Ep 139 - Julie Abrams - Did you know that in 12 of the United States, there either is legislation requiring women to be represented on every public company board or there is legislation being considered? There are more opportunities than ever for senior women leaders to join corporate boards! Sitting on a corporate board can be a great way to take your career to the next stage. That is why Donna Miller from Purse Power invited Julie Abrams to speak on the topic and why Nan McKay decided to sponsor their course on Corporate Board Readiness Training. Julie Abrams is Founder and CEO of How Women Lead who created the course. Julie Castro Abrams is an expert on building boards that add a strategic advantage including proactive searches for women on corporate boards. In this episode, she dives deep into her passion for helping women leaders influence how organizations perform by getting on boards.Listen in to learn the importance of investing in private companies as a women leader to increase your chances of getting on their board. You will also learn the importance of supporting other women leaders and building your network.
Key Takeaways:
- How to harness the power of women and change things that hold them down
- How to invest your wealth to influence a board member role in private companies
- How to support women in wealth building by building our own ecosystem
- Learning how to build your network with major organizations’ associations to increase your chances of getting on a board
CORPORATE BOARD READINESS WORKSHOP
Discount available only to TrailBlazers Impact site visitors!
In this episode you’ll discover:
Julie explains how she got involved with women activism and building women leaders [1:09]
How she was influenced by the impact women can make as part of the board [4:31]
The role that Julie has played in legislating public companies and influencing private companies [6:00]
Understanding why having diversity on boards leads to better business performance [9:28]
Tips on what you need to do to target being on the board of a private company [12:06]
How to get in touch with Julie as a woman founder for an investment opportunity [18:40]
How women were affected by the pandemic and what can be done to support them [21:05]
The four things that you need to do as a woman to advocate for other women leaders [24:40]
The importance of a support system and training for women to succeed in business [30:29]
How to self-advocate for board positions by building up your network system [32:47]
Julie encourages women to get out there and build their networks to get board positions [36:02]
CAREER
Julie Castro Abrams, Founder and CEO of How Women Lead, is an expert in board governance and building diverse boards that are a strategic advantage. She is an experienced non profit CEO and entrepreneur and through her consulting practice she supports leaders to build high-performance boards, break through performance for the leaders and high performing multicultural teams.
She is Chair and CEO of How Women Lead, a network of over 10,000 women dedicated to promoting diverse women’s voices and propelling women’s leadership forward as well as the Managing Partner of BoardLeaders.com where she actively places leaders on corporate boards and supports them to build inclusive and high-performance boards.
BOARDS
An active investor and advisor to start-ups, Julie also sits on the advisory boards of the fin-tech start-up LENDonate, The New Search Collaborative and is the Governance Chair for the Women’s Funding Network, a network of women’s foundations across the globe. She has previously led the board of multiple nonprofit organizations located throughout the country, including Board Director for the National Council of La Raza, Governance Chair for the Association for Enterprise Opportunity and Board Chair of Cypress String Quartet.
AWARDS
The recipient of many accolades, Julie has won the More Jobs Genius Award, the Morgan Stanley Innovation Award, Cisco’s Innovation in Technology Award, the League of Women Voters’ Women Who Could Be President Award, the Stevie Award for Best Non-Profit Executive, and the Commission on the Status of Women’s Human Rights Award, and is a member of the Women of Color Action Network, Leadership California, and the Marin Women's Hall of Fame. She has also been featured in four books, including “Scrappy Women in Business,” “Women of Courage,” and “The Missing Mentor,” and Fast Company’s video series “30 Second MBA.”
JOIN PURSE POWER!
Donna Miller is the founder and CEO of Purse Power, Let’s Share the Journey. Purse Power promotes women led, women owned businesses by providing a Google extension which allows everyone who visits your website to locate nearby businesses.
Let’s Share the Journey holds calls at 10 AM Central every Friday to learn from national leaders to share expertise, ideas and support. One week a month features Zoom Room networking. We support Donna’s endeavor and have provided the speaker calls in a podcast format. Please join her on Friday mornings! You can register for the calls here.