The eSkills of job campaignis an initiative of the European Commission

SEE YOU ALL IN BRUSSELS 25-26 ApRIL 2016 AT pROXIMUS LOUNgE!RUE STROOBANTS 51, 1140 EvERE

http://womenincomputing.eu

2

#winC2016 www.facebook.com/w4techEU w4techeu

It is a special privilege for the European Centre for Women and Technology to wel-come some of the best and brightest women and men in the technology sector in connection with the inaugural European Celebration of Women in Computing the 25-26 April 2016 in Brussels.

Women are essential to innovation and driving businesses. With ECWC 2016 the European Centre for Women and Technology is proud to start a new tradition in Europe to annually bring together the present and next generation of female tech talents to demonstrate that women are key factors for bringing forward the Digital Single Market and the economic competitiveness of Europe.

We are deeply grateful to our sponsors presented in this brochure, who through supporting events like the regional celebration now taking shape also in Europe help our next generation of female talents grow their passion about technology and network the leaders of global tech industry and research and find role models for their own careers.

We are confident that the incredible career paths, the remarkable leadership skills and the innovative technical depth of the presenters in our two days gathering will be extremely motivating and the Ada.Ada.Ada Salon presented by our UK guest artist Zoe Philpott will embed the huge variety of interactive sessions into the his-toric framework of Ada Lovelace´s heritage through a unique experience.

Welcome to two inspirational days at ECWC 2016 in Brussels!

Eva FabryDirector ECWT

3

pROgRAMME

The eSkills of job campaignis an initiative of the

European Commission

MONDAY 25th ApRIL 2016

08:30 - 09:30

09:40 - 09:55

10:00 -11:00

11:30 - 12:30

Registration

Welcome addresses

• Nele Van Malderen Director Corporate Communications PROXIMUS

• Eva Fabry European Centre for Women and Technology - ECWT Director

Keynote Opening Session

• Antanas Guoga MEP, EU eSkills Ambassador

• Pamela Ward Commercial Counselor for EU Policy U.S. Mission to the European Union

• Marina Alekseeva General Manager Intel SSG Russia INTEL

• Marleen Verhaag Vice President Sales and Marketing, Marketing Director EMEA INTEL

Key panelThe Digital Single Market - A revolution in pink?

• Moderator: Sasha Bezuhanova MoveBG Founder and Chairperson

• Antanas Guoga MEP, EU eSkills Ambassador

• Maximilian Strotmann Communication Adviser, Member of the Cabinet of Vice President Andrus Ansip, Commissioner for Digital Single Market

• Barbara Althoff - Simon Executive Vice President and Corporate Officer, Global HR Service Delivery at SAP AG

• Isabella Chiodi IBM Vice President of EU Unit

AUDITORIUM

AUDITORIUM

AUDITORIUM

• Telle Whitney Annita Borg Institute for Women and Technology President and CEO

• Pascale Van Damme Executive & Managing Director Dell Belux

• Jean Diederich Kurt Salmon Luxembourg Partner

• Robert Madelin Senior Advisor for Innovation European Commission

• Marja Makarow Technology Academy Finland Chair of the Board and Vice-President

• Telle Whitney Annita Borg Institute for Women and Technology President and CEO

11:00 - 11:30 Coffee Break

pROXIMUS LOUNgE

12:30 - 13:15

13:30 - 14:30

13:30 - 14:30

13:15 - 13:30

Keynote plenaryGendered Innovations in Technology

• Londa Schiebinger, Professor Stanford University John L. Hinds Professor of History of Science

Global Women Tech Leader´s separate lunch (by invitation)

Lunch

ECWC 2016 Group PhotoOutside or inside depending on the weather

AUDITORIUM

4

pROgRAMME• Marie Fossum Head of Energy & Utilities, BUGS BL I&S Utilities, Ericsson Sweden

• Anat Katz Arotchas CEO Standpoint - Strategic Product & Gender Consulting & Representative of design people

• Marleen Verhaag Vice President Sales and Marketing, Marketing Director EMEA INTEL

• Iris de Chiara Business support to Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer SAP

• Yossi Pasher Israel Smart Cities Institute

How to increase females shares in the ICT sector?

