I have found myself very often, especially in the past 10 years, but also before, being the only woman in the room. When I enter those spaces, I really don't look around the table and go, Oh, am I the only woman? I try to sit down and focus on the subject matter and how I can contribute to the discussion and the problem and just be the expert in the room.

This is In Her Element, a podcast from BCG. I'm Suji Srinivasan.

I'm Camilla Rachimova. Each episode, we have meaningful and vulnerable conversations with women leaders in digital business and technology.

This week, we're speaking to Adi Zolatov, Managing Director and Partner at BCGX. She also leads the BCG data science chapter in North Adi's work focuses on building AI and digital solutions that unlock value and insights in aerospace defense and in the public sector.

If Adi's voice sounds familiar, it's because she is an Inher Element guest host. In season 2, she had the chance to interview her mentor, Dr. Beth Willman, who guided her through her astrophysics PhD. Adi also interviewed fellow aerospace expert Cita Santee in Season 1. We'll put links to those two conversations in this episode's show notes.

Here's Camilla's conversation with Adi.

Adi Zalotow. I am a Managing Director and Partner at BCG X. X is BCG's tech and build unit.

Adi, I'm so delighted to have you with us today. Very excited about this conversation and to get things going and started. Let's talk about what got you started in technology. How did you get interested? What technology? As far back as you'd like to remember.

My path to tech was really through science. I still consider myself a scientist above all. As a little kid, I watched this documentary about the expansion of the universe and some of Albert Einstein's theories. So fascinated. I think my mind was absolutely blown. And I went to all of these adults in my life and asked them, did you know the universe was expanding in its acceleration? I mean, I was just dumbfounded. And none of them had an answer. None of them understood. None of them could explain it to me. And so starting at the age of about five, I said, I want to be an astrophysicist. And I'm extremely stubborn, which everyone in my life knows. And so that was my single vision in life. And really, the big discovery I had as an undergrad was that science is really driven by computational algorithms, right? The world had shifted away from these beautiful, simple solutions on paper and really towards complex programming. And so I had to learn it all and really grew to appreciate the power of all of this technology. And that's really how I ended up working at the intersection of science and computation.

Incredible. So if we go back to those early years, starting the age of five, as you reflect on who was there supporting you and mentoring you, especially perhaps women in your life who were good role models and good mentors.

My sister, who is seven years older than me, my mom, my grandmother, I had a lot of really strong female figures in my life. None of them were necessarily scientists or into technology, but they all overcame some really difficult events. My grandmother was a Holocaust survivor. My mother moved from Morocco to Israel as a teenager in a really tough time to show up as a Moroccan to a brand new country. And so we were just resilient. And I was really taught that paving your way in spaces that were not necessarily cleared for you, that you had to clear yourself, that was okay. That was part of the work. That was part of the enjoyment. And don't get me wrong, also quite difficult. But I took it as a challenge that I really wanted to take on, and I got that from them.

So here you are as a younger child thinking about expansion of the universe. And then a few years down the road, you are getting your PhD in astrophysics and doing all kinds of incredible academic research on the topic. That was your journey. And so what was the shift to technology and maybe a private sector eventually as well?

Yeah, it was quite a shift because I was very dedicated to my academic career. I loved it. I found it very fulfilling. The research, the writing, the speaking, the problem solving, I really enjoyed all of it. I think I got to a point when where, and this will be me being a little bit critical of academia, where I just didn't see a long term future for myself in academia. Tenure track jobs are very limited in very limited locations. And I felt in some ways that despite all the growing and learning, I was a little bit siloed in what I was contributing to the field. And so I wanted to open my aperture, both from what I was learning and doing, but also open my aperture as in potentially live anywhere in the world, not just in places that had our one universities, and contribute to different questions. And that really drew me to national security. And so much of what we were doing in astrophysics in our group was applicable in some ways to the questions and challenges that the Department of Defense was dealing with around big data sets, computational resources, algorithms. And so it was in some ways a huge leap of faith and a big difference.

