The Great Eight: Shining a Spotlight on the World’s Most Inspiring Women in Tech
The 4th Industrial Revolution is being driven by disruptive, innovative technologies developed by female tech leaders across the globe. From e-commerce to education, agriculture to social impact, women are making their voices heard, taking up space, and impacting lives on a global scale. The ROOM presents The Great Eight — 8 exceptional women creating and spearheading much needed tech solutions for future generations across the globe.
Adriana Gascoigne, Founder & CEO of Girls in Tech
“I started this organisation with one thing in mind — make tech an inclusive space where women can thrive.”
Adriana Gascoigne is an American entrepreneur, activist, and founder of Girls in Tech (GIT) — a Nashville-based non-profit organisation devoted to empowering, educating and engaging women in the tech industry. GIT boasts 57 chapters across the world, comprising an active community of more than 80,000 members in 42 countries with hundreds of events held every year. For her work, Adriana won the 2018 Pioneer Leadership Award at the Silicon Valley Latino Leadership Summit and was named one of the 20 most influential Latinos in technology in 2018 by CNET. She is the author of Tech Boss Lady: How To Start-Up, Disrupt, And Thrive As A Female Founder.
Ellen Pao, CEO of Project Include & Global Women in Tech Activist
“There are many times being a woman of colour counts against you. If it ever gives you an advantage, don’t feel guilty about it. Those situations are few and far between, and you should consider each an opportunity.”
Entrepreneur, tech investor, and activist Ellen Pao is the former CEO of Reddit. After pursuing a lawsuit against a major firm she worked for due to bias and gender discrimination, she became the co-founder and CEO of the award-winning diversity and inclusion nonprofit Project Include, which uses data and advocacy to accelerate diversity and inclusion in the tech industry. For her memoir, Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change, Pao was hailed as “the face of change” by TIME and credited for leading a conversation about the status of women. The book was also shortlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey “Business Book of The Year” Award.
Fei-Fei Li, Co-director of Stanford’s Human-Centred AI Institute
“This is the world where our children will live, and technology should reflect that diverse world. With technology and a little love, we can make it a better place for them.”
Dr. Fei Fei Li is the inaugural Sequoia Professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University, Co-Director of Stanford’s Human-Centred AI Institute and the co-founder and chairperson of the national non-profit AI4ALL, aimed at increasing inclusion and diversity in AI education. Recognised as a pioneer in Artificial Intelligence, Dr. Li is also widely known for inventing ImageNet, a critical large-scale dataset and benchmarking effort that has contributed to the latest developments in deep learning, AI and work beyond computer vision. Dr. Li has published more than 200 scientific articles in top-tier journals and conferences and has received numerous honours, including the IBM Faculty Fellow Award at the Alfred Sloan Faculty, the 2009 NSF Career Award, and a Technical Leadership Abie Award awarded by AnitaB.org.
Maya Horgan Famodu, Founder of Ingressive Capital
“If you want to support women, put them in positions to do it themselves.”
Maya Horgan-Famodu is devoted to supporting exceptional talent in accessing the resources they need to build wildly scalable businesses. She is the founder of Ingressive Capital, a $10 million venture fund that supports early-stage African tech startups — earning her the status of being the youngest Black woman to launch a tech fund and the youngest person to launch a tech fund in Sub-Saharan Africa. She also founded Ingressive for Good, a nonprofit providing micro-scholarships, technical skills training and talent placement to African tech talents in need. In 2018, Maya’s remarkable accomplishments were recognised by Forbes when she was named on their “Under 30 Technology” list, as well as “10 Inspiring Women Ruling Nigeria’s Tech Ecosystem” in 2019.
Reshma Saujani, Founder of Girls Who Code
“More so than ever before, every girl has to learn how to code.”
Reshma Saujani is the author of New York Times bestseller Girls Who Code: Learn to Code and Change the World and the Founder of Girls Who Code — a non-profit organisation that works to close the gender gap in technology and inspire more girls to pursue tech careers. Currently, the organisation has reached more than 450,000 girls around the world, more than half of whom are from underserved communities. Reshma is also the Founder and CEO of Moms First, a movement to put mothers at the centre of economic recovery from the pandemic and value their labour by advocating for policies that support them. She has spent more than a decade building such movements to fight for women and girls’ economic empowerment. In 2010, she became the first Indian-American woman to run for U.S. Congress.
Sandy Carter — Senior Vice President at Unstoppable Domains
“It’s time to bring that same passion for guidance, shared knowledge, and the power of connection to dramatically improve the next generation.”
Sandy Carter is the Senior Vice President and Channel Chief at Unstoppable Domains — the number one provider of Web3 domains — where she is responsible for driving new partnerships and integrations for Web 3.0. Recognised by her peers as one of the most influential women in tech, Sandy’s many accolades include being named Top Channel Chief by CRN magazine, among the Top 10 Most Powerful Women by CNN, and one of Forbes’ Digital Influencers. She is also the author of 3 best-selling books, including “The New Language of Business,” “The New Language of Marketing” and “Get Bold”, and formerly served as the Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Amazon Web Services.
Sara Menker, Founder & CEO of Gro Intelligence
“If you’re trying to make an ecosystem more efficient and sustainable, more people need to have access to a certain level of information. The only way to make that information available at a cheap enough cost is using AI.”
Sara Menker is the Founder & CEO of Gro Intelligence, a tech company that uses artificial intelligence to forecast agricultural trends — illuminating the interrelationships between our earth’s ecology and the human economy. She previously served as the Vice President of Morgan Stanley’s commodities group, having worked in commodities risk management, and subsequently moved to trading during her time with the company. Sara has been named a Global Young Leader by the World Economic Forum, is a fellow of the Aspen Institute and a Trustee of the Mandela Institute For Development Studies (MINDS).
Sophia Alj, Co-Founder & COO of Chari
“It doesn’t make a difference if you’re a woman or a man; our brains work well either way. I am a hard worker, and I don’t think my being a woman will hinder my entrepreneurial journey. I think that all other women should think, and act like this.”
Sophia Alj is a Moroccan entrepreneur and the co-founder and COO of Chari, a B2B e-commerce/fintech app that digitises the FMCG procurement process for traditional retail stores in Francophone Africa. The Y Combinator-backed firm has emerged as one of North Africa’s most promising startups, and is widely expected to become Morocco’s first unicorn. Before co-founding Chari with her husband in 2019, Sophia was a strategy consultant for McKinsey & Company for 4 years. She has been named one of the “20 Women Behind Middle Eastern Tech Brands 2022” by Forbes as well as a RoW100 Global Tech Changemaker.
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