In this episode, we sit down with Randi Levin, CEO of RSL Technology Associates and former CIO of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Randi shares her journey from music to tech leadership, her experiences as a woman in male-dominated industries, and why clear communication is essential for success. Learn how articulating the “why” behind decisions builds trust, fosters engagement, and drives organizational transformation.
Guest: Randi Levin, CEO, RSL Technology Associates
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/randi-levin-cio/
Website: https://randilevin.net
Website: https://therelevancearchitect.com/
Host: Dr. Rebecca Wynn
On ITSPmagazine 👉 https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/rebecca-wynn
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Episode Description
In this episode of Soulful CXO, host Dr. Rebecca Wynn welcomes Randi Levin, a pioneering technology executive with leadership experience at NASA JPL, the City of Los Angeles, NBC Universal, and more. Randi shares how her early career transition shaped her approach to leadership and why strategic communication is crucial in tech. She discusses how women can navigate challenges in male-dominated industries, the role of empathy in leadership, and why explaining the “why” behind decisions builds trust and alignment. From overcoming barriers to implementing forward-thinking IT strategies, Randi’s insights provide a blueprint for fostering collaboration, resilience, and innovation in any organization.
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Resources
Women in Tech Accelerator: https://randilevin.net/mastermind-group-for-women
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Clear Communication: The Key to Success in Tech Leadership | A Conversation with Randi Levin | The Soulful CXO Podcast with Dr. Rebecca Wynn
Dr. Rebecca Wynn: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Soulful CXO. I'm your host, Dr. Rebecca Wynn. We are pleased to have with us today, Randi Levin. CEO of RSL Technology Associates . She is an innovative business and technology executive with experience managing large divisions.
Former roles include CIO NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory CIO/CTO, City of Los Angeles, CIO, Cast and Crew, CIO, Forest Lawn, VP IT, NBC Universal, VP IT, Walt Disney Company, and VP IT, LA Gear. Significant achievements include leading JPL's Information Technology Division and supporting a successful rover and helicopter landing on Mars during COVID 19 and being the first public and private sector CTO or CIO to implement cloud based email, Google applications, Gmail for enterprise.
She advocates for women in technology. Supports middle school girls STEM initiatives and is [00:01:00] a strategist, speaker, writer, mentor, and board member. Randi, my friend, it's so great to see you again. Welcome to the show.
Randi Levin: Thank you.
Dr. Rebecca Wynn: How did you go from studying to be a professional French horn player to leading a team that did great work at NASA on Mars?
Randi Levin: I started playing the French horn in the third grade, and loved music, in college, my freshman year, my horn professor sat me down and said, Randy, there are five major symphonies in the country. They take four French horns. How long do you want to live with your parents? I called my mother and said, I love you, but I don't want to live with you the rest of my life.
My mother's been very progressive my whole life, she said, I heard computers were the up and coming thing. take a class, see if you like it. it was like a duck to water. they didn't have computer science then, it was management information systems, and that was it.
I played the French horn on the [00:02:00] side, but, my career began, with that degree, and my first job programming on the Apache helicopter for Hughes Helicopters.
Dr. Rebecca Wynn: How did you work your way from being a programmer, on helicopters to start getting CTOs and CIO roles?
Randi Levin: Each job I took strategically. be very planful of your next assignment and your next to make sure that you're always trying to move up and learning new things. So I think what I did is I went to Korn Ferry in their IT department, and took on a small project.
Then I went to Goldman Sachs and worked there in small project teams. And then my big leap was consulting, my first job was at Price Waterhouse before the Coopers. And I started managing I. T. projects smaller to larger to larger, and I think the experience of being an in house I. T. expert and consulting for [00:03:00] organizations , really bolstered my knowledge of how to manage organizations, how to manage projects. that allowed me to take my first real, VP job, at LA Gear, it's been strategic, taking each position and learning as much as I could, or can, even still, because everything changes every day.
Dr. Rebecca Wynn: Did you find challenges in being in those powerful roles as a woman? just getting them to open the door and giving an opportunity, you've done it successfully with six or eight different companies.
Randi Levin: Well, I want to tell you the first story was, when I graduated, you know, in college, they will say they're rolling at the red carpet for you.
