Tsai Ing-wen’s Landslide Win Ushers In Taiwan’s First Female President

By on January 18, 2016   /   Featured Post, Game Changers, Leadership   /   Leave a comment
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Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan President, ©Ashley Pon/Getty Images

Tsai Ing-wen wins historic victory as voters express dissatisfaction with economy and outgoing leader. Taiwan’s first female president has vowed to build a new era of politics after sealing a historic landslide election victory that is expected to strain the state’s relationship with China. With more than half of the votes counted, the Democratic Progressive party (DPP) candidate, Tsai Ing-wen, had built an unassailable lead over her closest rival, the Nationalist (KMT) candidate, Eric Chu. “Thank you for helping the DPP stand up again and for trusting us to govern this country,” Tsai, 59, said in her victory address on Saturday night. “We will put political polarisation behind us and look forward to the arrival of a new era of politics in Taiwan.” Earlier Chu, 54, had conceded defeat telling his supporters: “We have failed the expectations of all voters.” More than 20,000 DPP supporters gathered outside the party’s headquarters in Taipei to celebrate Tsai’s victory, shouting: “We are making history.” “For me this is not just about an election victory,” Tsai said in her first address after the results became clear. “The results today tell me that the people want to see a government more willing to listen to […]

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The Women Behind Nix Hydra Are Shaking Up The Gaming World

By on January 15, 2016   /   Arts, Featured Post   /   Leave a comment
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Lina Chen and Naomi Ladizinsky, founders of Nix Hydra

Four years ago, Lina Chen and Naomi Ladizinsky’s plan to shake up the gaming world on behalf of girls seemed exceedingly improbable, even to them. Chen had a psychology liberal arts degree and Ladizinsky a film studies degree, both from Yale, where they’d met. They were out to disrupt one of the world’s most elite, tech-driven men’s clubs from a tiny office in Hollywood, yet, as Chen recalls with a ripple of laughter, “We didn’t have experience or money. We’d never worked as executives, and we had no connections in tech, startup or the gaming industry. And we didn’t have a product!” Neither of these two L.A. transplants knew how to code, so they taught themselves online. That all seems like a lifetime ago, given what has happened since. Early this year, their Los Angeles company, Nix Hydra, a rare gaming firm founded by women to create games for girls and women, will launch Egg!, a more complex successor to their wildly popular 2013 mobile pet game, Egg Baby. The two long-haired, soft-spoken co-founders of Nix Hydra are now in an enviable position, with just over $5.6 million from investors including venture capital firm Foundry Group, a built-in audience awaiting […]

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Turning Fear Into Power with Unarmed Peacekeeper Linda Sartor

By on January 12, 2016   /   Featured Post, Heart   /   Leave a comment
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Unarmed Peacekeeper Linda Sartor with an Afghani tank.

Unarmed Peacekeeper Linda Sartor is not afraid to die. Dedicated to nonviolence, Linda Sartor spent 10 years after September 11, 2001 traveling to conflict zones throughout the world as an unarmed peacekeeper, with roles ranging from protective accompaniment to direct inter-positioning between parties when tensions were running high. She documents her work across the world — in Israel/Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iran and most recently Bahrain — in her new book, Turning Fear into Power: One Woman’s Journey Confronting the War on Terror. Inwardly quiet and exceedingly humble (she chose to sleep outside for eight years of her adult life), her courage and conviction are not only refreshing, they’re infectious. I recently had the privilege of spending a day with her to discuss her travels and the ways in which they have changed her as an individual, as well as her relationship to nonviolent action. Is there a nonviolent response to terrorism? I think George W. Bush misused the word “terrorism” so much that it really has no meaning. When protesters in the Occupy movement are portrayed as terrorists, that really changes the meaning of democracy too. If there is such a thing as real terrorism, I think it […]

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Truly Human Leadership: Why We Should Value Our People

By on January 12, 2016   /   Featured Post, Leadership   /   Leave a comment
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Value People To Make A Good Team

“I think we have to become more conscious of the kind of cultures that we create in organizations. We want to create cultures where human beings are empowered, they flourish and they’re able to self-actualize themselves.” These are the words of Whole Foods Market Co-CEO John Mackey during an interview with Steve Forbes on his book “Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business”. In the book, Mackey outlines four principles by which some of America’s most successful and highly regarded companies operate: higher purpose, stakeholder integration, conscious leadership, and conscious culture/management. I can identify with these four principles and strive to implement similar ideas within my own organization. I am particularly passionate about creating a people-centric culture that encourages growth of our team members, improves our productivity, and enhances our ability to innovate and respond to challenges. During my professional journey from Wall Street to state government to economic development, I have seen the differences between companies that focus on their people and those that do not. It is evident to me that strong, smart and healthy organizations are built by employees who feel valued and are clear about their roles and responsibilities. I recently attended a three-day training […]

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How To Cut Through The Local Clutter

By on January 8, 2016   /   Featured Post, Leadership   /   Leave a comment
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Cut Through Clutter with Carolyn Parrs

One of the biggest challenges for small, local businesses is getting noticed. The truth is that local businesses have unique advantages over the big boxers, and if they are strategic about it, they can carve out a sweet piece of the market pie. The Good News In recent years, there has been a huge resurgence in customers wanting to shop local and support the community. Emarketer recently reported the following: U.S. consumers are choosing small businesses because of the personalized experiences they provide compared with larger businesses. According to April 2014 data from AYTM Market Research, personal service was the Number 2 reason U.S. internet users preferred small businesses vs. large companies, cited by 52.7%. This trailed supporting the local economy (56.2%). What’s more, prices did not play a huge role in choosing small businesses. In fact, 61.2% of respondents said they would pay higher prices to support small businesses. The truth is people are rooting for you to succeed! Here are 3 ways to help make that happen. Don’t Put the Cart Before the Horse One of the biggest and most expensive mistakes I see with small, local businesses is putting the cart (creating a website or ad campaign) […]

