IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 50

Almost 30 years later, Inspearit
has evolved its roster of services with
the changing times and technical
needs but has grown tremendously. "Nowadays, we have 200 consultants and do about half our work in
Europe and half in Asia," Combelles
says. "It 's been really interesting
to move between the different cultures. Ultimately, to me, technology
is about being on the leading edge,
and so the point of the company is
to help other companies find ways to
use technology."
An advisor by nature, Combelles,
who also serves as editor-in-chief of
IEEE Software Magazine, felt passionate about dedicating some of her time
to work with Liautaud on creating
more opportunities for budding entrepreneurs like she once was, especially
those who are female. Pulling from
her own experience, she often has a
sense of what advice the mentees need
to hear. "Every time I speak about
my career, people ask me how I did it
because it's not easy for a woman to
move up in a male-dominated environment," shares Combelles. "I tell
them 'it wasn't easy' but I never questioned if I wanted to-or should-
keep moving forward. It was my
passion, and so I just did it."

With the mentees, she says she sees
this reflected back. "The first three to
four months of our mentoring is to
make them more confident in themselves," she explains. "Usually they have
accomplished so many great things
but then say that they're not capable of
moving to the next thing. I tell them to
stop asking so many questions and just
follow their passions." Combelles adds
that the most poignant lesson she has
learned from her career is, "If you want
to do something, you can't wait until
someone offers you the opportunity.
Instead, you have to give yourself the
means to succeed."
Though she acknowledges that
this is probably easier now in a digital society versus the manufacturingbased society of decades ago, women
still look to support organizations like
WBMI, WIF, and IEEE Women in Engineering to provide extra encouragement. It is the hope of all three that
WIF's gender parity study findings
will offer women guidance by surfacing best practices that companies of
all sizes can adopt to transform their
organizations. In doing so, women
leaders will have another way to give
themselves-and each other-the
means to succeed.
-Leslie Prives

Helpful Hints for Becoming
an IEEE Fellow
Recognition for extraordinary
contributions to society

The IEEE Fellow grade is a distinction
honoring important contributions to
society. It is reserved for Members with
extraordinary accomplishments who
have demonstrated outstanding proficiency in any field of interest
within the IEEE. Amy
Reibman is the current chair of the
Fellow Committee and is a Fellow
herself, honored in
2005 for her contributions to video
transport over netAmy Reibman
works. IEEE Women
in Engineering Magazine spoke with her
about the recognition program and her
advice for women interested in attaining
this milestone.
Reibman has been involved with the
IEEE throughout her academic and

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MWIE.2016.2603759
Date of publication: 9 November 2016

The 2015 IEEE Fellow Committee at the face-to-face meeting in Athens, Greece, October 2015.

IEEE womEn In EngInEErIng magazInE

december 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016