TMCnet News
Advancing Women in Product Rebrands to Shape New Generation of Product LeadersAWIP, the organization empowering quality female and male tech leaders through equality of opportunity, is rebranding on the heels of significant momentum. The organization is expanding to three major cities, launching a partnership with the Wharton School of Business and establishing new programs to boost the networks and careers of product managers (PMs) and more broadly, women in tech. AWIP is addressing disparity and diversity issues in tech and education from the inside out, starting with PMs. Founded in 2017 by Nancy Wang, lead PM at Rubrik, former venture capital partner at California Technology Ventures and Google (News - Alert) PM, and an emeritus member, Deepika Yerragunta, senior PM at Amazon Alexa, AWIP is a community dedicated to implementing equality in the tech sector. AWIP recognizes that PMs are at the core of every tech organization. The organization's mentorships, skills training, panels, executive summits and other programs empower product managers of all genders and career levels. "The tech industry will only advance when we empower diverse leadership," said Nancy Wang, co-founder, CEO and lead PM at Rubrik. "By inspiring women and men to reach their highest achievements as PMs, AWIP is setting the stage for a new kind of meritocracy in tech." Equality Catches On: Growth and Momentum at AWIP A community of passionate product managers, VCs, product designers, marketers and engineers who are committed to fostering the next generation of tech leaders, AWIP under CEO Nancy Wang's leadership has seen 2,000 percent growth (to 3,000+ members, with its largest membership coming from the Bay Area, but also with member groups distributed across the U.S., North America, Europe and Asia). Community members are empowered to land prized product - and tech jobs through AWIP's mentorship and skills-based workshops, ultimately building a self-sustaining ecosystem by which advancement and placement are meritocratic and hiring decisions are made considering diversity. Expanded programs and events: AWIP believes that real change requires concrete, skills-based training, regardless of seniority. An ambassador program, resume review with real-life recruiters from the top companies in tech and executive mentorships are among AWIP's suite of offerings. The organization plans to launch more than 30 annual events, including seminars titled "Achieving Virality in Consumer Products" and "Cloud SaaS (News - Alert) Products for Hyperscale" in addition to their annual executive summit, an executive speaker series and a career fair. Current AWIP ambassadors include: Dan Scheinman, Ron Hirson, Sarika Garg, Shubha Govil, James Morehead, Tatyana Mamut, Rei Wang, Nitin Julka, Shruti Bhat, Bo Ren, Kate Zhang, Neetika Bansal, Sandhya Hedge, Aarthi Srinivasan, Arum Kang, Albert Chen and Inga Chen. New locations: Based in San Francisco, AWIP is opening new locations in Seattle, Washington D.C., Boston, South Bay of San Francisco, Paris and Toronto, hotbeds of tech and diversity-both domestic and abroad. Partners and sponsors: Officially sponsored by Yelp, AWIP has also partnered with organizations and representatives from the Wharton School of Business, Pinterest, Workday, WeWork, Facebook (News - Alert) and others. To see a full donor list visit the website. The current AWIP Executive Leadership Board consists of: Roshni Uppala (COO), Tatyana Mamut (Executive Director of Culture & Design Thinking), Sandhya Hegde (Director of Executive Programming), Shubha Govil (Director of Female Founders Program), Aakrit Prasad (Director of Programming), Gordon Yu (Director of Partnerships & Legal), Patrick Yang (Director of Ambassadors Program), and David Cheng (Director of Content Strategy). Quotes from AWIP's Executive Advisory Board "This is the right organization at exactly the right time," said Dan Scheinman, former senior vice president at Cisco (News - Alert) and board director at Zoom, SentinelOne and Arista Networks. "The future is being built by tech firms in Silicon Valley and beyond. Women-who make up over 50 percent of the human population and 60 percent of graduates with advanced degrees-must be in powerful product roles where decisions are made," said Tatyana Mamut, former general manager of AWS, vice president of product at Salesforce, and senior director at IDEO. "Our future depends on advancing women in product and in power. We cannot delay." "If you want to go far, go together," said Sandhya Hegde, director of product at Amplitude, venture capitalist at Khosla Ventures. "AWIP is bringing tech women with great potential together and we will go very far indeed." About AWIP Co-founded by two Google and Amazon PMs, Advancing Women in Product (AWIP) empowers tech leaders through equality of opportunity in career advancement for both men and women. AWIP believes in the power of equal opportunity to propel the technology industry forward. To learn more and to join AWIP, visit www.advancingwomeninproduct.org, @theAWIP on Twitter (News - Alert), and @AdvancingWomenInProduct on Facebook. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180712005203/en/ |