• Moderator: Line Berg Project Manager, NTNU

• Reyyan Ayfer Department Chair of Computer Technology & Programming, Biktas University, Turkey

• Cristina Pereira Secretary General (ex officio) Informatics-Europe

• Åsa Trulsson Head of Government & Corporate Relations Harbor.Space

• Londa Schiebinger, Professor Stanford University John L. Hinds Professor of History of Science

• Tatiana Merkulova Google Software Engineer

• Valentina Dagiene Vilnius University, BEBRAS

Best Practices Roundtable & Demo:”Getting more girls & women into digital studies and careers in Europe”

• Cheryl Miller DLII Founder and Executive Director

• Rosanna Kurrer DLII Co-Founder and Digital Literacy leader

• Esther Roure Vila Business Development Manager CISCO, Digital Woman of the Year 2014

• Ekaterina Kamenskaya Engineer Google Switzerland Winners of the Digital Girls Awards 2013-2015

• Monica Zethzon Head of Product Line IMS, Ericsson

• Randi Foraker, Dr The Ohio State University’s (OSU’s) College of Public Health Assistant Professor of Epidemiology

• Tina Zec Odinszky Director, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center@ZSEM - Zagreb School of Economics & Management

• Evelina Prodanova International Communication Manager Secuoya Group, FACE

• Blanca Rabena Camunas BCWT Program Coordinator

Smart Cities and Gender

• Moderator: Edna Pasher, Dr Smart Cities Institute Founder and Chairperson

• Colette Maloney Smart Cities and Sustainability unit EC Head of Unit

pLUTO

CALYpSO

KYOTO

14:30 - 15:30 presentations part I

14:30 - 17:30 Interactive parallel workshops part I

Entrepreneurship through the gender lens: how women and men differ

• Moderator: Mary Juhas, Dr The Ohio State University Associate Vice President

gALATEA + MOON

14:30 - 15:30 Parallel workshops & Presentations

14:30 - 15:15

Local action - Global Impact in the Digital Economy

• Madi Sharma Employers Group, United Kingdom Member

gALAXY

5

pROgRAMME

14:30 - 15:15

NEpTUN

Reconesse Database

• Anna Gyða Sigurgísladóttir Founder and Director, Reconesse

• Andrea Björk Andrésdóttir

• Berglind Sunna Stefánsdóttir

14:30 - 15:30

15:30 -16:15

Breaking stereotypes

• Marina Alekseeva General Manager and R&D Director, Intel Russia

Mind your language and close the gap - STEMSTERS

• Dries Vervecken, Dr Karel de Grote- Hogeschool in Antwerp, Belgium Researcher and education policy advisor

• Karen Verswijvel University of Antwerp Researcher

MARS

EARTH

16:30 - 17:15

16:30 - 17:15

16:30 - 17:15

14:30 - 18:30

19:00 - 22:00

Raising Money as a Woman Entrepreneur in Europe vs. Silicon Valley

• Silvija Seres, Dr TechRocks, Norway Independent investor, founder and board member in several companies

• Radhika Iyengar Emens Managing Partner, DoubleNova Group

Empowerment of Women in eHealth and Telemedicine

• Dr.Veronique-Ines Thouvenot Co-Founder and Scientific Director, Foundation Millennia2025 “Women and Innovation” PuF Head, Women and eHealth International Working Group & Women Observatory for eHealth - WeObservatory

Robot Patrol Car

• Miriam Martinez Munoz

Career Fair - Visit to the Stands

Ada.Ada.Ada. by Zoe Philpott& ECWC 2016 Award Ceremony a Philpott Design production

gALAXY

EARTH

URANUS

pROXIMUS LOUNgE

AUDITORIUM

15:30 - 16:15 Things I wish they told me. Lessons learned from a technology entrepreneur.

