Leading Women Entrepreneurs Series
Leading Women Entrepreneurs Series
Each year the Entrepreneurship Program hosts a dynamic series of events to highlight women entrepreneurs and the ideas, resources, and abilities that foster their success. These events deliver on our mission: to educate and advise women as they imagine, develop and grow sustainable, scalable ventures with impact. We welcome undergraduate and graduate students from across the College, alumnae/i, faculty, friends and community members to attend.
Our 2012 program
The Entrepreneurship Program will host a number of events this semester for students, alums, faculty, and all interested guests. There is no charge for these programs, and all will be held from 6-7:30 PM on Monday evenings. For more information, please email: Kathryn.Doerksen@simmons.edu.
Monday, February 6: Creating a Sustainable Culture of Innovation
Special Guest: Sharon Vosmek, CEO of Astia
Astia is a community of experts committed to building women leaders and accelerating the funding and growth of high-potential, high-growth, women-led start-ups. The not-for-profit organization is built on a community of men and women dedicated to the success of women-led, high-growth ventures and to the eradication of the need for the organization within the decade.
The Astia method is designed for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs who understand the value of extraordinary relationships and believe in giving back. Designed for high-growth companies at all stages, the Astia offering is implemented by more than 1,200 volunteer members of the Astia Advisor Network that includes more than 300 former and current CEOs and 300 investors. Astia is an extremely committed community of advisors, investors, industry leaders, and entrepreneurs. The organizations maintains nodes in Silicon Valley, New York, London, and Bangalore and women worldwide are eligible to apply.
Monday, March 12: THINKING BIG
Special Guest: Sharon Kan, Co-Founder and General Manager, Tikatok.com at Barnes & Noble
Tikatok, which was acquired by Barnes & Noble in 2009, is the fourth startup company that Sharon has built from its foundation. The company provides a fun online world where kids create and share their own books. Tikatok.com received the 2010 Parents' Choice Approved Award and 2010 Moms Gold Award. Before Sharon co-founded Tikatok she was CEO of Zoomix, a data management solution provider that was acquired by Microsoft in 2008 (Nasdaq: MSFT). Prior, Sharon was President North America (NA) of c-Ark, a PLM (product lifecycle management) company. c-Ark was acquired by SSA (now Infor). Prior to c-Ark, Ms. Kan spent 5 years with Demantra Inc., a leading global provider of SCM (supply chain management) and established its activity in NA. Demantra was acquired by Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) in 2006. Sharon is a mentor at The MIT Venture Mentoring Service (VMS). As a Leading Women Entrepreneur, Sharon will present March 12th on the importance of THINKING BIG to successful entrepreneurship, particularly for women.
Monday, April 30: Laura Trust, CEO of Finagle-a-Bagel
Thanks to the Coleman Foundation and the Will J. Reid Foundation for their support of this series, of our students and of our institution. We welcome additional supporters and alliance members.