Tag Archives: TechWomen

September 26, 2014 · 8:25 pm

Opening Event for TechWomen 2014 Mentors

I am proud and honored to once again be a TechWomen mentor. Today was the orientation session for the mentors (generously hosted by LinkedIn in Mountain View, California). We meet our Emerging Leaders on 6 October. I am very much looking forward to working with my new mentee from Jordan on a project at Everwise in San Francisco. She and I have been speaking by Skype for the last few weeks – making plans. Lucy Keoni will be her Cultural Mentor and I will be her Professional Mentor next month. Since 2010, I have served with 250 outstanding women mentors from 89 Silicon Valley and San Francisco Bay Area companies in this remarkable and life-changing program.

About TechWomen:

The mission of TechWomen is to empower, connect, and support the next generation of women leaders in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by providing them access and opportunity to advance their careers, pursue their dreams, and become role models for women and girls in their communities.

During the five-week program, participants engage in project-based mentorships at leading companies in the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley, participate in professional development workshops and networking events, and travel to Washington, D.C. for targeted meetings and special events to conclude the program.

Over the past three years, 156 women from Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, the Palestinian Territories, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tunisia, Yemen, and Zimbabwe have participated in TechWomen.

TechWomen is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). TechWomen, launched by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2011, supports the United States’ global commitment toward advancing the rights and participation of women and girls around the world by enabling them to reach their full potential in the tech industry.

TechWomen is managed by the Center for Women’s Leadership Initiatives (WLI) at the Institute of International Education (IIE).

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Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Africa, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Mentoring, Middle East, Morocco, Palestine, Rwanda, San Francisco, technical women, TechWomen

September 18, 2014 · 3:08 pm

“Why Your Emerging Leaders Need Mentors” Everwise 1st Webinar

I was honored to speak last week at the first Everwise webinar, titled “Why Your Emerging Leaders Need Mentors”. I think it went very well and was well-attended despite being at the same time as the big Apple product announcement! Ian Gover (Everwise Co-Founder) and I spoke on

Why developing top talent is more critical than ever
How mentoring can help solve this challenge
What measurable results leaders can expect from well-run mentoring programs

The webinar recording is available at Webinar On-Demand. I told stories about TechWomen (working with women and girls in the Middle East and Africa), and about the SEED Engineering mentoring program I ran at Sun Microsystems for ten years. The 2009 technical report about Sun’s program was also mentioned.

The next Everwise webinar will feature CEO/Founder Mike Bergelson interviewing Lauren Leader-Chivee on “Women in Leadership” on 14 October 2014.

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Tagged as Africa, Mentoring, Middle East, SEED, Sun Microsystems, TechWomen

September 13, 2014 · 12:16 pm

Everwise, InovAtiva, BayBrazil Annual Conference

Ilana Robbins Gross and I from Everwise attended the BayBrazil annual conference: “Brazil in the 21st Century” yesterday on the Stanford Law School campus. I have known Margarise Correa (Founder & CEO of BayBrazil) for some years and admire both her leadership and ability to bring together the Brazilian diaspora of the Silicon Valley and San Francisco Bay Area. Ilana and I were there to learn and expand our network and also to meet potential mentors for the InovAtiva Brasil mentoring program I have been working on for the past year. Everwise just launched the mentoring platform for InovAtiva!

The conference included notable speakers, including the Honorable Mauro Vieira (Ambassador from Brazil to the USA) and Virgilio A.F. Almeida (IT Secretary, Ministry of Science, Technology of Brazil). Both the Stanford Law School and the co-sponsor Rock Center for Corporate Governance welcomed us. Big technical companies were represented by Airbnb, Uber, Evernote, YouTube, Visa, Nike, Google, and DocuSign. The entrepreneurial community had speakers from Movile, Fazedores.com, ADVANCE Medical, and SambaTech. Financial interests were discussed by BNDES, Redpoint e ventures, Valor Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, Atomico, eBricks, and Silicon Valley Bank. I was not surprised to meet Lucie Newcomb (a sister TechWomen mentor) also attending the conference. It was a fascinating and worthwhile day!

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Tagged as Brazil, Mentoring, South America, TechWomen

June 24, 2014 · 8:02 am

TechWomen 2014 Application Submitted!