• Janneke Niessen Cofounder Improve Digital, serial entrepreneur, winner of the Digital Woman of the Year 2015 Award

URANUS

14:30 - 15:15

14:30 - 15:15

The MakHer Movement: Enabling girls and women to expands their STEM talent

• Fiorella Operto Director Scuola di Robotica

Eddystone and the Google beacon platform

• Carmen Ruiz Vicente History of Science, Stanford University Project Manager CDT LTU

EARTH

gALATEA + MOON

15:30 -16:15 Industry 4.0 and the New Chances for Women in Technology

• Jivka Ovtcharova, Professor Dr.Dr. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)

gALAXY16:30 - 17:15 Robot Patrol Car

• Miriam Martinez MunozURANUS

6

Ada.Ada.AdaECWC 2016 will bring together the 1st European Celebration of Wom-en in Computing and celebrate this generation and the future pioneers in computing.

Ada Lovelace embodies the pioneering spirit of technology and as such makes a perfect figurehead for the evening event.

The Salon is a magical experience based on the 19th Century Salon frequented by the great intellectual and scientific minds of the day. The European Celebration of Women in Computing delegates will become the great minds of today. The event will be transformed through music, storytelling, creative direction, design, food and drinks. The guests will be touched by the inspirational, educational and entertaining 19th Century Salon atmosphere, hosted by Ada Lovelace.

DècorThe Proximus Lounge will be dressed by the Ada creative team. The tables will have themed centrepieces with themed trivia games that promote conversation and connection amongst the guests. The col-ours, glassware and crockery will be on theme.

EngagementDelegates will be invited to explore the memorabilia of Ada’s life - eg. her writing desk complete with Babbage’s papers and drafts of Ada’s famous Notes - left as though she will return to continue her work at any moment.

About the EventAda’s Salon is a 3-4 hour augmented event with a performance of Ada.Ada.Ada. Zoe Philpott will circulate wearing the interactive dress, compère the award ceremony and perform Ada.Ada.Ada. which in-cludes the interactive experience of building the Analytical Engine

About the CompèreZoe Philpott is an experienced public speaker and compère. She is award winning and has 15 years experience in technology, and 20 years experience in writing and directing for live performance.

MusicThe playlist for the event will be curated by the Ada team, combining period music with pioneering music artists of today: ambient, enjoyable and playful, with a nod to Ada’s foresight for computer degenerated music.

Food & DrinkThe food and drinks will be on theme in look and in taste. ‘Somerville Singularity’ will accompany delicious Victorian themed canapes such as ‘Strawberry Empanadas’ or an ‘Andalusian Tartlet’.

7

pROgRAMMETUESDAY 26th ApRIL 2016

08:30 - 9:00 Welcome coffee

09:00 - 12:00 Interactive parallel workshops part II´Build your future, leave your mark’: how to grow and succeed inside your workplace

• Maria Jose Sobrini Director for Country Digitization

• Laurence Schuurman Capgemini Financial Systems and other ECWC participants

• Marina Alekseeva General Manager & R&D Director, Intel Russia

• Deirdre Giblin Head of Operations & Programs, BUCI DUAC NAM Operations & Programs, Ireland

• Stephen Graham Chief of Staff Global TAC CISCO

• Aurelia Takacs Technical Support Manager, Technical Services, Cisco Belgium Global Delivery Partner Manager / Diversity & Inclusion Lead, Cisco Systems

Speed mentoring sessionCisco delegates from various functions…

• Mayte Cubino Gonzales - Facilitator Manager - Technical Services, Cisco Belgium

Security Divas

• Moderator: Peggy Heie the Norwegian Centre for Information Security - NorSIS Senior Advisor

Digital Trust - a Foundation for Business

• Eva-Cecilie Öjen Security Manager, Accenture

Digital Vulnerability and Trust in Technology

• Kristine Beitland Government Affairs Manager at Microsoft Norway

National Security Month - Our Work & Experiences

• Britt Eva Bjerkvik Haaland Legal Senior Adviser Agency for Public Management and eGovernment

Information Security in a University Context

• Märtha Felton Senior Legal Advisor/ Privacy Officer University Center for IT, University of Oslo

Making Security work in Agile Enterprise

• Marit Grini Director Security and Privacy at Telenor Digital

Big Data needs Women - Women needed in Big Data

• Moderator: Corina Ciechanow Professional Women International Association VP Entrepreneurship & Technology

Presentation I on Big Data

• Nuria Oliver HCI, Mobile Computing, Big and Personal Data Mining, User Modeling and Multimedia Research areas in Telefonica Research Scientific Director and Founder

Presentation 2 on Big Data

• Katja Vladislavleva DataStories.com Chief Data Scientist & CEO at DataStories.com

What can be done with big data?

