Freestyle Academy proudly presents

Betsy Sutter: A Senior Profile Portrait by Angelica D'Augusta (2015)

Betsy Sutter is a Corporate SVP and Chief People Officer HR at VMware, a local tech company located in Palo Alto. Betsy describes herself as a stronger leader than manager and proves so by spearheading many different programs. She has created and developed the VMware Foundation, pushing employees to give back through community philanthropy through donations and volunteering. She also has a passion for helping women find a voice in the workplace and is in charge of VMwomen, a program that brings female employees to come together and find ways to encourage each other to bring their best work forward. Along with these programs, Betsy is on a mission to create a friendly culture where employees use creativity in their work and question their limits. Betsy Sutter’s charismatic and outgoing personality along with her strong drive makes her a relatable and fantastic leader.

For Betsy’s profile photo, I wanted to incorporate the beautiful landscape of the offices at VMware to represent the energetic atmosphere that you would find there. In this specific setting, the sun was hitting Betsy perfectly to highlight her bright eyes. The distance she was standing from the background also made it really easy to make her be separated and not blend in with the background, which could have been an issue due to the colors she was wearing. Although the lighting was ideal for my subject, it was hitting the windows and wall in the background very harsh and was distracting, calling a lot of attention to itself. In Photoshop, I filtered the specific spots I wanted to tone down. It was difficult to create the selection due to the branches of leaves and Betsy’s hair that were intercepting the area, however once I got the selection I was able to adjust the background which really allowed Betsy to stand out.
Visitors 1312