Sarah’S BIO
Sarah Franklin is the Chief Executive Officer of Lattice. She brings 25+ years of experience leading and scaling companies in tech and has a unique blend of technical knowledge, business acumen, and marketing expertise. Prior to joining Lattice, She spent over 15 years at Salesforce in a variety of executive leadership roles including President Advisory Board, Chief Marketing Officer, EVP Platform and Trailhead. Before Salesforce, she worked at a variety of companies ranging from scaled businesses to scrappy startups. She holds a dual degree in chemical engineering and biochemistry from Virginia Tech and has been awarded many accolades including Forbes’ Most Influential CMO, “CMO to Watch” by Business Insider, and recipient of the Brand Genius Award from Adweek.
WITH GROUPS CREATING PROGRAMS TO ENCOURAGE FEMALES TO CONSIDER STEM, WHAT IS THE BIGGEST BARRIER TO ENTRY THAT IS STILL PREVALENT TODAY?
The biggest barrier to entry today remains the systemic unconscious bias in the workforce and society.
WHAT OR WHO INSPIRES YOU?
There are so many places to find inspiration between leaders, innovators, colleagues, family, friends. I take the most inspiration from children and the youth. Their minds are brilliantly curious and optimistic and not tarnished nor calcified by past experiences. They come up with new ideas and bring hope to light. And it is for them that I wake up every day .. passionate to make an impact for the world to be a better place for them.
WHAT IS YOUR PROUDEST MOMENT/ACCOMPLISHMENT?
As a mother, my two daughters are hands down my pride and joy. Professionally, I am proud to have followed my passion and purpose to use business as a platform for change. Together with amazing people, I was part of building a learning platform that helped people of all walks of life get a great job in tech without having a fancy technical degree. I lobbied for amendments to the Higher Education Act to create pathways for accreditation in the United States for certificate programs to help prevent filtering out candidates in the application process. I built and scaled successful SaaS products. And most recently I am super proud to break through the glass ceiling to become a CEO in tech .. modeling for every woman that we belong in the seat and changing the ratios in leadership.