Break the ice: speed matching

• Christine Bodart BNPParibas Fortis IT Innovation

Presentation of Data2x examples

• Rebecca Furst Nichols Senior Program Officer United Nations Foundation, World Bank Group

Presenting the innovation process (the How)

• Christine Bodart BNPParibas Fortis IT Innovation

• Natalia Nawrocka Forecast Analyst at Google

Table goals & setup - Table discussions - Wrap-up

Summary of main take aways - Action points - Close

KYOTO

gALATEA

CALYpSO

8

pROgRAMME

09:00 - 12:00

09:00 - 09:45

09:00 - 09:45

09:00 - 09:45

09:00 - 09:45

10:00 - 10:45

10:00 - 10:45

11:00 - 11:45

11:00 - 11:45

11:00 - 11:45

presentations

Networking Effectively and with Pleasure

• Danielle Moens Centre for Balanced Leadership Co-founder/partner

CaMEO – Career Mobility of the Older Workforce - Launching of a European e-Academy and an e-platform and e-learning course

• Megan DePutter European Ambassador for Photonics Education

115 young women, 6 weeks, 4 countries, 1 roof: what happened next

• Jacquelyn Guderley STEMettes Co-founder

Three ways to break out of your comfort zone (and advance your career)

• Carole Malbrancq INTEL CORPORATION Senior Analogue Engineer

A right-brain perspective on digital change

• Geke Rosier RightBrains

• Katrin Matthes Intel Platform Architect

Should I stay or should I go

• Claudine Schmuck Global Contact & Y-factor

Balanced Leadership – rewriting the rulebook

• Michele Mees Centre for Balanced Leadership Co-founder/partner

Tell me who you are and I will tell you your lock screen pattern

• Marte Løge Itera

Academics for Technology (AFT) - Leuven

• Lien Michiels AFT Leuven Head of AFT Leuven

pLUTO

NEpTUN

JUpITER

MERCURY

URANUS

JUpITER

pLUTO

EARTH

URANUS

11:00 - 11:45 European Molecular Biology Laboratory

• Vasiliki Karyoti EMBL IT Support Engineer

NEpTUN

Girls´Day - Impact & Scalability -Increasing the European Impact 2015-2020

• Moderator: Christina Haaf Competence Center Techonology-Diversity- Equal Chances

• Wenka Wentzel Competence Center Technology-Diversity-Equal Chances Responsible for Social Research

• Bianka Siwinska, Dr Perspektywy Education Foundation Director /CEO

• Susan Schorr Head, Special Initiatives Division, ITU

• Franka BuurkmeijerProject Manager VHTO

Women in Mobile Communication

• Moderator: Saskia van Uffelen CEO ERICSSON Belgium

• Martine Tempels Senior Vice President Telenet for Business

• Pascale Van Damme Executive & Managing Director Dell Belux

• Virginija Langbakk Director. European Institute for. Gender Equality - EIGE

• Inge Geerdens Founder & CEO CV Warehouse

• Nadia Katsanou Senior Scientific Expert in Electronic Communications- Spectrum at EETT - Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission

9

pROgRAMME

13:45 - 15:00

15:00 - 16:30

16:30 - 16:45

plenary panel The role of the media in attracting more girls to STEM & Tech careers

• Moderator: Cheryl Miller DLII Founder and Executive Director

• Martha Ivanovas Government Affairs Manager EMEA at Dell

• Terry Reintke German MEP, Member of Alliance ‘90/The Greens

• Aiste Zilinskiene Delfi - On-line Media, Lithuania

• Josephine Ida Zec Pyxie Dust, Croatia Group of NTNU students Ladies Code Russia

plenary panel The Future of Computing - also womenThe Passion Factor - How to become an e-leader?Panel:

• Moderator: Silvia Leal Director of the ICT Programs, IE Business School (moderator)

• Kàto Vierbergen-Schuit Senior Policy Advisor/ Program Manager Ministry of the Interior The Netherlands Department of IT Policy of the Central Government

