The Successful You is a full day forum presented by Microsoft New England and The Commonwealth Institute (TCI). It provides entry to mid-level women in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields with a clear and practical understanding of how to achieve continued success in their careers. In its fourth year, this inspiring and informative program will cover a range of topics to drive women’s success including: communications seminars, roundtable discussions highlighting esteemed women entrepreneurs and business leaders, negotiation workshops, a breadth of networking opportunities, and much more.
Date: November 14, 2013
Time: 8:30am-5:00pm
Location: Microsoft New England R&D Center, One Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Cost: $125
Georgia Papathomas
Group Chief Information Officer & Vice President of IT Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals
Diane Ripstein
Chief Communicator, Diane Ripstein Consulting
Melissa Manwaring
Director of Learning Assessment & Professor of Negotiation, Babson College
Robin Chase
Chief Executive Officer, Buzzcar
Georgia Papathomas is Group Chief Information Officer and Vice President of IT Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson. She is responsible for overall IT services delivery, and innovative solutions that drive business growth across the Pharma businesses. Georgia’s managerial leadership spans globally across the Pharma IT organization, including commercial, R&D, architecture & integration and Janssen IT Risk Assurance. Georgia partners with Sanjay Ramaswamy, Enterprise Supply Chain CIO, to design and deliver supply- chain IT solutions to our Pharmaceutical Business.
Previously, Georgia was Senior Vice President – Chief Information Officer and Corporate Innovation Officer at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceutical. In this role, she was accountable for driving innovation in the business, influencing changes in Heath IT and creating a competitive advantage through the use of technology.
Prior to Boehringer Ingelheim, Georgia was Vice President - Global Customer Service Management at Pfizer, Inc. where she directed a global organization of senior managers accountable for Business IT solutions, Business Relationship Management, Portfolio Management and Service Management. Also at Pfizer, she previously held the positions of Vice President - Global Infrastructure Transformation targeting organizational and services transformation/redesign within IT-Shared Services, and Vice President - Corporate IT- EMEA.
Georgia holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering, an M.S. in Engineering Mechanics and a Ph.D. in Engineering Science from Columbia University.
Robin Chase is founder and CEO of Buzzcar, a service that brings together car owners and drivers in a carsharing marketplace. Buzzcar.com empowers individuals to take control of their mobility, without looking to governments or big businesses for solutions. Robin is also founder and former CEO of Zipcar, the largest carsharing company in the world, and GoLoco, an online ridesharing community.
She is on the Board of the World Resources Institute, the National Advisory Council for Innovation & Entrepreneurship for the US Department of Commerce, and the OECD’s International Transport Forum Advisory Board. She also served on the Intelligent Transportations Systems Program Advisory Committee for the US Department of Transportation, the Massachusetts Governor’s Transportation Transition Working Group, and Boston Mayor’s Wireless Task Force. Robin lectures widely, has been frequently featured in the major media, and has received many awards in the areas of innovation, design, and environment, including Time 100 Most Influential People, Fast Company Fast 50 Innovators, and BusinessWeek Top 10 Designers. Robin graduated from Wellesley College and MIT's Sloan School of Management, and was a Harvard University Loeb Fellow.
Daphne Zohar is the founder and managing partner of PureTech, a technology development company tackling tomorrow’s biggest healthcare challenges.
Ms. Zohar was recognized by Fierce Biotech as one of the “Top 10 Women in Biotech”, BioWorld as one of 28 leaders predicted to be the “movers and shakers” of the biotechnology industry over the next twenty years, and by the Boston Globe as one of the “Top 15 Innovators”. A successful entrepreneur, Ms. Zohar created PureTech and assembled a leading team to help implement her vision for the firm. She sits on the boards of PureTech, Enlight, Follica Inc., Akili Interactive Labs, Vedanta Bioscience, Mandara Sciences, Karuna Pharmaceuticals, and Tal Medical. She also sits on the Technology Development Fund Advisory Board at Children’s Hospital Boston and is an Editorial Advisor to Xconomy, a national technology news blog.
Diane helps very smart people sound as smart as they are.
After working with Diane, business executives and management teams deliver winning communications and presentations: to their prospects and peers, to the public and to the press. Going far beyond basic Presentation and Media Interview skills, Diane uses her theatrical training, sales experience, coaching flair and emphasis on Executive Presence to inspire her clients and help them to become communicators of influence.
