Toronto Area SIM Meeting
September 18th, 2007
6 - 9 pm
WHERE HAVE ALL THE WOMEN GONE?
Why are women leaving technology...
and what do we do about it?
Location: Toronto Verity Club
111d Queen Street East
Toronto, ON M5C 1S2
Tel: 416.368.6006
For information about this or upcoming events, email Dean Mackie (dmackie@simnet.org)
Some commentators have noted that talented women are leaving the IT field: at the same time 4 of the Top 25 CIOs in a recent poll are women. Women's enrollment in technology related programs is falling, and at a dramatically different rate than men's enrollment. How do young women view technology? In an age where virtually all successful enterprises are concerned with diversity and engagement, how do we engage women in our technology organizations? What makes them succeed? What makes them leave? How do we attract, retain and groom them for top technology roles?
Our esteemed panel delved into these difficult questions. Our panel of accomplished women was drawn from academia, market research and corporate technology leadership roles to offer a diverse perspective on these important issues.
Moderator: Jacqueline Allard, SVP Information Technology, State Street Corporation
Jacqui manages State Street's Global Technology Services for North America. She is responsible for software application development and client technology infrastructure management for State Street's North American offices, which are located in Ontario, Quebec, New Jersey, Missouri, California and New York. She has held a variety of prior technology, operational and client account management positions in the investor servicing and investment management fields in Canada, the United States, Australia, Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Jacqui holds a BAH in Economics from Queen's University and an MBA from Bentley Graduate School of Business in Massachusetts. She chairs the Advisory Board for Sequentia, and is the Vice Chair and Director of the Board of Serve Canada. She is sits on the Boards of the White Ribbon Campaign and the Society for Information Management for the Toronto Area.
Panelist: June Drewry, Global CIO, Chubb & Son Corporation
June Drewry is Global CIO of Chubb Group of Insurance Companies. Previously, she served as executive vice president and CIO for Aon Corporation. June received her B.A. in mathematics from Caldwell College for Women. She has served as a member of the SIM Central New England chapter Executive Board, a New Jersey chapter president, a Member-at-Large on the SIM Executive Board and she served as the president of SIM International in 1999 and 2000. In 2005 she served as VP for Enterprise Programs. She has sponsored scores of Regional Leadership Forum participants and is active member of the Advanced Practices Council.
Panelist: Dr. Wendy Cukier, Associate Dean, Ted Rogers School of Management Ryerson University
Wendy is the Associate Dean, of the Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University, Canada's largest business school and a professor of Information Technology Management. In 1998 she founded The Diversity Institute to research ways of increasing the participation of under-represented groups in the workplace. She has written 200 articles and papers, and is coauthor Innovation Nation: From Java to Jurassic Park.
Her study on diversity and the ICT labour market was published by the Canada's Information and Communications Technology Council' and she is a judge with the Canadian Information Productivity Awards. She has received many honours including two honorary doctorates, a YWCA Woman of Distinction award and the Meritorious Service Cross, one of Canada's highest civilian honours. In 2000, the University of Toronto named her among the 100 alumni who had shaped the century. She has an MA and MBA from the University of Toronto and a PhD in Management Science from York University.
Panelist: Jennifer Evans, President of Sequentia Corp
President Jennifer Evans is a Toronto-based entrepreneur, writer, and technophile and the president of Sequentia Communications, recently ranked as Canada's 24th (2005) and 27th (2004) fastest growing emerging company by the PROFIT Hot 50.
Prior to starting Sequentia, Jen co-founded DigitalEve International, a not for profit association for women and technology, and served as Executive Director its international and national organizations from 2000-2002. She is the co-chair of the White Ribbon Campaign and a board member of both Computer for Schools Ontario and The Beach School, and sits on advisory panels for the Software Human Resources Council (SHRC) and Women in Film and Television (WIFT). Jen was a two-time finalist for the Canadian New Media Awards and continues to function as a judge for the awards. She is a technology columnist for the Globe and Mail's online edition and appears regularly on Business News Network's Tech Tuesday panel.
Jen has taught at the University of Toronto, York University, Humber College, and Ryerson. She is a graduate of Queen's University and her international work experience includes Bermuda, Tokyo, the US, South America and Korea. Jen is currently working on a book examining how customer communities develop online called The Momentum Machine, to be published in the fall of 2007.
Panelist: Jennifer Thompson, Vice President, Head of Information Services, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board
Jennifer is responsible for leading the Information Services team at CPP Investment Board with a focus on the company's systems strategy, implementations and operations. She has more than 25 years of experience in information technology, most recently as Head of Information Technology for Citigroup Fund Services in Canada. She has held other senior positions including Chief Operating Officer at Merrill Lynch HSBC Canada, Chief Information Officer at Merrill Lynch Canada and Vice President of Information Services at Canadian Tire.
Jennifer holds an Honours Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and computer science from Queen's University. She is the former Chair of the Council of Chief Information Officers for the Conference Board of Canada, and was previously a member of the Queen's University MBA for Science and Technology and the Ontario IT Strategy Advisory Boards. She is also Chair of the Board, Havergal College, a private girl's school in Toronto.
Panelist: Dr. Krista Scott-Dixon, Institute for Work and Health
Dr. Krista Scott-Dixon is the author of Doing IT: Women Working in Information Technology (Sumach Press, 2004), and has published a number of articles on employment, gender and technology.
Currently Krista is a researcher for the Institute for Work and Health. She's been an internet junkie since Netscape 1.0 and alt.barney.die.die.die.