Women Going Places

Review: Burn Book – A Tech Love Story

From award-winning journalist Kara Swisher comes a witty, scathing, but fair accounting of the tech industry and its founders who wanted to change the world but broke it instead. Part memoir, part history, Burn Book is a necessary chronicle of tech’s most powerful players. This is the inside story about modern Silicon Valley and the biggest boom in wealth creation in the history of the world. When tech titans crowed that they would “move fast and break things,” Kara Swisher was moving faster and breaking news. While covering the explosion of the digital sector in the early 1990s, she developed a long track record of digging up and reporting the facts about this new world order. Her consistent scoops drove one CEO to accuse her of “listening in the heating ducts” and prompted Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg to once observe: “It is a constant joke in the Valley when people write memos for them to say, ‘I hope Kara never sees this.” While still in college, Swisher got her start at The Washington Post, where she became one of the few people in journalism interested in covering the nascent Internet. She went on to work for The Wall Street Journal, joining with Walt Mossberg to start the groundbreaking D: All Things Digital conference, as well as pioneering tech news sites. Swisher has interviewed everyone who matters in tech over three decades, right when they presided over an explosion of world-changing innovation that has both helped and hurt our world. Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Sheryl Sandberg, Bob Iger, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Meg Whitman, Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, and Mark Zuckerberg are just a few whom Swisher made sweat—figuratively and, in Zuckerberg’s case, literally. Despite the damage she chronicles, Swisher remains optimistic about tech’s potential to help solve problems and not just create them. […]

International Womens Day Profile: Mollie Eckersley, Head of Operations at BrightHR ANZ

What is your role at BrightHR and what does it involve? I’m the Head of Operations at BrightHR ANZ, where I am responsible for improving usage, uplifting engagement, and ultimately, looking at ways to continuously improve our software and service. It’s a dynamic and exciting role that includes a lot of problem-solving. BrightHR operates globally, which means I’m often collaborating with teams in the UK, Ireland, and Canada as we work together to support SMEs around the world. Why have you chosen this career path? I love problem-solving and I thrive when I’m multi-tasking; every career decision I’ve made so far has been driven by these two factors. What has been the highlight of your career and why? Moving to Australia from the UK was a major turning point in my career that has led to bigger and better things for me. It’s opened so many doors, despite how scary it was to leave behind everyone and everything I knew. Even though it’s been a few years, I often reflect on a lesson it has taught me – pushing myself out of my comfort zone pays off. What has been the greatest challenge in your career, and how did you overcome it? Public speaking is a huge challenge for me, and I still dread it to this day. Like a lot of people, I’m quite shy—especially around new people—so standing up and speaking to any group, no matter how big or small, is nerve-wracking. I’m gradually overcoming my fear by refusing to shy away from it. I try to throw myself in the deep end and find that the more I do it, the easier it becomes. I’ve made it a habit to keep putting myself out there no matter how uncomfortable it seems at the outset. What drives […]

International Womens Day: Amy Read, Singapore, Serial Entrepreneur

What is your role at Sabre and what does it involve? My role at Sabre Hospitality is to set the innovation strategy for future product roll outs. To keep up to date with the latest market changes, innovations, and technologies including AI. I also look at innovative ways we can solve for current gaps in the market. Career highlights to date? Setting up my own business, Techsembly, which was an eCommerce platform for hospitality. One of my biggest highlights was managing to secure VC funding and managing a successful exit by selling the business to Sabre in June last year. What has been the greatest challenge in your career, and how did you overcome it? Raising funds for my startup and getting VCs/investors to invest/believe in me. This was no easy task, especially being a women founder in Asia. It’s not easy when ‘alleged experts’ say no to you, you start to doubt yourself, but you have to remain resilient, believe in yourself and prove them wrong. What is your momentum? I love learning and the excitement of building new things, from idea formation to launch, whilst delivering meaningful results. Role model? Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx. Why? She is an inspiring women founder, who saw a gap in the market and went about solving for it. Despite all of the initial negative feedback and criticism in a market no one wanted to invest in, she persevered. She is open and honest about her journey, and I admire her courage to tell her story her way and inspire others. Women in executive positions – hard to find your niche? My advice would be to become a specialist, focus on something you believe in, find a gap and do everything you can to fill it. But most importantly, enjoy and […]

International Women’s Day Profile: Janine Grainger, Co-Founder and CEO, Easy Crypto