For the past 16 years, Diane’s consulting firm has worked with executives at over 100 client companies: in financial services, management consulting, life sciences, technology, marketing and the media; from Fortune 100 firms to small, funky design shops.
With both a Masters Degree in Education and professional performance experience as a dancer and actor, Diane’s technical expertise and theatrical flair translate into high-impact, high-energy programs.
Jules spent her childhood days reading every single biography her Detroit elementary school offered, filling her head with gigantic ideas about how each and every person can impact the world. Jules' confidence in attacking seemingly impossible challenges was formed at a young age. Her first trip to Europe was not a mere visit...she moved herself to Paris right out of college. Similarly, she relocated her family of five to Ireland for the first half of this decade. Why? Why not?
This inspires Jules as she leads the Grommet. She's building a Citizen Commerce-powered platform to help people support the kind of products that align with their interests and values. The Grommet is Jules' third startup. She began her professional life as an industrial designer working for computer enterprises, but soon realized the majority of our economy is shaped by consumer products companies, so she followed the action over to consumer brands as an executive at Keds and Hasbro. Jules is told she is the first industrial designer to get a Harvard MBA, where she is now an Entrepreneur in Residence.
In her 13 years at MIT, Kathleen has helped MIT Technology Review to redefine the magazine brand and to achieve success in a rapidly changing market. She has established several new lines of business in the USA as well as in Asia, Europe and Latin America. She leads events, sales and licensing for MIT’s media company as well as the global team of the entrepreneurial support organization, the MIT Enterprise Forum.
Prior to MIT, Kathleen worked at a startup the specialized in media research for movies. She began her career in accounting. She has received a number of industry awards, including the Folio: 40 which recognized the most innovative and influential people in magazines.
Perry Hewitt is an established leader in digital strategy and communications, with deep experience in the corporate and not-for-profit sectors. Her background includes both traditional business and marketing, as well digital and social innovation and management. As Chief Digital Officer, Perry is charged with Harvard’s efforts to develop a digital strategy for communications and engagement tailored to audiences including the general public, media, and 375,000 alumni worldwide – as well as exploring ways that organizations transform through and for their digital constituencies. Previously, Perry worked at firms including Crimson Hexagon, Razorfish, Harcourt, and Lotus Development Corporation. Perry is a frequent writer and speaker on topics including digital strategy, content management, user experience, mobile, women and leadership, and the social web. Find her online at perryhewitt.com
Samantha is the GM of Customer Engagement where she leads Microsoft’s Customer Success, Training, Enablement, Strategic Customer Program and Operations Teams for Yammer. Prior to joining Microsoft, Samantha was a Vice President at salesforce.com, a leader in SaaS and CRM solutions, where she ran the Customer Success and other services teams. Previously, she was a Senior Manager at Deloitte Consulting focused on CRM its impact to industries. Samantha has a B.A. in Quantitative Economics from UCSD and a MBA from Columbia University.
Dr. Susan Windham-Bannister is the first President and CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC), a quasi-public organization charged with administering the 10-year $1 billion Life Sciences Initiative enacted by the Massachusetts Legislature in 2008. The MLSC is the hub for all sectors of the Commonwealth’s life sciences community – biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, medical diagnostics and bioinformatics.
Previously, she co-founded Abt Bio-Pharma Solutions (ABS), a boutique consulting firm serving life sciences companies and managed its Commercial Strategy Group.
She has co-authored two books: Competitive Strategy for Health Care Organizations, and Medicaid and Other Experiments in State Health Policy. She also has written numerous articles on competition in today’s health care marketplace.
Dr. Windham-Bannister received a B.A. from Wellesley College, a doctorate in health policy and management from the Florence Heller School at Brandeis University, and a Doctor of Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2012 (honoris causa). She completed her doctoral work under a fellowship from the Ford Foundation and was also a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School.
Tish is the CEO and co-founder of GRIT, a social enterprise that created the Leveraged Freedom Chair (LFC), an all-terrain wheelchair for developing countries. She graduated from MIT in 2010 with an SB in mechanical engineering and a minor in applied international studies. At MIT she became hooked on using her engineering skills for public service and she put these skills to use in East Africa, Haiti and India as the LFC was developed and tested. Tish has previously worked at the World Bank.