• Selma Turki Watson European Business Lead - IBM Watson Group

• Amy Wettenhall Commercial Director, Ericsson Consulting & Systems Integration

• Reyyan Ayfer ACM-W Europe Committee Chair, Association for Computing Machinery, Council on Women in Computing

• Chiara Mainolfi Region Manager APMG

Closing remarks

NEpTUN

AUDITORIUM

AUDITORIUM

12:00 - 13:00

13:00 - 16:30

13:00 - 13:45

Lunch

plenary sessionLooking to the Future

Product Innovation Inspired by Women

• Anat Katz Arotchas CEO, Standpoint & representative of Design People

AUDITORIUM

09:00 - 12:00

12:00 - 13:00

13:00 - 14:30

Visit to the Stands

Press Conference for invited participants

Private buffet lunch (by invitation only)

10 ACCENTURE

ACCENTURE 11

12 BLOOMBERg

Christine FloundersR&D Manager for London at Bloomberg EMEA

vasileia TzamtziSoftware Developer at Bloomberg EMEA

Michal Bot-BachrachSenior Software Developer at Bloomberg EMEA

Bihan JiangSoftware Developer at Bloomberg EMEA

Hannah CaseSoftware Developer at Bloomberg EMEA

Mica LloydSoftware Engineering Campus Recruiter at Bloomberg EMEA

BLOOMBERg 13

Bloomberg’s software engineers work on some of the most fasci-nating — and influential — technical challenges in business and fi-nance. They are responsible for creating the world’s premiere source for real-time and historical market data and analytics. Engineers are given the responsibility to define, architect, build, and deploy com-plete systems that anticipate and fulfil our clients’ needs. Our agile development cycle allows us to roll out new software seven days a week and the impact of their contribution is highly visible throughout the company and to clients. Small teams and open communication creates a collaborative and innovative work environment.

Transparency, project ownership and an open structure without titles are just some of the reasons why we are unique as a technology company in the financial space. You will collaborate with smart, pas-sionate people who are unafraid to experiment and deviate from the status quo, and who will push and challenge you. Our teams solve unique, complex problems on a daily basis and we need dynamic en-gineers who can thrive in a fast-paced, creative environment.

At Bloomberg, we provide communications platforms, data, analyt-ics, trading platforms, news and information to the world’s leading financial market participants. Our unrivalled software, platforms, and mobile applications are delivered on top of our state-of-the-art software and hardware developed by Bloomberg technologists for Bloomberg customers.

We are extremely proud of our diverse and open culture and, with more than 15,500 employees in 73 countries, we value diversity of thought and perspective in every form. We strive to hire developers with diverse backgrounds in fields such as computer science, engineering, physics, and mathematics, so we can rapidly deploy software solutions designed and built by a mix of experiences. We believe a diverse workforce and open culture are essential to innovation.

For more information on our software engineering graduate, intern and placement opportunities, check out: http://www.bloomberg.com/careers/technology/engineering/ and to find out more about Technology at Bloomberg, check out: http://www.bloomberg.com/company/technology/

14 BLOOMBERg

CISCO 15

16 CISCO

DIgITAL EUROpE 17

ABOUT DIgITALEUROpE

DIGITALEUROPE represents the digital technology industry in Europe.

Our members include some of the world’s largest IT, telecoms and

consumer electronics companies and national associations from every

part of Europe. DIGITALEUROPE wants European businesses and citi-

zens to benefit fully from digital technologies and for Europe to grow,

attract and sustain the world’s best digital technology companies.

DIGITALEUROPE ensures industry participation in the development

and implementation of EU policies. DIGITALEUROPE’s members in-

clude 60 corporate members and 37 national trade associations from

across Europe. Our website provides further information on our re-

cent news and activities: http://www.digitaleurope.org

National Trade Associations

Austria: IÖO

Belarus: INFOPARK

Belgium: AGORIA

Bulgaria: BAIT

Cyprus: CITEA

Denmark: DI ITEK, IT-BRANCHEN

Estonia: ITL

Finland: FFTI

France: AFNUM, Force Numérique, Tech in France

Germany: BITKOM, ZVEI

Greece: SEPE

Hungary: IVSZ

Ireland: ICT IRELAND

Italy: ANITEC

DIgITALEUROpE MEMBERSHIp

Corporate Members

Airbus, AMD, Apple, BlackBerry, Bose, Brother, CA Technologies,

Canon, Cisco, Dell, Epson, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Google, Hewlett Packard

