Women make up just 25% of the tech workforce and only 11% of executive roles. These numbers highlight the challenges women face in technology and digital advertising—while also underscoring the importance of celebrating leaders who are driving meaningful impact.
To spotlight those voices, our Head of Field Marketing, Sam Varga, sat down with three inspiring executives from across our customer, partner, and employee community:
Cara Ferreira, Chief Marketing Officer at Drone Nerds (AdRoll customer)
Leela Srinivasan, CEO of Parity (AdRoll partner)
Brenda Salce-Garcia, VP of Customer Success at AdRoll
Together, they explored lessons from their careers, shared perspectives on the evolving digital advertising landscape, and offered advice for the next generation of leaders.
As CMO of Drone Nerds, the leading drone distributor in the U.S., Cara has scaled a growing team of digital marketers and driven measurable revenue growth across paid media, content, events, and organic channels. She integrates marketing, sales, and technology to create a data-informed strategy that fuels impact.
Parity is a sports marketing and sponsorship platform working with 1,100+ women athletes across 80+ sports to boost visibility and attract brand partnerships. As a three-time CMO with leadership experience at LinkedIn, OpenTable, Lever, and SurveyMonkey, Leela brings deep expertise in marketing, consulting, and purposeful brand building.
Brenda leads post-sale customer success at AdRoll, helping brands adopt, expand, and retain with our connected advertising platform. She is also co-founder of Tech Bae, a nonprofit that empowers women in adtech. Her leadership combines technical expertise, adaptability, and a passion for building strong customer relationships.
Brenda: My path wasn’t linear—I started on the customer side, in roles that showed me how marketing and technology intersect. What pulled me into digital advertising was the pace and the possibility. Over time, I gravitated toward customer success leadership because it combines two things I love: driving outcomes and building relationships.
Cara: I started in technology roles like sales engineering and technical writing before being asked to manage Google Ads. That pivot sparked my journey into marketing. Across industries, the constant thread has been MarTech expertise and connecting with audiences. The industry itself matters less than understanding people and delivering value.
Leela: I’ve always loved sports and language, which led me to study History and English Literature. My first job in sales—and later management consulting—gave me the analytical and quantitative skills that shaped my marketing career. After serving as CMO at three companies, I wanted a new challenge. Joining Parity allowed me to merge my passion for sports with purposeful marketing.
Brenda: Progress over perfection. Don’t wait until you feel 100% qualified to go for that role, to make that pitch, or even to share your perspective. Growth comes from doing,
Cara: Share your ideas, even if you don’t feel ready. When you leverage your own confidence, you are also helping others share their voice. Nobody expects perfection; they want discussion.
We all face certain levels of insecurity or imposter syndrome at different times. A big difference-maker is those who are willing to take on the challenge.
Leela: Bring data, build relationships, put in the work, and know the customer.
I think part of what helped me be successful in four and a half years at LinkedIn was just delivering, saying what I was gonna do, making sure that aligned with company priorities, doing it, and then showing those results.
Leela: There are all sorts of things that our athletes can do to help elevate the brands we work with, but a lot of it comes down to digital content and campaigns. What we're seeing are brands tapping this group of athletes as an authentic, credible, and approachable voice.
We're having a lot of fun seeing brands say, “You know what? Women's sports are rising. Let me find my unique angle and my own way to tap into that.”
Cara: AI is transforming content creation, but it’s also creating a demand for human connection.
We need to be experts in the sense of understanding what's available to us. At the end of the day, we should focus on our audience and also focus on the humans behind the brand because we will always, as an audience, need that connection.
Brenda: Customers expect seamless data integration and faster insights. For us, that means leading through that change, helping clients not only adopt those capabilities, but trust them.
I spend as much time coaching my teams on adaptability and customer empathy as I do on the technical side because, inevitably, innovation isn't just about the tools. It's about how well people can embrace and operationalize them.
Leela: AI is great for automating rote tasks and brainstorming, but it should never have the last word. A human check is essential.
AI is there to simplify, to streamline, to throw our ideas. But I firmly believe you need that human layer for all kinds of reasons.
Cara: Currently, we are working on building our own custom agents and refining our custom agent process to make sure that when we are leveraging AI, it is aligned to our brand and our efforts. Is it working perfectly right now? No. But it's important to test, learn, and be ahead of the game. As far as I'm concerned, I want people using it in every way possible, but that doesn't mean I want people delivering with it.
Brenda: At AdRoll, AI is part of our culture and drives efficiency across teams. But for final outputs, the human touch matters most. I think even for our customers, AI is the expectation: How do we use it in a super thoughtful way in driving some of the innovation and platform? How do we make our customers' lives easier while ensuring that we manage to maintain that important balance?
Progress, not perfection — growth happens when you act before you feel fully ready.
Confidence fuels community — raising your voice encourages others to do the same.
Balance AI with humanity — innovation thrives when efficiency meets authentic human connection.
If you missed the August 20th Innovative Women in Digital Advertising webinar, you can watch it on demand here.
For further insights, connect with Cara, Leela, and Brenda on LinkedIn—and don’t forget to explore AdRoll’s latest seasonal advertising guide to stay ahead of trends and optimize your digital marketing strategy.
Last updated on October 16th, 2025.