Topic:  Stepping Into Your Power, Wealth & Influence

Speaker:  Julie Castro Abrams, CEO of How Women Lead and General Partner at How Women Invest

Presentation:
Julie Castro Abrams shares insights into one crucial lever for propelling women, especially women of color, into positions of power and influence: corporate board service. While the cycle of wealth and power for women is broken, today’s landscape holds big opportunities to dismantle historical inequities and usher in the improved outcomes and returns that result for everyone when women take on decision-making roles in corporate governance. 

1. Review the landscape: Diversity board statistics, legislation, mandates etc

2. Why you should consider serving on a board

3. What boards are right for you: size, type, what professional backgrounds are most recruited

4. Steps to get on a board: materials, networking, etc 
 

Speaker's bio:

Founder and Managing Partner, How Women Invest, LLC CEO, How Women Lead / Give / Invest Host, How Women Inspire Podcast Forbes Contributor Julie Castro Abrams is an expert in board governance and building diverse boards that are a strategic advantage. She is an experienced non-profit CEO and entrepreneur, and through her consulting practice she supports leaders to build high-performance boards break through performance for the leaders and high performing multicultural teams. She is the CEO of How Women Lead, a network of over 16,000 women dedicated to promoting diverse women’s voices and propelling women’s leadership forward, as well as the Managing Partner of How Women Invest, the country’s largest venture fund focused exclusively on women founders. 

An active investor and advisor to start-ups, and as the leader of the nation's largest microenterprise and microfinance organization for 11 years, Julie has helped launch over 6,000 women into successful businesses. Julie previously sat on the advisory boards of the fin-tech start-up LENDonate, Nia Capital. She was formerly the Governance Chair for the Women’s Funding Network. 

A recipient of many accolades, Julie has won the More Jobs Genius Award, the Morgan Stanley Innovation Award, Cisco’s Innovation in Technology Award, the League of Women Voters’ Women Who Could Be President Award, the Stevie Award for Best Non-Profit Executive, and the Commission on the Status of Women’s Human Rights Award, and is a member of the Women of Color Action Network, Leadership California, and the Marin Women's Hall of Fame. She has also been featured in four books, including “Scrappy Women in Business,” “Women of Courage,” “The Missing Mentor,” and Fast Company’s video series “30 Second MBA.”