Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech: Michelle Augustine Of W L Gore & Associates On The 5 Leadership Lessons She Learned from Her Experience
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
To be a leader, you must have followers and followership is earned — This is a distinct difference between leading and managing. Leadership required authenticity and humility and a self-less focus on what your team needs to be successful and how you can enable that success.
As a part of my series about “Lessons from Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Michelle Augustine.
Michelle Augustine is a career technology and business development leader with W. L. Gore & Associates. After earning her Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware, Michelle joined Merck Pharmaceuticals in 1992. Shortly thereafter, she joined Gore in 1993 and worked on early innovation and technology development for next generation GORE-TEX footwear and garments. Michelle has driven technology development through the entire product life cycle for both derivative and disruptive innovations, including serving as a global platform champion for the company’s proprietary chemical and biological protection capability. She has led numerous cross-functional development teams in Gore’s Fabrics, Medical, and Performance Solutions Divisions, requiring deep skills in business analysis, operations, product design and material technology. In 2007, Michelle helped build the Eastern U.S. technical and operations organization for the company’s Medical division, which included leading new business and new product development, and technical support for operations. In 2015, Michelle took the commitment to provide technical leadership for Gore’s emerging business focused on delivering unique high value products for the pharmaceutical and biologics industry.
She then transitioned to an Enterprise commitment to build business processes and digital capabilities, initiating and sponsoring a program to develop enhanced enterprise innovation portfolio governance and new product development capability. In 2018, Michelle became the business execution leader for the Performance Solutions Division, providing leadership for strategic and operational planning, business capability development, project and portfolio management, and strategy execution. In June of 2021, Michelle became the Global Business Group Leader for Gore’s new Clean Energy business. This new business is focused on delivering double digital growth through new products and solutions leveraging proprietary Gore materials to address challenges in the emerging Hydrogen Economy and Global Energy transition markets. Michelle resides in Landenberg, PA with her husband and two sons, ages 21 and 18. She enjoys sports, running, hiking, reading and cooking.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
My path to becoming the Clean Energy Business Group Leader at W. L. Gore & Associates was an interesting one. I grew up always wanting to be a pediatrician. Not many people in my family had gone to college before me, so to those around me my aspirations were high. I didn’t have much opportunity for career exploration throughout my upbringing, but I always had a passion for math and science. In high school, I was selected to participate in an engineering Outreach program sponsored by DuPont. This acquainted me with what engineers do in a world-renowned science and materials company. At the same time, my high school chemistry teacher, who was very influential in my life, recommended that I pursue engineering as an undergrad. Even though I wanted to go to medical school, he convinced me that engineering would provide a strong foundation and would eventually open up other possibilities for me. I attribute a huge amount of my successful pursuit of a STEM career to the influences I received in high school, both from this teacher and the DuPont program.
Fast forward to after completing my undergraduate degree in engineering, I was debating whether I wanted to attend medical school. I knew I wanted to get experience in the workforce first, so I took a job at Merck Pharmaceuticals. I had interviewed at Gore and had received offers for a few different positions, but I chose to take an offer from Merck, seeking to gain experience in the medical field. About a year into my time at Merck, Gore approached me with a different opportunity. I decided to take the offer from Gore because the innovative company culture intrigued me and offered an opportunity to challenge myself as an engineer while being innovative in my pursuits — both areas that I found deeply satisfying.
Tell us a little about that company culture you mention. What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
What makes Gore different is the fundamental belief in associates and their ability to do amazing things. Other companies try, unsuccessfully, to replicate this. Here, it’s a very real thing. Our brand promise makes it clear — “Together, improving life.”
Gore believes in dreaming big and acknowledges that success comes from creating an enterprise where risk-taking and creativity are promoted and encouraged. One of my favorite quotes from one of our founders Vieve Gore is, “Make someone a hero every day,” and I feel a strong commitment from Associates helping each other develop and grow and maximize their impact on the Enterprise throughout the company today.
