An outstanding CTO: Who is Maria Hall?
We are thrilled to present you with an inside look into tech’s most cryptic role: the role of a Chief Technology Officer. The following interview is conducted as part of our participation in the Gothenburg Tech Week 2021. By interviewing Sweden’s top female CTOs, we are honored to highlight outstanding professionals - the norm breakers and trailblazers in the field.
Maria Hall is the CTO at Joint Academy. She is passionate about building strong company cultures that foster innovation and new strands of thought. In this interview, we get to know more about how she makes that into a reality.
Please tell us about what you do, Maria!
I am the Chief Technology Officer at Joint Academy, a digital clinic for treating back and chronic joint pain. I have a long experience of building and running engineering teams at fast-growing technology companies. Previously I served as the CTO at both Prisjakt and Zmarta, two award-winnings scaleups. At Joint Academy, I’m running a 50+ person strong engineering team that ensures that tens of thousands of patients across five markets have access to their chronic joint pain treatment on their phones.
What was your journey into tech like?
I studied informatics at Lund University. I aimed for an education which combined technology with people and communication. Soon after graduating, I joined IKEA as a Developer and quickly became a Project Manager and subsequently Team Manager. The turning point came, when I was offered to become the managing director at a hardware company. This is the place where I first learned about running a company and being an entrepreneur.
By coincidence, I found out about Prisjakt and joined the company as a Development Manager, which quickly grew into the CTO position. By working at Prisjakt, I was part of a fantastic journey, when the company grew from two-to-nine countries. I love expansion journeys and all of the challenges that are associated with the fast growth.
So when I was offered the chance to transform Zmarta Group from a sales company into a fintech company, I decided to go for it. It was a really fun journey with a lot of work related to company culture, ways of working and defining the technology roadmap to enable scalability and heavy recruitment.
“I hope nobody ever gets to experience what I did on my first day at the university studying informatics. When our university lecturer, after looking over the student body, said: I can see that there are some women here. I am sure you will quit soon.”
What mistake, personal or professional, have you learned the most from?
There was a period in my career, when I took on too much, did not fully trust my colleagues nor give them the context and tools to succeed. My advice is to find competent co-workers and delegate. That is the only way to scale both the company and yourself.
Tell us about a dream you have for yourself and the industry in the future.
My dream for the tech industry is that everyone would have the same opportunities to be part of the fantastic creative journey the tech industry provides. I hope nobody ever gets to experience what I did on my first day at the university studying informatics, when our university lecturer, after looking over the student body, said: “I can see that there are some women here. I am sure you will quit soon”.