Gender Inclusive Innovation Ecosystems & WEA Digital Innovation Challenge

To develop a more inclusive and diverse world, creating an enabling digital innovation ecosystem for women entrepreneurs worldwide is crucial. The UN Women's Entrepreneurship Accelerator (WEA) aims to maximize women's entrepreneurship impact in achieving the SDGs and support empowering 5 million women entrepreneurs by 2030.

The two session side-event of the Commission on the Status of Women 67th edition, provides an opportunity for all stakeholders within the women’s entrepreneurship ecosystem to discuss the importance of women entrepreneurship as a powerful force addressing societal challenges through innovation  and support of SDG’s; learn about the impact of the WEA  initiatives; and have an understanding of the emerging policies and practices that could be applied and replicated globally to support gender sensitive innovation

• 9:00 - 10:00 Registration and Drinks
• 10:00 - 11:00 Fireside chat on Gender Inclusive Innovation Ecosystems
• 11:00 - 13:00 WEA Digital Innovation Challenge Winners Announcement and Pitch
• 13:00-14:00 Networking Lunch for the participants

Women entrepreneurs make significant contributions to economic growth and poverty reduction around the world. While the number of women operating their own businesses is increasing globally, women continue to face huge obstacles that stunt the growth of their businesses, such as lack of capital, social norms as well as time and skill constraints. Developing a more gender-inclusive ecosystem for start-ups requires challenging the current business models and addressing the many obstacles women entrepreneurs face to success in developing technologies.

The hybrid session will be initiated by welcoming remarks from Anita Bhatia, Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director for UN Coordination, Partnerships, Resources, and Sustainability, followed by a fireside chat between the United Nations partners. The discussion provides an opportunity to discuss the critical importance of entrepreneurship as one of the key drivers to tackle innovation, highlight the need of supporting women entrepreneurs as solutionaries who create a range of innovative solutions to the pressing challenges and social needs of their communities, feature ways of addressing the barriers to innovation for women-owned and led firms, initiate the discussion for policy recommendation fostering greater innovation in women businesses and invite the audience to jumpstart change for women around the world by joining the Accelerator and growing the initiative over the next decade.

During this hybrid session the winners of the challenge will be announced and awarded, as well as pitch in front of a jury for special surprises.

We are pleased to have received over 250 submissions from 54 countries from initiatives led by outstanding women working towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in collaboration with the Women Entrepreneurship Accelerator (WEA) and Mary Kay Global, has launched the WEA Digital Innovation Challenge with the theme of Building enabling ecosystems for women entrepreneurs. This challenge supports the commitment of WEA to empower 5 million women entrepreneurs by 2030 WEA is a multi-partnership initiative on women's entrepreneurship convening the 6 United Nations agencies (ITU, International Labour Organization (ILO), International Trade Centre (ITC), UN Development Programme (UNDP) , UN Global Compact (UNGC) and UN Women).

You can register to join the pitch-sessions of the finalists and meet incredible initiatives led by women achieving the SDGs.

9 March 2023, 10:00 –11:30 EDT:  https://itu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vQWhWe9aREaU6HV-qo6KuA

10 March 2023, 10:00 – 11:30 EDT:  https://itu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_fpzeRei5RweTw6o6Tn35F 

Dan Seymour is UN Women’s Strategic Partnerships Director since July 2019. He previously served as UN Women’s Director of Humanitarian Action and Crisis Response Office and Deputy Chief of Staff/ Strategic Planning Advisor to the Executive Director. He began his career as Save the Children UK’s first Human Rights Officer. He has worked in government as an advisor on child rights to Robin Cook, the UK Foreign Secretary, with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Kosovo Mission as a human rights monitor and head of office, and as Save the Children Alliance Representative to the United Nations in New York. He joined the UN with UNICEF in 2002 working first in the Child Protection Section of Program Division, then as Planning and Social Policy Officer in the Viet Nam Country Office, and finally as Chief of UNICEF’s Gender and Rights Unit. During that time, he was elected chair of the OECD/ DAC’s Human Rights Task Team. In 2010 he went to UN Women to support its establishment. He is a graduate of Oxford University with degrees in Political Science and Economics and Human Rights Law and Theory. Dan is a UK national with two daughters and a son.

As Chief Operating Officer, Deborah Gibbins has broad responsibility for Mary Kay’s product strategy, research and development, supply chain, financial operations, and information technology. Deborah is part of executive committees responsible for IT security, enterprise risk management, and facilities planning. Deborah joined Mary Kay as Chief Financial Officer in 2013.

Before coming to Mary Kay, Deborah held senior leadership roles within the finance function of PepsiCo’s Frito Lay North America division, including Senior Vice President, Revenue Management, and Senior Vice President, Controller. Before her PepsiCo career, Deborah was a senior manager at Arthur Andersen LLP in Dallas.

Deborah has a proven track record of delivering performance through cost management, creating business efficiencies through the understanding of metrics, and the ability to objectively improve and streamline operations.