Over the course of my 29-year career at Gore, I’ve had the opportunity to work in almost every division of our global Enterprise, and many times I was given “stretch” opportunities to do meaningful and challenging work long before I was probably ready for it.
In the Fabrics division, I was asked to champion one of the largest research and development investments for the division. We were working to win a contract for a U.S. government program that would be pivotal to building this new business. I had never been responsible for negotiating with a customer before, let alone such a massive undertaking as a contract with the U.S. government. Despite this, Gore offered unlimited support and trust and pushed me into this role where I was able to represent Gore and the product. While there was clearly a huge belief in my capability, I never once felt left on my own to navigate this new responsibility.
One other unique aspect of Gore is their commitment to “fitness for use.” We stand behind our products and our commitment that they will do what we say they will do. No matter the product, we go to great lengths to ensure they perform as promised in their intended application every time. For example, after launching GORE-TEX apparel, there were product performance issues and Gore effectively bought back all the garments and did not release new garments to the market until we had solved the problem. Our promise was for these products to keep you dry and we didn’t stop until we delivered on that promise.
Eventually, I transitioned to working in the Medical Products division, leading new product development and manufacturing support teams. This led me to new business development opportunities in both Medical and Performance Solutions divisions, followed by business execution leader as part of our Performance Solutions division leadership team.
My ability to explore so many facets of this global enterprise was due to both the company culture at Gore, as well as the solid STEM background I developed through my undergraduate degree in engineering. Engineering teaches you to think critically. That skill can apply seamlessly to life, communication, business, and so much more. With Gore believing heavily in the individual, and my STEM foundation opening many doors, I was well equipped to thrive within an otherwise competitive industry.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began at your company?
A few years into my career at Gore, I received a page from a number I didn’t recognize. I answered and, lo and behold, it was the president and CEO of the company Bob Gore. I almost hung up, as I was so taken aback. He said, “What are you doing? I have an idea I want to test out.”
He knew I was working on a new material technology, and he asked me to meet him in the lab in one hour. He truly believed that the technology’s performance would be different than what had been originally presented. After working together in the lab to test his theory, we ended up disproving his hypothesis. His response? The same excitement that would have come had he been proven right.
It was through this experience that I learned that Gore has an unparalleled willingness to support Associates as they form their own ideas, testing and challenging them, and pivoting in the faith of disproving evidence, ultimately celebrating and applying their learning to new ideas and opportunities.
Can you share a story about a mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I once submitted a new material solution to a government program for consideration. These programs are often defined by a detailed contract and are conducted over multiple phases. Our first step was to submit pieces of our material solution for testing, followed by submitting larger quantities to manufacture garments for field trials. After a year following the material submission, we were continuing to innovate and improve the material. We chose to submit the improved version for the field trials, not knowing that the contract stated that no changes could be made from the first phase submission. I took the situation to my leadership, sure that I would be reprimanded for not familiarizing myself with the contract. To my surprise, nobody was angry. There was no focus on the mistake I had made, but rather on how to rally and move forward. Gore made the decision to tell the government what had happened and offered to pay for a new first round of testing on the improved material, to take away any inconvenience put on them. Despite this being a costly fix, Gore’s commitment to providing the best product outweighed their concern about an honest mistake.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Gore decided as a company to invest in developing innovative material solutions to help enable the decarbonization of the planet. By trying to use our unique materials to create solutions that reduce carbon dioxide emissions, we are effectively contributing to cleaner energy and addressing one of the most pressing global challenges of our time.
One of our leading businesses in this space is driving the continued growth of fuel cell technology for vehicles. By investing in technical advancements in our materials, we’ve been able to enable the performance necessary for fuel cells to power all types of vehicles from passenger cars, commercial trucks, ships, trains, buses, and even airplanes. We are also actively trying to develop material solutions to produce green hydrogen from water with zero carbon dioxide emissions using electrolyzers that are powered with wind and solar energy — critical clean energy advancements that have enabled more than 40,000 fuel cell vehicles and have reduced more than 150,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions.
Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. Are you currently satisfied with the status quo regarding women in STEM? What specific changes do you think are needed to change the status quo?
I don’t think anybody is satisfied with the current state of women in STEM. Although more women are going to college every year and we are making progress at the university level, it is not yet translating into organizations at all levels of leadership. Women are not reaching senior leadership levels in the same way men are, particularly when you look at minority women. What I think we need to do to help close the gap, especially for women represented in senior leadership of STEM roles, is to look at the early talent selection and development. There is a lot of inherent bias in internal talent selection processes in most organizations. Often, it’s men making these selections. We desperately need to integrate more women into the selection process who are empowered to advocate and sponsor women coming into the field early in their careers, to gain the experiences that position them as ready when some of these bigger leadership opportunities become available. It really needs to be a multifaceted approach to successfully increase the number of women in our talent pools and in our hiring teams, as well as increase representation of women in our internal talent and assessment process.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women in STEM or Tech that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts? What would you suggest to address this?
Women, more often than men, face the situation where they are the only female in a room, especially within the STEM field. Oftentimes, women find themselves in a place where their perspective is different from everyone else, which can make you start to question your own point of view and might make it difficult to fit in. I think women make choices to hold back or change a piece of who they are to gain acceptance, and I don’t feel that men find themselves in these situations as much, as they are often surrounded by other men in business meetings.
Another important aspect is that women are often overlooked for stretch opportunities, or work that may be a bit of stretch for them based on their current skills and experiences. They are often held to standards that differ from their male counterparts. Women are expected to have demonstrated capability when they are being considered for some of these new opportunities, while men are more often afforded the benefit of the doubt and can be seen as having higher potential.
About 10 years into my career, I had a male leader who I felt held me back from challenging opportunities. I was always raising my hand saying, “I think I can do this in addition to what I’m currently doing,” or “I can tackle more,” and he always said I needed more experience. I finally reached my breaking point and brought my concerns to another technical leader. He told me, “You know what, Michelle, it’s not you. It’s this other person.”
He took it upon himself to address this with the individual I was having trouble with, and the leader that had been holding me back instantly shifted to giving me opportunities, trusting me, and treating me differently. I really believe that there’s a component of sponsorship and advocacy that is critical to closing the gender gap in STEM. Men, and women, in leadership roles need to call out biases when they arise to ensure all individuals can excel in this industry.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a woman in STEM or Tech. Can you explain what you mean?
The biggest one is that people believe women are less likely to take on a stretch assignment because of their desire to focus on family. In my experience, this conversation generally takes place behind closed doors among leaders. These leaders make assumptions about an individual’s commitments to their work life vs. their home life. However, this rarely happens when considering a man for a role, even though they may be in a similar home life situation. Many times, the women being talked about don’t even know these conversations are happening and aren’t given an opportunity to weigh in.
The reality is that women are just as likely as men to take these opportunities and are oftentimes more motivated than their male counterparts. We need to present opportunities fairly to women and allow them to make the decision for themselves.
What are your “5 Leadership Lessons I Learned from My Experience as a Woman in STEM or Tech” and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)
- To be a leader, you must have followers and followership is earned — This is a distinct difference between leading and managing. Leadership required authenticity and humility and a self-less focus on what your team needs to be successful and how you can enable that success.
- Be curious, seek first to understand, then act — I have been in situations where people made comments that someone was doing XYZ or that situation XYZ was very bad which painted that person or that situation in a very negative light. However, when I spoke to the person in question or probed the situation more deeply, their perspective or the situation was completely different. If you always lead with questions for understanding, you’ll find that your choices and actions are more aligned with the needs of the person or situation.
- Encourage bold thinking and risk taking — celebrate mistakes that lead to learning. This is where innovation and new ideas come from which is critical any businesses long term sustainability and success.
- Recruit great people, align them with their sweet spot, seek their commitment, and become a ‘snowplow” — find people whose passion, skills and goals align with that of your business. Find a place for them that allows them to use their unique skills and, as a leader, do everything in your power to remove the barriers that could keep them from achieving success.
