Onward and Upward

I've attended some of your Upward events as you know, they're always fabulous. I've always been impressed by your graciousness and your generosity in helping other working professionals, especially women. Why did you decide to start Upward?

Well, for the reason I think women, one, are underrepresented in corporations. And so having a community of people that you can rely on to be a sounding board, to be an encouragement, to help with customers, potential job opportunities, all of those things do matter. And because when women are in those underrepresented groups, it is more of a challenge for them, so creating community for them to make those connections was a big part of my objective starting Upward.

You've also started Upward for men. How did that come about?

Well, I thought women need men as allies. It certainly is great for women to have each other as allies and to support one another. But the reality is that men are running most of the businesses across the globe. And so having men or fellow travelers who believe in the vision of Upward and who want to support women get to the next level, is a big part of how we're going to be successful. And so I started Upward Men for that reason, we actually recruited men who were sympathetic, either because they have daughters or spouses that work, have of the mind that diversity is actually helpful from a business standpoint, we recruited those men in to help be allies. So wherever I have an Upward Women's Chapter, we're going to have an Upward Men's Chapter. We launched our first Upward Men Chapter here in the Bay Area, because that's where we began Upward, but the goal is to have an Upward Men Chapter at every location across the globe to support the women in Upward Women.