Who is Karla Wong, the Peruvian engineer who took apart objects as a child and today is one of the most influential voices at Amazon in Latin America

The challenges for the current leader of Education and Public Sector for northern Latin America and the Caribbean at AWS came very early. Coming from a family with Chinese heritage, Wong had to constantly earn the right to have a space in this sector and show that she could be as competitive as a man. “When I became a manager in a European company traditionally made up of men, who were celebrating 50, 60 years there, I experienced a situation that made me stronger. At a regional meeting, I went in to take my seat and one of these older managers approached me to ask me for a coffee. When I pointed out where the coffee area was, he looked at me and said: ‘It’s clear to you that this is a managers’ meeting, right?’. I told him that I was a manager of the Peru, and he immediately answered me: ‘I didn’t know that Peru had a female manager. I thought you were someone’s assistant,’” he says in disbelief.

AWS and female empowerment

Far from confining her, the pandemic gave her more action than expected. Due to circumstances, Karla Wong stopped traveling, taking the opportunity to take a specialization in digital transformation with MIT. In the middle of the program, Amazon knocked on their door to open the operation in the country. “They hired me and I immediately had to form my team, achieving very good results. Today, Peru is responsible for Ecuador and Bolivia, and operations are at a pace that has really surprised us all.”

Although there was a lot of excitement for the opportunity to enter the American giant, fear also appeared, finding in his father, a martial arts teacher, the guide he needed to not be paralyzed on that occasion. “With the nerves of entering a company like Amazon, I looked for my dad and I will never forget the phrase he told me: ‘Remember that the brave person is not the one who does not feel afraid, but the one who continues walking despite it’. He has very strong life principles, based on justice, honor, ethics and keeping your word, which is a contract. They have marked my identity. He has always pushed me to achieve what I want,” says the former Country Manager Peru, a position with which she started at AWS.

With more than 20 years of experience in the world of technology, and well positioned in Amazon Web Services, the three-time national sailor champion highlights the company’s work in promoting the figure of women in the field of technology.

“There is an intention at AWS to position women as references. The ‘Amazonians’ in general share their stories, we are a community of women who want to become present and visible; because what is not seen, is not dreamed of. How can a girl or a young woman want to aspire to the technological world without references? Today we have found that echo unlike when some of us started and it is resonating with the women of our countries,” she says with a smile that inspires belief in that much-needed balance.

Initiatives that make growth

AWS is Amazon’s cloud computing platform, offering a series of comprehensive services. The company has installed in several countries, one of them being ours, a series of projects related to technology and its advances, creating spaces where women can continue to be encouraged. Likewise, it seeks to generate a sense of belonging to develop and encourage an inclusive and diverse culture. Wong gives us more details about these initiatives:

• In Peru we have an emblematic program, which is like a registered trademark, called Peruvians to the Cloud. The goal is to train women in cloud fundamentals. It has progressed over time and today, for example, it also has the topic of artificial intelligence incorporated, as well as material for entrepreneurs.
• Los AWS Trains Country They have a mentoring program called AWS She Builds. Women from Latin America apply, regardless of whether they speak Portuguese, Spanish, English… they all apply. Once you are chosen for the program, AWS assigns you a mentor for 12 weeks free of charge to help you build your career path. We have just closed the graduation of the second class from Latin America.
• We have a chapter of being a global sponsor of Women in Techwhich is not from AWS. It is an organization that is dedicated to encouraging women in STEM – an acronym in English for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics – and we participate with them in the chapters in which they are developed at a global level. Additionally, we are the sponsor of an award for the most disruptive woman. //