highlights the impact of formidable female leaders early in her career and the insights from her Global Voices of Leadership: Women Who Inspire series—stories of resilience, unconventional paths, and sponsors who opened doors. Together we map a practical leadership playbook: be clear on the outcome, be consistent and fair, lead from the front or the back as needed, and stay humble because you might be wrong. We close with a simple, moving question about legacy - what remains when titles fade - and why the answer should guide how we show up at work and at home.
If this conversation resonates, follow the show, share it with a colleague who’s growing a team, and leave a quick review to help others find these leadership stories. Your feedback shapes what we explore next.
Don't miss the "Virtually Anything Goes" question at the end, where Lev faces Sumi's unscripted question for the first time!
Subscribe for more inspiring leadership conversations and share this episode with someone who needs to hear this message today.
Sumi Shukla is the VP of Global Marketing, at Riverbed Technology, where she leads all field marketing teams, ABM, Partner and Alliances, and Digital marketing. Sumi has 25 years of experience working in Tech Marketing, having spent over 10 years working at Cisco and having now been with Riverbed Technology since 2016. If that wasn't enough, Sumi is also a strong advocate for Women in Tech and has established the “Women at Riverbed EMEA” initiative.
Connect with Sumi Shukla on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sumi-shukla/
Lev Cribb is the Founder and Managing Director of Made To See, a UK-based Video and Livestreaming Agency, specialising in the strategic and tactical use of video across B2B organisations. Lev is also the host of the Virtually Anything Goes podcast.
Connect with Lev Cribb on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/levcribb/
For more information, content, and podcast episodes go to https://www.madetosee.com or our YouTube channel @madetoseemedia
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What if the most powerful leadership lessons start long before your first title? We sit down with Sumi Shukla, VP of Global Marketing at Riverbed, to explore how immigrant roots, blended cultures, and early responsibility shape a career built on resilience, fairness, and authenticity. Sumi’s story moves from a childhood balancing identity in a predominantly white town to leading global teams across field marketing, ABM, partners, and digital. Along the way, she learned to trade control for trust, to define outcomes clearly, and to give people the space to deliver in their own way. We get into the big tension leaders face: courage versus perfection. Sumi argues that fearless presence beats “flawless” execution when it carries substance—evidence, iteration, and accountability. She shares concrete examples from marketing, including how her team launched ambitious account‑based marketing programmes, read the data honestly, then made the tough call to scale back and reinvest where results were strongest. You’ll hear how to normalise experimentation without recklessness, drop sunk costs without leaving gaps, and build a culture where learning is a habit, not a post‑mortem. Mentors and representation play a central role here. Sumi highlights the impact of formidable female leaders early in her career and the insights from her Global Voices of Leadership: Women Who Inspire series—stories of resilience, unconventional paths, and sponsors who opened doors. Together we map a practical leadership playbook: be clear on the outcome, be consistent and fair, lead from the front or the back as needed, and stay humble because you might be wrong. We close with a simple, moving question about legacy - what remains when titles fade - and why the answer should guide how we show up at work and at home. If this conversation resonates, follow the show, share it with a colleague who’s growing a team, and leave a quick review to help others find these leadership stories. Your feedback shapes what we explore next. Don't miss the "Virtually Anything Goes" question at the end, where Lev faces Sumi's unscripted question for the first time! Subscribe for more inspiring leadership conversations and share this episode with someone who needs to hear this message today. Sumi Shukla is the VP of Global Marketing, at Riverbed Technology, where she leads all field marketing teams, ABM, Partner and Alliances, and Digital marketing. Sumi has 25 years of experience working in Tech Marketing, having spent over 10 years working at Cisco and having now been with Riverbed Technology since 2016. If that wasn't enough, Sumi is also a strong advocate for Women in Tech and has established the “Women at Riverbed EMEA” initiative. Connect with Sumi Shukla on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sumi-shukla/ Lev Cribb is the Founder and Managing Director of Made To See, a UK-based Video and Livestreaming Agency, specialising in the strategic and tactical use of video across B2B organisations. Lev is also the host of the Virtually Anything Goes podcast. Connect with Lev Cribb on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/levcribb/ For more information, content, and podcast episodes go to https://www.madetosee.com or our YouTube channel @madetoseemedia