​GEM-Tech Awards 2014: Global Achievers

Monique Morrow, Cisco Systems
Monique Morrow is Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Cisco's Services Group. She has over two decades of experience in IP internetworking. Monique has dedicated her life to the promotion of the engineering field to women. She advises: "No matter where you are in the world, follow your curiosity and your passion. Technology is so much fun! Take risks! Don't let anyone stop you!" At the 2013 ITU Girls in ICT Day, Monique spoke on this issue in the European Parliament. Here she urged women to take ownership of their individual careers and write the script for their future.

Renee Wittemyer, Intel
Renee Wittemyer is the Director of Social Innovation in Intel Corporation's Corporate Responsibility Office. Her work focuses on how ICTs and innovation can have a social impact. In her role she works across Intel's business to develop social innovation opportunities, works on strategy, policy and research for Intel's girls and women's initiative, and manages strategic relationships with groups such as USAID, NGOs, and UN Women. She led the Women and the Web research report on the gender and Internet gap. This led to the launch of Intel® She Will Connect, which is focused on bringing millions of women online in Sub Saharan Africa.

Jasna Matić, Serbia
Jasna Matić was Telecommunications and Information Society Minister for Serbia 2008-2011, State Secretary for Digital Agenda 2011-2012, and is a Commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Digital Development since 2012. Among the priorities she pursues are the use of ICT in education and promotion of education and careers in ICT for women and girls across the globe. At the 2010 ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Guadalajara the Serbian delegation headed by Ms Matić proposed inviting member countries to denote Girls in ICT Day – a day when girls all over the world visit ICT companies and universities and learn about ICT. Since then, Girls in ICT Day has been celebrated in more than 140 countries, with hundreds of thousands of girls worldwide gaining insight into the exciting world of technology.

Geena Davis, ITU Special Envoy for Women and Girls in ICT
Academy Award®-winning actor Geena Davis founded the Geena Davis Institute for Gender in Media, an organization which is at the forefront of changing female character portrayals and gender stereotypes in children's media and entertainment. While watching children's entertainment with her young daughter, Geena was astounded by the dearth of female characters. Inspired to take action, she commissioned the largest research project on gender in film and television ever undertaken. That research confirmed the disparity she observed: in family films there is only one female character for every three male characters. Children's repetitive viewing patterns ensure that these negative stereotypes are ingrained and imprinted over and over again.

GSMA – Connected Women
GSMA Connected Women accelerates growth of the female digital economy by working with partners to bring significant socio-economic benefits to women consumers and employees. The programme is focused on increasing women's access to and use of mobile phones and life-enhancing mobile services in developing markets, as well as closing the digital skills gender gap, attracting and retaining female talent, and encouraging female leadership in technology on a global basis. GSMA Connected Women is active across the globe, and to date more than 10 million women have been reached by the programme's working group participants and grantees.

Alcatel-Lucent – StrongHer
StrongHer was founded in 2011 by six talented ICT-skilled women to take action to increase the representation of women at all levels and in all job functions in Alcatel-Lucent. The network, inclusive of all employees, has greatly developed thanks to the Alcatel-Lucent corporate social networking platform Engage, and has allowed all interested employees around the world to step up and take action locally. Today StrongHer has more than 950 members in 50+ countries, with 18% men. StrongHer empowers employees to become shapers of their own future and offers networking opportunities, personal development, a think tank on leadership, and exposure to diverse role models.

Find the Global Achievers Brochure here