But in other ways, I felt right at home when I made the transition, and it felt like I'd always been there. At the time, I was a postdoc at Ohio State University, and somebody from the Center for Naval Analysis, which is the Navy's federally funded research center, gave a talk. And I just thought... And she had a PhD in physics, and I thought, Oh, yes, this is just so awesome and totally speaks to me. And that's how I ended up working in the Navy's federally funded center for six years. I showed up and was their first, you can't see this, but in air quotes, data scientist hire. And I founded their data science division vision.

Tell us about what you do at BCG. What do your days look like?

Yeah, my job is awesome. At BCG, I build and deploy AI and analytic digital capabilities for our public sector clients. At the day-to-day level, that typically means working very closely with both the client and the teams to understand their requirements, to understand What is the value that we're hoping this capability will deliver? What are the key performance indicators, the KPIs, which we will track in real-time to make sure that this capability really is delivering value? Then, of course, with the teams, which approach are we taking? What methodology? How are we going to validate our results? How do we deploy in the complex infrastructure infrastructure that makes up national security networks? How will we train the users? How do we make this model sufficiently complex so it answers the questions they need, but interpretable enough that they feel good going in front of their leadership and using the outputs to make decisions. Then, of course, we spend a lot of time thinking about the change management. It has a specific role in a decision process. We know who uses it, when and how, all back to this question of value, because AI and digital can just turn into a science experiment without that.

I think of myself as oftentimes the integrator of those two critical pieces.

In the world of rapidly evolving AI tooling and knowledge for young people out there starting to build their careers, what advice do you have and what they need to know and what they need to know how to do in terms of AI?

The space of AI, Gen AI, software has grown so rapidly in the past five years. I think there's a lot of different ways to contribute and to really enjoy the work. I guess my advice, and perhaps this is a reflection of who I am, is not to be overwhelmed by the idea of needing to be an expert in absolutely everything in technology, but find the things that really excite you and that you can imagine doing for a long time and double down there and do the trainings or get the degree or find the on the job training that will support you growing those skillsets, as opposed to becoming very overwhelmed by feeling like you have to know how to do it all.

I want us to talk a bit about mentorship since we're on this topic of cultivating the next generation of talent and equipping them with the right skills, AI and beyond. And so in season two of this podcast, you interviewed your own mentor, Beth Willman, and you You talked about your journey as a mentor and how you think about how to be particularly effective in that role all the time. So tell us a bit more about being a mentee and mentor and the journey of going from being a mentee to becoming a great mentor.

Beth was an awesome mentor, and I've had many, so I'm genuinely lucky. I've always really enjoyed being a mentee and a mentor because I've always really valued the human connection. I always feel like I have something to learn in both of those relationships. It's just a very joyful part of my life. The other thing that I always think about is, how can this relationship cut both ways? Even if I'm the mentee, are there ways that I can pay back, if you will, or show up for my mentor? Are they hosting an event? And I'm going to be there. Are they giving a talk in a room where no one's asking questions? Will I ask the first provocative question so they something to react to. That's the first piece. The second is I've really tried. I probably didn't do this when Beth was my mentor because I was quite young and innocent. But now I try when my mentors give me advice, to put their advice into action and then report back to them. So if I'm having issues with a teammate or with a client, and they give me feedback, and they've taken the time to give me that feedback, I'll often circle back and Hey, I tried that technique, or I did what you said and it didn't work, or it did work, or, I'm learning how to use this tool.

It's still new. Thank you for talking me through it, or, I don't love public speaking. So one of the things I'll do is after I give a public talk is I'll ask my mentor, How did you think I do? Are there places where I could have done better? And I think, one, that ensures that the feedback they are giving me is getting put to good use. Because it's like reading a book and not doing the things in the book. That's not enough. So I try to really action their feedback and learn from it. The other thing that it does is it messages to my mentor, that their advice really is impacting, that the time they're taking from their day is changing the way that I do things and tackle challenges. That's how I've been thinking about my relationship as a mentee to these mentors. As I think about the folks who are my mentees now, I really try as best as I can to straddle the right balance between career and personal, because I think it's really hard if your mentor has blinders on and it's all about professional advice. And perhaps this is because I'm a woman, perhaps this is my lived experience.