Enterprise, Hitachi, HP Inc., Huawei, IBM, Ingram Micro, Intel, iQor,

JVC Kenwood Group, Konica Minolta, Kyocera, Lenovo, Lexmark, LG

Electronics, Loewe, Microsoft, Mitsubishi Electric Europe, Motorola

Solutions, NEC, Nokia, Nvidia Ltd., Océ, Oki, Oracle, Panasonic Eu-

rope, Philips, Pioneer, Qualcomm, Ricoh Europe PLC, Samsung, SAP,

SAS, Schneider Electric IT Corporation, Sharp Electronics, Siemens,

Sony, Swatch Group, Technicolor, Texas Instruments, Toshiba, TP Vi-

sion, VMware, Western Digital, Xerox, Zebra Technologies, ZTE Cor-

poration.

Lithuania: INFOBALT

Netherlands: Nederland ICT, FIAR

Poland: KIGEIT, PIIT, ZIPSEE

Portugal: AGEFE

Romania: ANIS, APDETIC

Slovakia: ITAS

Slovenia: GZS

Spain: AMETIC

Sweden: Foreningen Teknikföretagen i Sverige,

IT&Telekomföretagen

Switzerland: SWICO

Turkey: Digital Turkey Platform, ECID

Ukraine: IT UKRAINE

United Kingdom: techUK

Dell is a leading technology provider of end-to-end solutions. Dell

innovates across key areas to create more value across the enterprise,

offering connected security from the device to the cloud; intelligent

converged infrastructure and private cloud; seamless cloud delivery

and management; business-class connected devices; transformation-

al services, and turning data into insights.

At Dell we recognize diverse perspectives are vital to driving innova-

tion, making informed decisions and delivering solutions that appeal

to a broad range of customers and markets. By creating an environ-

ment where all team members can be themselves and express them-

selves openly and honestly, we can support them to give their best

and confidently share their ideas.

We take a diversity lens on everything we do, driving accountability

for our objectives through strong leadership and practical initiatives.

This starts at the top with Michael Dell setting the tone as chair of

our Global Diversity council, now in its tenth year, and permeates our

business with practical data-driven plans to identify specific gaps and

focus areas.

In partnership with Catalyst, Dell became the first IT company to

launch MARC (Men Advocating Real Change) in 2015. MARC helps

us identify unconscious bias and aims to promote a more collabora-

tive and inclusive leadership style. A key area of focus is on gender

conditioning and how gender stereotypes can affect the way both

men and women are viewed in the workplace. The MARC program is

currently being cascaded to all levels of leadership within Dell across

the globe on a leader-led basis.

Through our employee resource groups (ERGs), we make sure to cre-

ate the right culture to promote inclusion. With more than 25,000

members in 250+ chapters spanning 60 countries globally, these

groups provide a platform for networking, professional development,

volunteering in the community and impacting Dell’s business.

Our diversity focus is supported by strong partnerships with talent

acquisition organizations and embedded in our talent practices from

hiring to development, promotion and succession planning. We work

with external D&I global partners to learn from others to share our

learnings broadly with customers and partners.

In response to the disparities faced by women when starting and

growing their businesses, we founded the Dell Women’s Entrepre-

neur Network in 2010. Hundreds of women have attended the an-

nual, invitation-only event, creating and fostering a community of

like-minded women founders looking for ways to grow and a venue

to exchange ideas, learn and do business with one another to make

it happen.

Dell has committed to over USD 1 billion in annual supply-chain

spending through our supplier diversity program, seeking to give

qualified minority-owned, women-owned, and small businesses

equal access to strategic and sustainable relationships in supporting

Dell’s business objectives.

