Four Companies in Four Decades - Sharon Shares Her Journey at Extreme
Published: January 27, 2021
For nearly 25 years, Extreme Networks has helped customers advance their digital transformation efforts and deliver progress through making connections. As we reflect on 25 years in business, there’s a lot to celebrate and even more to look forward to. To tell that story, we couldn’t think of a better way than to talk with our employees who have been along for the ride. Throughout 2021, we’ll talk with a few of our incredible employees, many who have been with Extreme for 2+ decades, and first up is Sharon Zanghi, our Manager of Corporate Sponsorships.
Sharon’s tenure at Extreme Networks dates all the way back to her time at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). She joined DEC in 1979 where she worked as an executive assistant before transitioning into a marketing development role where she managed and worked with distribution partners. Through a series of acquisitions and restructuring, Sharon went from DEC to Cabletron to Enterasys, and subsequently Extreme Networks. Learn more about Sharon’s journey from our Q&A below!
What do you do in your role at Extreme?
I help allocate Extreme sponsorship assets that we receive as part of our sponsorships with the NFL and MLB to sales and members of the executive team to assist in closing business.
What has been your biggest achievement at Extreme?
One of my big achievements was when I created the Extreme Company Store. I helped create a way for employees, partners, and customers to purchase Extreme branded items from a virtual marketplace. It continues to be a work in progress, selecting new items, reducing product inventory, and making sure branding is on target. Creating programs to support global access to the store and cost savings is on-going. At Extreme Connect 2019, my colleagues surprised me by changing the name of the pop-up onsite store to “Sharon’s Gift Shop,” and it made my heart melt because it had been a lot of work to develop the company store up until that point.
That being said, I think that my biggest achievement throughout my career at Extreme has been developing my resilience. My job can be challenging at times, but I am always persevering and tackling problems as they come in order to be successful! I definitely want to give some credit to my managers and team for helping me step out of my comfort zone and accomplish so much in my job, their encouragement really helped make my job a little easier and keeps me going when things get tough.
What makes Extreme different from other companies?
The people! My favorite part of Extreme is our people and culture. The level of respect in this organization and the support we all have for one another is unmatched by other companies. I have never seen another organization that was so transparent and open with their employees, and I think that is a great attribute to have in a company and a big reason why Extreme is as successful as it is. Everyone at Extreme is reachable, no matter what title they have or location they work from - we are all constantly collaborating on projects or helping each other out.
What is your favorite work memory?
My favorite memory at Extreme would have to be when our CEO Ed Meyercord rang the NASDAQ stock market opening bell at the NASDAQ MarketSite in 2019. It was such an incredible experience and being there firsthand and watching it happen made me feel so proud to be a part of this amazing company! I will remember that moment for the rest of my life because of how special that whole day was.
How would you describe Extreme Networks in three words?
Collaborative. Fun. Engaging.
Like I said earlier, at Extreme everyone works together and that’s what makes it such a great place to work. People help each other and then we have lots of fun working together. It’s been a great environment for me to thrive in over my career.
25 Years Young and Still Growing - Join Sharon and the Rest of the Team!
Visit our careers page to explore opportunities in marketing as well as the many other roles in which you can advance and help Extreme drive effortless networking experiences for enterprises worldwide.