They want all these computer graduates. that was not what happened to me. I sent out 200 or 250 paper resumes one company I interviewed with eight times before they made a job offer. And he said, if you're going to be this persistent. You know, you're going to be a great [00:04:00] employee.
Someone has to give you a break. this man was delightful and I worked with him a couple of years It is a challenge to be a woman in a male dominated field.
We have 18 to 20 percent women college graduates in computer science. the same as in, 1983. we've been dipping down ever since. I have developed strategies for dealing with this through my various positions.
I grew up in New York, so I've been tough anyway. There's a, you know, there's that tough side to me anyway, but, I really always felt that my performance should be dictated. And dictating , where I go next and how I'm seen. I've always been honest candid and cared about my employees.
And I've kind of let that take the lead. I certainly have not morphed into a man. I have seen some women adapt male behaviors. And I don't advocate for that. I don't teach women that it's, it's not how I think that we [00:05:00] all need to be. We're females and we have different characteristics.
But I think those characteristics are serving us well. They served us well during the pandemic, because we're empathetic as a group. I think the nurturing capability is important because that helps develop our people. That's one of the big reasons CIOs exist, not the only reason, but a main reason.
Dr. Rebecca Wynn: You said you develop strategies to help navigate that minefield.
Can you share some of those strategies with us?
Randi Levin: I always wanted to make sure that I communicated clearly what I was doing and what the department was doing. So that was very deliberate and I developed my own communication strategies for who I was communicating to.
That is really important because people don't really know generally what an IT department does, and what accomplishments not only I was making, but the team was making. [00:06:00] So I'd say a big strategy there is communication and actively planning your communication.
A second strategy is to build relationships with your peers and colleagues. IT alone, technology alone, you can't implement by yourself. Developing partnerships and building strong relationships is key to, your success in tech. Those are two things I was doing and continue to do.
Dr. Rebecca Wynn: When developing your communication strategy, did you just kind of figure out yourself? Did you go ahead and see what other CIOs were doing? Did you, partner with the marketing team or sales team, client services team to help you out?
Randi Levin: The first time I deliberately did this was, when I was CTO for Los Angeles.
I realized I'd have to present to the city council on television. live. we didn't have a public information officer. Several departments do, like the LAPD, fire department. But I didn't have one and I [00:07:00] figured I need to learn, and develop a communication strategy.
So that I can go in front of city council and be articulate and say what the issues are. When I met with the mayor, made sure that he understood what it is we were doing and working on. Same thing with my peers. Same thing with the vendors, who I consider partners. So, no, there was nobody to learn from.
Unfortunately it was trial by fire, but it crystallized for me what needs to be done in terms of people understanding the work that we do and more importantly, the impact of the work that we are doing.
Dr. Rebecca Wynn: Today is a little easier because the internet is a lot more fruition. You can, look and see what someone posted yesterday. And so you can get a feel maybe at least what their personal brand is, but how do you suggest people do that, more effectively, because a lot of times it's a fast pace.
You don't have necessarily always weeks [00:08:00] or months to prepare for some of those meetings. How can you suggest that we, bridge that gap as quickly as possible with the tools are available today.
Randi Levin: Certainly the tools are there. what's not there is the impetus to do the communication, you know, and understanding who your audience is, and I think those things are skill sets that need to be developed in all kinds of project managers, department managers, because communication is a skill.
It isn't just it just happens. And you have to be very thoughtful before you put out these communications. you can see today what happens. People will put stuff out on the internet and then somebody reacts to it. And then it's like, Oh, I didn't mean to say that. I think you have to take a step back and think, what am I trying to communicate and how is it going to be received? People don't think, they need to think about how they're communicating and taking a step back. Take a breath, think about it before it [00:09:00] comes out whether it's on TV, the internet, a podcast, a tweet, whatever it is, I think people need to really think about what they're trying to communicate.
A lot of technical people communicate in techno babble. most of the population, doesn't understand what the techno babble is. And so I think people need to remember what it was like when they were a kid or when they were in school about just regular communication so that people understand what they're trying to say.
