Riviera’s Alaina Percival and Mike Gamson of LinkedIn recently spoke with Huffington Post correspondent Charu Sharma on the topic of giving. In a brief Q&A, Alaina touches on her motivations behind championing Women Who Code – a non-profit dedicated to inspiring women to excel in technology careers, and the value of giving back to the community. Her sentiments expressed naturally align with Riviera’s own values to contribute in new ways to help enrich the greater tech community.
(Huffington Post) – Hobnobbing With ‘Givers’ Mike Gamson and Alaina Percival
A year ago, I came across Adam Grant’s Give and Take, and it changed my life!
At about the same time, I was working with Samir Malik at his telepsychiatry startup 1DocWay, and that he selflessly invested in my development was gratifying. Wanting to pay forward his mentorship was the primary motivation for me to become an entrepreneur, and in turn, invest in my team members to help them achieve self-awareness and success, however they define it.
Soon after, I was lucky to meet Mike Gamson and Alaina Percival. I highly admired them for the infinite efforts they put into “giving,” and especially, into mentoring students and professionals. Mike is based in Chicago, and is Senior VP, Global Solutions at LinkedIn, and San Francisco-based Alaina is CEO and founder of Women Who Code. They kindly share their motivations and thoughts on “giving”: