EWL Home - About Us - Carolyn Pineda

Carolyn Pineda

Welcome to Empowering Women as Leaders. I am the chairman and founder of this non-profit organization. At the turn of the millennium, I was inspired to establish a non-profit organization to support high-potential women who aim for college degrees but have pressing financial needs. It took longer than I imagined bringing my vision to reality, but with the help of the talented women serving on the EWL board, the organization was launched in October 2004.

My passion for EWL comes from events in my life as a young woman. When I graduated from high school in 1973, most women were getting married and starting families. My parents urged me to go to college; they had always told me I was smart and capable of doing what ever I set my mind to achieve. At that time I was more interested in following the footsteps of my girlfriends. So I married at 19.

My first marriage lasted six years. My husband and I didn’t have much in common, so I did something no one in my family had ever done ¾ I divorced when I was 25. This was a low point in my life. I felt I had disappointed my parents in several ways.  

I had been working as a dental assistant for four years, yet I wanted to go to college to get a professional degree so I could do something different with my life. After the divorce, my parents agreed to pay my way through college, an astounding decision on their part. Their continued support and constant encouragement gave me the confidence I could complete my degree.

Many years ago, I would not have envisioned being a vice president of a fortune 500 company. However, today I am vice president of professional services for Sabre Holdings in Southlake, Texas. I started my career at Sabre as a programmer 15 years ago, and I have held a number of positions including project manager, development manager, product manager and account manager. In my current position, I manage over 200 employees around the world who support our customers in the implementation and support of our software products. My job is very rewarding as it gives me an opportunity to work with people, both with customers and with my employees. I have found the IT industry to be an extremely gratifying field, one that offers me the opportunity to solve complex, multi-dimensional problems.

I’ve been married to a supportive and loving man for 24 years. Over the years he has encouraged me to reach for heights that I would not have dreamed possible. I am also very close to my family. We support each other in many ways all through the year. Since my husband and I were not able to have children, we treasure the children of both our brothers and feel fortunate to be part of their lives.