Question: Please shortly introduce yourself and your position in ABB.
My name is Fabiana Cavalcante. I am a Swiss/Brazilian citizen, I have a 12-year-old son and four cats, and I am an Electrical Engineer. I am the Global Product Group Manager of the E-Mobility Traction product group. What is E-Mobility Traction? We take care of onboard e-mobility applications, delivering propulsion, auxiliary systems, converters, batteries, or complete onboard electric systems for electric on-road and off-road electric vehicles. These can include buses, mining vehicles, construction vehicles, material handling vehicles, agriculture vehicles, and other dedicated electric-driven vehicles.
Question: You have been with ABB for many years. How did you develop professionally and personally during these years?
For me, this was a huge amount of development because I first started my career with ABB. I started in 2006 as a development engineer. And I had the chance to get to know different areas of ABB. I was a Development Engineer, later a Product Manager, and after that, I was Head of Sales. And now I am the Global Product Group Manager. So, in such a big company, I had the chance to develop from a purely technical person to a manager.
And, personally, this was, for me, a very important opportunity. With ABB, I was able to participate in training and develop myself. I was able to learn about contracts, financing, negotiations, and about soft skills. I was able to develop my skills to be a manager. So, ABB prepared me to be in the position that I am in now.
Question: You recently rejoined ABB. What made you rejoin? And what did you learn?
This is true. I left ABB in 2019 after 13 years and I was away for almost three years. And this was important for me, also, to see the working environment outside ABB, to not spend my whole career inside ABB. It was an opportunity to see the positive and negative sides of ABB from the outside because no company is perfect. And ABB is a great company. And, also, it was important for me to see from the outside how I fit in the ABB culture. This is one of the main reasons why I rejoined ABB because I feel at home at ABB. I really identify with the culture of this company and feel good that I work for ABB.
And I also rejoined, of course, because of the position that I have now. This is a newly created product group that offers a lot of challenges. And I am a person that wants to shape the future. I don't want to sit there without ambitious things goals to accomplish. The challenge I have now is to develop and grow this business. And this was the reason for me to come back and say, "Okay. I will help ABB to grow this business."
Question: You have a challenging leadership position and a son. How do you manage this all together?
This is a challenge, to be in a managing position and have a family. And, I have to say that I am divorced and alone with my son. So, I always have to organize a lot of things. I always have to count on having the help of friends and babysitters since I don’t have any family in Switzerland.
And I must have a very good logistics and time management system so that managing with my son, family, and my job works. It works because of the flexibility that I have in ABB. We have this flexible work model so I can work from a home office, and when I have an appointment with my son, I can manage my schedule so that I can take him.
For example, when I got pregnant with my son, I had the assurance that motherhood would not be, like, a career-ender for me. Like, "Okay. You are now a mother. So, you have to choose between being a mother, or a manager, or having a challenging job." ABB does not think this way.
I did not have to choose. I can have both. And I'm very, very, lucky that we have this policy in ABB and also that I have great managers that support people with that. When my son was about six or seven years old, I was Head of Sales. I went with my manager to very important price negotiation, and I did not have a babysitter for my son. Thus, I just took my son with me to this price negotiation. My ABB manager just said, "Okay. Take him with you." And the customer also said, "Okay. You brought support with you."
Hence, this was really amazing. It’s not every company that you have, really, this kind of support.
Question: And is there anything that you would like to mention?
I would like to mention that it’s also about diversity and inclusion. I know that it's still difficult for all the women in STEM careers. We still have a lot of difficulties that the men don't have. But I have to be honest, in ABB you will really find this environment where we—as women—can develop.
I never felt in ABB that there was any kind of discrimination. I never felt like, "Oh, I'm having some disadvantage in my career because I am a woman here." You can have everything that you want: you can have a family. You can have kids. You can have your career. You can have everything. The sky is the limit.
