ICSB Global is excited to announce that registration for the GW School of Business: Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Impact Conference is now open!
The conference will be held virtually on March 8, 2021, 9:00 – 5:00 p.m. EST (Time in Washington D.C.)
Conference Chair
Kathy Korman Frey
Professor at the George Washington University School of Business
Kathy Korman Frey is a professor at the George Washington University School of Business where she teaches the nationally award-winning Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership. She is the founder of The Hot Mommas Project women’s leadership research venture, and has 30 years of experience as a senior executive in venture funded start-ups, merger & acquisition, and consulting.
Keynote Speakers
Amy Errett
Founder and CEO of Madison Reed
Amy’s multifaceted career has ranged from founding and operating companies, to investing in startups, to volunteer nonprofit leadership. Currently, Amy is Founder and CEO of Madison Reed, an omnichannel beauty brand that is challenging industry titans in the hair color space. She is also a Partner at True Ventures, focusing on investments in consumer and ecommerce startups.
Patricia Greene
Professor Emerita at Babson College
Dr. Patricia Greene served as the 18th Director of the Women’s Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor. She is Professor Emerita at Babson College where she previously served as Dean and Provost, and as the founding National Academic Director for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses and 10,000 Women initiatives. She is a founder of the Diana Project.
Featured Moderators
Linda Acholonu
2020 recipient of the Dr. Erik K. Winslow award at the George Washington University School of Business
Clinical drug development expert with 19+ years of experience within drug and device development in Phase I – IV trials. Innovative leader with demonstrated success within Project Management and Operations Management. Highly motivated and results driven individual.
Masters of Business Administration In Healthcare with a concentration in Entrepreneurship from George Washington University.
Ruth Dwyer
Senior Project Manager for the International Council for Small Business (ICSB)
Dr. Ruth Dwyer. MD, serves as the Senior Project Manager for the International Council for Small Business (ICSB).
Pivoting pediatrician interested in social entrepreneurship, small businesses, and the SDGs. Ruth has worked on numerous medical startups. She enjoys painting, playing games, shooting hoops, and time with my family.
Conference Agenda
March 8, 2021 – Venue: Everywhere through ZOOM
Welcome Opening Session| 9:00 - 9:15 a.m. EST
Speakers:
Vanessa Perry, Associate Dean for Faculty; Professor of Marketing;
Kathy Korman Frey. Professorial Lecturer in Management
Moderator: Ruth Dwyer, GWSB MBA Healthcare
Introducing the Ascent Free Platform for Women| 9:15 - 10:15 a.m. EST
Keynote session. Introducing the Ascent Free Platform for Women. Dr. Patti Greene and Prof. Kathy Korman Frey are the entrepreneurship experts behind the Small Business Administration’s resource “Ascent,” a free women’s entrepreneurship learning platform. Listeners will be walked through favorite tools, as well as key topics which include financial statements, people, and marketing.
Pitching yourself and your idea: what do prospective investors want to see, hear and feel about you? | 10:30 - 11:30 a.m. EST
Fireside Chat with Amy Millman, President of Springboard Enterprises. In this session Amy will answer questions about her decades of experience supporting female entrepreneurs and discuss ways that innovators and entrepreneurs can help (and hurt) themselves when they talk about the plans for their startup ventures. She is sure to provide key insights on ways that entrepreneurs, especially women entrepreneurs, can make their best case when pitching their idea to others.
Moderator: Lex McCusker, Director of Student Entrepreneurship Programs at George Washington University
Q & A Keynote with Amy Errett, founder of Madison Reed hair color| 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. EST
This isn’t your normal company in the beauty industry. Madison Reed grew exponentially during Covid. How did they do it? Learn about the company’s compelling mission, steps the company took during Covid – and every day – to support and empower their team and women around the world.
