The stranger who changed Regina Dugan’s life

“There have been times where I really just thought I should drop out [of tech]. The way I stayed in was through an interaction with another woman. But it wasn’t a mentor. I was walking through the airport in San Francisco, and a woman is rushing to catch up with me. A young woman. She starts to talk about her trip, she’s coming back from Paris. She said, ‘I just want to thank you for making it seem possible to be a woman in tech and succeed.’ She had no idea that I was contemplating quitting and becoming a barista. That interaction made the difference.” —Regina Dugan, VP of Engineering, building8 at Facebook (and former director of DARPA), today at Fast Company’s Innovation Festival.