Staying in the Arena: Leadership, Loss, and the Courage to Keep Going — with Yvonne Wassenaar

Yvonne Wassenaar has led billion-dollar companies, sat on world-class boards, and raised three kids — all while navigating immense personal loss. After losing her partner to cancer, she chose to have their children anyway and built a career that would redefine leadership in Silicon Valley.In this episode, Yvonne opens up about the traumas that shaped her, how she learned to turn fear into fuel, and why she stopped trying to be perfect — choosing instead to be emotionally present.In this conversation:💼 From Accenture to VMware, CIO at New Relic, CEO at Airware & Puppet — now on boards at Rubrik, Arista, JFrog + more💔 Losing her partner and becoming a single mom of three🧠 The feedback that changed her life: “You’re fear-driven — and that’s okay.”🫶 Learning to trade perfection for presence😏 What high-powered women’s lives really look like on the inside🎧 Follow The Mothers for more interviews with the extraordinary leaders, creators, and thinkers shaping our world about how their identity, purpose and ambition have evolved alongside career and motherhood. Raw, smart, and deeply human, these conversations help us all get closer to who we really are and what we really want.Join us on Instagram & YouTube @themotherspod The Mothers is a production of Backline Media.Theme song “Out of My Head” by Letra is licensed by Artlist. License number FG1oIe.