Moderator: Professor Kathy Korman Frey
Student Co-moderator: Lexi Young, GWSB MBA Candidate
Indigenous Women Entrepreneurs in Tourism | 1:15 - 2:15 p.m EST
Session Description:
Tourism provides a promising approach to sustainable development—a way for Indigenous communities to generate income, alleviate poverty, increase access to healthcare and education, and conserve their cultural and natural resources. Indigenous entrepreneurship in tourism is growing rapidly in the Americas, but there are significant discrepancies in opportunity for Indigenous women. Lack of education, lack of access to loans and capital, and lack of representation in the tourism industry are just some of the barriers facing Indigenous women who aspire to be tourism entrepreneurs. Despite these obstacles, entrepreneurial Indigenous women are playing an important role in achieving sustainable development goals by improving the living conditions of their families, creating economic value for their communities, upholding the traditions of their communities and creating economic independence and work opportunities for themselves. Join us as Indigenous women running successful tourism businesses throughout the Americas share how they have overcome barriers to pave the way for future generations.
Led by: Seleni Matus, Executive Director of the International Institute of Tourism Studies at the George Washington University.
Panelist: Uwahnie Martinez
Director, Palmento Grove Eco-Cultural & Fishing Institute
Olivia Rose Williamson, member of the Crow Nation in southeast Montana. She founded Indian Battle Tours after working as a tour guide through the Crow Tribe’s Apsaalooke Tours.
Graciela Coy, Director, Ak’ Tenamit
Teresa Ryder, Director of Business Development, Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada
Building an Inclusive Innovation Ecosystem: Lessons Learned from the Canadian Experience| 2:30-3:30 pm EST
Panel Description: Canada has a bold vision of “inclusive economic growth” that recognizes the importance of innovation driven by entrepreneurship, as well as the importance of gender equality and diversity. However, its performance is uneven; while Canada is performing well in terms of entrepreneurial activity, it lags in terms of overall innovation performance and GDP growth. This panel sheds light on how to create a more inclusive entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem advancing both economic prosperity and diversity challenging conventional assumptions. Entrepreneurship is situated in a complex system of interacting macro, meso, and micro factors. We offer a multi-levelled ecological model of analysis to consider interrelated macro, meso and micro issues.
The panel will consider women’s entrepreneurship in the innovation ecosystem within four major themes:
- The impact of definitions and discourses. This theme will explore ways in which entrepreneurship and innovation are defined and constructed, and the implications of these discourses on policies and practices affecting diverse groups.
- Macro Issues –This theme will present empirical data that suggests that the same societal level forces and factors (e.g. culture and stereotypes) come into play with entrepreneurship.
- Meso Issues / Organizational Processes – Different organizations in the ecosystem (e.g., educational institutions, funders and financiers, government, intermediaries and incubators) try to consider the needs and support the success of diverse entrepreneurs.
- Micro/ Individual Issues – This theme will reconsider the ways in which we understand the experiences of diverse entrepreneurs, their motivations, perceptions, needs, and behaviors, as well as the implications for training and education.
Moderator:
Dr. Mary Kilfoil
Executive Director, Canadian Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Dalhousie University
Panelists:
Dr. Wendy Cukier
Director, Diversity Institute
Professor, Entrepreneurship and Strategy
Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University
Dr. Tania Saba
Associate Professor, Leadership and Organization
Chaired Professor in Diversity and Governance,
School of Industrial Relations
Université de Montréal Québec
Dr. Suzanne Gagnon
Associate Professor, Leadership and Organization
Director, James W. Burns Leadership Institute
University of Manitoba
Ms. Stephanie Dei
Director, Research Partnership at Ryerson University
Leading the World| 3:45-5:00 pm EST
Panel Description: Whether guiding a nation with a steady hand or leading a corporation or non-profit or rising up against injustice, women leaders offer a glimpse of how to make progress under difficult circumstances, The concluding session asks these leaders for key insights and revolutionary ideas societies can implement for positive impact.