I just submitted my application to be a 2014 TechWomen mentor. I have been supporting this excellent program of the US State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs since 2010 and I am eager to participate again. I hope to host an Emerging Leader from Africa or the Middle East in my new company Everwise in San Francisco. I want to expand my network of sisters in STEM!

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Tagged as Africa, Mentoring, Middle East, San Francisco, technical women, TechWomen

June 8, 2014 · 5:28 pm

New Job: Everwise Vice President – Mentoring

Last week, I started as the new Vice President – Mentoring at Everwise in San Francisco. I am delighted to join a team helping progressive, successful corporations and non-profits to create world-class mentoring programs. My first big project will be with InovAtiva and entrepreneurs in Brazil!

Here is some of what drew me to Everwise:

Everwise connects professionals with the people and insights that can help them succeed at every stage of their career.
Everwise has re-engineered workplace mentoring using best practices culled from industry’s most effective mentoring programs and real-world experience guiding more than 60,000 successful mentoring partnerships over the course of 20 years.
The Everwise platform is built on the unified view that data, technology and workforce science can dramatically improve the way organizations develop their people.
Everwise has offices in New York City, San Francisco, and Minneapolis.

My new position at Everwise coordinates well with my ongoing activities. I will continue as the Chief Operating Officer for People to People (pro bono), as a volunteer for the TechWomen mentoring program of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, as an accredited EfM Mentor, and as a member of the Anita Borg Institute Advisory Board.

My husband John and I will be commuting to work together from San Jose to SF, where he is the Principle Architect, Open Storage at EVault (Seagate). Since our son Paul is graduating this month from Foothill College and transferring to San Jose State University in September, he can get to class more easily on public transit.

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Filed under Church, Home & Family, Hopper - Anita Borg Institute, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Episcopal church, Foothill College, John, Paul, San Francisco, San Jose, San Jose State University, technical women, TechWomen

May 29, 2014 · 1:50 pm

People to People Radio: US Ambassador to Ethiopia Patricia M. Haslach Interview

I just got back from a trip to Ethiopia during which I was honored to interview US Ambassador to Ethiopia, Patricia M. Haslach, on behalf of People To People Radio. Check out her advice to women and girls in the just-posted video. Thanks to my husband John Plocher for managing the recording and processing!

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Filed under Home & Family, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Africa, Ethiopia, John, Mentoring, TechWomen

May 14, 2014 · 4:13 pm

Women of Vision, King Abdullah of Jordan, TechWomen

Last week, I sat with the Anita Borg Institute Advisory Board at a gala celebrating Women of Vision, and in particular, the well-deserved award for Leadership honoring Dr. Maria Klawe, President of Harvey Mudd College here in California. I am dating myself to write that I remember when Mudd was an all-male institution. Maria and her team have grown Mudd from 10% women in Computer Science to 40% – and have kept that 40% stable for years. This unique accomplishment deserves some celebration! Maria is amazing – she is also #17 on Fortune’s list of the world’s 50 greatest leaders.

The other inspiring winners were Tal Rabin (Research Staff Member and Manager cryptographic research, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center) for Innovation; and Kathrin Winkler (Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer, EMC Corporation) for Social Impact. Bank of America won as the 2014 Top Company for Women in Computing. Also attending the event were many of my sister mentors who have served in the U.S. State Department’s TechWomen program for scientific and technical women in the Middle East and Africa, including: Jameeka Aaron (of Lockheed Martin), Larissa Shapiro (of Mozilla), Andrea Leszek (of Salesforce), and Rahima Mohammed (of Intel).

Yesterday, my husband John and I drove to Berkeley to see His Majesty, King Abdullah II ibn al-Hussein of Jordan speak at International House on the University of California campus. I was pleased to see the slide saying that 30% of Jordan’s tech industry workers are women – better than the 26% in America as of 2013.

I have never seen the King in person before, although last year I was honored to meet his cousin, Her Royal Highness Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan. Also, when my daughter Jessica and I were on the bus to Petra in Jordan, we watched “The Royal Tour“, a video featuring King Abdullah riding his motorcycle to show off his country. Yesterday’s talk is yet-another event that entered my life because of TechWomen. Mentor Lucie Newcomb (of NewComm Global Group) posted information about the event – including how to get tickets.

TechWomen 2014 mentor sign ups open soon! Please consider expanding your mind, experience, and heart to join us!