For Caryn Seidman Becker, CEO of CLEAR, the biometric technology company that strives to make security seamless in an age of extreme caution, hard work and constantly asking hard questions is how she succeeded in some of the most male-dominated professions: finance, aviation and technology.
“Life is a puzzle. It is a maze and you have to want to be persistent…and have absolute passion for what you are doing,” the New York City based executive told Geek Girl Rising’s Heather Cabot when we sat down with her in her office.
“[A] ‘no’ isn’t a ‘no.’ It is an opportunity to learn and grow,” the mother of three said. We met in late January, the day before CLEAR’s kiosks would go on-line at LaGuardia Airport, bringing the total availability of its service to 21 airports and nearly 1 million subscribers. In her professional life, she has often gravitated to a road less traveled for women. She co-founded the billion dollar asset management fund Arience Capital, which invested in Apple and Priceline as turnarounds. The work fed her constant desire to find a “diamond in the rough. ” When she bought CLEAR out of bankruptcy in 2010, it was similar challenge.
“[I’m] always trying to think ahead [about] where the road is going in five to ten years and that means you are not playing for what’s now but for what will be,” she told us.
More in our sit-down interview!