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30 Under 30 in 2016: Young Leaders Unleashing Learning For All

By on January 5, 2016   /   Featured Post, Innovation, Leadership   /   Leave a comment
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Maggie Dunne, Forbes' 30 Under 30 Education 2016 List

We shouldn’t need hot-button issues like the deeply flawed college admissions race, DREAM Act and emerging landscape of K-12 digital learning to remind us that educational opportunities matters — to all of us. Luckily, it’s self-evident to the women and men who earned a spot on the 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 in Education. Their spirit of innovating in education is deeply original. They range from edtech entrepreneurs such as literacy champions Matthew Ramirez, cofounder of WriteLab, and Quill’s cofounder Peter Gault, and Rebecca Liebman, whose LearnLux focuses on financial literacy. Zaption’s Charlie Stigler has trained his focus on video learning as a dynamic teaching tool. Cassandra Tognoni of BookReport uses data to help districts figure out best practices for spending and saving, and Christopher Pedregal has $7.5 million in funding to crowdsource learning to Socratic’s 8.5 million customers. Increased access to learning for all startups are prominent in this year’s list. Heejae Lim, founder of Talking Points, built an app that bridges the language barrier between teachers and non-English speaking parents, while Sarahi Espinoza Salamonca’s app helps undocumented students find money to go to college. Chelsey Roebuck, cofounder of Emerging Leaders in Technology and Engineering (ELiTE), left the consulting fast track to […]

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U.S. Falls Far Behind In Gender Equality, U.N. Assessment Concludes

By on December 17, 2015   /   Family, Featured Post, Leadership   /   Leave a comment
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Holding the scales of justice

The U.N. Sent 3 Foreign Women To The U.S. To Assess Gender Equality. They Were Horrified. A delegation of human rights experts from Poland, the United Kingdom and Costa Rica spent 10 days this month touring the United States so they can prepare a report on the nation’s overall treatment of women. Human rights experts Eleonora Zielinska (Poland), Alda Facio (Costa Rica), and Frances Raday (U.K.), visited the United States in December to assess gender equality. The three women, who lead a United Nations working group on discrimination against women, visited Alabama, Texas and Oregon to evaluate a wide range of U.S. policies and attitudes, as well as school, health and prison systems. The delegates were appalled by the lack of gender equality in America. They found the U.S. to be lagging far behind international human rights standards in a number of areas, including its 23 percent gender pay gap, maternity leave, affordable child care and the treatment of female migrants in detention centers. While the U.N. delegates were shocked by many things they saw in the U.S., perhaps the biggest surprise of their trip, they said, was learning that women in the country don’t seem to know what they’re missing. The most […]

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Women Strip To Protest Monsanto’s Roundup Spraying

By on December 16, 2015   /   Featured Post, Nature   /   Leave a comment
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Women strip to protest Monsanto's Roundup spraying.

A group of north coast women have put their bodies on the line, literally, in an effort to stop councils and government authorities spraying glyphosate in their weed reduction activities. Glyphosate, which was invented and is widely marketed by multinational chemical company Monsanto under the name Roundup, was named a ‘probable carcinogen’ by the World Health Organisation in March this year. This action, together with the forthcoming trial of Monsanto at the International Court of Justice next year has prompted the women to take a stand. With ‘I am water’ written on their bodies, the women are bringing attention to the protection of the essential resource from ongoing pollution with herbicides in the region. ‘Our bodies are made of water and we are one and the same as the environment. If we pollute the water with pesticides, we pollute ourselves,’ said Nadia de Sousa Pietramale, local bush regenerator and coordinator of Byron Shire Chemical Free Landcare. ‘While Monsanto will go on trial for crimes against humanity and nature, in Byron shire, glyphosate, a product developed by the company and an active ingredient of many herbicides, is still being poured into the environment where it ends up in our local rivers […]

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Could This MIT Economist Make Banking Easy For the Poor?

By on December 8, 2015   /   Family, Featured Post, Innovation   /   Leave a comment
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Natalia Rigol, MIT Economist

Natalia Rigol is attempting to figure out if community information can help developing world banks decide who to lend to. Banks in developing countries often won’t lend to the poor, because they have no credit, or they will only lend at prohibitively high rates, making it so that many people can never break out of the cycle of poverty. Natalia Rigol is a PhD candidate in economics at MIT with an innovative thought. Is it possible, she wonders, to use community information to create an informal credit rating to help banks or micro-finance institutions decide who to lend money to? Rigol ran a pilot project asking this question in India this summer, and she is now launching a much larger study of some 1,500 small business owners in poor communities in India. Tell us a little bit about your background and how you got inspired to become an economist? I am originally from Cuba, so I lived in Cuba until I was 9 and did the beginning of my schooling there. At the age of 9, I moved to Russia and lived there for two years, and then I was in the Czech Republic for two years. I came to the […]

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‘Queen Bee Syndrome’ among women at work is a myth

By on December 4, 2015   /   Featured Post, Leadership, Uncategorized   /   Leave a comment
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Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

“Queen bee syndrome” – displayed by leading professional women who keep other females out – is a myth, according to a study. The new research reportedly looked at top management teams in 1,500 companies over a 20-year period and found that where women had been appointed chief executive, other women were more likely to make it into senior positions.

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