Panelists:
Jill Kikul,Founding Director of the Annual Conference on Social Entrepreneurship
Cecilia Flores, Co-Founder and CMO of Webee
Evette Banfield, Vice President of Economic Development Policy and Wealth Building Strategies, CNHED
Jisoo M. Kim, Director, GW Institute for Korean Studies, Co-Director, East Asia National Resource Center
Julienne (Julie) Shields, President and CEO of the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE)
Virginia Rose-Losada, Global Coordinator and lead officer for the ILO’s Women’s Entrepreneurship Development Programme
Tammy Nguyen, Owner of Tammy Nguyen Event Management
Closing Remarks by: Dr. Liesl Riddle, Associate Dean for Graduate Programs at the George Washington University School of Business
Click Registration Button Above to Recieve Links to the Live Events!
Speakers
Amy Errett
Founder and CEO of Madison Reed
Amy’s multifaceted career has ranged from founding and operating companies, to investing in startups, to volunteer nonprofit leadership. Currently, Amy is Founder and CEO of Madison Reed, an omnichannel beauty brand that is challenging industry titans in the hair color space. She is also a Partner at True Ventures, focusing on investments in consumer and ecommerce startups.
Amy Millman
President and Co-founder of Springboard Enterprises
The Springboard portfolio numbers over 800 companies securing investment of financial and human capital for product development and expansion, having created over $27 Billion in value, created tens of thousands of new jobs, and generated billions in annual revenues.
Cecilia Flores
Co-Founder and CMO of Webee
Cecilia is a tech entrepreneur passionate about the social impact of disruptive technologies and innovation. In 2013 she Co-Founded Webee a SaaS Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence company based in Silicon Valley. Cecilia is the CMO and joined the founding team developing the strategy for global expansion. In July 2020 she was announced as the winner of the Female Founders Competition as the Best US Enterprise SaaS.
Vanessa Perry
Associate Dean for Faculty; Professor of Marketing
Dr. Perry has been named as the American Marketing Association (AMA) Foundation’s 2020 Williams-Qualls-Spratlen (WQS) Multicultural Mentoring Award of Excellence recipient. The AMA annually presents this award to a marketing professor who makes significant contributions as a mentor to students and professionals of color in the marketing field.
Liesl Riddle
Associate Dean for Graduate Programs at the George Washington University School of Business
Dr. Liesl Riddle is the associate dean of graduate programs and an associate professor of international business and international affairs at the George Washington University School of Business.
Evette Banfield
Vice President of Economic Development Policy and Wealth Building Strategies
Evette facilitates the execution of CNHED’s inclusive economic development agenda, reflecting a commitment made in our strategic plan. Her primary focus is on coalition building, policy and advocacy. Since coming on board at the end of 2014, Evette has led the creation of five working groups reflecting the priorities and needs of CNHED’s members and the broader economic development field.
Graciela Coy
Director, Ak’ Tenamit
Graciela Coy is Director at Ak’ Tenamit, a social enterprise located in eastern Guatemala in the heart of the Q’eqchi Maya communities it serves. Ak’ Tenamit’s provides vocational training in tourism to Indigenous youth from throughout the country. Students can pursue degrees in rural community
development or sustainable tourism that are fully funded by the social enterprise. Students’ have internships in the four restaurants, three fair-trade handicraft shops and inn that Ak’ Tenamit owns. The revenue generated from the shops and tourism activities are reinvested to provide free education to Indigenous youth. Ak’ Tenamit’s Board of Directors is 100 percent Indigenous and includes representatives from the communities that it serves. Graciela also serves as President of the Sustainable Tourism Network of the Maya Caribbean with its headquarters in Izabal, Guatemala.
Jill Kikul
Founding Director of the Annual Conference on Social Entrepreneurship
Jill was formerly at NYU’s Stern School of Business as Director of Social Entrepreneurship and the Chair for the 30-course MBA specialization in social Innovation and Impact. She is the Founding Director of the Annual Conference on Social Entrepreneurship, the largest academic conference in the field. She has published more than 100 articles in leading entrepreneurship and management journals and her bestselling book, Understanding Social Entrepreneurship has been adopted in over 80 universities. Jill is the Editor of the Social Entrepreneurship Journal and her work on entrepreneurship education has been nationally recognized by Fortune as a Top 10 Innovative Program.
