She-inspires“If you really love what you do, don't give up. You can be a mother and have a career”
She-inspires
“If you really love what you do, don't give up. You can be a mother and have a career”
In an interview with CTech, Evelyn Landman, Co-Founder and CTO at ProteanTecs, discusses her current startup and shares her perspective on juggling a career and family life
“I don't think I was treated any differently as a woman but, I think I had to make a bigger effort than men and juggle more because I have three kids,” says Evelyn Landman, Co-Founder and CTO at ProteanTecs.
Landman, a mother of three and the former co-founder of Mellanox, firmly believes in the art of juggling. “I usually went to parent-teacher meetings very late. Also, it was difficult being judged by society, other people didn’t appreciate it at all. Even other women, such as teachers, always asked me why I work so hard. I would always reply, ‘Because I like it. I am fulfilled by my work.”
CTech's She-inspires series follows the stories of various female leaders in Israel. The interviewees hail from various sectors: some work at high level positions in large organizations, some are founders, and some are key players in industries aimed at changing the world for the better. The goal is to learn where they came from, where they are going and how they are bringing inspiration to an entire sector heading towards a glass ceiling that needs to burst.
ProteanTecs was founded in 2017 and offers an end-to-end solution for monitoring the health and performance of electronics. According to Landman: “The two main goals are to place monitors in the chips to extract valuable data and then track the data over the different stages, when the chip is being tested and then deployed in the system. We track the performance and health of the system and the chip in order to provide alerts before failures, predicting and improving performance.”
When asked where the idea for the company came from, Landman replied: “Shai Cohen, our CEO and co-founder, and I, had the rare opportunity to see the whole value chain of chip design, testing and production. Usually, when you are in chip design you focus on one thing deeply and not on the entire process. Shai and I had the opportunity to see the chain from beginning to end and see the issues and pain points. Of course, from the inside you solve the issues but you don't have time to do something really great. After we left we wanted to do something more about the issues we noticed. Of course, I could have stayed at Mellanox but I knew that if I did I would be there forever. Also, as you get older you start to get comfortable, but I wanted more and I thought - ‘it's now or never’.”
Do you feel you paid a high price with your family as a career woman?
“My kids are fine and they are very proud of me and today, my older kids are also electrical engineers. During the time when they were young it was a little bit difficult that I wasn't there as much, but at the end of the day, my kids appreciated what they saw. They know that putting in the effort pays off.
“There were times when my eldest sometimes compared me to his friends whose mothers were home by 1PM. I listened and replied that I really love what I do and that I love him very much and that I am trying to do both and I think he understood. If you are a child and your mother is home everyday but she is bored, is that better? I don't know, I don't think so. If you really love what you do, don’t give up - the sky's the limit. You can be a mother and have a career.”
