Member News

October 30, 2015

Christine Heckart has been Brocade Communications Systems’ chief marketing officer for almost two years, but she first came to the Bay Area in the early 2000s to work for Juniper Networks.

Outside of work, Heckart has a wide range of interests, including writing and painting. In the early 1990s, she wrote two books on technical protocols, which are mostly “engineering reads,” but she’s now working on a science fiction series in her free time.

She’s recently returned to the networking space, which she says is on the cusp of a transformation.

You’ve written two books. Tell me about your latest work. I am working on a science fiction novel. I want to finish the series before I publish the first installment. It’s about an advanced society called The Core, takes inspiration from best and worst attributes from Silicon Valley tech companies. “Core Truths,” the first book, is done and is 75,000 words.

How did you get into writing? I was on a vacation about six years ago in Hawaii and ran out of reading material, so I started to write a book that had been in my head for a while.

How do you spend your free time? When you work in tech, you don’t have a ton of spare time. I have three kids and a husband, so spare time not spent writing is with them. I also paint. I will go on a painting streak every once in a while. I do modern, abstract, large works of color. I fill my own house with them and do on-demand pieces for friends, neighbors and charities. I started painting about 14 years ago, in about 2000 — lived in a different city at the time. I bought this really large house that was quite contemporary. The woman that lived there before had an art collection worth half-a-million dollars. These paintings were huge. I didn’t have $20,000 more to spend on every piece of art in the house, though. I just said, “It can’t be that hard,” and started to paint.

What are the smartest and dumbest career moves you’ve made? Coming to Silicon Valley and taking a job to work for Juniper in early 2002 (was my smartest). I’ve made tons and tons of mistakes. If I had a thread of mistakes, it is having to make the transition from leading projects to leading people. It can be very easy to get caught up in the work and results and prioritize those over the people that are involved and the feelings that are involved.

As a child, did you know what you wanted to be when you grew up? I knew I wanted to be an executive. When I was in 10th grade I had the chance to take typing or something else and I picked the something else. My mom said, ‘No, you will take typing.’ I said I didn’t need to because I was going to have a secretary. I’m thankful I did to this day, because the advent of computers meant we all became typists.

Do you have an exercise routine? I am pretty much a slug. Once a week I do a five-mile walk — the same walk — every Sunday morning.

What’s the next vacation you have planned? My next will be to the mountains of Colorado where my family has a cabin completely off the grid in every way, shape and form. I try to go every other year to third year. Going off the grid doesn’t happen for any length of time here (in the Bay Area). It’s one of the great attractions of going to this Colorado cabin. There’s no running water or electricity. There’s no grid to be on.