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<\/a>In only three years, The Watermark Conference for Women Silicon Valley has become the largest personal and professional networking event for women on the West Coast, with more than 100 industry and thought leader speakers from across the country. Breakout session topics included leadership, career advancement, workplace equity, personal branding, finance, and more. Conference attendees participated in the popular Career Pavilion, presented by Gilead Sciences, with in-person resume reviews by human resource experts, and career coaching with coaches from the International Coach Federation San Francisco Bay Area.<\/p>\n
“We know that incredible things happen when women \u2013 and the men who believe in them\u2014come together to increase opportunities for women to lead, grow and build community,\u201d said Marlene Williamson, Watermark CEO. “The energy and ideas shared today will make a difference not only in Silicon Valley, but throughout California and the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Watermark Conference for Women Silicon Valley is generously underwritten by co-chair partners Gilead Sciences<\/a> and Juniper Networks<\/a> along with the following sponsors: Cisco<\/a>; Dell<\/a>; Ericsson<\/a>; Genentech<\/a>; Silicon Valley Bank;<\/a> Akamai<\/a> Technologies; Boston Scientific<\/a>; Johnson & Johnson<\/a>; Mastercard<\/a>; QVC<\/a>; State Street<\/a> Corporation; Yahoo!<\/a>; Actelion;<\/a> Applied Materials;<\/a> ARM<\/a>; Inc.; Bonterra<\/a>; BMW<\/a> Dealer Careers; Cuyana;<\/a> Kate Spade & Company<\/a>; Oracle<\/a>; Poo-Pourri<\/a>; State Farm<\/a>; Thermo Fisher Scientific;<\/a> United<\/a> Airlines; Varian<\/a> Medical Systems; Visa<\/a>; VMware<\/a> and media sponsors 94.5 Bay FM<\/a>; KFOG 104.5 San Francisco<\/a>\/97.7 San Jose; KGO 810<\/a>; KSFO 560<\/a>; Mix 106<\/a> and NBC Bay Area<\/a>.<\/p>\n “Juniper Networks believes in the power of diversity to drive critical change in the workplace and we are dedicated to empowering our employees and providing equity, professional growth and opportunity for women,” said Rami Rahim, chief executive officer, Juniper Networks. \u201dJuniper is proud to co-chair The Watermark Conference for Women Silicon Valley and to share this day with our employees in attendance and the thousands of remarkable women and men here today.”<\/p>\n The Watermark Conference also hosted the QVC + Zulily Product Search, as part of its commitment to deliver unique programming for entrepreneurs and innovators. Participants had the opportunity to showcase their new idea to a panel of experts and buyers from QVC and Zulily.<\/p>\n \u201cThe connections formed here will be lasting ones, and will have an impact far beyond Silicon Valley,\u201d said Amy Flood, Vice President, Public Affairs of co-chair sponsor Gilead Sciences. \u201cIt is an honor to support the Watermark Conference for Women and to be part of this exciting day and the movement it represents.\u201d<\/p>\n Some of the Indian American women at this year\u2019s Watermark Conference were:<\/p>\n POORNIMA VIJAYASHANKER<\/b>, founder of Femgineer, an education company dedicated to helping tech professionals level up in their careers, and build products and companies. Vijayashanker is also an avid public speaker who gives talks around the world on topics ranging from engineering to entrepreneurship. She has given a TEDx talk and hosts a monthly web show called FemgineerTV sponsored by Pivotal Tracker. Previously, she was the founding engineer at Mint.com, where she helped build, launch and scale the product until its acquisition in 2009. Since its acquisition she has been an entrepreneur-in-residence at 500 Startups, lead mentor-in-residence at Techstars, a lecturer at Duke University\u2019s Pratt School of Engineering, and authored and self-published two books: \u201cHow to Transform Your Ideas into Software Products\u201d and \u201cPresent! A Techie\u2019s Guide To Public Speaking.\u201d Vijayashanker earned degrees in electrical and computer engineering and computer science from Duke University\u2019s Pratt School of Engineering. @femgineer<\/p>\n MENAKA SHROFF<\/b>, head of marketing at BetterWorks. In her role she drives all marketing, branding, PR, analyst relations and customer acquisition for the business. Prior to BetterWorks, she spent five years at Box and was responsible for growing the company\u2019s user base from six to more than 20 million users, while leading all marketing functions and spearheading the Women in Leadership group. Shroff has also held a variety of technology and leadership roles at Yahoo!, Applied Industrial Technologies, Tata Consulting and American Marketing Association. She currently advises over 10 startups and is known for creating and managing high performing teams and serving as a mentor to aspiring