Member Spotlight: Cathie Malone

Welcome to Vancouver Tech Journal’s Member Spotlight, a place where we can learn more about our community members, share their unique stories and specialities, what they can offer other members, and the kind of connections they’re looking for.

Today, we’re excited to introduce you to Cathie Malone, a product manager passionate about driving social impact through her work.

Cathie recently moved to Vancouver from London, U.K., where she worked with the country’s largest credit agency, Experian, to build out their identity and fraud platform ecosystem. Notable achievements include:

• Spearheading a new SaaS solution to help over 100 global clients meet financial regulatory obligations — overseeing the product’s vision from conceptualization to development, testing, execution, and launch;

• Collaborating with over 30 cross-functional stakeholder teams to assist in the technical onboard of identity verification partners — fulfilling clients' pricing demands at different ends of the market and;

• Working alongside Experian’s engineering team to build a UI for a platform that caters to end-user needs.

Now, Cathie is focused on enhancing her analytics, AI, and agile project management skills and finding new ways to use tech for good. As she follows in her Nana’s footsteps of wanting to  fulfill the Canadian dream, Cathie is also taking time to enjoy discovering what it means to call Canada home. 

Cathie can often be found at various tech and AI meetups from Vancouver to Surrey and is looking to find new opportunities aligned with her expertise and continue to meet like-minded people.

Where are you from? 

I’m originally from Northern Ireland. Canada is the fifth country I’ve settled into after almost seven years in London, another seven years in Australia, and a year in the U.S.

I decided on Vancouver because of its natural beauty with its iconic mountains in close proximity to the ocean, along with the opportunities of living in such a diverse city, rich in culture. I had also already lived on the East Coast of North America and wanted a chance to experience and explore the West Coast.

Comparing Vancouver to others I’ve lived in, I feel I’ve settled in the quickest here, as I truly believe I’ve found my tribe. 

Why are you a VTJ member?

Having discovered VTJ over the past month, I commend the team for building such a dynamic community of talented and supportive people, especially Lisa Tanh. 

The weekly coffee meetups are a fab way to connect with others from various industries about all things tech-related. 

For example, I recently learned about a great initiative from Beeloud regarding the hackathon they’ve invited me to apply for at the end of the month. It will be an immersive opportunity to get further involved with the tech community and see some amazing ideas and collective efforts come to life through configuring MVPs.  

What can you help others with?

I can help companies engage key stakeholders and cross-functional teams when it comes to:

• Gaining a deeper understanding of all stakeholder needs — especially customers and users;

• Fostering an open and empathetic environment — promoting open and effective communication;

• Capturing and distilling business and functional requirements into product features and user stories;

• Creating alignment toward product vision and goals while navigating risks and dependencies; and

• Road mapping the various value streams and increments from product ideation to development to market and launch. 

What are you looking for support with?

I’m currently looking to secure a vocation in this magnificent country where I can leverage my global knowledge and experience while building on my product management expertise.

In addition, I'm looking for more opportunities to advocate for humane technology that makes a social impact. Also, as building macros in excel brings me much joy, I’ve decided to take the next step to enhance my data analytic skills to the data science level by learning to code.

Who’s your dream #VTJLive speaker?

I would love to see Randima Fernando as a speaker. Fernando is the co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology (CHT), a non-profit focused on raising awareness of the negative effects of persuasive technology and social media while empowering people to take action. 

For example, the CHT supported the development and release of the record-shattering Netflix documentary on the dark consequences of the social media business model: 'The Social Dilemma.’  To date, the documentary has impacted an estimated 100 million people in 190 countries.

Side note: The CHT offers a course that provides technologists with guidance and awareness on how to build more humane tech. While they no longer offer certification, I strongly recommend checking it out. I found it incredibly valuable to learn about the unexpected impact of persuasive technologies and how we can try to be more mindful when creating tech in future, especially with AI.

How can people connect with you?

Feel free to connect on LinkedIn. I’m always looking to meet new people and always up for grabbing a coffee.