- You get what you walk by — you must be willing to step into messy situations that others avoid, if they impact your team, work environment, or your ability to deliver results. This requires a tremendous amount of courage to be a role model but when it comes to leadership, actions speak louder than words.
*Bonus lesson: Work yourself out of a job — Leaders should have a relentless focus on developing the people they lead. Empowering individuals on your team to take on aspects of your job to help them grow and develop is critical to engagement and ultimately to business success. Building a strong and capable team of talented individuals also allows you take on new opportunities and gain new experiences.
What advice would you give to other women leaders to help their team to thrive?
The most powerful teams are those that have clear objectives. When goals are clear, and a team operates in a way in which each member is empowered to bring their unique capabilities to achieve a common goal, the greatest successes are achieved. As a leader, you should create an environment where challenge and risk taking are encouraged, respect and humility are accepted, and diversity is sought out. Set clear priorities for your team to achieve the best results.
What advice would you give to other women leaders about the best way to manage a large team?
I currently manage a global team. I find that the best method for leading a large team is to be clear about the results that matter the most. There are a lot of ways to describe what winning is, but when the leader is clear about what is expected, the team can more effectively work to achieve that goal. Establish shared goals that are necessary to deliver results for the entire team. These goals should not be achievable by a single individual or function, but rather require multiple disciplines to work collaboratively to achieve.
None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
One of my former engineering leaders — my very first leader at Gore — was one of the most impactful people in getting me to where I am today. When I first started at Gore, I viewed myself as a technologist. I wanted to drive discovery and my entire identity was tied up in being an expert. However, I have always gravitated towards helping others succeed and finding ways to monetize inventions. My engineering leader saw something in me. At one point he said, “Other people want to follow you. They view you as a leader. Other people believe in you more than you believe in yourself.”
This was a pivotal moment in my career because it gave me the courage to move into a leadership position — something I had never seen as an option for me. This helped launch into a trajectory towards becoming a business leader. Because of the confidence my former leader had in me, I am now able to fulfill my passion of bringing business, technology, and people together to solve meaningful challenges in society.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
I’ve always spent a lot of time coaching individuals one-on-one. About five years ago, I realized that I had amassed significant influence within the Gore enterprise. I was now able to do more than just help a few people. I started by reaching out to four women to discuss and address the systemic issues that were holding women back from advancing within the organization. Our company promises to “Together, improving life,” but that was not the reality that everyone was experiencing. We wanted the enterprise to live up to the promise it had made to its Associates. We banded together and created a proposal that we took to the Board of Directors that focused on increasing representation of women in disciplines that needed it as well as hiring women at all levels of leadership. We created goals around gender representation and established the Women’s Inclusion Council to hold the enterprise and leaders accountable.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would love to drive a movement around curiosity. I believe that differences should be celebrated. If people could seek to understand one another’s differences, we could address so many issues in the world. It’s also a part of driving innovation. Curiosity for the sake of understanding could effectively eliminate bias across the globe.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, forget what you did, but people will never forget what you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou
This quote gives me the courage to be the person I want to be at work. I can be who I am at Gore, which is why I’ve stayed as long as I have. I believe that little moments of interaction and genuineness that you have with others make the biggest impact. People often perfect and rehearse what they are going to say, but at the end of the day, mistakes will be made. If you come from a good place, that is what will be remembered.
We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
I would love to share a meal with Melinda Gates. I recently read her book and was astounded by the work she is doing, tackling one of the longest standing societal issues surrounding gender. She is systemically using science and the human spirit to bring about change. I am very impressed with her methodology of getting to the root of issues and taking technology solutions and adapting them to be deployed against the individual needs of different cultures. Recognizing that what works in one culture might not work in another is essential to creating lasting broad change. If I could have breakfast with her, I would love to learn more about how she decides where to focus and prioritize her efforts and the efforts of her team.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech: Michelle Augustine Of W L Gore & Associates On The 5… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.