women. Shroff earned an M.B.A. from Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, an M.S. in industrial engineering from University of Southern California and a B.S. in engineering from University of Mumbai. @menaka<\/p>\n SHIVANI SIROYA,<\/b> founder and CEO of Tala, which works in emerging markets to help anyone with a cell phone build a financial identity. Through its mobile app, Tala connects over 10,000 data points per customer to create an instant credit score and deliver customized financial services. Tala has disbursed millions of dollars in capital to hundreds of thousands of customers across East Africa and Southeast Asia. Tala, formerly known as InVenture, is backed by Lowercase Capital, Google Ventures, Data Collective, Collaborative Fund and other leading venture and impact investors. Fast Company ranked InVenture as the World\u2019s Most Innovative Money Company in April 2015 and InVenture\u2019s work has been highlighted by TED, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Wired, among others. Prior to founding Tala, Siroya held a variety of positions in global health, microfinance and investment banking, including with the United Nations Population Fund, Health Net, Citigroup and UBS. She is a 2016 Aspen Institute Finance Leader Fellow, 2016 WEF Young Global Leader, 2015 Senior TED Fellow and 2013 Ashoka Fellow. She is also on the board of Stellar.org. Siroya earned a M.P.H from Columbia University and a B.A. from Wesleyan University. @shivsiroya @talamobile<\/p>\n SHILPA SHAH<\/b>, co-founder of Cuyana. She was motivated to create products with rich stories while also building a fashion brand with a central mission of social change. She\u2019s always enjoyed cultivating her personal style but found fast fashion unfulfilling. She often wondered why people couldn\u2019t shop like her relatives in India \u2013 purposefully procuring treasures that would be passed down from generation to generation. Shah began her career in interaction design, creating meaningful online experiences at Disney and Punchcut, and then went on to earn her M.B.A. from UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. @shift8designs @cuyana<\/p>\n SHELLY KAPOOR COLLINS<\/b>, venture capitalist who works at the intersection of technology, innovation and policy, with a focus on investing in female led and founded technology startups in cybersecurity, fintech, ed tech and digital health. After founding and running her own company and various technology products, Collins made the leap from entrepreneur to VC to have a greater impact on the emerging\u00a0market of female\u00a0entrepreneurs, and enable female founders to become 100% participants in the innovation economy. @shalkcollins<\/p>\n SHAMA HYDER<\/b>, award-winning CEO of The Marketing Zen Group, a global online marketing and digital PR company. Hyder has aptly been dubbed the \u201cZen Master of Marketing\u201d by Entrepreneur Magazine, and the \u201cMillennial Master of the Universe\u201d by FastCompany.com. Under her leadership, The Marketing Zen Group has grown to include a team of 30 and serve clients ranging from publicly-held Fortune 500 companies to privately-held small businesses and nonprofit organizations across the globe. She is the author of \u201cThe Zen of Social Media Marketing,\u201d and her latest, \u201cMomentum: How to Propel Your Marketing and Transform Your Brand in the Digital Age.\u201d Hyder has shared the speaking stage with the world\u2019s top leaders, including President Obama and the Dalai Lama. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious Technology Titan Emerging Company CEO award. She was named one of the \u201cTop 25 Entrepreneurs under 25\u201d by Business Week in 2009, one of the \u201cTop 30 Under 30\u201d Entrepreneurs in America in 2014 by Inc. magazine, and to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list of movers and shakers for 2015. LinkedIn named Hyder one of its \u201cTop Voices\u201d in Marketing & Social. Hyder has been honored at both the White House and The United Nations as one of the top 100 young entrepreneurs in the country. Most recently her web show Shama TV was awarded a Hermes Gold award for Educational Programming in Electronic Media. @shama<\/p>\n Interested readers can learn more about the Watermark Conference for Women at http:\/\/www.watermarkconferenceforwomen.org<\/a>, or on Twitter<\/a> and Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gunjan Aggarwal, Head of Human Resources at Ericsson, speaks at the Watermark Conference for Women at San Jose Convention Center, Feb. 1, in San Jose, Calif.\u00a0 (Marla Aufmuth\/Getty Images for Watermark Conference for Women) Watermark is a community of executive women in the San Francisco Bay Area, whose mission is to increase the representation of…<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n