Deborah is a regular on the speakers’ circuit with her latest engagements speaking at various UN Women events about entrepreneurship and women’s economic and social empowerment. She was also instrumental in launching the Women’s Entrepreneurship Accelerator (WEA), which is a multi-stakeholder partnership initiative on women’s entrepreneurship convening 6 United Nations agencies (ILO, ITC, ITU, UNDP, UNGC, UN Women) and Mary Kay Inc. to empower 5 million women entrepreneurs by 2030 and to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by creating an enabling ecosystem for women entrepreneurs around the world.

Harry entered the Financial Services Industry in 1985 and has held senior positions at JP Morgan, US Trust Company and Tiedemann Trust Company. He has also served as President of O’Mealia Outdoor Advertising Company, a family business, as President of Black River Media, a publishing venture and as an Associate in the corporate department of Lowenstein Sandler LLP.

Over the past number of years, Harry has participated in panels or has been a source for articles on Mergers and Acquisitions in the RIA space, the Distinction between the Investment Profession and the Investment Business, Tension Between Growth and Profitability, Family Businesses and Comparison of Wealth Management Business Models. Harry is a Board member of the New Jersey Community Foundation. He is a member of the Bars of the State of New Jersey and the U.S. Supreme Court. Harry also currently serves on the Finance Committee for the Borough of Mantoloking and the Business Advisory Council for Boston College Law School. He is also a past Board member of the Baltimore Urban Debate League, The Maryland Science Center, NJN, New Jersey’s public television and radio network, the New Jersey Trust for Public Land, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and Morristown Memorial Hospital. Harry received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in English and History, his J.D. from Boston College Law School and his M.B.A. in Finance from Columbia University.

Julia Pimsleur is a scaling coach, mindset expert, speaker and bestselling author. She is founder of Million Dollar Women Network, an education platform and powerful network for women entrepreneurs in the US and Canada.

Pimsleur is the author of Go Big Now: 8 Essential Mindset Practices to Overcome Any Obstacle and Reach Your Goals about getting and keeping the Go Big Mindset and the bestselling Million Dollar Women about women building multimillion dollar businesses. Pimsleur interviews guests and shares go big tips on her live show Go Big Now Live on Linked In. Julia can be found on social media on IG, LinkedIn and Twitter @juliapimsleur. You can see her speaking, TEDx and coaching programs at juliapimsleur.com

Tess Mateo is Senior Advisor to AQAL Capital and the United Nations on Gender and Climate; and Managing Director of CXCatalysts, which develops public private partnerships in clean energy, water, sustainable food, and health. With her global networks developing “green economy” jobs, she is a sought-after collaborator and is a US W20 delegate to the G20.

Prior to CXCatalysts, Tess spent nearly a decade working for PwC’s Global CEO. She directed his strategic initiatives after spending 20+ years restructuring Fortune 1000 companies around the world. Tess also launched real estate and technology ventures and invests in social, fintech, and space innovators.

As a member of and an advisor to boards, she focuses on environmental and social impacts affecting enterprise value. Sample published contributions include The Internet of Women: Accelerating Culture Change (River Publishers 2016); Achieving Sustainability: Visions, Principles and Practices, 1st Edition (Macmillan Reference USA 2014); Beyond Reporting: Creating Business Value & Accountability, (WBCSD 2005); “The Administrative Expense Budget” for John Wiley & Sons’ top-selling Handbook of Budgeting, Third Edition, 1997.

Tess holds degrees from the University of Michigan and Columbia Business School.

Ursula Wynhoven is a lawyer with 24 years of experience, the last 16 of which have been with the United Nations. She is the Representative to the United Nations in New York for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and Head of its UN Affairs Division and NY Liaison Office. The ITU is the UN’s specialized agency for information and communication technologies committed to connecting the world wherever people live and whatever their means. She works at the intersection of technology and development, promoting digital inclusion and the use of ICTs for sustainable development.

Prior to joining the ITU, Ursula worked with the UN Global Compact, the UN’s corporate sustainability initiative, as its Chief, Social Sustainability, Governance and Legal, where she led legal affairs, and developed and led programming on social sustainability and governance issues, spearheading initiatives such as the Women’s Empowerment Principles, Children’s Rights and Business Principles, and Business for the Rule of Law. Before joining the UN, Ursula worked for the OECD on its corporate responsibility initiative, for government human rights agencies, and for law firms in Australia and the US.

She has Master of Laws degrees from Columbia University, where she was a Human Rights Fellow, and from Monash Law School, as well as Bachelor’s Degrees in Law (Hons), Economics and Letters. She has been admitted to practice law in jurisdictions in the UnitedStates, United Kingdom and Australia.

The Women’s Entrepreneurship Accelerator (WEA) is a multi-stakeholder partnership on women’s entrepreneurship convening 6 United Nations agencies (ILO, ITC, ITU, UNDP, UNGC and UN Women) and Mary Kay Inc. to empower 5 million women entrepreneurs by 2030. The ultimate goal of the initiative is to maximize the development impact of women entrepreneurship in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by creating an enabling ecosystem for women entrepreneurs around the world. The Accelerator exemplifies the transformational power of a multi partnership of unique magnitude to harness the potential of women entrepreneurs.

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