Leadership Series

When Wayfair thinks of the cloud, we see a massive world-class “development accelerator” that dramatically reduces the friction for developers to provision, build, and create the things they want without having to toil with the underlying infrastructure to “wire up” those concepts. When we think of cloud innovation, we think of Google, which is at the forefront thanks to its focus on innovation.

Last month I attended the Zinnov Confluence – India Edition. For anyone not familiar with the event, it delivers a forum for global brands to share their experiences and perspectives around disruptive technologies, new digital business models, and leadership paradigms that can help bring India’s incredible technology ecosystem into the global community.

We recently celebrated International Women’s Month. What does this mean to you? How did you celebrate it?

Last week I participated on a panel at the Milken Institute Global Conference. It was a fantastic event featuring more than 200 sessions, including mine, “Retail Renaissance: Businesses Embracing Technology, Sustainability, and Innovation.”

Last October, at the Lesbians Who Tech in San Francisco, I had the opportunity to speak to a packed house about navigating a career in technology. Whether you’re an aspiring technologist or a seasoned veteran, career navigation is essential in this sector, where unprecedented evolutions and disruptive shifts in innovation require us to plot our course carefully. This is especially the case in the areas of software and algorithms.

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a business area that’s garnered more attention over the last 2+ years than the supply chain. Just recently, Wayfair CTO Fiona Tan spoke about the supply chain at the FORTUNE Brainstorm A.I. 2022 event in San Francisco, where the focus was, you guessed it, artificial intelligence (AI). More specifically, how businesses are shifting from dabbling in A.I. to putting it into the hands of every worker.

As the CTO of Wayfair, Fiona Tan leads the global technology organization responsible for shaping market-leading experiences for the company’s 30 million plus customers, 14,000 suppliers and thousands of employees.

One of the industry events I look forward to most every year is the Women of Silicon Valley. Whether you are at the apex of your career, at the beginning, or somewhere in between, this is a great event for any woman in technology.

Last year, Aanan Contractor joined Wayfair as the Vice President of Technology for Storefront and Fintech & Loyalty. Today, she finds herself at the center of Wayfair's technology evolution and commitment to delivering incredible customer experiences. We had a few minutes to chat about her role at Wayfair, projects that she is working on, and what advice she has for aspiring female engineers.

Last month, I had the opportunity to attend Shoptalk Europe in London. For those unfamiliar with the event, it has quickly become one of the top retail shows in the world and a personal favorite, thanks to its focus on retail and innovation.

Today is March 8 which is International Women’s Day. Every year on this date, the world celebrates the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women while calling for the continued acceleration in gender parity. As everyone takes a moment to reflect, the Wayfair Tech Blog team took a few minutes to sit down with Wayfair’s new Chief Technology (CTO), Fiona Tan, to get to know her and hear her thoughts on International Women’s Day.