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https://100years100women.blog.gov.uk/2018/11/27/sunitha-chacko/

Sunitha Chacko - the woman who likes questioning things

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Profile picture of Sunitha in the office

Profile

Job: Head of Technical Architecture Community

Organisation: Cabinet Office, Government Digital Service

Years in Public Service: Since Nov 2017

My grandmother was a…

Strong woman. Her name was Mrs Gracy Abraham.

She was the embodiment of love and strength in equal measure.

As a young woman who lost her husband (my grandfather), she faced a lot of hardships within the conservative society back then. She faced them all with absolute grace and a smile on her face.

She was also fiercely independent. She learnt to use the resources around her so that she provide the best for her children and live an independent life. I have never seen her give up on anything.

She has played a pivotal role in my upbringing - she taught me the importance of being resilient and that trait continues to help me today.

Me in a paragraph

I am a technologist who is also a strong advocate for diversity, inclusion and equality -  I was very clear from a young age that I will focus on building a career around technology to do my bit in changing the world and that clarity has indeed helped me shape my career.

It is also true that I have equally faced many challenges in this journey, what keeps me going is to never accept defeat.

If you ask my family and professors about me - I am sure they will say that I always ask questions!  If anything is unclear, I will keep asking difficult questions until I get those answers.

I wake up every morning thinking how can I make my day the best for my family and work colleagues and for that I work hard to make things better around.

I consider myself as a go-getter with a collaborative spirit. There is no harm in having dreams and making them a reality.

I encourage youngsters to work towards their dreams as nothing is impossible.

My role

I joined Government Digitial Service (GDS) as the Head of Technical Architecture Community.

I collaborate with other GDS leaders to build technical architecture capability that can deliver the GDS mission as well as support capability building across government. I have oversight of the work of community members on projects and programmes.

As a technical architect in government, you have the ability to influence meaningful change across government and society. You work with business and technology stakeholders to translate business problems into technical designs.

If I had a magic wand, what I would do to accelerate gender equality?

Equal representation of women in executive roles - I want to see more women driving companies to success. Seeing women succeed at those levels will provide a massive boost for women to focus on their career.

As per McKinsey studies, better diversity in boards has generated far better results for those companies, so I do not see a reason why this should not be the case.

I think with this point resolved - equal pay and a collaborative work culture will follow.

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2 comments

  1. Comment by Anurag Sharma posted on

    Inspiring read. You actually carries a magic wand while leading team and makes them more collaborative.
    Keep going & All the best

  2. Comment by Chinnu Korah posted on

    Well written sunitha ! And great going , Proud of you !