Jisoo M. Kim
Director of GW Institute for Korean Studies
Dr. Jisoo M. Kim is the Director of GW Institute for Korean Studies; Korea Foundation Associate Professor of History, International Affairs, and East Asian Languages and Literatures
Jisoo M. Kim is a specialist in gender and legal history of early modern Korea. Her broader research interests include crime and justice, forensic medicine, history of emotions, literary representations of the law, diglossia, vernacular, and gender and sexuality.
Julienne (Julie) Shields
President and CEO of the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE)
Julienne (Julie) Shields is the President and CEO of the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) and started in that role in March of 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic. Since that time, she facilitated the transition of the board from an operating board to a governing board, shepherded the organization from its traditional in-person conference to its first virtual conference, and invested in digital and virtual competencies and platforms to prepare for future emergent virtual and hybrid events.
Leo X. (Lex) McCusker
Director of the Student Entrepreneurship Programs at George Washington University
Leo X. (Lex) McCusker, PhD, is the Director of the Student Entrepreneurship Programs at George Washington University, which include the GW New Venture Competition. He is also the Principal Investigator (PI) for the NSF I-Corps Site Program at GW, InnovateGW.
Lexi Young
GWSB MBA 2nd Year Student
Lexi is a 2nd year MBA student at GWSB earning a certificate in Marketing and Brand Management. Currently, Lexi is an intern with the Marketing & Communications Department at the School of Business, working on marketing strategy and planning. She has a passion for animal welfare and sustainability, and hopes to one day work in the field of wildlife conservation and environmental protection. When she’s not busy studying, Lexi teaches group fitness classes at Equinox and Cyclebar in Washington D.C.
Mary Kilfoil
Executive Director of the Canadian Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (CCSBE)
Dr. Mary Kilfoil Executive Director of the Canadian Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (CCSBE); Assistant Professor, Dalhousie University, President of Innovate Atlantic Inc. Mary led the team that brought the Lean Startup and Design Thinking entrepreneurship teaching methodologies to Dalhousie University. In 2014 Mary received the national Entrepreneurship Educator Award from Startup Canada. Dr. Kilfoil has more than 20 years’ experience in the private sector and held the position of Senior Economist at Gardner Pinfold Consultants.
Olivia Rose Williamson
Founder of Indian Battle Tours
Olivia Rose is a member of the Crow Nation in southeast Montana. She founded Indian Battle Tours after working as a tour guide through the Crow Tribe’s Apsaalooke Tours.
Rose takes visitors through the stories of culture clash on two reservations, the Crow and thebordering Northern Cheyenne in southeastern Montana. Providing the alternative facts to the
glory and glamour of the Indian Wars portrayed by Hollywood, her field tours include the Little Big Horn, Fetterman and Rosebud battle sites. She is passionate about sharing the stories and details that are often ignored and erased in history and does just that in her tours of the many battle field sites in Southeastern Montana. Her commitment and dedication to seeing her dream through is inspiring. In many Native cultures, most especially Plains Tribes, our storytellers are held in high respect. They are responsible for the passing down of knowledge so that we do not lose our Ways of life, traditions, stories and languages. Olivia is a storyteller. The smallest of details do not elude her and she draws People in with her ability to share these stories and genuine love for history. Rose has been able to generate tourism for Montana, operate a growing business and stay true to her cultural storytelling roots.
Patricia Greene
Professor Emerita at Babson College
Dr. Patricia Greene served as the 18th Director of the Women’s Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor. She is Professor Emerita at Babson College where she previously served as Dean and Provost, and as the founding National Academic Director for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses and 10,000 Women initiatives. She is a founder of the Diana Project.
