Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 29

TEMPEST TECHNOLOGIES
COMPANY FILE
Tempest Technologies, LLC
tempest-av.com
LOCATIONS: Issaquah, Wash.;
Portland, Ore.
PRESIDENT: Debbie Williamson,
president, general manager and
co-owner
ESTABLISHED: 2003
EMPLOYEES: 44
TOP VERTICAL MARKETS SERVED:
Corporate 1000, Corporate 500
companies
ALLIANCES: SAVe, Issaquah Food
and Clothing Bank (IFCB)
make. Employees are judged and compensated
more on what you bring to the
table now - not your gender. "
As was the case for many of us, Williamson
stumbled across our industry
by chance. A couple she knew needed
help starting their integration business.
Williamson helped them out, getting the
infrastructure and daily operations off the
ground. After spending a few months with
the company, she pondered whether a
career in the industry was viable for her.
She initially decided to leave, but, after
much nudging from coworkers, Williamson
decided to try her hand at sales. What
started as part-time work morphed into an
unexpected opportunity.
" I couldn't sell anything, " Williamson
History Month, Commercial Integrator is
spotlighting a handful of female commercial
AV industry leaders who have bucked
the odds and successfully found their forever
home in our industry. We hope that,
as you read their backstories, anecdotes
and reflections, you find inspiration in their
example and the paths they've taken.
Debbie Williamson,
Tempest Technologies
We start with Debbie Williamson, president,
general manager and co-owner
of Issaquah, Wash.-based integration
firm Tempest Technologies. If you ask
her whether a glass ceiling exists in the
industry, she'll respond, " Only if you let it! "
Drawing optimism from her own success,
Williamson says, " I think we've seen a lot
more equality in terms of the position that
you can hold and the salary that you can
commercialintegrator.com
recalls, " but they convinced me to give
it a try for six months. Once I got into it, I
quickly understood that what I was going
to be doing was relationship-based. "
That was the part of it she found exciting.
" I liked to go in and discover what an
organization or an individual was looking
for, and then try and turn that into a reality
in the technology world, " Williamson
continues. " Suddenly, sales didn't seem
that scary to me. "
At the time of Williamson's introduction
to commercial AV, it was an even
more male-dominated industry than it is
today. " The women in it were few and
far between, " she recalls, but adds, " I
learned from a lot of great individuals
who were willing to step in, teach me the
technology, teach me about selling to
the point where it would be enough to
be dangerous, and to really get out there
and apply. "
Williamson describes her career in the
commercial AV industry as " a completely
unexpected turn of events, " but hastens to
note that it " ...took me in a direction that
I've clearly stuck with and embraced. "
Although we reported from the outset
that women are, in fact, still deeply underrepresented
in our industry community,
Williamson underscores that things have
improved. " I find that I'm bumping into
bright women and especially business
owners, " she declares. " It's nice to be able
to go into a meeting or go to an event and
see a lot of other women business owners.
It's not as rare as it used to be. "
MARCH 2023 Commercial Integrator 29
'Employees
are judged and
compensated more
on what you bring
to the table now -
not your gender.'
- Debbie Williamson,
president and owner,
Tempest Technologies
JOZEFMICIC/STOCK.ADOBE.COM
http://www.tempest-av.com http://www.commercialintegrator.com
Commercial Integrator March 2023

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