18 DELL

DELL 19

pascale van Damme, Managing Director Dell Belgium & Luxembourg

Pascale has been Managing Director of Dell Belgium and Luxembourg for eight years, having previ-ously led the company’s pubic sales team in Belgium and later EMEA. Pascale’s experience in the IT sector spans two decades. She joined Dell in 2004 following five years as director of corporate sales at Base and held management positions at Proximus and TNT Express before. Pascale has been recognized as a fervent sponsor of women in IT, receiving Belgium’s ICT Woman of the Year award in 2014. On the back of the national award she launched the “Speed IT” program, which aims at incentivizing young women especially to take up careers in the sector. She is a member of the “Wise Women of Ghent”, a cross-sector group of female business leaders that works to encourage women to opt for ambitious careers through sharing knowledge and best practices in the community. Pascale coaches female entrepreneurs, with the recent victory of a men-tee in the broadcasted startup competition “De onderneemsters”. She climbed the Mont Blanc in 2014 as part of a women-only team. Pascale leads the skills and education work around transforming students into digital natives in the Belgian Coalition for Digital Jobs, with the key ask of reaching more girls.

Martha Ivanovas, government Affairs Manager EMEA Dell

Martha joined the Dell government affairs team in 2015. An entrepreneurially minded athlete, she previously helped launch and run a regulatory news service and an advisory firm in Brussels. Founding member of a global media ethics network, Martha also worked several years as public affairs consult-ant advising a range of international companies in the technology, media and telecommunications sector.

20 ERICSSON

ERICSSON 21

22 gOOgLE

IBM 23

IBM is a globally integrated technology and consulting company

headquartered in Armonk, New York. With operations in more than

170 countries, IBM attracts and retains some of the world’s most tal-

ented people to help solve problems and provide an edge for busi-

nesses, governments and non-profits.

Innovation is at the core of IBM’s strategy. The company develops and

sells software and systems hardware and a broad range of infrastruc-

ture, cloud and consulting services.

Today, IBM is focused on five growth initiatives - Cloud, Big Data and

Analytics, Mobile, Social Business and Security. IBMers are working

with customers around the world to apply the company’s business

consulting, technology and R&D expertise to enable systems of en-

gagement that deliver dynamic insights for businesses and govern-

ments worldwide.

Our values

Our values as IBMers shape everything we do, every choice we make

on behalf of this company. Having a shared set of values helps us

make decisions and, in the process, makes our company great. But

their real influence occurs when we apply these values to our person-

al work and our interactions with one another and the wider world.

IBMers determined that our actions will be driven by these values:

• Dedicationtoeveryclient’ssuccess

• Innovationthatmatters,forourcompanyandfortheworld

• Trustandpersonalresponsibilityinallrelationships

Diversity in IBM

IBM‘s enduring commitment to diversity is one of the reasons we can

credibly say that IBM is one of the world‘s leading globally integrated

enterprises. We also understand that diversity goes beyond fair hiring

practices and protection for all employees. It also includes a focus

on how those disparate pieces fit together to create an innovative,

integrated whole. We call this approach “inclusion.”

While our differences shape who we are as individual IBMers, our

shared corporate culture and values remain central to our mutual suc-

cess. IBMers around the world work in an environment where diversi-

ty—including diversity of thought—is the norm, which yields a com-

mitment to creating client innovation in every part of our business.

Isabella Chiodi Bio

vice president of EU Unit, IBM

Isabella Chiodi is IBM Vice President of EU Unit, in charge of Business relation-

ships with central EU Institutions and coordination of EU related projects across

the Member States.

She joined IBM in 1981, and since then she has had several and diversified re-

sponsibilities:

Director of Financial Services Sector,

Director of Southern Europe Application Management Services,

Director of Southern Europe Strategic Outsourcing,

CEO of Global Value , the FIAT – IBM JV,

Managing Director of IBM Global Accounts.

She is member of the Board of Confindustria Innovation Services in Italy, and

Member of the Board of VenetoNanotech.

She is a member of AIDDA, FCEM (Femmes Chefs d’Entreprises Mondiales), and

honorary member of PWA.

24 IBM

INTEL 25

26 INTEL

ORACLE ACADEMY 27

Jane Richardson, Regional Director EMEA, Oracle Academy

There is clearly a perception problem around the suitability and attractiveness of IT as a female profession and solving this will go a long way towards boosting the number of women in the industry.

