After Agrawal resigned as Twitter CEO, everyone is talking about the long list of Indian-origin CEOs who have headed large tech organisations and still are. The list is illustrious, no doubt, but there is something stark that should catch your eye -- the gender disparity.
The list of Indian-origin CEOs leading big tech firms in the US includes three women - Vimeo s Anjali Sud, Flex s Revati Advaithi and Arista Networks Jayashree Ullal.
According to the World Economic Forum WEF, the tech industry is booming and the first quarter of 2021 saw global venture investments reach $125 billion, a 94 per cent increase year-on-year. As a report from WEF points out - If a rising tide lifts all boats, why does participation of women in tech not go up? The latest Global Gender Gap Report states that it will take 135.6 years to cover the gender gap worldwide. The average distance to parity is 68 per cent and this is a step back by 0.6 percentage points since 2020. The report explained that these figures were mainly driven by a decline in the performance of large countries.
As founder and CEO of FinMkt Luan Cox points out, it is important to get more women into tech and more women leaders in tech. It needs to start with changing the perception of what qualifies as a founder in our global culture. This starts by teaching and coaching young people that successful entrepreneurs are not classified or limited by gender. If young males are taught early that females can be impactful leaders and entrepreneurs, they will be more supportive and more able to recognize success. Young women should know that they are equal to men, and can and must dream big: women must know that they can be even better business builders, especially in technology, life sciences and finance Cox said.
She said that venture capital firms and angel investor groups would do well to invest in mentorship and training programs in their communities that provide tools and guidance to help young females start their own companies knowing they are supported by an inclusive network.
We need to stop celebrating hyperbolic visions of founders and value different metrics of progress and success. Women are equally capable of building great ambitious companies, despite the fact that they tend to downplay or be cautious in their projections. We need to normalize the combination of family life and entrepreneurship. Many women won't start up a company because of the perceived all-consuming lifestyle of a start-up founder and expectations of investors. A good founder will lead a sustainable lifestyle that allows for a company to grow over five -- 10 years, and this should include the possibility of having a family, said Mikela Druckman, Co-founder and CEO at GreyParrot.
It is clear that it is a work in progress and while we wait for better days here are 11 women CEOs and 2021 technology pioneers who are working on bridging the gap. Anjali Sud is CEO of Vimeo and has been working with the company since 2014. She had initially joined Vimeo as the head of global marketing. Sud has a BSc in finance and management from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Revathi Advaithi is the CEO of Flex. She is an independent director for the board of directors of both Uber and Catalyst.org and is a member of the MIT Presidential CEO Advisory Board. Advaithi holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science and an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.
Jayshree Ullal is the CEO of Arista Networks and was appointed in 2008. She has previously worked with AMD, Fairchild Semiconductor, and Cisco. Ullal has a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from San Francisco State University and a Master's degree in engineering management from Santa Clara University.
Amena Ali is the CEO of Airside. Airside s Digital Identity Network helps with secure digital identity management to protect personal information while also adhering to privacy regulations.
Luan Cox is the founder and CEO of Finmkt.io. FinMkt is working on revolutionizing point-of-sale PoS consumer lending through its omni-channel, multi-lender, software-as-a-service platform.
Mikela Druckman is the co-founder and CEO of GreyParrot. GreyParrot is a company that provides AI-based computer vision waste recognition software to monitor, audit and sort large volumes of recyclables at scale.
Maria Carolina is the Founder and CEO of SINAI Technologies. SINAI Technologies is working on mitigating climate change by enabling organisations with digitised tools for carbon emissions measurement, reporting and mitigation option assessment.
Priya Lakhani is the Founder and CEO at CENTURY Tech. CENTURY develops AI-based learning technologies and its team of teachers, neuroscientists and technologists to develop AI tools for schools and colleges, as well as for learning and development environments.
Nita Madhav is the CEO of Metabiota. Metabiota helps governments and businesses mitigate and transfer the health and economic risks posed by infectious disease with the help of data science, analytical tools, and hands-on support.
Ruth Poliakine Baruchi is the Founder and CEO of Myndyou. MyndYou is an AI-powered virtual care assistant that focuses on population health and patient care management.
Jutta Steiner is the CEO of Parity Technologies. Parity Technologies is a coreBlockchain infrastructure company that is creating an open-source creative common that will enable people to create better institutions through technology.