Janine is a kiwi-born entrepreneur and a highly respected Leader in tech. She’s the Co-Founder and CEO of Easy Crypto, New Zealand’s leading cryptocurrency trading platform. Janine and her brother, Alan, established Easy Crypto in 2017 to offer a secure, simple and easy-to-understand way for everyone to get involved in the cryptocurrency market. Just four years after launching, Easy Crypto transacted over two billion dollars and supports over 250,000 users across NZ, Australia and South Africa. She also set a new record for a first funding round in NZ in 2021, raising $17M NZD. Janine is very highly regarded in the NZ fintech sector, driving collaboration between the industry, central government, and traditional finance. She sits on a number of government advisory and working groups, including the Digital Trust Working Group formed in 2023 to advise APEC and was invited to join the V20 virtual asset summit, convened as part of the 2022 G20. She sits on the Executive Council for FinTechNZ, features in a Docuseries for TVNZ, has been recognised as a University of Auckland Top 40 under 40, a Women of Web3 Top 10 Changemaker, is the Blockchain NZ Stand-Out Individual & Entrepreneur of the year and was the winner of the 2023 IBM Hi-Tech Awards for Inspiring Individual. Background story Under her leadership, Easy Crypto has become New Zealand’s leading cryptocurrency trading platform, making big waves in just four years. Janine’s journey is as unique as it is inspiring – from leaving school early to pursue her ambitions, to starting a business from a hammock in Bali. Easy Crypto was started from a hammock in Bali! “Having left school at 15 – I was ambitious and impatient to learn more than the lessons a traditional schoolroom provides and my pathway into tech and crypto has been anything […]

International Women’s Day Profile: Keren Cook, NatureBee CEO

Could you share with us a bit about what your role entails at NatureBee? As CEO, I steer NatureBee’s vision toward innovative natural health solutions, manage our dedicated team, and engage in strategic decisions, from product development to market expansion. It’s a role that keeps me on my toes! How is NatureBee progressing? Despite global economic headwinds we’ve managed not only to stay afloat but grow. We’re making a conscious pivot to enhance logistics, specifically designed to underpin further expansion into key markets like Australia and the United States. This has been possible due to an intimate understanding of our customer base and an unwavering commitment to natural, quality health products. New products, exciting times? Definitely exciting times! We are launching PowerBee, a pollen-fuelled health shake, which reflects our commitment to innovation. It’s the culmination of rigorous scientific testing, product development, and natural goodness – and over two years of R&D perfecting the recipe, working closely with a human immunologist (PhD) refining logistics, and aligning our branding to ensure it’s just right. As someone passionate about wellness, for me this product is a perfect example of how we harness nature for balanced nutrition. We know that the fitness community well understands the benefits of PowerBee, particularly in the realms of both energy and recovery, but we also want to reach those who would benefit from a high-quality nutritional solution, while on the go. What challenges does your job present to you? Every day is different. The current economic climate demands strategic manoeuvring to maintain sales growth and market position. Keeping up with the rapid pace of e-commerce’s ever-shifting landscape poses its own challenges, as does managing an international brand from our Kiwi roots. What developments keep you awake at night? The potential of what’s next for NatureBee and ensuring we […]

The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution

By Ryan Grim A riveting insider account of the progressive movement in Congress centering A.O.C., Rashida Tlaib, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Ayanna Pressley, and Ilhan Omar―their rise, their efforts to set an ambitious agenda for the country, and their struggle to find their footing within the Democratic party. The Squad is the definitive, must-read book about the most exciting figures defining our new era. The story is urgent, and the stakes are high―for the country and the world―and Grim, an experienced political reporter who covered the Squad before they were the Squad, is uniquely qualified to tell it. When Bernie Sanders, an obscure Vermont senator, launched his quixotic 2016 presidential campaign, few could have seen just how radically the Democratic Party would transform in just a few short years―or that such a transformation could be led by a Bronx bartender volunteering for Bernie in her spare time. The world as it was when that campaign began is almost unrecognizable today, and the Squad has both shaped and been shaped by the seismic social, cultural, and political changes underway. Referred to informally as the Squad, led by the preternaturally politically savvy Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the group laid down a marker for an aggressive left-wing agenda. Grim takes you behind the scenes as that new energy makes impact with Washington, and the Squad spends as much time fending off assaults from Donald Trump―who regularly singled them out and led chants of “send them back” at rallies―as they did battling their own party’s sclerotic leadership. As they’ve grown in office, they’ve had to contend with the eternal question that confronts outsiders who power their way into the inside: Are they still radical organisers willing and able to lead a political revolution?