Honoring trailblazers in tech for Women’s History Month: One of the first female programmers shares her story

DETROIT — The Wall Falls, A Woman Rises, A Memoir:How a U.S. Tech Entrepreneur Broke the Glass Ceiling and Helped Modernize Latvia is the story of Dagnija “Daggie” Lacis, who shares her insights and strategic thinking as she recounts her journey of breaking through the glass ceiling in the male-dominated IT industry.

She tells how she introduced the most advanced IT systems to her newly liberated homeland, Latvia, enabling the country to engage in business with the West. 

Lacis’ unwavering ambition and contributions to women in technology reflect the spirit of Women’s History Month. In an interview, she will discuss: 

• Her career as the first female programmer at Burroughs Corporation, the second-largest IT company in the world during that time, where in 1984, she became the first female line vice president at Unisys.
• How she shattered the glass ceiling by challenging the stereotypes many people held about homemakers in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s. Defying convention, she continued to work during both pregnancies despite the absence of paid maternity leave or paid time off.
• How, for 20 years, she held her own with the “boys” as one of the only females at the company before becoming VP.
• Her poignant story of leaving Latvia as a young child after World War II.
• In 1990, during a luncheon in Washington, D.C., Lacis was introduced to the prime minister and foreign minister of newly independent Latvia. This introduction led to Lacis modernizing Latvia’s IT systems and business practices to facilitate trade with Western countries. She achieved this by:
  • Introducing SWIFT enabled Western companies to conduct business with Latvian firms.
  • Implementing the Global Transport and Trade System (GTTS).
  • Modernizing Latvian shipping.
• The introduction in D.C. also led to Lacis launching her own IT Company, the Baltic Technology Group (BTG). BTG was the first woman-owned company in Europe to develop a Western retail banking system.   

Author Dagnija showcase her new book.

About the Author
Dagnija Lacis was born in Latvia in 1943 and forced to flee in 1944. After five years in a displaced persons camp in Germany, she immigrated with her family to Indianapolis. Lacis graduated cum laude from Butler University with a B.S. in Chemistry and Mathematics. Her career includes being the first woman programmer at Burroughs Corporation, then the second-largest worldwide IT company, and later becoming its first female line VP. When the Berlin Wall fell, the newly elected Latvian prime minister and foreign minister asked Lacis to install modern technology in the foreign ministry. That began her work to modernize Latvia and connect it to the West. In 1991, Lacis founded and continues to participate in running the Baltic Technology Group with locations in the U.S. and Latvia. She and her husband, Andris, have two children. Andris serves as the Honorary Consul for Latvia for the State of Michigan. The couple lives in West Bloomfield, a suburb of Detroit.

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