Dr. Rebecca Wynn: That's a challenge that ties into having strong, stakeholder relationships, I'm interested in how people go about doing that, when we don't have 90 or 100 days to establish relationships. Sometimes you get 90 seconds when you start a new company before they're trying to get you to be effective.
Randi Levin: It used to be you had 90 days to just go and listen. You know, and before you develop a strategy or a plan or, you know, anything, and now it's like, what have you done for me [00:10:00] lately in the last one day that you've been at our organization? So, I think that, there's ways to give your opinions when asked for, particularly in the beginning, when you don't have adequate information, and just caveat it and say, based on what I know right now, this is what my opinion would be.
I don't know yet the factors and constraints and, culture of this organization that might impact my recommendation. if you caveat it that way, people understand you've been there five days. There's no way you can know what somebody else knows. drawing on your own experience, helps, because you can say I have seen this at my last five jobs and this is the way we've handled it.
I'm not sure if that would work here, but I want to throw that out as a potential.
Dr. Rebecca Wynn: I liked how you stated that. I haven't always been sensitive about saying this is the way I've seen it before work in similar [00:11:00] organizations instead of saying, this is how I did it my last job, we did it this way, which even though you have good intentions, it doesn't come off, well. Can you expound a little bit about how to be more effective communicator when you do see the company might not have the best process in place And you want to help them make a change, but not seem insensitive
Randi Levin: By the nature of technology, we're always introducing change. It's all the time, whether it's a new release, whether it's a new application, we're always introducing change. One of the things I do teach my women in my business is to explain why.
And it sounds so simple, but people don't tell people why they are doing something, why the decision was made to do blah. I see it over and over and over again in many leaders across various sectors. And I think somehow either they assume people know why, or the [00:12:00] organization doesn't want to be forthcoming with why the decisions are being made.
I usually think it's the former. people don't take the time to think through how is this communication going to be received. And so they forget about saying why the decision was made to do whatever it was made to do. I really try and explain and be as transparent as possible.
As an executive, you can't be transparent all the time because there are just things you can't discuss. But. I think to the extent that you can be transparent and explain to people the thought processes that went into the decision. They may not like the decision, but at least they understood why, something was decided upon.
And that there is some logic, not just that it was pulled out of, you know, pulled out of a hat. and , had no thought behind it. So I think that the communication of, not just what's happening, but the why is important. Then people [00:13:00] understand this is why the decision was made.
Okay. I don't love it, but I get it. And they move on rather than just sitting there going. Wow, I really don't even understand any of this. I don't know why they came to this decision. Makes no sense. You know, I think that what that tends to get the organization spinning.
And you want them producing.
Dr. Rebecca Wynn: How would you counsel people who are in organizations that want that, that tactical, you know, fix, 1st and I think that's wrong. You're just going ahead. And if it's a dike, and it's just kind of water sweeping through. You just keep putting bubble gum or your fingers blocking that.
And you're not thinking of why is it happening? You know, true. Don't get me wrong. You do have to stop the water coming in, but you're never asking about why is it happening? And then what is the bigger picture to get it resolved? That's more strategic. And, that's one place that I always like to start when I start a new company is I like to look and see what is the strategic imperative of the company, [00:14:00] what's the strategic imperative of the department.
I think that's part of the reasons why a lot of companies maybe get breached now. They're just looking for the solution of the day.
Randi Levin: I think you're absolutely right. I think you're spot on. Most of the organizations that I have been involved with, I develop a strategic information technology plan, and I think that is important.
It's a skill set, that needs to be developed in people. And that really ties together the organization's vision strategy within the technology strategy. And then you can go execute upon that, strategy.
It changes, but at least you have direction. in an emergency, you go for the tactical fix, But hopefully that's not the norm. Those are exceptions. you should plan at a strategic level.
Now, does an organization always want to fund the strategic direction? No, they don't. it's incumbent upon people like myself, you, [00:15:00] Rebecca, to bring up the pros and cons it might break again, but at least they're aware.
If it happens again, or something else breaks, at least you've put it on the record that there were risks associated with that approach.
Dr. Rebecca Wynn: Randi, thank you so much for being on the show.
Randi Levin: Thank you.