Women in Technology: Kanchan Java

At Perseus, we’re proud to celebrate the voices and experiences of women leaders across our organization. We sat down with inspiring women in our various portfolios to hear their perspectives on working in technology, navigating leadership, and embracing innovation.

In this conversation, Kanchan Java, Vice President at Perseus, shares her thoughts on the opportunities AI brings, her leadership philosophy, and her journey as a woman in traditionally male-dominated industries.

My name is Kanchan Java. I’m a Vice President with our manufacturing software portfolio group here at Perseus.

The biggest challenge and the biggest opportunity, I think, in technology today is AI. Usually, I don’t spend that much time thinking about buzzwords, but in this case, it can really make our development teams more efficient, support more efficient. There’s a lot of productivity enhancements. We can start building products easily, and we’ve seen real life proof cases of how effective it can be.

My experience as a woman in technology is that I don’t really see myself as a woman necessarily in technology. I just see myself as someone working in technology. And at least my experience has been that it creates more opportunities maybe now than it did in the past. I think there was a glass ceiling for women in certain industries. And previously, I worked in finance and acquisitions. I’ve always been a woman kind of in a man’s industry and my view is that it creates an opportunity to get noticed. If you’re one of the few women in the industry, you have a lot more opportunity to be seen and noticed for what you do, and in the long run, it creates more opportunities for you to shine.

My management style centers on sharing best practices and encouraging the team to network across our organization. We’re in a unique environment with many people in similar yet distinct roles, so helping team members grow through collaboration and peer connection is essential. Ours is a highly autonomous organization, I prefer to share ideas and see how people run with them, rather than prescribing exactly what to do. It’s rewarding to watch that growth happen. When people have the right tools and the freedom to make ideas their own, they take real ownership and pride in their success.

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