Career success in the AI era

During a visit to James Madison University on November 18, Lynne Zaledonis (‘92) sat down with the Dean of the College of Business, Michael Busing, to share wisdom and advice with students about her career journey and success, as well as AI’s impact on technology. Her visit marked this semester’s return of the Business Insights speaker series. 

As the Executive Vice President of Customer Success and Partner Marketing at Salesforce, Zaledonis leads the charge in creating and executing innovative marketing strategies to drive pipeline growth through partners and service offerings. With more than 25 years of customer relationship management (CRM) experience, Zaledonis is well-versed in the use of technology to create innovative solutions, market new products and drive sales. 

Zaledonis, who majored in Political Science and had an Economics minor, described her choice to attend JMU as a “natural fit.” As a student, Zaledonis was a Greek Life coordinator, belonged to and chaired a sorority, and worked at the IT Helpdesk. “The campus was small enough for me to make a difference,” she said.

Zaledonis eventually made her way out to California. When asked how she ended up in the tech industry, she shared that she “took any job” she could find, just to get her foot in the door. After accepting a job at PeopleSoft, she began working as the company’s sales boot-camp coordinator. From there, she employed her love of learning and started building upon the skills she already had acquired. 

“I made a lot of lateral shifts,” she said, describing how after PeopleSoft was acquired by Oracle, she left to pursue a similar role at a company called Salesforce, which at the time had only about 1,000 employees in contrast with the current 70,000. Plunged into the “new” realm of cloud computing, Zaledonis again acquired new skills and committed to learning more about sales and marketing, which ultimately led her to climb the corporate ladder. 

“I made a lot of big moves and not all of them were easy right out the gate. I had to trust myself and lean on the foundation I built at JMU. I’m very opportunistic and think there’s a bigger payoff for taking risks,” said Zaledonis. 

Busing then steered the conversation toward Zaledonis’s leadership experience and the impact AI is having on the tech industry. Zaledonis employs what she calls “authentic leadership” to guide her team. Two hallmarks of this way of leading, she says, are always allowing people to challenge you by asking questions, and admitting when you are wrong or not fully knowledgeable. “I think it’s important to have role models who show others that it’s OK to ask for help,” she said.

Touching on how this new era of AI is transforming the technology industry, Zaledonis said, “It’s really exciting. AI will impact every job out there, whether you’re a teacher, doctor or an attorney.” 

She explains, “At my company, we use it for a lot of our daily tasks. For example, I can invite AI to a meeting and it will take all of our minutes for us.” She says it gives companies the ability to increase efficiency, lower costs and better train employees for new roles within the company. 

Addressing the “doom and gloom” many feel about AI taking over their jobs, she says that’s not actually what’s happening. “When a company can grow because they have greater efficiency and are saving money, they are actually going to continue hiring because the company is getting larger,” she said. So, while AI takes charge of menial, daily tasks, the employees who used to perform them are being re-trained to take on new and different positions. “Growing companies hire more,” she explained. 

People already utilize AI more than they might realize, Zaledonis said. She described how AI’s integration into many aspects of our lives has come about. “When your GPS suggests a new route or Amazon suggests a new product for you based on previous purchases, that’s all AI. The benefits go beyond that as well. You can use it to correct your grammar, proofread emails and teach it how to give responses you want. The utilization is endless,” she said. 

Concluding the evening with what might be next for her, Zaledonis said, “I don’t know what’s next for me and that’s exciting, because my next job might not even have been invented yet.”