I don't know But for me, the line between those things is very blurred. And often the advice I need is how do I balance work and life? And so I try to show up for my mentees by both being ready and willing and able to give them professional advice, but also not being afraid of talking about personal topics. Like, is it going to be hard to be a mom in this firm? Is it hard to be a queer woman in the national security space and not take those topics off the table? While I don't have necessarily definitive answers for them on these things, it is what they are thinking about It's questions I've thought about and tackled in my experiences. So I just try to integrate those two things really closely with them.

Earlier in this podcast, you talked about also needing to rely on yourself, right? We talked about resilience and how you need to clear out spaces yourself if others are not clearing them for you. So I would love to hear more about that. What does that mean and what has that looked like for you?

I have found myself very often especially in the past 10 years, but also before, being the only woman in the room or being the only woman at the table or in a case team, or in all sorts of environments. And I think for me, that has really meant not thinking twice about taking the seat at the table, not thinking twice about whether or not the thing I want to say, is it good enough? Is it profound enough that I'm allowed to speak at the steering committee? For me, I try to, when I enter those spaces, leave that behind and bring with me my expertise and my experience And I really don't look around the table and go, Oh, am I the only woman? I try to sit down and focus on the subject matter and how I can contribute to the discussion and the problem. And then afterwards, I will let myself think through some of the dynamics and let myself sometimes vent with a friend.

So Adi, tell us about a time when you felt like you were in your element.

So I often feel in my element when I'm with my kids and my family and my kids are asking me really hard scientific questions, right? Why does this work like this? How does electricity work? My son wanted to know the other day, the temperature differential in the atmosphere. And those are moments where I feel very in my element because they can ask these really hard questions and I can engage them on that. And we can sometimes have answers for them. Sometimes we have to look it up together and really try to understand what research looks like and how we get to answers. And some questions don't have answers, which is really fun to explain to them the concept of not everything is solved. I love those discussions and I feel really great when we as a family are engaging in them. On the professional side, I feel in my element at the Pentagon with my people, whether it's chit-chatting with folks who are just absolutely awesome and committed to the security of this nation, or we're sitting down together and we're solving really complicated problems and really trying to understand how we bring digital and how we bring AI to bear in order to make things better for this country.

And in all those discussions, I'm just I'm so engaged.

That was my conversation with Adi. Sook Yee, what were some of the key takeaways from this conversation for you?

So first off, she was just so sheer impressive and also as a role model, right? For others who are aspiring to go do great things and make great impact. And then she coupled that, amazingly enough, with such tactical insights on, of course, she's always in the room alone as a woman, but for her to talk about her techniques, if you will, to overcome the inevitable situations in those scenarios where she is the only woman, like how she maintains her internal composure, how she finds her place in that dialog with quite confidence, and if she's choosing to show up as the expert or one of the experts. I just think there was a lot of practicality in her approach with calm confidence. I think there's a lot for our listeners to like and adopt in situations that possibly could feel actually quite overwhelming. That was just very impressive. Camilla, you enjoyed interviewing her. We could feel that. So what stood out for you about that conversation?

I just really enjoyed admiring Adi, just watching and imagining her journey if this was a movie or a TV series, except it's her reality and the life that has created has been incredible. When I think about having a seat at the table, having the confidence that you have a role in that room, I also reflect on what Adi shared about getting to that room. She talks about needing to take accountability for clearing the path and knowing that you have a role to play and clearing out the weeds in the brush and whatever is on your way so that you can actually arrive in the room. For her, I think when I think about the confidence, where does that come from? It's in the kinds of mentors that she's chosen. She has... Dr. Bath-willman had a challenging path. Her grandmother and her mom also had challenging paths. There's a history of Holocaust and lots of migration and immigration and perseverance. And so that was insightful to me in choosing the mentors who had really challenging paths who can reflect on what that was like for them so that you then gain confidence that that's also very much your path ahead and you can get through it.

Well, that's all for today. This has been In Her Element, a podcast from BCG.

Join us next time to hear more meaningful and vulnerable conversations with women leaders in digital business and technology.

Thank you so much for listening.