In some parts of EMEA, women make a significant impression of the work force; for example in the UK, women account for around 47 per cent of the working population1. However, these figures are not reflected across the IT industry as roughly 18 per cent of IT workers in the UK² are women and in fact only 10 per cent of global internet entrepreneurs are women³. Parts of the Middle East appear to be bucking this trend how-ever. This is a region where the number of women entrepre-neurs stands at 35 per cent⁴, well above the global average, and this could well be down to the fact that women in this region see IT as an opportunity to get a foothold in a fulfilling career.

Addressing the perception problem

The current skills gap blighting the IT industry is such that job opportunities really are open to women every bit as much as they are to men. Companies across the world are crying out for people to fill vacancies in highly lucrative professions such as data science, cloud architecture, app development and pro-gramming. These opportunities aren’t limited to technology companies: retail, travel, manufacture and nearly every other sector need people who possess technical and analytical skills. As long as the industry continues to make a concerted effort to highlight to women that jobs in IT really are for them we will go some way towards addressing the current gender im-balance.

The most obvious way of solving this problem, and one that governments and IT organisations are already undertaking, is to highlight to women the depth and breadth of career oppor-tunities available. Women such as Ruchi Sanghvi, Vice Pres-ident of Operations at Dropbox and Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo have all forged highly diverse careers at the top of their professions. They provide living proof that the IT industry has moved on leaps and bounds since the days Dame Stephanie Shirley – founder of software company F.I Group (now Xansa) – used the name Steve to help her get work in the in the male-dominated IT industry. The modern IT industry is open to women, but women need to see it as such and, critically, be interested in the work.

And it is not just professions in IT that computer science skills can lead to. Very recently Clara Shih, founder of Hearsay So-cial, was appointed to the Starbucks board. At just 31 she has taken the seat vacated by another successful female technol-ogist: Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook. Examples such as these show how a background in IT can lead to all kinds of unexpected career opportunities.

But attracting women to a career in IT must start well before job-seeking age. We have found that girls at the K-12 stage of education (i.e. primary and secondary school) respond best to IT education if it is presented in a creative way. For example, the Oracle Academy Alice training programme encourages young people with little or no programming experience to learn basic Java programming through animation. This approach draws on elements of animation and storytelling that appeal to any young mind, but we have found that it resonates particularly well with girls.

¹ http://www.e-skills.com/research/research-themes/women-in-it/² http://www.e-skills.com/research/research-themes/women-in-it/³ http://www.economist.com/news/business/21581740-middle-east-beats-west-female-tech-founders-untraditional-choice⁴ Ibid

To get More Women in IT, Stop Treating it as a gender Issue

Initiatives such as e-skills UK’s Computing Club for Girls will help address this in the medium term, but for a real long term solution we need to see an overhaul of the way computing is taught in EMEA schools. By teaching it from a young age, as a core skill and with a focus on programming there is every rea-son to believe the IT gender imbalance can be reduced within a generation.

Removing gender from the debate

Which leads us to the crux of the mat-ter: the real way to tackle the percep-tion problem around IT is to remove notions of gender from the debate and focus instead on treating it as an education issue. A permanent long-term method of bringing a gender balance to IT lies in making the subject gender-neutral from an early age. To do this it needs to be taught to chil-dren from a very young age, before they have developed preconceptions on what constitutes male and female subjects. At this young age children will soak up any information given to them, regardless of the subject mat-ter. It is the perfect time to arm them with core IT skills that will stand them in good stead regardless of what they do in later life.

In the near future all jobs will require an element of IT use; indeed, the EC has estimated that by as early as 2015 90 per cent of jobs will require IT skills5. Whatever career women choose it will require some level of IT proficiency. This is why computer science needs to be taught as a core skill in much the same way that reading, writing and arithmetic is today. Teaching computer science from a young age will arm our future female leaders and re-balance the gender imbalance.

In 1962, Shirley founded the software company F.I. Group (lat-er Xansa, since acquired by Steria). She was concerned with creating work opportunities for women with dependants, and predominantly employed women, only 3 out of 300-odd pro-grammers were male,[3] until the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 made that illegal. She adopted the name “Steve” to help her in the male-dominated business world.

5 http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/itemdetail.cfm?item_id=5824

28 ORACLE ACADEMY

ORACLE ACADEMY 29

30 QUALCOMM

SAp 31

32 SAp

SpONSORS

33