Eileen Sweeney leads data management at Iron Mountain

This week on Women of Washington, Eileen Sweeney, senior vice president and general  manager of data management at Iron Mountain, discusses her work securely storing both digital and traditional paper files for the government and its contractors.

“Iron mountain is a worldwide leader in data storage,”  Sweeney said, on Iron Mountain’s mission.

Of its current focus, she said, “Really we’re transforming the organization from the older tape records to the new cloud storage and newer technologies that you can store your data and your archives on.”

The work Iron Mountain does for the federal government helps agencies meet their missions.

“We go across the broad spectrum of the government agencies, from Energy and Commerce to FDIC and the very small departments within those agencies,” Sweeney said.

“I think what’s interesting about us is that we have a trusted reputation throughout the industry,” she said. “People associate our brand with security. And quite honestly, we meet all the federal government’s standards that NARA sets out for records retention as well as even data management FISMA standards.”

Sweeney wasn’t always as confident in herself as she is today. When she first got out of school, an important presentation that went poorly left her struggling with her place in a male-dominated industry.

“My confidence was really shaken,” she said. “And I probably spent 10 years in my career always second guessing myself, to the point where I turned down a promotion because I didn’t feel like the organization would accept me in a role like that. … So we had another person come into the organization, and I still ended up doing all the work and getting no credit. But what I learned from that is to have the sponsorship in the organization, and now when I put people into stretch assignments, I try to make sure that they’re not quite on the high wire, and that they’re getting the coaching and mentoring they need.”

Sweeney is a mother to two girls in addition to being a senior executive of a Fortune 1000 Company. She shares the best advice she’s received on how to manage both roles at once.

“Don’t be on the PTA,” she said. “Your children won’t see you. You’ll be involved, but they still won’t see you. Be the head room mother, because that way you schedule the parties and activities around your work schedule. And I have lived by that for 10 years, and it has really helped me out.”

Sweeney also discusses her background as an industrial engineer, why more women don’t go into STEM fields, and what parents and students can do to reverse this trend.

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