Fran O'Sullivan

My name is Fran O’Sullivan and I am the Senior Vice President, Product Group, Lenovo, the world’s third largest personal computing (PC) company. During my 26 year career as an engineer, I’ve had the amazing opportunity to witness two great events in technology history. At IBM, I worked with NASA to test satellite payloads for the first launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1981. I then moved to the team at IBM that introduced the first personal computer. With this opportunity, I literally grew up with the PC industry. Today, I’m responsible for overseeing all of Lenovo’s notebook and desktop PCs, including the award winning ThinkPad, as well as all of our other products around the world.

Just like many of you, I loved science and math as a child and was naturally drawn to engineering at a young age because my father was an electrical engineer. There were challenges along the road, but I’ve learned that you must reach for the best academic opportunities, assert your technical views, and learn to ask for help in order to succeed. For me, the fascination of engineering comes from the ability to physically see what I’ve created. Because of this belief, I think it is important that young people, especially girls, have the chance to find out what engineering is about, so they can see for themselves what makes engineering so cool.