Meet NTT DATA People
Samantha Fortney
Life Sciences Account Executive
Samantha Fortney is originally from northern Virginia where before entering the workforce she attained her Bachelor’s degree from James Madison University. After graduation she and her husband relocated to California where she lived for ten years before moving back east to Charleston in South Carolina to settle near family with her husband and her young boy.
In her free time Samatha loves to enjoy the outdoors, hiking, going to the beach, and camping with friends and family. She also enjoys photography and capturing images of the places she has visited. Some of her favorite trips have been on the west coast to places like Big Sur, Zion and Yosemite national parks.
Samantha has been working as a Life Sciences Sales Executive with NTT DATA since 2020.
Serving patient needs and enjoying the great outdoors
Tell us about an interesting project
In my role, I work to acquire new customer opportunities for NTT DATA with both new and existing customers. I work with our clients to interpret their needs, then bring those findings back to the team to align the right people to build a solution that will provide value to the customer.
Naturally, I love doing that kind of work, however the projects that really stand out for me are the ones when we can pull together various divisions of the business and collaborate to provide what we call a multi-tower solution. These are the most impactful to our customers business and create lasting change. In one recent project, I worked with a global life sciences partner to create a solution that included inputs from many of our practices including infrastructure, applications, security, and change management.
It was really rewarding and exciting to be part of that process and to see the team come together around a common goal for the customer.
Describe a regular working day
As an account executive, I have always worked remotely. One of the benefits of having a passion for sales is that I can spend my time working at home and visit my clients when I need to. In fact, I’ve travelled all over the country to meet with and work with my clients both for business meetings and for hosting our clients at some NTT sponsored events like NTT Indy Car races and the All Star Game in Seattle.
Although, you could say that I have been attached to various offices in the U.S. as part of what might be called my home base, but I very rarely need to visitthose offices.
I enjoy business development and working with our customers so being given the freedom to work like this with NTT DATA is a real privilege.
Why do you like to work at NTT DATA?
I was recommended by a friend and previous colleague to join NTT DATA’slife sciences team based on my background and industry expertise. During the interview process I was impressed to meet so many people who were passionate, not just about the business, but about achieving the best possible patient outcomes for our client organizations. This aligned with my professional goals so I jumped at the chance to join the company. Once I joined Iwas presented with great opportunities for training and development, and to be challenged to produce the best version of me, compared to previous places I’d worked. I feel like that ethos, the access to senior management and the flexibility to be near family while still supporting global customers is really what makes working at NTT DATA special for me.