Seleni Matus
Executive Director of the International Institute of Tourism Studies at the George Washington University
Seleni Matus is Executive Director of the International Institute of Tourism Studies at the George Washington University. She is a founder of the Indigenous Tourism Collaborative of the Americas and works with Indigenous communities throughout the Americas to develop and manage sustainable tourism.
Stephanie Dei
Director, Research Partnership at Ryerson University.
Stephanie is the Director of Research Partnerships at Ryerson
University where she focuses on women’s entrepreneurship and
diversity and inclusion in corporate Canada. Previously, she worked
with UN Women as the National Coordinator in Canada for the WE
EMPOWER G7 programme encouraging deeper action in the private and public sector to advance women’s economic empowerment in
Canada and throughout the G7.
Suzanne Gagnon
Associate Professor in Leadership and Organization
Professor Suzanne Gagnon is Associate Professor in Leadership and Organization and holds the Canada Life Chair in Leadership Education at the Asper School. She is inaugural Director of the James W. Burns Leadership Institute where she designs and directs new programming across disciplines including the flagship President’s Student Leadership Program.
Tammy Nguyen
Owner of Tammy Nguyen Event Management
She is a Virtual and In-Person Event Manager. Along with planning, organizing and executing in person events, she also help flip events and conferences that would need to shut down in this season and bring it to the virtual space. This could be, but not limited to, developing, organizing and managing online event, working with setting up the chosen online platform, and speaker preparation.
Tania Saba
Founder and holder of the BMO Chair in Diversity and Governance at the University of Montreal
Dr. Tania Saba is the founder and holder of the BMO Chair in Diversity and Governance at the University of Montreal. She is a full professor at the School of Industrial Relations at the University of Montreal. She is also in charge of the Knowledge Portal development project for women in entrepreneurship, for Quebec and French-speaking communities in Canada.
Teresa Ryder
Director of Business Development, Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada
Teresa Ryder is of Musqueam descent, born in the Lower Mainland and raised on Vancouver Island. As the Director of Business Development at Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC), Teresa is responsible for overseeing the development and stability of Indigenous tourism associations across Canada as well as product development and grant initiatives to support Indigenous tourism entrepreneurs and Indigenous communities investing in tourism. In
2020, Teresa led the $16 million Stimulus Development Grant program for ITAC–an effort made to stabilize more than 675 Indigenous tourism operators as they navigated the loss of travelers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Uwahnie Martinez
Director, Palmento Grove Eco-Cultural & Fishing Institute
Uwahnie Melanie Martinez was born in Southern Belize in the Garifuna Town of Punta Gorda. Her name “Uwahnie” meaning “Soul” inspired her from a young age to work on answering the call from her ancestors to help preserve Garifuna Culture through progressive action.
She’s a eco-cultural entrepreneur, owner/manager of Palmento Grove Eco-Cultural & Fishing Institute and offers Belize Cultural Adventure Travel Services focused on sharing the beauty of the country through the lens of the natives in the most empowering ways. Operating out of the coastal Garifuna Village of Hopkins, where she is supported by her dad and two children, they place family pride in being a 100% indigenous-owned tourism business in Belize utilizing modern technology and marketing platforms to expose their cultural products to the world.
Virginia Rose-Losada
Global Coordinator and lead officer for the ILO’s Women’s Entrepreneurship Development Programme
Virginia Rose-Losada is the Global Coordinator and lead officer for the ILO’s Women’s Entrepreneurship Development Programme. Since joining the ILO in 2009, Virginia has held various positions of growing responsibility in supporting entrepreneurship and SME initiatives, programmes and policies targeting women and youth in over 15 countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Between 2018 and 2020, she worked for the ILO Office for the Caribbean as Enterprises Specialist where she focused on issues such as resilience and productivity in small island contexts.
Wendy Cukier
Diversity Institute Founder
Dr. Wendy Cukier is the Diversity Institute Founder, Academic Director of the Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub and Research Lead of the Future Skills Centre. She is the co-author of the bestseller, Innovation Nation: Canadian Leadership from Java to Jurassic and former VP of Research and Innovation.