Closing the Gender Gap

The media frenzy over the naming of YGL Marissa Mayer as CEO of Yahoo drew attention to the challenges women leaders face, as personal decisions become fodder for other people’s agendas. It also set the stage for the second Silicon Valley Summit July 24-27, in which I participated with about 100 other World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders.

Discussions on two panel sessions and throughout the gathering took up the challenge of closing the gender gap –a particularly salient issue in the tech industry. Not just a women’s issue, the gender gap affects business competitiveness and the health and success of every single man, woman, and child everywhere in the world.

Read more on the World Economic Forum blog

Womensphere Speech on International Development

I was honored to speak January 22 at the Emerging Leaders Summit put together by Womensphere, a fantastic organization that inspires and empowers women.

My panel, with a group of inspiring women leaders working on education, microfinance, widows issues, poverty, the environment, and other important issues, was on challenges and solutions to international development. You can see and hear what I had to say by following this link.

Michele speaking at Womensphere