article

“At the end of the day, it’s not about being the smartest person in the room” with Kathy Timko and Fotis Georgiadis

PROVIDED BY Medium

Sep 24, 2019

At the end of the day, it’s not about being the smartest person in the room. It’s about surrounding yourself with smart talented people who can use their unique skills to drive projects forward and get the best possible result. Everyone has a voice and should communicate their ideas openly. A leader must be able to listen, respond, stay on track and move in a direction that will allow the whole team to be successful. The bottom line: Successful projects require great leadership and the skillsets to execute. Success in almost everything requires ruthless planning, focused execution and a relentless — “never give up” drive to the finish line. “Good luck” is often the result of good planning.

As a part of my series about strong female leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kathy Timko, Executive Vice President and Head of the Local Number Portability Administration (LNPA) Services at iconectiv. Kathy is responsible for the U.S. Number Portability business for the company. In this position, she oversaw the complete development, transition and system launch of the new iconectiv number portability system for the country and now, after a successful transition, is responsible for evolving and operating it on a 24x7x365 basis. Timko has more than 25 years of experience in telecommunications and technology companies. She was recently appointed to the Rutgers University CX Advisory Board and served as an Executive in Residence at Columbia University’s Technology Ventures group. Prior to joining iconectiv, Timko served as the CEO and COO of Canoe Ventures, LLC, a joint venture of the six largest cable companies. She also was COO and CTO of IDT Telecom. She served on the IDT Telecom Board of Directors and served as an independent director on the board of Motionbox. Timko holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech and a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from Boston University.