Together We Are Strong
Letter from the President:
Since its founding in 1997, the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) has been grounded in the belief that involving women in technology— how it is taught, learned, created and used—benefits everyone. Our mission is not an exercise in political correctness. It’s about bringing the talents of technical women leaders to bear on developing more competitive products and finding solutions to problems that impact our lives, our nation and our world.
In 2005, our nation and our organization began important transformations.
As the U.S. grappled with threats to its global dominance in technology, we were encouraged by the clear acknowledgment of industry, academia and government that women can, and should, play a pivotal role in advancing greater innovation, stronger businesses, increased competitiveness and a better world. With this heightened recognition comes increased efforts to embrace greater diversity at all levels of our society—including a focus on attracting, training and retaining technical women. Likewise, at ABI we recognize that achievement of our goals depends on stimulating broader participation by women, men, individuals and organizations.
Thus, in 2005, we launched efforts to strengthen our public profile, build greater demand for our programs, bolster our sponsorship roster and add powerful new voices to our Board and management teams.
Last year, ABI programs touched the lives of more than 2,800 women worldwide through the Systers™ online community, TechLeaders workshops, VDC workshops and classes and our inaugural Women of Vision Awards event, held in October. That event alone drew more than 500 women and men—from college students to senior level executives and academic leaders—to honor three distinguished women who have had a profound impact on technology. Additionally, we provided 50 scholarships to female engineering students to attend ABI events.
We are pleased to report that in 2005, Google became a Sponsor, and our Board of Trustees was expanded with three extraordinary new members: Alan Eustace, VP, Engineering, Google; Cheryl Shavers, former U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce for Technology and CEO of Global Smarts; and James Beck, CFO and Managing Director of Mayfield Fund, who also serves as ABI’s CFO.
Our transformation continues this year. We have already conducted the first of three scheduled TechLeaders workshops and are aggressively preparing for the Fall 2006 Grace Hopper Conference, where we expect record attendance.
Early this year Google made a substantial commitment to technical women, funding its own Anita Borg Scholarship initiative and increasing its investment in ABI to the Partner level. We also welcomed Intel as a Sponsor and were pleased to add their CTO, Justin Rattner, to our Board. In the months ahead we will undertake careful evaluation of current and future programming and alliances, and will launch an ambitious initiative to attract new sponsors to ABI. With these efforts ABI will be better positioned to offer support and advocacy for technical women, so that more of them achieve leadership, fuel the pipeline of technological innovation and stimulate new generations of women to follow in their footsteps.
Our progress in these endeavors is a direct result of the generous contributions of time, talent and money that we receive from numerous individuals, organizations and our own staff. We are extremely grateful and believe that together we are truly making a difference for women, for technology and for our world.
Sincerely,
Telle Whitney
President & CEO