Alyssa Ayres, U.S. Department of State’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia, will lead a women’s tech delegation comprising senior executives from the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector to Bangalore on Wednesday.
The visit is part of the exercise taken up by the U.S. Department of State along with Institute of International Education (IIE), public sector, private sector and civil society organisations to explore ideas on increasing the number of women in ICT professions and academia.
The delegation will meet representatives of leading companies, foundations, educational institutions and ministries engaged in promoting women in ICT.
Ms. Ayres will deliver a keynote address at a conference, ‘Sharing best practices for encouraging women in developing countries in ICT’, jointly organised by NASSCOM and WeConnect at the World Trade Centre, Bangalore on Wednesday.
The U.S. Consulate said the delegation would also visit New Delhi. “Advancing women in ICT as well as in science, technology, and entrepreneurship is a foreign policy priority for the United States, which is actively engaged with countries around the world to achieve this goal.”
Apart from Ms. Ayres, the delegation comprises Jacky Wright, Microsoft, Vice President, Strategic Enterprise Services; Shawn Covell, Qualcomm, Vice President of Government Affairs; Jane Chwick, Managing Director IT, Goldman Sachs; Pearly Chen, Office of the Chairman, HTC; Kumud Srinivasan, President, Intel India; Julie Baher, Senior Director, Citrix; Dana Contreras, Senior Engineer, Twitter; Julia Lovin, Sr. Director Juniper Networks; Trish Tierney, Executive Director, Institute of International Education, and Ann Mei Chang, Senior Advisor for Women and Technology in the Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues, U.S. Department of State.
