Empovia rainbow gradient logo made up of three overlapping circles in increasing sizes with the Empovia wordmark next to it in a bold black font in all caps

Leading The Change With Irma Olguin Jr.

Join Change Catalyst Founder & CEO Melinda Briana Epler with Irma Olguin Jr, CEO & Co-Founder at Bitwise Industries, in conversation about Leading the Change.

We talk about Irma’s story as a granddaughter of immigrants, who starting out working as a farm laborer in the California Central Valley. After earning an engineering degree, she eventually became CEO of a company working to improve diversity and inclusion in tech through technology education. Irma recently closed a Series A round of fundraising of $27M, one of the largest ever led by a Latinx female founder. We discuss innovative ways that leaders can build empathy and allyship across the organization, how to build a sense of belonging during unprecedented times, and what allyship looks like for Irma.

Additional Resources

Learn more about Irma’s work at Bitwise Industries.

This videocast is made accessible thanks to Interpreter-Now. Learn more about our show sponsor Interpreter-Now at www.interpreter-now.com.

Watch Episode

Subscribe To The Show

Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe on your fav app to catch our weekly episodes.

Accessibility: The show is available on YouTube with captions and ASL interpretation. Transcripts of each episode are available by clicking on the episode titles below.

Subscribe to our Podcast newsletter

We talk about Irma’s story as a granddaughter of immigrants, who starting out working as a farm laborer in the California Central Valley. After earning an engineering degree, she eventually became CEO of a company working to improve diversity and inclusion in tech through technology education. Irma recently closed a Series A round of fundraising of $27M, one of the largest ever led by a Latinx female founder. We discuss innovative ways that leaders can build empathy and allyship across the organization, how to build a sense of belonging during unprecedented times, and what allyship looks like for Irma.


In 2013, Irma L. Olguin Jr. decided to build a company focused on strengthening the tech industry in Fresno, Calif. and leveraging it as the economic driver to remake the city. Bitwise Industries now operates with the goal of activating human potential for the technology industry in underdog cities across the United States.

As CEO and Co-Founder, Irma oversees the company’s operations teams, as well as the technology-focused training program of Geekwise Academy, and software development firm, Shift3 Technologies. A main component of her role is ensuring the company’s fidelity to mission, strategy, and long-term goals.

Learn more about the host and creator of Leading With Empathy & Allyship, Melinda Briana Epler.

Transcript

Transcript coming soon.