What I’d say to me back then - Digital.ai’s Patricia Prince-Taggart says to get into every room, even if it’s uncomfortable being there

Patricia Prince-Taggart, General Counsel and Head of Talent at Digital.ai, had an unusual path into the technology sector. When she left law school, she originally wanted to be a public defender, with the intention of solving all the world’s problems. 

But in reality, she couldn't afford it, encumbered as she was by huge student debt. Prince-Taggart joined a law firm instead, but realized early on that wasn’t going to be her long-term place. She recalls:

I had my second child at the time, I was leaving the courthouse and she was four weeks old and it was not for me.

Prince-Taggart and her husband made the decision to move from Connecticut to Texas, where there was what she calls a budding IBM mentality. This is the move that led her into the technology space. She explains:

IBM was a big industry in a town that I grew up in, in upstate New York. I knew of IBM, I knew of the technology, I knew what people were doing at technology. My neighbor's dad was an engineer, and we would talk about what problems it was solving in the world.

Business brain

Although Prince-Taggart was fascinated, she wasn’t a mathematician, and she’d always thought you had to be a science person to be a technologist. After 29 years in the tech sector, she understands you need a business brain to solve the technology problems. But that didn’t mean there weren’t challenges to overcome in the early days.

The first lesson Prince-Taggart learned was to try to get into every room, even though it was uncomfortable sitting there with people who knew she wasn’t a technologist. She notes:

In the beginning, I definitely felt like a poser. I felt like I didn't belong. I was a woman. I'm Mexican, not that I look it. My mom is from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. So even there, I feel a little out of place. I wasn't a technologist, but I always asked questions.

Prince-Taggart used her upbringing as a lawyer, where you ask questions to get to the facts, to her advantage. She says:

I was really good at asking questions. When you ask a question, not necessarily from the direction or the vantage point that they came from, but from a different vantage point, which helped round out what the issue could be, I was able to lend something in the conversation.

Spending time with engineers, learning about the business, was another worthwhile endeavor. Prince-Taggart explains:

I believe as a lawyer, regardless of the asset, my job is to protect the asset. But in order to protect the asset, you have to learn about it. So I spend time with engineers. I spend time with the salespeople who tell me what the customers’ problems are. And then when I ask a question, people go, that's good, we ought to think about that or make this feature function better.

Just say yes

Prince-Taggart made a point of saying yes every time somebody offered her a job she was interested in. This led to her being the first lawyer hired by Computer Associates (CA) after its Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA), a result of a huge accounting fraud scandal that rocked the business in the early 2000s. She was interviewed by Lew Ranieri, another controversial figure of that era who was criticized for his role in the subprime mortgage crisis later in that decade. Prince-Taggart notes:

There isn't anybody more financially known in the world than Lew Ranieri was and is. You had to hold your own and you had to bring something insightful to the conversation. The questions that I asked, I think, helped me get the first job.

At CA, she set up and managed the product and IP group, despite not being an IP lawyer, because she asked the right questions and made sure she was in the room. She adds:

I didn't wait for the invitation to necessarily come, but I said I need to participate in your leadership meeting.

Prince-Taggart recounts a memorable meeting she had with CA co-founder and head of R&D Russell Artzt. She recalls:

We were sitting in the room and there were probably 15 men and me in the room. And I'm the lawyer for all of the engineering and the business units at the time. And he says, 'Peggy, I want to know what you think'. And the gentleman sitting next to me is like, 'Your name's not Peggy, your name is Pati'. I said, 'Listen, I'm just so glad that I'm here, he can call me Peggy because I'm going to give him the right answer'.

Earning her reputation by being in the room and asking a question was the way Prince-Taggart operated from the very beginning of her career. When she mentors women now, her advice is always get into the room and just say one thing, as that will help grow confidence. She adds:

Because fear is loud in your own head and you always have something to offer. What I tell myself is, I actually do have something to offer. I bring a legal business perspective to all of the technology that we're talking about.

With two daughters aged 33 and 34, and a son of 23, Prince-Taggart believes it’s easier now to start and grow a career in technology as a woman compared to when she was joining the industry. She says:

I look at my daughter's friends, their cohort of women, very strong women, all of whom are in technology, and they move jobs a little bit more than I do but that's the generation. They have access to more, they also get the opportunity to decide how crazy their life is outside. In the beginning, I worked a lot. I had the benefit of having a great husband who helped. It was challenging, but not insurmountable.

On board with AnitaB.org

Prince-Taggart will get the opportunity to further support and encourage women working in the tech industry as part of her brand-new appointment to the Board of Directors at AnitaB.org, the community for women in computing set up by computer scientist Dr Anita Borg in 1987.

When she was asked last year if she’d be interested in taking on this role, Prince-Taggart said yes without hesitation. She feels well-positioned to offer worthwhile guidance to women in the middle-stage of their careers in engineering and technology. She adds:

I worry that women who are in that middle career, who might be a back-end engineer or a data person, feel like this AI wave might overcome them. One of the things that we're talking about at AnitaB is how do you make sure that the middle group is ready for leadership.

Her focus will be on helping those women to have a voice and not be afraid. 

Fear is loud in your own head, but it isn't necessarily something that the men in the room think about. The men in the room don't really think about you. You're the one who holds yourself back. That took me a long time to figure out. The men don't care that you're there, just add value. You're the one who hears, ‘Should I say anything? These guys have more experience.’ They don't, they have as much experience as you do. You just need to say one thing first, and then the next meeting, you might say two things. And then they're going to turn to you and say, what do you think, and that's the moment that you feel really proud.

As she prepares for her new role giving advice to mid-career women in tech, what advice would 2026 Prince-Taggart tell her younger self coming into the sector? There’s just one tip she’d pass on, she reveals:

I would say being uncomfortable in the room doesn't mean you don't belong.